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

The Detention Center

The county publishes no formal name for this facility.

Operated bySwisher County Sheriff's Office
County publishes a jail nameNo — the Sheriff page carries no jail information; the only acknowledgement is a budget department
Budget department0512 COUNTY JAIL, listed in the budget's table of contents as "County Jail", separate from 0560 COUNTY SHERIFF
Sends prisoners elsewhereThe budget carries a "PRISONER HOUSING - OUT OF STATE/ COUNTY" expense line, plus "PRISONER WORK RELEASE" and "4415 MILEAGE - INMATE (TRANSPORT)"
Other jail lines"4131 SUPPLIES - JAIL", "JAILER CERTIFICATION TESTING", "REPAIRS & MAINTENANCE - JAIL"
What was triedhttps://www.co.swisher.tx.us/page/swisher.Sheriff ; https://www.co.swisher.tx.us/page/swisher.Budgets ; https://www.co.swisher.tx.us/page/swisher.Commissioners.Court ; https://www.co.swisher.tx.us/page/swisher.Public.Notices
Beds and population, 2026-0811 people held in 27 rated beds

Source: Swisher County — Fiscal Year 2026 Adopted Budget · checked 2026-08-22

Transparency rating

1/10Closed

✗The jail is named — not published
✗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 Swisher 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
BedsNot found

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Kyle Schmalzried

Published as"Sheriff Kyle Schmalzried"
Administrative AssistantAlisha Del Toro
Address136 East Broadway, Tulia, TX 79088
Phone806-995-3326
Fax806-995-3367
Emailso@swisher-tx.org

Still needed

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

Source: Swisher County, Texas — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22

The Judges

Both district courts sit in Plainview (Hale County) at 225 Broadway. The 64th District Court's calendar is hosted on halecountysheriff.org. The Justice of the Peace page publishes the office address and staff (Chief Clerk Evonne Hernandez, Clerk Christina Flores) with Elsa Carrasco listed as the Justice of the Peace; the 242nd District Court page prints "Kregg Hukill" without the word Judge.

County Judge

Michael Clawson

District Courts

Danah Zirpoli (64th District Court)
Kregg Hukill (242nd District Court)

Justice of the Peace

Elsa Carrasco

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

Budget check verified: the FY2026 Adopted Budget is machine-readable and lists "County Jail" in its table of contents with department code 0512, alongside 0560 COUNTY SHERIFF.
The same budget carries "PRISONER HOUSING - OUT OF STATE/ COUNTY" as an expense — Swisher County pays other jurisdictions to hold people — but publishes no contract and no per-day rate, so 'contracts' is no.
Swisher publishes commissioners court agendas thoroughly — individual PDFs for every meeting and budget workshop back through 2025 appear on both the Commissioners Court page and the County Judge page — while publishing nothing at all about the jail.
The Sheriff page's only custody link is VINELink (site ID 44900). There is no jail page, no roster, no visitation page and no bond page.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Precinct 1 Mike Sims, Precinct 2 Danny Morgan, Precinct 3 Ed Weiser, Precinct 4 Larry Buske; County Judge Michael Clawson.
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

1 people have died in the Swisher County jail since 2018.

1 by suicide

0 illness or medical

1 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them0 of 1

Most recent death on the state's record2018-10-15

People held, 2026-0811 in 27 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them81.8%

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 Swisher 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