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Texas · County seat: Groveton · Checked 2026-08-22

Trinity County

The jail, the sheriff who runs it, and the judges who decide who sits inside. Every fact below comes from a named public record. Anything not yet sourced is marked still needed rather than guessed.

The Detention Center

Trinity County Jail

Source: Trinity County - Jail · checked 2026-08-22

Transparency rating

3/10Closed

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Trinity 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.

Since then

  • Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Woody Wallace

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

Source: Trinity County - Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22

The Judges

The 411th District Court page still carries the name of a former judge (Elizabeth E. Coker) above the current judge, John Wells, III.

County Judge

  • Danny Martin

District Courts

  • Travis E. Kitchens, Jr. (258th Judicial District)
  • John Wells, III (411th Judicial District)

Justices of the Peace

  • Mary Wallace (Pct. 1)
  • Ricky Hortman (Pct. 2)
  • Keith Johnson (Pct. 3)
  • Richard Steptoe (Pct. 4)
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.

Notes on the record

The record

No death in the Trinity County jail appears on the state's record since 2016.

0 by suicide
0 illness or medical
0 deaths in all, 2016 onward
People held, 2026-082 in 7 beds
Share not convicted of the charge holding them50.0%

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 Trinity 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