Rusk County, Texas — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

The county publishes no formal name for this facility.

Operated byRusk County Sheriff's Office
County publishes a jail nameNo — the Sheriff page prints only the word "Jail" as a phone label; no facility name appears anywhere on ruskcountytx.gov
Jail address (from Sheriff page)210 West Charlevoix, Henderson, TX 75652
Jail phone903-655-3000
Roster"Inmate Listings" on the Sheriff page opens a vendor roster at interopweb.com/rusksotx/ (115 people booked when checked)
What was triedhttps://www.ruskcountytx.gov/page/rusk.Sheriff ; https://www.ruskcountytx.gov/page/rusk.Budgets ; https://www.ruskcountytx.gov/page/rusk.Commissioners.Court ; https://www.ruskcountytx.gov/page/rusk.Public.Notices ; https://www.ruskcountytx.gov/page/rusk.County.Information
Beds and population, 2026-08120 people held in 292 rated beds

Source: Rusk County, Texas — Rusk County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-22

Transparency rating

2/10Closed

✗The jail is named — not published
✓Who is in custody
✗Beds and daily population — not published
✓What it costs taxpayers
✗Deaths in custody — not published
✗PREA audits — not published
✗Independent inspection — not published
✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
✗How to post bond — not published
✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Rusk County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-08-22. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

Year builtNot found
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds292 (rated capacity, TCJS county jail population report, 1 August 2026)

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Johnwayne Valdez

Published as"County Sheriff Johnwayne Valdez"
Address210 West Charlevoix, Henderson, Texas 75652
Sheriff's Office phone903-657-3581
Jail phone903-655-3000

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Rusk County, Texas — Rusk County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-22

The Judges

Rusk County publishes five Justice of the Peace precincts, each on its own page (rusk.JP1 through rusk.JP5). In Texas the JP normally magistrates arrestees and sets bond at first appearance. The county's district court page cites "Local Rules for the Fourth District Court and the County-Court-At-Law, Rusk County, Texas".

County Judge

Joel Hale

County Court at Law

Chad Wes Dean

District Court (Fourth Judicial District)

David Hill

Justices of the Peace

Pat McCrory (Pct. 1)
Cindy Redmon (Pct. 2)
Shannon Burkley (Pct. 3)
Darlene Childress (Pct. 4)
Jana Enloe (Pct. 5)

Still needed

The county's bond schedule
Share of the jail population held pretrial
Median time from booking to first appearance

Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-22

The County Commissioners

They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.

What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and answers to voters, not to the board.
The boardBoard of County Commissioners →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

The Sheriff page is one screen: name, address, two phone numbers, a records request form, a spay/neuter form and an "Inmate Listings" link. No jail sub-page exists on ruskcountytx.gov.
Budget check verified by OCR: the 2026 Approved County Budget (https://www.ruskcountytx.gov/upload/page/2781/docs/Approved County Budget 2026.pdf) is an 11 MB scan with no text layer. OCR of the revenue pages shows "JAIL FEES", "SHERIFF FEES" and "TITLE IV-E GRANT-JAIL" line items, and the budget certificate is signed by County Judge Joel Hale and County Auditor Reagan McCauley.
Commissioners Court minutes are published to a public Google Drive folder linked from the Commissioners Court page, not to the county domain.
TCJS reported Rusk County holding 1 contract inmate for another agency on 1 August 2026; the county publishes no contract or per-diem rate.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Precinct 1 Randy Gaut, Precinct 2 Robert Kuykendall, Precinct 3 Greg Gibson, Precinct 4 Bennie Whitworth; County Judge Joel Hale. Court meets the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month.
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

1 people have died in the Rusk County jail since 2023.

0 by suicide

1 illness or medical

1 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them1 of 1

Most recent death on the state's record2023-07-23

People held, 2026-08120 in 292 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them81.7%

Deaths: Texas Justice Initiative, the cleaned copy of the Texas Attorney General’s custodial death reports — the state’s own public index carries no cause of death and has not been refreshed since August 2025. Population: Texas Commission on Jail Standards monthly report. Counted, not estimated.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Rusk County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).

How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?

Your VOTE is POWERFUL.

The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So are the commissioners who pay for it.

Names verified 2026-08-22 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered