The Detention Center
Van Zandt County Jail
- Operated byVan Zandt County Sheriff's Office
- County publishes a jail nameYes - the sheriff page refers repeatedly to the 'Van Zandt County Jail' and the 'Van Zandt County Jail Facility'
- Jail address1220 West Dallas Street, Canton, TX 75103 (Sheriff's Office address)
- Jail phone903-567-4133
- Inmate mailNon-legal mail is scanned by an outside processor at PO Box 591, Longview, TX 75606; legal and medical mail goes to the jail directly
- Electronic messagingNCIC.com - $0.25 per message, $0.35 per picture or document
- Beds and population, 2026-08119 people held in 192 rated beds
Source: Van Zandt County Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓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 — not published
- ✗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
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Kevin Bridger
- Office address1220 West Dallas Street, Canton, TX 75103
- Phone903-567-4133
- Fax903-567-1433
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Van Zandt County Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
The county's Justice of the Peace page sets out the magisterial duties directly - determining probable cause, issuing warrants, giving statutory warnings and conducting bail examinations for arrested persons.
County Judge
- Andy Reese
County Court at Law
- Joshua Wintters
District Court (294th Judicial District)
- Chris Martin
Justices of the Peace
- Judge Wade McMillan (Precinct 1, Grand Saline)
- Judge Don Ashlock (Precinct 2, Canton)
- Judge Herbert Dunn (Precinct 3, Wills Point)
- Judge Scott Shinn (Precinct 4, Ben Wheeler)
- 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
- 'Current Inmate Listing' is a standing item in the county site's own navigation, linking to http://167.89.238.48/dcn/ - a bare IP address rather than a county domain, but it is the county's own published roster link.
- Budget counted as yes: the county publishes adopted budgets, proposed budgets, check registers, audits and treasurer reports under Financial Transparency. The FY2027 proposed budget is published directly. No standalone jail budget is broken out.
- Fees counted as 'no': the sheriff page publishes electronic messaging rates ($0.25 per message, $0.35 per picture) but no phone, video visit or commissary rates.
- The county published a March 2025 workshop presentation on courthouse restoration and a potential new Justice Center - relevant to any future jail construction, but not itself a jail record.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Court administrator: Keegan Caldwell.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
3 people have died in the Van Zandt County jail since 2021.
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 Van Zandt 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