A quick custody check, one step at a time:

1. Open Texas IVSS-Counties in a browser. Searching costs nothing. Anyone you sign up to track is never told about it.
2. Fill in the surname box first, then the given name.
3. Look for a match in this county and note the custody status shown.
4. Jot down any booking or case number. It saves time on every later call.
5. Still no match? Phone the jail at the Sheriff's Office, 464 NW Truck Route, Crane, TX 79731, 432-558-3571. Give the birth date and the name as printed on a driver's license.

A fresh booking can take a few hours to reach any list.

No match on the screen? Here is why that happens:

• Booking is still going on. Paperwork, prints and photos take time. Try again later in the day.
• They were already released. A magistrate may have granted bond in the first 48 hours, or a ticket may have replaced the arrest.
• Another county holds them. An arrest just outside the county line is booked into that county's jail.
• A name mix-up. Search again with a nickname dropped, a hyphen removed, or a former last name.

The Sheriff's Office at 464 NW Truck Route, Crane, TX 79731, 432-558-3571, can answer for anyone booked here. Expect to be asked for a birth date.

The county has one adult jail, the Crane County Jail in the Law Enforcement Center, 464 NW Truck Route, Crane, TX 79731, 432-558-3571. No annex, work release center or city lockup turned up in county or city records, so a local arrest most likely ends up here.

When the arrest happened over a county line, look at the jail that serves that county:

• North: Ector County Detention Center, 2500 South US Highway 385, Odessa, TX 79764, 432-335-3060.
• West: Ward County Jail, 415 E. Monahans Parkway, Monahans, TX 79756, 432-943-6703.
• East: Upton County Jail, 1106 North Grand Street, Rankin, TX 79778, 432-693-2422.
• South: Pecos County Jail, 1774 N. Hwy 285, Fort Stockton, TX 79735, 432-336-3521.
• Southeast, a bit farther: Crockett County Jail, 121 S. Hwy 163, Ozona, TX 76943, 325-392-2661.

IVSS-Counties was built to report custody status and send alerts, so plan on another route for mugshots. A booking photo can be sought with a letter to the Sheriff's Office that calls itself a Texas Public Information Act request. Send it to P.O. Box 1175, Crane, TX 79731, or phone 432-558-3571 about handing it in. Basic details of an arrest have to be handed over without delay (GC 552.108(c)).

• A person held by immigration: the agency releases photos only through an ICE FOIA request.
• Federal arrest: as a rule, no photo is handed out. A U.S. Marshals wanted notice for an escaped or missing defendant is the exception.
• Private mugshot websites: a site asking $150 or more to remove a record falls under the state's Business and Commerce Code, chapter 109. Wrong or partial records there must be fixed or taken down free. They also can't publish anything wiped by expunction or sealed under nondisclosure.

Alerts cost nothing. Sign up online at Texas IVSS-Counties, or dial 866-268-8959. Messages, in English or Spanish, report bookings, releases, court dates that are set or shifted, and custody changes. Help is staffed all day and night, and your sign-up stays private. It replaced the old VINE service, which the Sheriff's web page still links.

That same page links ICE's victim notification program, for victims whose case involves someone in immigration custody.

A magistrate sets the bail, at the latest 48 hours after the arrest. Release can come three ways:

• paying the full amount in cash, refunded once the case ends if every condition is kept
• hiring a bondsman, whose fee is never returned
• a personal bond, a written promise with no money down, which some violent charges can't get

Call the jail at 464 NW Truck Route, Crane, TX 79731, 432-558-3571, to learn the amount and where it can be posted. For refunds, conditions and holds, read our bail page.

Phone the Sheriff's Office, 464 NW Truck Route, Crane, TX 79731, 432-558-3571. State law makes basic arrest information public, and the charge is part of it. The magistrate reads it to the person too, at the hearing within 48 hours.

Once charges are filed, the court papers go to the combined County and District Clerk. Find it in Room 110, 201 W 6th St, Crane, TX 79731, or call 432-558-3581. Its free online twin is re:SearchTX, which shows filings like the indictment once you sign up.

The first chance to request appointed counsel is the magistrate hearing itself. Request forms are also handed out by the Sheriff's Office, 464 NW Truck Route, Crane, TX 79731, 432-558-3571. The paperwork goes on within a day: felony requests to the District Judge, misdemeanor requests to the County Judge. By law, someone has to be appointed within three working days.

The local plan counts someone as indigent if they receive public benefits like SNAP, Medicaid, TANF, SSI or housing aid. Income counts too, at 125% of the poverty guideline or below, or under $500 a month once necessary bills are paid. Whether the person could post bond doesn't matter, and family money isn't counted. The Texas Indigent Defense Commission, 209 West 14th Street, Room 202, Austin, TX 78701, 512-936-6994, keeps the plan.

Texas sets a floor for visits. Each inmate is allowed two noncontact visits a week or more, lasting no less than 20 minutes. At least one slot each week must come in the evening or on the weekend. Kids visiting may need an adult guardian with them, and verified veterans get extra visits on top.

Before driving over, call 464 NW Truck Route, Crane, TX 79731, at 432-558-3571. Ask about visiting days, the visitor list and ID rules. Video visits may be possible too. More on visiting is on our visitation page.

Funds on the books cover things like soap, stamps, food and calls. Ask the Sheriff's Office at 464 NW Truck Route, Crane, TX 79731, 432-558-3571, how deposits are accepted, whether in the lobby, by money order or online, and about any fee. A booking number speeds things up.

Our money deposit page and commissary page describe how such accounts tend to work.

The state's jail design rules require a phone in the intake area. That lets most people call home shortly after arrest. Later calls usually go through a jail phone system, paid collect or from a prepaid account. Ask whether tablets or messaging are offered too.

The Sheriff's Office, 464 NW Truck Route, Crane, TX 79731, 432-558-3571, can name the provider and explain how to set up an account. Read our guides on inmate phone accounts and inmate messaging.

Two addresses are in use, the street address at 464 NW Truck Route and the Sheriff's box, P.O. Box 1175, Crane, TX 79731. Call 432-558-3571 to ask which one inmate mail should use. On the envelope, use the legal name of the person inside, and include where you live.

• Texas jails can't cap the number of letters or pages someone sends or receives.
• Legal mail gets opened in front of the inmate, just to look for contraband.
• A penniless inmate is still given paper, envelopes and stamps, enough to mail at least three letters each week.

Our mail page covers packaging and what is often turned away.

Clothes, a wallet, a phone and keys are usually logged at booking and stored until release. Anything taken as evidence stays with the case. To have belongings handed to family, the person usually signs a release, and you bring photo ID.

Ask the jail at 464 NW Truck Route, Crane, TX 79731, 432-558-3571, when pickup is allowed and what you'll need.

Call the Sheriff's Office at 464 NW Truck Route, Crane, TX 79731, 432-558-3571, and describe the problem, such as missed medicine or a recent injury.

• Possible mental illness or intellectual disability starts a 12-hour clock for notice to the magistrate (CCP 16.22).
• Someone brought to a jail under emergency mental health custody gets separate housing, away from anyone charged with or convicted of a crime.
• Each jail has to post how inmates can file a complaint inside.
• Relatives may also bring a concern to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. That state agency in Austin answers at 512-463-5505 and takes reports through an online complaint page.

Three offices serve warrants: the Sheriff's Office, 464 NW Truck Route, Crane, TX 79731, 432-558-3571, the Constable, 432-208-8295, and inside city limits the police at 432-558-2212. A call to any of them can confirm one. Texas DPS keeps a separate Texas 10 Most Wanted roundup for the whole state. Talk to a lawyer before clearing it. A surrender at the jail is one route; asking the court that signed the warrant for another date is the other. Felony and misdemeanor files are with the County and District Clerk, Room 110, 201 W 6th St, Crane, TX 79731, 432-558-3581.

Each court sets its own calendar, so the right number depends on the case:

• Felony cases, plus Class A and B charges: the clerk, Room 110, 201 W 6th St, Crane, TX 79731, 432-558-3581. The felony bench sits on dates listed in the District Court calendar for 2026.
• Class C cases from deputies and troopers: the Justice of the Peace, inside the courthouse, 432-558-1108. Its doors stay shut to visitors each Tuesday.
• City tickets: the Municipal Court, 115 W. 6th Street, Crane, TX 79731, 432-558-7747.

What each hearing is for gets explained on our court page.

On a federal charge, the case belongs to the Western District of Texas. The Midland-Odessa Division clerk is at 200 East Wall, Room 222, Midland, TX 79701, 432-686-4001.

1. A magistrate judge rules first on release. That often happens at a detention hearing (18 U.S.C. 3142).
2. Pending trial, deputy U.S. Marshals hold the prisoner, sometimes in a local jail they rent beds from. Their office is at 200 East Wall Street, Suite 213, Midland, TX 79701, 432-686-4100.
3. Sentenced federal inmates appear in the BOP inmate locator, ideally searched with the register number.

A local arrest can lead to immigration custody in these steps:

1. The jail on NW Truck Route receives Form I-247A. That form is the ICE detainer.
2. From then on, the person may be held up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released, so ICE can pick them up (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. Texas jails must honor detainers and tell the person why. If papers prove citizenship or lawful presence, the jail drops the hold (CCP 2A.060).
4. Once ICE has the person, they are usually taken to a detention center, which may be far off. Look them up on the ICE Online Detainee Locator. Search with the A-number, or else with the name plus birth country.

Senate Bill 8, passed in 2025, tells counties with jails to ask ICE for 287(g) partnerships, and the last day to do so is December 1, 2026. Texas has also banned local limits on immigration enforcement since 2017 (GC 752.053). The Sheriff's Office, 432-558-3571, can say how that stands here.

Prison and state jail sentences fall under TDCJ, the state agency for those terms. Meanwhile the person remains in county custody until moved. At intake, staff assess them and choose a unit.

• Once moved, they appear in the TDCJ inmate search, which takes a surname and first initial, or an SID or TDCJ number.
• For each unit's visiting hours and mail rules, browse our Texas state prisons section.

In Texas, a child for juvenile court purposes is 10 through 16; seventeen means adult court. Children don't go to the adult jail. Here, a child in custody first goes to a juvenile processing office, usually for six hours or less. Officers must notify a parent promptly.

If intake keeps the child, a judge decides on further detention by the second working day, with the child's appointed lawyer present. No juvenile detention center is registered in the county. To learn the child's placement, phone the Sheriff's Office, 464 NW Truck Route, Crane, TX 79731, 432-558-3571. Youth lockups across Texas answer to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, 1711 San Jacinto Blvd, Austin, TX 78701, 512-490-7130.

With one town and a 2025 Census estimate of 4,554 residents, the county has just a handful of arresting agencies.

• Sheriff's Office, 464 NW Truck Route, Crane, TX 79731, 432-558-3571. Deputies patrol everywhere outside city limits.
• Crane Police Department, 115 W. 6th Street, Crane, TX 79731. Its main line, 432-558-2212, is answered day and night. A second line is 432-558-3593.
• Constable, 201 W. 6th St., Crane, TX 79731, 432-208-8295.
• Texas Highway Patrol troopers also work the county's roads. Deputies can direct you to the trooper office.

In an emergency, call 911.