Freestone County Jail Inmate Bail & Bonds

That job falls to a magistrate. Freestone's JPs can fill that role, and so can its county judge and district judges (CCP § 2A.151). Your person has to face one no later than 48 hours after being picked up. That hearing may happen by video (CCP § 15.17).

During that short hearing, expect three things:

• The charge gets read out, along with warnings about silence and lawyers.
• Next comes the question of a court-paid lawyer, and the magistrate helps fill in that request.
• Then bail is set for your person alone, on the mildest terms that should still bring them to court (CCP § 17.028).

Freestone magistrates study a public safety report on earlier cases first whenever a count is Class B or above. That paper never rates your person, and it offers no bail suggestion (see CCP §§ 17.021 and 17.022). Ask about timing at the Keechi Street jail, 903-389-3236.

Texas bail comes in a few shapes (Code of Criminal Procedure ch. 17):

• Cash bond. A family hands the whole figure to the court. If your person shows up every time, it is refunded at the end (CCP § 17.02).
• Surety bond. Here a licensed bonding company, or a person with enough property, guarantees the full figure. The fee charged by a company is gone for good (CCP § 17.01).
• Personal bond. Nothing is paid in. Your person signs a written pledge to appear (CCP § 17.03).

Signature-only release is barred on numerous violent charges, on a felon caught armed, and on some protective order cases. On burglary, organized crime and certain drug felony counts, only the judge trying the case may allow one (CCP § 17.03). Extra rules are common: stay away from someone, be home by a set hour, take drug tests, wear GPS. Second-time DWI drivers must install an ignition interlock (CCP § 17.441). Want the whole statewide picture? Browse our Texas bail laws page.

Texas never wrote one bail chart for the whole state. Even where a county keeps a local schedule, the magistrate still has to size bail to the individual (CCP § 17.028). Booking staff can read you the actual figures; call 903-389-3236.

Texas tells magistrates to think about these points (CCP § 17.15):

• whether the amount secures a return to court, and is not a tool of oppression,
• what was charged and the facts of the event,
• how much money your person can really raise,
• risks to the alleged victim, police and Freestone neighbors,
• past arrests and convictions, and citizenship status.

One firm number exists. After an arrest with no warrant, a ruling on probable cause has a deadline. Once that deadline is blown, release is required. A misdemeanor arrest hits the limit at hour 24, with bail of $5,000 or less. A felony arrest hits it at hour 48, with bail of $10,000 or less. If your person can't pay that, a personal bond is the rule (CCP § 17.033).

Booking and the Sheriff's front office both sit at 103 S. Keechi, Fairfield, TX 75840. Before a jailer takes bail, they check criminal history, and on violent charges they cannot pick the amount themselves (CCP §§ 17.20, 17.22). Your to-do list:

1. Dial 903-389-3236 and ask for Booking.
2. Say the full legal name, spell it, and add the birth date. Get the bail on every count, plus news of any hold.
3. Find out where bond gets posted, during which hours, and which kinds of money the window takes.
4. Ask for the exact payee name and whether a fee is added.
5. Show up with a driver's license or other photo ID and the right amount. Keep the paper receipt safe.

Expect some waiting after you pay. Staff finish forms and check for warrants elsewhere before anyone walks out.

Every bond ends up in a court file, so the two clerks know the case. Still, the jail may be the only place that accepts money, so phone ahead and ask what each clerk takes.

• District Clerk, for felony files: 118 East Commerce Street, 4th floor, Fairfield, TX 75840, 903-389-2534. Hours run Monday to Thursday 8:00 a.m. to noon and 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., then Friday 8:00 a.m. to noon and 12:30 to 3:30 p.m.
• County Clerk, keeper of misdemeanor files: 103 E Main, Fairfield, TX 75840, 903-389-2635. Hours run Monday to Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Bond forfeitures in County Court come out of this office.

Tickets that carry only a fine (Class C) belong to a justice of the peace. Justice courts normally release on personal bonds (CCP § 45A.107).

Payment rules belong to the jail. Before you drive over, ask Booking at 903-389-3236 about each of these:

• cash, and whether staff can make change,
• cashier's checks or money orders, and the payee to write,
• debit or credit cards, and how big the card fee is,
• a check written by a bail bond company.

Freestone's online county payments cover records and certificates, not bonds. A caller demanding bail by gift card or cash app is a fraud. Hang up on them.

Hiring a bondsman means you pay the company a fee, and it stands behind the full bond in court. Some ask for security as well, for example a pickup title or land deed. Texas puts no ceiling on that fee. Every payment earns a receipt, and soliciting business in the jail is banned (Occupations Code § 1704.304).

Only where population reaches 110,000 does Texas require a bail bond board to license bonding companies. Without a board, Texas lets a sheriff put up a roster of bondsmen the jail will honor (CCP § 17.141). Ask the jail at 903-389-3236 for that list.

Once the final case closes, put your collateral request on paper; 30 days later at most, the company must give it back (Occupations Code § 1704.301). If a company wants out, it can hand your person back to the jail after first telling the defense attorney (CCP § 17.19).

Each bond answers for its own charge and nothing else. Ask Booking if any of these apply:

• Another county wants them. Bail for that other county's warrant may be set right here in Fairfield, or deputies from there may drive over for your person (CCP § 15.18).
• Parole. Parolees can face a "blue warrant" that keeps them jailed while a revocation hearing is pending (Gov't Code § 508.254).
• Probation. A judge may order a hold on that older case.
• Immigration. Jails in Texas must honor ICE detainers (CCP § 2A.060). Question 16 walks through it.
• Family violence. Where further abuse seems likely, release waits four hours past the bond. A signed magistrate's order may extend that to 48 hours (CCP § 17.291).
• Bond terms. A GPS unit or car interlock may have to be set up first.

Texans charged with crimes usually have a right to bail. Our constitution lists only a handful of cases where a judge may say no (Tex. Const. art. I, §§ 11 to 11d):

• capital cases where the evidence is plain,
• a new felony after two prior felony convictions,
• a new felony while already on bail for a felony,
• a violation of safety-related bond terms,
• a violation of a family violence protective order.

Section 11d is new. It passed statewide on November 4, 2025, as Proposition 3. Charges covered include murder, trafficking, aggravated sexual assault, aggravated robbery and others. No bail is allowed if the prosecutor wins a hearing on either ground: flight or danger. Only the state can request such a hearing. Judges who set bail anyway owe written reasons.

Prosecutors here work out of 110 South Keechi, Fairfield, TX 75840. The District Attorney's and County Attorney's offices both answer at 903-389-3977.

Your person's lawyer can file a motion for a bond cut in the court handling the case. Pay stubs, bills and bank records help, because what a family can afford counts (CCP § 17.15). Felony defendants can ask for an examining trial too, which gives a magistrate another look at bail (CCP § 16.01).

Delay by the state can also bring release. Prosecutors who aren't ready for trial in time lose the right to keep your person on high bail. Freestone judges must then free your person on a personal bond or drop the dollar figure (CCP § 17.151). The clock runs:

• 90 days in custody on a felony,
• Class A case, 30 days,
• Class B case, 15 days,
• 5 days on a fine-only ticket.

Some charges are exempt. Prosecutors, too, may ask a district judge to raise a felony bail they find too low (CCP § 17.029). To learn which judge holds the file, phone the District Clerk at 903-389-2534 or the County Clerk at 903-389-2635.

The county pays for a lawyer when your person can't. Your person makes the request in front of the magistrate. Staff pass it along to the appointing office in 24 hours (CCP § 15.17). A lawyer must be assigned a few working days later at most (CCP § 1.051). Expect a call or visit from that attorney soon, usually by the next workday (CCP § 26.04).

In Freestone, the Indigent Defense Coordinator handles the paperwork at 118 E Commerce St., Room 205, Fairfield, TX 75840, 903-389-3335, email court.assistant@co.freestone.tx.us. Someone who bonded out before asking can fill in the District and County Court Affidavit of Indigence and drop it off there.

Questions about how Texas runs court-paid defense go to the Texas Indigent Defense Commission, 209 West 14th Street, Room 202, Austin, TX 78701, 512-936-6994.

The courthouse at 118 East Commerce Street, Fairfield, TX 75840, 903-389-3335, is the main court building. The 77th and 87th District Courts try felonies there, and the 77th splits its time with Limestone County. The County Court has the jailable misdemeanors.

Fine-only Class C tickets go to the four JP courts:

• Precinct 1: 440 East Main Street, Suite 1, Fairfield, TX 75840, 903-389-8783
• Precinct 3: 440 East Main Street, Suite 3, Fairfield, TX 75840, 903-389-3137
• Precinct 4: 800 Main St., Teague, TX 75860
• Precinct 2: mail goes to P.O. Box 218, Teague, TX 75860

The Teague precincts share 254-739-2518: option 1 reaches Precinct 2 and option 2 reaches Precinct 4. Ask Precinct 2 where its office sits. Inside Fairfield city limits, city tickets land in the Fairfield Municipal Court, and the ticket shows its address.

The clerk repays cash bail to the depositor listed on the bond receipt once the case is over and every condition was met (CCP § 17.02). Convictions and deferred adjudications let the Fairfield clerk subtract 5 percent first, never above $50. Fines and costs owed by your person may also come out of the deposit (Local Gov't Code § 117.055). Ask the clerk with the file how to claim it.

Skipping a court date hurts. A no-show can cost the whole bond, and an arrest warrant usually follows (CCP § 22.01). Bonding companies are excused when the person returns to custody fast enough. Misdemeanor bonds give them 180 days; felony bonds give 270 (CCP § 22.13). Separately, failing to appear is a crime called bail jumping, graded to match the underlying case (Penal Code § 38.10).

Dropped charges never bring back a bonding company's fee.

Items taken at booking are handed back when your person leaves, along with leftover money on the jail account. Call 903-389-3236 and ask about the account refund and a time for family pickup.

For pickup by someone else, ask what signed release the inmate needs to give and what ID the relative should carry. Police keep evidence items until the case allows their release. To fund an account while your person is still inside, use our jail account deposits page.

Freestone's federal cases are filed in Waco (Western District, Waco Division). The federal clerk's office there: 800 Franklin Avenue, Room 380, Waco, TX 76701, 254-750-1501.

A U.S. magistrate judge, not a county official, makes the release call. That judge can set terms or, after a detention hearing, keep your person locked up until trial (18 U.S.C. 3142). Until a federal judge rules otherwise, deputy marshals keep your person in custody. Their Waco office is at 800 Franklin Avenue, Room 200, Waco, TX 76701, 254-750-1570.

If your person can't afford counsel, the Federal Public Defender's Waco office may step in, 510 Austin Ave, Room 380, Waco, TX 76701, 737-207-4567. After a federal sentence, look your person up in the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator.

It won't. State bond only answers the state charge. An immigration hold runs like this:

1. To start, ICE sends Freestone jailers a detainer called Form I-247A.
2. The jail can hold your person up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released, giving ICE time to come (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. Agents bring your person to an ICE detention center.
4. Search the ICE Online Detainee Locator by A-number, or try your person's name with the nation listed as birthplace.

Under Texas law, the jail complies with an ICE detainer unless the inmate proves legal status (CCP § 2A.060). A 2017 state law, Government Code chapter 752, forbids local rules that restrict immigration enforcement. A 2025 statute says sheriffs who run jails, as Freestone's does, must seek a 287(g) program with ICE before December 1, 2026. For this county's standing, call the Sheriff's Office at 903-389-3236.

Jail sentences in Texas max out at a year. Anything longer is served with TDCJ, the state prison system. State jail felonies mean a state jail; bigger felonies mean prison (Penal Code ch. 12).

A sentenced inmate waits in Fairfield for TDCJ transport. TDCJ intake sorts each newcomer, then sends them on to a unit. The TDCJ inmate search covers people held in TDCJ units today, with fresh data each working day. Also see our Texas state prisons page.

Kids aged 10 to 16 go through Texas juvenile court. In this state, 17 counts as adult age for crimes, so the Fairfield jail may book a 17-year-old (Family Code § 51.02).

Youths are held apart from adult inmates. Freestone officers have to tell a parent fast (Family Code § 52.02), and a youth still in detention sees a judge within two working days. Arrests on Fridays and Saturdays get a faster hearing, on the next working day. A court-appointed attorney stands beside the youth there (Family Code § 54.01).

The juvenile board uses its own Juvenile Board Affidavit of Indigence for a free lawyer. For which juvenile office or center has your child, call the Sheriff's Office at 903-389-3236.