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

The Detention Center

The county publishes no formal name for this facility.

Operated byWinkler County Sheriff's Office
County publishes a jail nameNo - the Sheriff page names no facility; the county sitemap contains no jail or detention page
Address on the Sheriff page1300 South Bellaire Street, Kermit, TX 79745
Local inmate lookuphttps://correctionsrecordssearch.com/winklerlcountytx - posted on the Sheriff page as the way 'to check on local inmates'
Inmate mail'Inmate Mail' PDFs in English and Spanish are posted on the Sheriff page
Sexual assault awarenessThe Sheriff page posts 'Sexual Assault Awareness' notices in English and Spanish; these are notices, not PREA audit results
What was triedhttps://www.co.winkler.tx.us/209/Sheriff ; https://www.co.winkler.tx.us/sitemap ; https://www.co.winkler.tx.us/216/Budgets ; https://www.co.winkler.tx.us/235/Agendas-and-Minutes
Beds and population, 2026-0867 people held in 101 rated beds

Source: Winkler County - Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22

Transparency rating

2/10Closed

✗The jail is named — not published
✓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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Winkler 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 Darin Mitchell

OfficeWinkler County Sheriff's Office
Physical address1300 South Bellaire Street, Kermit, TX 79745
Mailing addressP.O. Box 860, Kermit, TX 79745
Phone432-586-3461
Fax432-586-3902

Still needed

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

Source: Winkler County - Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22

The Judges

The county site lists no County Court at Law. The Justice of the Peace page notes that dockets for precincts 1 and 3 are posted on the courthouse bulletin board, but names judges only for Precincts 1 and 2. Neither JP entry mentions magistrate or bond-setting duties.

County Judge

Charles M. Wolf

109th Judicial District Court

Honorable John L. Pool

Justices of the Peace

Judge Keri Jones - Precinct 1
Judge Glenda Mixon - Precinct 2

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

The Sheriff page carries a link to a local inmate search at correctionsrecordssearch.com, which responded when tested, so the roster check passes; the roster is hosted by a vendor rather than the county.
The county never names its jail on its own site.
The Budgets page carries the 2026 adopted budget, the 2025 approved budget and audit reports for 2023 through 2025.
Sexual Assault Awareness notices are posted, but no PREA audit result is.
No county-specific Texas Commission on Jail Standards inspection report URL could be located.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Precinct 1 Billy J. Stevens, Precinct 2 Robbie Wolf, Precinct 3 Victor Berzoza, Precinct 4 Homero Lujan. Judge Charles M. Wolf presides.
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

1 people have died in the Winkler County jail since 2018.

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 them0 of 1

Deaths within the first week of arriving1

Most recent death on the state's record2018-02-05

People held, 2026-0867 in 101 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them35.8%

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 Winkler 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