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

The Detention Center

Wise County Jail

Operated byWise County Sheriff's Office (Detention division)
County publishes a jail nameYes - the Detention page uses both 'Wise County Jail' and 'Wise County Detention Center'
Jail address200 Rook Ramsey Drive, Decatur, TX 76234
Jail phone940-627-5971
Facility numberWise County Detention Center's facility number is published as 24080
Inmate phone / depositsCorrect Solutions Group, 877-618-3516, kiosk in the jail lobby, or online at https://www.csgpay.com/ - no rates published
Visitationhttps://www.co.wise.tx.us/281/Visitation - 20 minute visits, 40 minutes for visitors from beyond 100 miles
Other jail pageshttps://www.co.wise.tx.us/278/Inmate-Health-Services ; https://www.co.wise.tx.us/279/Law-Library ; https://www.co.wise.tx.us/280/Property-Money-Release
Bond Information link testedThe Detention page's 'Bond Information' entry points to http://jail.co.wise.tx.us:81/default.aspx, which did not respond when checked on 22 Aug 2026
Beds and population, 2026-08218 people held in 338 rated beds

Source: Wise County - Detention · 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 Wise 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 Cary Mellema

OfficeWise County Sheriff's Office
Address200 Rook Ramsey Drive, Decatur, TX 76234
Phone940-627-5971
Fax940-627-3797
Jail AdministratorCpt. Joseph Thomas (county staff directory)

Still needed

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

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

The Judges

The county site has no district judge page and names no district judge; the 271st Judicial District appears only in the title of the Community Supervision and Corrections Department audit reports. The four Justice of the Peace judges were read from the county's own staff directory entries (Directory.aspx?did=15, 16, 17 and the Precinct 4 page).

County Judge

J.D. Clark

County Court at Law No. 1

Judge Greg Lowery

County Court at Law No. 2

Judge Dana Manoushagian

Justices of the Peace

Bill Hogg - Precinct 1
Kim Redman - Precinct 2
Mandy L. Hays - Precinct 3
Willie Garrett - 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

The county names the jail and publishes visitation rules, inmate health services, law library and property release pages, but no roster, capacity or fee schedule.
The link the county labels 'Bond Information' points to a jail lookup on port 81 (http://jail.co.wise.tx.us:81/default.aspx) that did not respond when tested, so both the roster and bond_info checks are recorded as 'no'.
The Bail Bond Board page publishes local rules, applications and complaint forms aimed at bonding agents rather than guidance for a family trying to post bond.
The Financial Transparency page carries Wise County Budgets, budget procedures, end-of-year budget summaries, elected official salaries and audit reports.
No county-specific Texas Commission on Jail Standards inspection report URL could be located.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Precinct 1 Biff Hayes, Precinct 2 Kevin Burns, Precinct 3 Danny Lambert, Precinct 4 Colby Shawn. The court meets at 9 a.m. on the 2nd Monday of every month, with additional meetings on the 4th Monday, on the third floor of the courthouse at 101 N Trinity Street.
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

6 people have died in the Wise County jail since 2016.

0 by suicide

2 illness or medical

6 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them4 of 6

Deaths within the first week of arriving3

Most recent death on the state's record2023-08-27

People held, 2026-08218 in 338 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them71.1%

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 Wise 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