The Detention Center
San Augustine County Jail
- Operated bySan Augustine County Sheriff's Office
- County publishes a jail nameYes — the Sheriff page says "The San Augustine County Jail utilizes NCIC Inmate Communications as its Inmate Communications Provider"
- Housed inEl Camino Justice Center, 219 N Harrison, San Augustine, TX 75972 (the Justice of the Peace sits next door at 221 N Harrison)
- Jail phone936-275-2424
- Inmate phone rate$0.31 per minute, no connection fee; international $0.50 per minute (NCIC)
- What the page does not carryNo roster, no bed count, no bond instructions, no visitation schedule, no commissary rates
- Beds and population, 2026-0825 people held in 34 rated beds
Source: San Augustine County, Texas — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗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
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds34 (rated capacity, TCJS county jail population report, 1 August 2026)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Robert Cartwright
- Published as"Robert Cartwright, Sheriff"
- AddressEl Camino Justice Center, 219 N Harrison, San Augustine, TX 75972
- Office phone936-275-2424
- Fax936-275-5133
- Chief DeputyTammy Fountain
- Jail AdministratorCheryl Procell
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: San Augustine County, Texas — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
Four Justices of the Peace share one office in the El Camino Justice Center, the same building as the jail; the JP page lists an after-hours number that is the Sheriff's Office line. The 273rd District Judge sits in the courthouse at 100 W Columbia; the 1st District Judge sits in Jasper.
County Judge
- Jeff Boyd
District Court (1st Judicial District)
- Craig Mixson
District Court (273rd Judicial District)
- James Payne
Justices of the Peace
- Sheila Ponder (Pct. 1)
- Ardis Mosby (Pct. 2)
- Billy Williams (Pct. 3)
- J.D. Miller (Pct. 4)
- 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 fees check passes on phone rates only. The Sheriff page prints NCIC's per-minute call rates but publishes no video visit rate and no commissary price list.
- Budget check verified by OCR of the FY 25-26 Final Budget (https://www.co.san-augustine.tx.us/upload/page/10670/FY 25-26 Final Budget.pdf), a 52-page scan. Its index lists "SHERIFF" and "JAIL" as separate departments, and the revenue pages carry "JAIL OUTSIDE REVENUE" ($10,000 budgeted) and "JAIL/ INMATE PHONES".
- "JAIL OUTSIDE REVENUE" implies the county is paid to hold other agencies' prisoners, but no contract and no per-diem rate is published anywhere on the county site — the contracts check fails.
- Commissioners Court agendas are posted back through 2025 as individual PDFs; the page is titled "Agendas & Minutes" but the files posted are agendas.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Precinct 1 Adam Sharp, Precinct 2 Daniel Holman, Precinct 3 Joey Holloway, Precinct 4 Steve Bryan; County Judge Jeff Boyd.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
1 people have died in the San Augustine County jail since 2021.
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 San Augustine 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