The Detention Center
Shackelford County Jail
- Operated byShackelford County Sheriff's Office
- County publishes a jail nameYes — the Arrest/Jail Report page names the "Shackelford County Jail" and the "Shackelford County LEC / Jail"
- Jail address791 W. US Hwy 180, Albany, Texas 76430
- Budget departmentDept 0540 "LEC", $736,122.00 in the 2025 Final Budget
- Rosterhttp://findtheinmate.com/shackelford, linked from the county's Arrest/Jail Report page
- VisitationMon-Fri 8:00am-4:00pm and Sat 5:00-7:00pm; two visits a week, 20 minutes each, immediate family only
- Deposits and cash bondsStellar Services kiosk in the public lobby or www.jailatm.com; $4.00 service fee on cash deposits, card fees apply
- Beds and population, 2026-089 people held in 27 rated beds
Source: Shackelford County, Texas — Arrest / Jail Report · checked 2026-08-22
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓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
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds27 (rated capacity, TCJS county jail population report, 1 August 2026)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Edward A Miller
- Published as"Sheriff Edward A Miller, Shackelford County Sheriff"
- Address791 U.S. HWY 180 West, Albany, Texas 76430
- Administrative phone325-762-9500
- Dispatch (24/7)325-762-9555
- Jail AdministratorArla Jarvis
- Emailed.miller@shackelfordcounty.org
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Shackelford County, Texas — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
One Justice of the Peace, at 309 South 2nd Street in Albany. The 259th District Court is administered from Anson in Jones County. The county publishes fee schedules for the County Clerk, probate, the District Clerk and the District Court.
County Judge
- John Viertel
District Court (259th Judicial District)
- Brooks Hagler
Justice of the Peace
- James Breeden
- 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
- Shackelford passes four checks — the most in this group — on the strength of one page. The Arrest/Jail Report page carries the roster link, the jail name, the visitation rules, the commissary deposit route and the cash bond instructions.
- The bond_info pass is narrow: the page explains only how to pay a cash bond at the lobby kiosk ($4.00 service fee on cash), not how bond amounts are set or how to reach a bonding company.
- The fees check fails. A $4.00 deposit service fee is published but no phone rate, no video visit rate and no commissary prices.
- Budget check verified by OCR of the Adopted Budget for 2024-2025 (https://www.shackelfordcounty.org/upload/page/8600/2025/county_budget__fy2025.pdf). Department 0540 "LEC" totals $736,122.00 and carries lines for JAILER, JAIL ADMINISTRATOR and JAIL EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES; a separate SHERIFF DEPARTMENT section runs from department 0100. The revenue side lists "3000 JAIL BOND ACCOUNT" and "5055 SHERIFF COMMISSARY", both budgeted at zero.
- Commissioners Court agendas are posted individually and are current to 2026 on the Meetings page.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Precinct 1 Steve Riley, Precinct 2 Ace Reames, Precinct 3 Lanham Martin, Precinct 4 David White; County Judge John Viertel. The court meets the second and fourth Mondays.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
No death in the Shackelford County jail appears on the state's record since 2016.
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 Shackelford 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