The Detention Center
Wheeler County Jail
- Operated byWheeler County Sheriff's Office
- County publishes a jail nameYes - the Sheriff page heads the facility block 'Wheeler County Jail'
- Jail address7944 US HWY 83, Wheeler, TX 79096
- Jail phone806-826-5537
- Custody lookupNone. The Sheriff page links only to MissingKids.com
- What was triedhttps://www.wheelercounty.texas.gov/page/Sheriff ; https://www.wheelercounty.texas.gov/page/sitemap - the sitemap has no jail, inmate, visitation or commissary page
- Beds and population, 2026-0817 people held in 48 rated beds
Source: Wheeler County - County Sheriff · 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
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 Tim Reeves
- OfficeWheeler County Sheriff's Office
- Physical address7944 US HWY 83, Wheeler, TX 79096
- Mailing addressP.O. Box 88, Wheeler, TX 79096
- Phone806-826-5537
- Fax806-826-3458
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Wheeler County - County Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
The county site lists no County Court at Law. Justice of the Peace Precinct 2 has its own page at https://www.wheelercounty.texas.gov/page/JP2-Main. Neither JP page mentions magistrate or bond-setting duties.
County Judge
- Judge Chalone Hefley
31st District Court
- Judge Steve R. Emmert
Justices of the Peace
- Natalie Thomas - Precinct 1
- Judge Rick Walden - Precinct 2
- 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
- The county names the jail but publishes nothing else about it - no roster, no capacity, no visitation or fee information.
- Adopted and proposed budgets back to 2021-22 are posted on the Budgets page; the county also publishes check registers and financial audits.
- Commissioners Court agendas are on a separate calendar page, https://www.wheelercounty.texas.gov/page/Agendas-EventCalendar.
- No county-specific Texas Commission on Jail Standards inspection report URL could be located.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Precinct 1 Jackie Don May Jr., Precinct 2 Phillip Gaines, Precinct 3 Bo Gaither, Precinct 4 John Walker.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
No death in the Wheeler County jail appears on the state's record since 2016.
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 Wheeler 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