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

The Detention Center

Walker County Jail

Operated byWalker County Sheriff's Office
County publishes a jail nameYes - published as 'Walker County Jail' on the Jail Division page and in the commissary mailing address
Jail address655 FM 2821 W, Huntsville, TX 77320
Jail CaptainJohn Davila
Booking agencies servedDepartment of Public Safety, Huntsville Police Department, Sam Houston State University Police Department
CommissaryMoney orders to Walker County Jail, P.O. Box 6424, Huntsville, TX 77342, or web deposits at Tigerdeposits.com
Beds and population, 2026-08176 people held in 268 rated beds

Source: Walker County Jail Division · checked 2026-08-22

Transparency rating

2/10Closed

✓The jail is named
✗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 Walker 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 Clint McRae

Office address717 FM 2821 Rd W, Huntsville, TX 77320
Phone(936) 435-2400

Still needed

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

Source: Walker County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-22

The Judges

The Precinct 1 judge is not named on the Justice of the Peace Precinct 1 page itself; the name was taken from the county's own staff directory entry, which lists Steve Fisher as 'Justice of the Peace Pct One Judge' (https://www.co.walker.tx.us/egov/apps/staff/directory.egov?path=pro&usr=569). The 12th Judicial District is shared with Grimes and Madison Counties.

County Judge

Colt Christian

County Court at Law

John R. Gaines

District Courts

David Moorman (12th Judicial District Court)
Tracy Sorensen (278th Judicial District Court)

Justices of the Peace

Steve Fisher (Precinct 1)
J. Marcus Payne (Precinct 2)
Randy Jeffcoat (Precinct 3)
Stephen P. Cole (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

Walker County names its jail and publishes its address, its jail captain and its visitation and commissary procedures, but no roster, no bed count and no daily population.
Budget counted as yes: the county publishes the adopted FY2025-2026 budget, the adopted order, the FY2026-2027 proposed budget and the tax rate calculation worksheet. No separate detention budget is broken out.
Fees counted as 'no': the Money for Inmates page names the deposit channels (money order, Tigerdeposits.com) but publishes no commissary, phone or video visit rates.
Note for context: Huntsville hosts several Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison units. Those are state prisons, not the county jail, and none of them were counted here.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Meetings are held in Room 104 of the Walker County Courthouse and broadcast via Zoom and YouTube Live.
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

1 people have died in the Walker County jail since 2016.

0 by suicide

1 illness or medical

1 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them1 of 1

Most recent death on the state's record2016-05-10

People held, 2026-08176 in 268 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them76.1%

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 Walker 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