The Detention Center
Wichita County Detention Center
- Operated byWichita County Sheriff's Office (Detention Bureau)
- County publishes a jail nameYes - the Sheriff's Office Detention Bureau page names the 'Wichita County Detention Center'
- Jail address2815 Central Freeway East, Wichita Falls, TX 76302
- Jail phone(940) 766-8170
- Size188,000 square feet, able to house up to 700 inmates
- Inmate rosterhttps://wichitacountysheriffsoffice.org/inmate-roster/
- Deposits / commissaryKiosks at the courthouse 2nd floor and the Law Enforcement Center lobby; money orders and cashier's checks by mail; online through Access Corrections - no rates published
- Inmate phone vendorGlobal Tel*Link (GTL), 877-650-4249 - no per-minute rate published
- Video visits / messaginghttps://www.gettingout.com/schedule-a-visit/ - no fee schedule published
- What was triedhttps://wichitacountytx.com/locations/sheriffs-office/ ; https://wichitacountysheriffsoffice.org/bureaus/detention-bureau/ ; https://wichitacountysheriffsoffice.org/faqs/ ; https://wichitacountysheriffsoffice.org/bureaus/detention-bureau/contact-an-inmate/
- Beds and population, 2026-08554 people held in 719 rated beds
Source: Wichita County Sheriff's Office - Detention Bureau · checked 2026-08-22
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓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
- BedsUp to 700 inmates in a 188,000-square-foot building (Detention Bureau page)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff William Rutledge
- OfficeWichita County Sheriff's Office
- Address2815 Central Freeway East, Wichita Falls, TX 76302
- Phone(940) 766-8170
- Fax(940) 766-8102
- NoteSworn in September 2025 to finish the unexpired term; the county's own Sheriff's Office page names him
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Wichita County - Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
Each Justice of the Peace has a separate page under https://wichitacountytx.com/locations/ ; the names above were read one page at a time. None of the court pages describes magistrate or bond-setting duties.
County Judge
- Jim Johnson
County Court at Law No. 1
- Gary Butler
County Court at Law No. 2
- Greg King
30th District Court
- Jeff McKnight
78th District Court
- Meredith Kennedy
89th District Court
- Dobie Kosub
Justices of the Peace
- James Hughes - Precinct 1, Place 1
- Robert B. Woodruff - Precinct 1, Place 2
- Rodney Burchett - Precinct 2
- Robert Johnson - Precinct 3
- Judy Baker - Precinct 4
- 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 runs two sites: wichitacountytx.com for county offices and wichitacountysheriffsoffice.org, which the county's own Sheriff's Office page gives as the office website.
- Bed capacity is published but no current daily population figure is.
- The FAQ names GTL as the phone provider and Access Corrections for deposits, but publishes no call rates, video-visit fees or commissary prices.
- No death-in-custody report, PREA audit, independent inspection result or inmate-housing contract with rates is published on either county site.
- The 2026 adopted budget and numerous budget amendments are posted as PDFs on the public notices and budget page.
- No county-specific Texas Commission on Jail Standards inspection report URL could be located.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Precinct 1 Mark Beauchamp, Precinct 2 Mickey Fincannon, Precinct 3 Barry Mahler, Precinct 4 Jeff Watts. Court is held every Tuesday at 10:00 AM.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
9 people have died in the Wichita County jail since 2017.
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 Wichita 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