San Patricio County, Texas — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

San Patricio County Jail

Operated bySan Patricio County Sheriff's Office
County publishes a jail nameYes — the county-hosted "Jail Operations Information" sheet is headed "SAN PATRICIO COUNTY JAIL OPERATIONS"
Jail address300 North Rachal, Sinton, TX 78387
Jail phone361-364-9630
Inmate mailP.O. Box 1382, Sinton, Texas 78387
VisitationTue/Wed 2:00-4:00 pm and Sat/Sun 8:00-10:00 am, split by inmate last name
Commissary depositsPhone 1-866-345-1884, internet, or a lobby kiosk taking cash and cards — no rates or fees stated
Beds and population, 2026-08216 people held in 236 rated beds

Source: San Patricio County TX — Jail Operations Information (county-hosted PDF) · checked 2026-08-22

Transparency rating

2/10Closed

✓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 — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what San Patricio 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
Beds236 (rated capacity, TCJS county jail population report, 1 August 2026)

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Oscar Rivera

Published as"Sheriff Oscar Rivera"
Address300 North Rachal, Sinton, TX 78387
Phone361-364-9600
Fax361-364-6110
Jail AdministratorMajor D. Lopez — 361-364-9630 ext. 9642
Jail CaptainMarcos Hernandez

Still needed

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

Source: San Patricio County TX — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22

The Judges

Six Justice of the Peace precincts are published, numbered 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 8. The Pct. 1 court shares the 300 North Rachal address with the Sheriff's Office and the jail, and the Sheriff page carries a "Central Magistrate Stream (When in Session)" link — magistration is livestreamed. County Court at Law No. 1 is published only as an outside link to sanpatricioccal.com and the county site does not print that judge's name.

County Judge

David Krebs

County Court at Law No. 2

Viki Martino

District Courts (36th, 156th, 343rd)

Starr Bauer (36th)
Patrick L. Flanigan (156th)
Janna Whatley (343rd)

Justices of the Peace

Leslie DeAses (Pct. 1)
Daniel Garza (Pct. 2)
Karen Diaz (Pct. 4)
Nere Villarreal (Pct. 5)
Susan Price (Pct. 6)
Leslie Pullin (Pct. 8)

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 Adopted Budget 2026 (https://www.sanpatriciocountytx.gov/page/open/1401/0/Adopted Budget 2026.pdf) is a searchable PDF and carries a General Fund department 6800 "Corrections" with full payroll and operating detail, plus revenue lines for "Inmate Telephone", "Bail Bond Fees", "Pre Trial Bonding" and "Detention Service Charges". Adopted and proposed budgets are posted back to 2013.
The Jail Administrator page (https://www.sanpatriciocountytx.gov/page/jailer) is partly password-protected — the public part gives Major Lopez's name and the Jail Operations PDF.
The jail operations sheet explains how to put money on a commissary account but publishes no phone rate, no video visit rate and no commissary prices, so the fees check fails.
The Sheriff page links VINELink for custody status; there is no county-published roster.
TCJS recorded 53 San Patricio inmates housed elsewhere on 1 August 2026 against a rated capacity of 236. No contract or per-diem rate is published.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Precinct 1 William "Ski" Zagorski Sr., Precinct 2 Thomas Yardley, Precinct 3 Ruben Gonzales, Precinct 4 Howard Gillespie; County Judge David Krebs.
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

10 people have died in the San Patricio County jail since 2016.

1 by suicide

4 illness or medical

10 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them8 of 10

Deaths within the first week of arriving6

Most recent death on the state's record2025-07-07

People held, 2026-08216 in 236 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them75.9%

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 Patricio 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