Clicking on any of the Texas Counties or Cities below will direct you to a list of all the City Jails, County Jails and Juvenile Detention Centers in that specific County.
Texas has 254 counties, more than any other state, and more city and county jails than any other state. The sheriff runs the jail. Harris County in Houston is the largest jail in the state. Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar, and Travis are the other buildings most families are looking for. El Paso, Hidalgo, and Collin are the next tier. A West Texas county may have a small jail, or it may book into a neighbor, because the next town with a jail can be a long drive. City police have a holding room. That is not a county jail.
The Texas Commission on Jail Standards writes the rules and certifies the jails. It does not run the state prisons, and it does not inspect juvenile halls. At the end of 2024 it listed 225 certified jails. County jails averaged about 71,235 people a day that year, about 73 percent of capacity. A lot of those people have not been convicted. When a jail holds somebody for another county, for the state, or for the Marshals, it bills a daily rate.
Jails in Texas hold people before trial and people serving a misdemeanor or a short felony. A year or less stays with the sheriff. A longer felony sentence goes to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. In fiscal 2025 that system held more than 139,000 people, across about 90 units. The prisons families ask about include the Polunsky Unit, the Coffield Unit, the Allred Unit, and the women’s prisons at Gatesville. A federal sentence goes to the Bureau of Prisons. Texas has more federal prisons than any other state. Those are not county jails.
Two hundred twenty-five certified jails at the end of 2024, serving 254 counties. A few counties do not operate one and contract. Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar, and Travis account for a large share of the beds. A full jail in the Panhandle means a transfer, not a second jail in the same town.
County detention and state commitment are different stops. The large counties run their own juvenile detention centers for a youth waiting on a hearing. Harris, Dallas, Bexar, and Travis keep their own. Smaller counties contract. A youth in one of those centers is usually waiting on court.
The Texas Juvenile Justice Department runs the commitment side. Its secure facilities include Gainesville, Giddings, Evins, and the Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Complex for girls. Those are not the county detention centers, and they are not a list of 18 local halls. Search the county of the arrest. The listing shows the detention center that county uses, and a state facility only if the youth has been committed.
At the Harris County jail the first day is a booking floor that does not empty. Name, prints, a medical screen, a search, clothes in a bag, one call if the phones are working. The person has not been convicted. There is no phone in the cell, and no way to know if the job, the truck, or the kids got covered. Glasses stay in property until somebody signs for them. In a small county jail the same steps happen in a smaller room, with less space to split people up.
Summer sits hard on the building. The uniform does not fit. The bunk is thin, and the next bed is awake. Meals are plain and on a clock. Mail is slow. A visit from a county seat to Houston or Dallas is a drive that may not happen. Withdrawal from alcohol, opioids, or methamphetamine can start before the bond hearing, and the night is when that gets loud. Deputies who apply the rules the same way to everybody run a quieter pod. Uneven rules are how contraband moves. Harris and Dallas can separate by risk. A Panhandle jail often cannot, and a full jail there means a transfer.
Tablets, video visits, and deposits take some of the isolation out of the bigger jails. A message home does not fix the bed or the case, and the account can be shut off. Each county page on this site lists the jail phone, the vendor, and the way to send money for that sheriff’s office.