1. Go to Texas IVSS-Counties. An account is optional.
2. Enter a surname. Add a first name when you have one, and don't worry about exact spelling.
3. Scan the hits for this county's jail and a matching birth year or age.
4. Open the record to read custody status. You can also ask for alerts right there.
5. Try the county's own search page next.
6. Still unsure? Call the jail line, 903-537-4539, and ask for Booking.

IVSS lists only people held or supervised today, so a released person can vanish from it.

A miss on the screen rarely ends the story. Run through these causes:

• Booking lag. A fresh arrest can take hours to reach any database.
• Spelling. Hyphenated names, double surnames and nicknames confuse the search. Try just one piece.
• Already out. If bond was posted quickly or the magistrate let them go, the record may already be gone.
• Held somewhere else. A neighboring county, state prison, a federal agency or ICE may have the person. Later answers on this page cover each of those searches.

The fastest fix is still the phone. Booking staff at 903-537-4539 can confirm a name and the arresting agency.

Locally, there is a single adult lockup: the jail on Highway 37, run by the Sheriff's Office. State inspectors (TCJS) rated it for 112 beds in a June 2022 count. If another agency made the arrest, or it happened outside the county, the person may be held elsewhere.

When an arrest happened just over the line, check these nearby jails:

• Hopkins County Jail, 298 Rosemont, Sulphur Springs, TX 75482, 903-438-4040. It also takes federal prisoners.
• Titus County Jail, 304 S Van Buren Ave, Mount Pleasant, TX 75455, 903-577-7200. Federal prisoners are held here too.
• Wood County Detention Center, 402 S. Stephens St., Quitman, TX 75783, 903-763-2201.
• Camp County Jail, 203 Tapp Street, Pittsburg, TX 75686, 903-856-6651.
• Delta County Jail, through the Sheriff's Office at 200 W. Bonham St, Cooper, TX 75432, 903-395-2146.
• Red River County Jail, through the Sheriff at 500 N Cedar St., Clarksville, TX 75426, 903-427-3838.
• Morris County Jail, 502 Union Street, Daingerfield, TX 75638, 903-645-2232.

A picture on a search screen may or may not be the official booking image. For real mugshots, go to the agency that took them:

• Write to the Sheriff's Office, 208 TX Hwy 37, Mount Vernon, TX 75457, and mark it as a Public Information Act request. Government Code 552.108(c) makes basic arrest facts public. Name the person, the arrest date if known, and the record you want. Questions go to 903-537-4539.
• ICE pictures require a Freedom of Information Act request filed with ICE.
• Federal booking images are not handed out. The rare exception is a U.S. Marshals release, often tied to a manhunt.

Mugshot websites have legal duties as well. If one charges $150 or more to take a photo down, it must fix or erase a mistaken record without charge (Business and Commerce Code ch. 109). Expunged files and nondisclosure cases must stay off it.

Enroll at Texas IVSS-Counties, or phone 866-268-8959 any hour. The service is free and confidential, and the inmate is never told you signed up. Notices cover bookings, releases, hearing dates that are scheduled or reset, and other custody changes, a TDCJ transfer included.

The Sheriff's web page still shows an old VINE link, a service IVSS-Counties has replaced across Texas. Sign up with IVSS for current alerts.

Every adult sees a magistrate inside two days. That judge names the charge, covers rights and fixes the release terms. Families pay cash, hire a licensed bondsman, or the person signs a personal bond. Violent charges can block the personal bond, and a 2025 amendment lets judges deny bail outright on a few.

Ask the jail at 903-537-4539 for the bond amount on each charge and for any holds. Bondsmen here answer to a local bail bond board. Our Franklin bond guide handles payment, refunds and holds in detail.

The jail can read the charges over the phone at 903-537-4539. After the case is filed, the clerks hold the file:

• felony cases: District Clerk, Courthouse Annex West, 204 Texas Highway 37, Mount Vernon, TX 75457, 903-537-8337;
• Class A and B misdemeanors: County Clerk, 200 North Kaufman Street, Mount Vernon, TX 75457, 903-537-8357.

Registered users of re:SearchTX, a free state service, can view charges and judgments.

Without a public defender office, the county relies on private lawyers that judges assign. The key moment is magistration: ask for counsel then and sign the Affidavit of Indigence. Three working days is the target for the appointment, set in the county's indigent defense plan.

Family members can phone the 8th Judicial District Court's coordinator at 118 Church Street, Sulphur Springs, TX 75482, 903-438-4022, to check on the appointment.

Call the jail at 903-537-4539 before you drive out. Ask for the current schedule, the ID rules and the dress code. Also ask if video visiting is offered, either from home or at a jail kiosk.

State rules promise every inmate two noncontact visits each week, twenty minutes minimum. One of those two must be set for a weeknight, a Saturday or a Sunday. Certain jails may skip in-person visits altogether (Government Code 511.009). Read more on our visiting page.

Deposit options can change, so ask the jail first at 903-537-4539. Find out whether the lobby takes cash or money orders, whether a website handles deposits, and what each method costs. Write down the inmate's full name exactly as booked.

That balance typically buys snacks, soap and phone time. See our inmate deposit page and the commissary page for the basics.

Call 903-537-4539 and find out the phone vendor, the way to prepay, and any tablet or messaging service. Since recording is possible, leave case details for the defense lawyer.

For setup help, read our inmate phone page or the jail messaging page.

Confirm the mailing format with the jail at 903-537-4539 before you write. Ask what goes on the envelope and which items are refused.

Statewide rules help. Texas sets no limit on the count of letters an inmate receives. Staff may open a lawyer's letter only as the inmate looks on. Ideas for what to include are on our jail mail page.

Whatever deputies collect at booking, from wallets to phones and clothes, goes into storage at the jail, 208 TX Hwy 37, Mount Vernon, TX 75457. Items come back at release. An inmate who stays locked up can sometimes authorize a relative, in writing, to collect them.

Call 903-537-4539 to learn the pickup hours and bring a photo ID.

Phone the jail at 903-537-4539 and describe the illness, list the prescriptions and name the doctor. Jail staff, not family, decide on treatment, but your call puts the need on record.

Mental health has its own rule. Art. 16.22 CCP sets a 12-hour limit for the jail to flag a possible mental illness to a magistrate. To complain about care, contact TCJS, the state jail standards agency, using its complaint page or at 512-463-5505.

Sheriff's deputies, based at 208 TX Hwy 37, Mount Vernon, TX 75457, carry out arrest warrants here. Call 903-537-4539 to ask whether one is open and which court issued it. The ten fugitives Texas DPS most wants to catch appear on its statewide wanted page.

Texas offers no public warrant search, so a phone call or the clerk's counter is how to check. To clear it, a person can appear at the issuing court alongside a lawyer and surrender. Some courts will reschedule by phone instead, so it pays to call. District court issues felony warrants. Its clerk works at Courthouse Annex West, 204 Texas Highway 37, Mount Vernon, TX 75457, 903-537-8337.

Both clerks post dockets online: the District Clerk docket for felonies and the County Clerk docket for misdemeanors. Misdemeanor date questions can go to the County Clerk at 903-537-8357. Signed-up IVSS users hear about new or changed settings. Our court guide follows a case from first hearing to sentence.

Federal charges brought here are heard in Texarkana by the Eastern District's Texarkana Division, whose courtroom sits inside the United States Courthouse and Post Office, 500 North State Line Avenue, Room 301, Texarkana, TX 75501, 903-794-8561. Whether the person goes home is decided by a magistrate judge under 18 U.S.C. 3142.

• Pretrial, the U.S. Marshals hold federal defendants, frequently renting beds in nearby county jails. Their Tyler headquarters answers questions: 211 West Ferguson Street, 4th Floor, Tyler, TX 75702, 903-590-1370.
• Once sentenced, federal prisoners become the Bureau of Prisons' charge. Find them on its online inmate locator.

1. ICE flags the inmate with a detainer on its Form I-247A.
2. The jail can hold them for up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. ICE then picks the person up, often for a detention center elsewhere.
4. Search the ICE Online Detainee Locator using the alien number, or else a name together with a country of birth.
5. For questions, call ICE's Dallas Field Office, 8101 N. Stemmons Freeway, Dallas, TX 75247, 972-367-2200.

Texas law (art. 2A.060 CCP) leaves jails no choice on detainers. S.B. 4 (2017) adds that no county may restrict immigration enforcement. Lawmakers went further in 2025. Their S.B. 8 makes 287(g) mandatory for sheriffs with jails, effective by December 1, 2026. For this county's progress, phone 903-537-4539.

Someone sentenced to state time stays at the Highway 37 jail until TDCJ calls for them. At TDCJ intake, staff review each person and choose a unit.

• Search TDCJ's online inmate list. It refreshes on working days only, so a new arrival may lag.
• Visit rules and unit details are on our Texas state prison page.

At 17, Texas law counts a suspect as grown, and the county jail can hold them. Kids aged 10 to 16 belong to juvenile court, and they are held only in a youth center. Parents are notified promptly, and a detention hearing comes quickly.

Juvenile probation for Delta, Franklin and Hopkins counties is at 228 Hinnant, Sulphur Springs, TX 75482, 903-885-8041. None of the state-registered youth detention centers is located in this county, so ask probation where a child was taken.

Deputies with the Sheriff's Office cover the whole county and staff the jail. The office's main line is 903-537-4539, and it sits at 208 TX Hwy 37, Mount Vernon, TX 75457.

Constables also serve papers and warrants. The county posts a constable page. A city officer or a state trooper may also make an arrest. Ask booking staff to name the arresting agency.