Franklin County Jail Inmate Bail & Bonds

A magistrate sets it, not the deputy. The clock is short: within 48 hours of the arrest, the jail must put each adult in front of one (art. 15.17 CCP). Texas lets justices of the peace and judges fill that role (art. 2A.151 CCP). The hearing may happen in person or by video.

Local rules for court-paid counsel run on that same 48-hour clock. Three things happen in that brief appearance:

• The magistrate reads the charge and explains the person's rights, including silence.
• The person is asked about a court-paid lawyer, and gets help filling in the request.
• A bail ruling is made just for them, using the mildest conditions that still protect the case and the public (art. 17.028 CCP).

For Class B charges and up, a magistrate in Texas must first study a public safety report. These reports date to 2021 and the Damon Allen Act. Each one gathers past convictions, pending cases and failures to show up for court. It gives no score and suggests no amount (art. 17.022 CCP). Staff on the jail line, 903-537-4539, can say roughly when the hearing will take place.

Texas law names two kinds, bail bonds and personal bonds (art. 17.01 CCP). For families, that works out to three paths:

• Cash. You put up every dollar of the bond. The court holds onto it while the case is open.
• A bondsman. A licensed bondsman guarantees the full amount to the court. The fee you pay for that promise does not come back.
• Personal bond. Here, a signature does the work: the person swears to come to every hearing, and nothing is paid in advance (art. 17.03 CCP).

Texas forbids personal bonds for a lengthy roster of violent offenses. That ban also reaches felons caught holding a gun, Class A or worse terroristic threats, and some protective order violations. The 2025 bail law, S.B. 9, widened that list. On burglary or some higher drug felonies, the judge of the trial court alone can say yes to one.

Fine-only Class C cases in JP or city court normally go on a personal bond under art. 45A.107. Our statewide bail page covers these types in more depth.

No single price list covers Texas. Counties are allowed to adopt their own schedule if it obeys state law. The fastest way to learn the dollar figure is to ask the jail once a magistrate has ruled.

When choosing an amount, the magistrate weighs (art. 17.15 CCP):

• getting the person back to court, while never using bail as a tool to crush them;
• the alleged crime, and whether it involved violence;
• the person's real finances, which can be laid out in a sworn form;
• citizenship status;
• keeping the victim, officers and neighbors safe;
• their record, open cases and the public safety report.

The statute book does carry two dollar figures. They apply after a warrantless arrest if probable cause hasn't been settled in time. On a misdemeanor, the person must walk out by hour 24 on a bond that tops out at $5,000. On a felony, they must be freed by hour 48, and the cap is $10,000. The state may seek up to 72 extra hours (art. 17.033 CCP). Call 903-537-4539 for the real number.

Bonds get posted at the Sheriff's Office, which shares its Highway 37 building with the jail: 208 TX Hwy 37, Mount Vernon, TX 75457. Work through this list:

1. Dial 903-537-4539. Ask for the jail, or for Booking.
2. Spell out the name and read the birth date. Write down every charge and the bond for each one.
3. Check that the magistrate hearing has already happened. Until bail is set, nothing can be posted.
4. Find out what forms of money staff can take today, and when you can come in.
5. Ask about holds, like a warrant from another place or an ICE detainer.
6. Arrive carrying photo ID and the full bond amount. Keep the receipt staff give you.

Jail staff who accept bail must look up the person's criminal record first. When the charge is violent, staff may not choose the figure. Only a magistrate can (art. 17.20 CCP).

Possibly, so phone first. Cash bail is placed with whoever keeps the court's funds, often a clerk (art. 17.02 CCP). These are the offices that hold local case files:

• District Clerk (felonies): Courthouse Annex West, 204 Texas Highway 37, Mount Vernon, TX 75457, 903-537-8337. Letters go to P.O. Box 750, Mount Vernon, TX 75457. Open regular business hours.
• County Clerk (misdemeanors of Class A or B): 200 North Kaufman Street, Mount Vernon, TX 75457, 903-537-8357. Starting August 3, 2026, it opens Monday through Thursday 7:30 to 12:30 and 1:00 to 4:30, and Friday 8:00 to noon.
• Justice of the Peace (Class C tickets): inside the courthouse at 200 N. Kaufman St., Mount Vernon, TX 75457, 903-537-2342. Ask for the JP.

On that call, ask if the office accepts bond for someone sitting in jail, and what payment it takes.

What the jail accepts can shift, so call 903-537-4539 before the drive. Run through the options with staff, from cash and money orders to cashier's checks and cards. Write down the payee name for any check.

From its county web page, the JP office links an online page for paying JP fines. Use it for a citation or a fine. Bail for someone in the jail goes through other channels.

Some simple habits protect you:

• Carry exact change if paying in cash.
• Make sure the receipt shows the case and your name as the payer.
• Never mail loose bills.

A local bail bond board licenses every surety who writes bonds here. Its bail bond information page holds the board's local rules and license forms. To get the current list of licensed bondsmen, ask the jail at 903-537-4539.

Texas sets ground rules for every bondsman (Occupations Code 1704.301-1704.305):

• Texas sets no limit on what a bondsman charges, and the fee is never refunded.
• Anything you hand over, cash or goods, earns you a written receipt.
• Hunting for customers inside the jail is against the rules.
• Pledged property, such as a land deed or a pickup title, goes back to you after the cases end. Put the request in writing, and the bondsman then has 30 days.
• A defense lawyer already working the case may post the client's bond even without a bondsman license.

One bond settles one case. Other holds may still keep someone inside the Highway 37 jail:

• Warrants from other counties. Some get bonded here (art. 15.18 CCP). Others mean a deputy drive to that county first.
• Parole. On a parole violation warrant, the person stays in until a hearing (Government Code 508.254).
• New felony while on felony bond. Only the judge with the first case, or a court picked by that judge, can approve release (art. 17.027 CCP).
• Family violence. When officers fear further family violence, the jail must now keep the person 4 extra hours after bond is posted. That rule became required in 2025. A magistrate who signs an order may add up to 48 hours more (art. 17.291 CCP).
• ICE. A federal immigration detainer follows separate rules, covered in the ICE question further down.
• Mental health. A magistrate may order a mental health check before release (art. 16.22 CCP).

Before paying, call 903-537-4539 and ask staff to read out all holds and detainers.

The Texas Constitution starts from a yes: bail is the rule. Capital cases with evident proof are the long-standing carve-out (Texas Constitution, art. I, §11). Some repeat felony suspects can also be held without bail by a district judge after a hearing. Examples are someone with two earlier felony convictions, or someone charged with a new felony while on felony bond (art. I, §11a). Breaking bond terms meant to protect a victim, or some protective orders, can also cost a person bail (art. I, §§11b, 11c).

A statewide vote on November 4, 2025 added Proposition 3 to the constitution as §11d of article I. It names eight grave charges, murder and aggravated kidnapping among them. On those eight, a hearing comes first. Bail is then shut off if the prosecutor shows the accused is:

• a flight risk, proven by a preponderance of the evidence; or
• a danger to the public, proven by clear and convincing evidence.

Starting that fight is the prosecutor's call alone. Any judge who lets bail stand on one of those eight charges owes a written reason. Felonies from here land with the District Attorney's Office, 282 Rosemont, Suite 1, Sulphur Springs, TX 75482, 903-885-0641.

Lowering a bond takes a written request by the defense lawyer to the judge who has the case. You can help the lawyer by bringing:

1. pay stubs, a rent receipt or a letter from a boss showing ties to the area;
2. a true dollar figure the family can raise;
3. terms that might calm the judge, such as staying away from a person or keeping a curfew.

Delay can also help. When prosecutors still can't say they are ready for trial, the defendant becomes entitled to a personal bond or a smaller bond. A felony triggers this after 90 days. For a Class A charge it takes 30 days, for a Class B it takes 15, and a fine-only Class C needs just 5 (art. 17.151 CCP). There are exceptions.

Prosecutors gained a lever in 2025 as well. They can push a magistrate's felony bail up to a district judge, who answers by the next business day (art. 17.029 CCP).

Instead of a public defender office, local judges appoint private lawyers. Their written rules appear in the indigent defense plan for the district and county courts.

• Speak up at the magistrate hearing. That is where the money form, an Affidavit of Indigence, is handed out.
• The plan counts a person as unable to pay if they get help like SNAP, Medicaid, TANF, SSI or public housing.
• It also counts someone earning no more than the federal poverty line.
• The plan sets a deadline of three working days, counted from when the appointing judge receives the request. Misdemeanor lawyers are chosen by a county-level judge, felony lawyers by a district judge.

Already bonded out? The Court Coordinator for the 8th Judicial District Court has the forms at 118 Church Street, Sulphur Springs, TX 75482, 903-438-4022.

Most hearings are in Mount Vernon. Felony trials here are held by the 8th or the 62nd District Court, two courts that travel among nearby counties.

• The courthouse (County Court, County Attorney, JP): 200 N. Kaufman Street, Mount Vernon, TX 75457, 903-537-2342.
• County Clerk, keeper of misdemeanor records: 200 North Kaufman Street, Mount Vernon, TX 75457, 903-537-8357.
• District Clerk, keeper of felony records, right beside the jail: Courthouse Annex West, 204 Texas Highway 37, Mount Vernon, TX 75457, 903-537-8337.
• Federal court in Texarkana: United States Courthouse and Post Office, 500 North State Line Avenue, Room 301, Texarkana, TX 75501, 903-794-8561.

Tickets written by a city officer may land in that city's municipal court. Ask the County Clerk which municipal court has a city ticket.

Cash bail goes home with whoever signed for it on the receipt. That happens at the finish of the case, provided no bond term was broken (art. 17.02 CCP). Store that slip of paper in a safe spot.

• The clerk can keep a fee of 5%, capped at $50. Only a conviction or deferred adjudication triggers that fee, not a dismissal or acquittal.
• Money still owed on fines or costs can be taken out of the cash first.
• Once the case is done, the clerk's office has a no-cost form for getting the money released.

Skipping a court date is expensive. The bailiff calls the missing person's name outside the courtroom doors. With no answer, the judge signs a judgment taking the bond (art. 22.02 CCP). A no-show also invites a brand new charge under Penal Code 38.10, and its weight mirrors the first case. Ring the clerk holding the cash with refund questions: the District Clerk at 903-537-8337 or the County Clerk at 903-537-8357.

Whatever the deputies took at booking stays at the jail, 208 TX Hwy 37, Mount Vernon, TX 75457. Phone 903-537-4539 to find out how the leftover balance comes back and what time to collect their things.

Pack a photo ID. Collecting things for a relative or friend may require a release signed by them, so ask. For help with jail accounts, read our inmate money page.

Federal charges from this part of East Texas are heard in the Eastern District's Texarkana Division. Address: United States Courthouse and Post Office, 500 North State Line Avenue, Room 301, Texarkana, TX 75501, 903-794-8561.

• Release in federal court hinges on a detention hearing before a magistrate judge (18 U.S.C. 3142). Local bondsmen have no role.
• Until a verdict, the Marshals pay county jails to board many federal defendants. The Marshals office for this district is in Tyler: 211 West Ferguson Street, 4th Floor, Tyler, TX 75702, 903-590-1370.
• Once a federal sentence begins, search the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator.

It does not. Paying the state bond leaves the federal detainer untouched. Expect these steps:

1. ICE writes to the sheriff on Form I-247A, asking that the inmate stay put.
2. Jail staff may hold the person for up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released, which gives ICE time to come (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. Every Texas jail has to comply (art. 2A.060 CCP). A passport, birth certificate or green card can end it early. S.B. 4, the 2017 state law, outlaws local limits on immigration work (Government Code ch. 752).
4. S.B. 8, a 2025 law, put every jail-running sheriff on a clock: ask ICE for 287(g) authority on or before December 1, 2026. Whether this sheriff has applied is a fair question for 903-537-4539.
5. The Dallas Field Office handles North Texas for ICE: 8101 N. Stemmons Freeway, Dallas, TX 75247, 972-367-2200.
6. Use the ICE Online Detainee Locator. Type the A-number. Lacking it, use the name plus birth country.

State jail felonies are served at a TDCJ state jail. Any heavier felony, from third degree up to first, means state prison (TDCJ). Before moving, many people wait some days or weeks at the county jail. TDCJ then runs them through intake and assigns them to a unit that fits.

• Prisoners in state custody show up on the TDCJ inmate search. Searches work by number or by surname and initial. TDCJ updates it only on working days.
• For unit addresses and visiting basics, see our Texas state prisons guide.

Texas sends children 10 through 16 to juvenile court. Seventeen-year-olds go the adult route (Family Code 51.02). No adult bail applies to youth. Police must reach a parent fast. A child kept in a youth lockup sees a judge inside two working days. Counsel is lined up before that hearing (Family Code 54.01).

Delta, Franklin and Hopkins share one juvenile probation office at 228 Hinnant, Sulphur Springs, TX 75482, 903-885-8041. The state list of certified youth detention centers shows none located in this county. Probation staff will know where a held child was sent.