Val Verde County, Texas — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Val Verde County Detention Facility

Operated byThe GEO Group, Inc. (private contractor) - not the Sheriff's Office
County publishes a jail nameNo - Val Verde County's own website has no jail or detention page at all; the facility name comes from the operator
OperatorThe GEO Group, Inc.
Facility address253 FM 2523 Hamilton Lane, Del Rio, TX 78840 (per GEO Group)
Also published asVal Verde Correctional Facility
Primary clientU.S. Marshals Service, per GEO Group's own facility page
What was triedhttps://valverdecounty.texas.gov/184/Sheriffs-Office ; https://valverdecounty.texas.gov/sitemap ; https://valverdecounty.texas.gov/148/Transparency ; https://valverdecounty.texas.gov/27/Government
Beds and population, 2026-08132 people held in 193 rated beds

Source: The GEO Group - Val Verde County Detention Facility · checked 2026-08-22

Transparency rating

0/10Closed

✗The jail is named — not published
✗Who is in custody — not published
✗Beds and daily population — not published
✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
✗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 Val Verde 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 built1998 (per GEO Group and Wikipedia)
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds1,407 (per GEO Group)

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez

Office address295 FM 2523 Hamilton Road, Del Rio, TX 78840
Phone830-774-7513
Name variant on county siteThe Sheriff's Office page spells it 'Jose Frank Martinez'; the county staff directory publishes 'Joe Frank Martinez'

Still needed

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

Source: Val Verde County Staff Directory - Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-22

The Judges

All four JP pages on the county site advertise 'LIVE MAGISTRATES COURT HEARINGS', so the JPs are the magistrates at first appearance. The 63rd and 83rd District Courts and the JPs are shared with Terrell County under a joint judiciary operating plan the county publishes.

County Judge

Lewis Owens

County Court at Law

Sergio Gonzalez

District Courts

Roland C. Andrade (63rd District Court)
Robert E. Cadena (83rd District Court)

Justices of the Peace

Jesse J. Trevino (Precinct 1)
John Dissler (Precinct 2)
Pat Cole (Precinct 3)
Hilda C. Lopez (Precinct 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.

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

Val Verde County contracts its detention out to The GEO Group. The county's own website carries no jail page, no roster, no capacity figure, no bond guidance and no fee schedule - all ten checks are 'no'.
The bed count and 1998 opening date come from the operator's own page, not from the county.
GEO Group lists the U.S. Marshals Service as the client. The county holds contracts to house other agencies' prisoners, but no contract or per-diem rate is published on the county site, so 'contracts' is 'no'.
The county's Financial Transparency link leaves the county domain entirely (valverde.mygovcenter.com), and no jail or sheriff detention budget was found there.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides.
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

3 people have died in the Val Verde County jail since 2017.

1 by suicide

1 illness or medical

3 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them2 of 3

Deaths within the first week of arriving1

Most recent death on the state's record2018-12-18

People held, 2026-08132 in 193 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them77.3%

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 Val Verde 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