Here is the routine that works best:

1. Open the Texas IVSS-Counties search page; signing up is optional.
2. Enter a full or partial name. Results include anyone currently jailed or supervised.
3. Pick out your loved one from the list and read the status line.
4. If you like, request notices so you hear about a release or transfer.
5. Can't tell if it's the right person? Ring Galbraith Street at 361-527-4140 and ask for Booking.

The IVSS-Counties help line, 866-268-8959, takes calls at any hour, weekends and holidays included.

An empty result is common. Usually one of these explains it:

• Intake is still underway. Prints, the booking photo and paperwork all happen before a record shows. Try again in a few hours.
• Your loved one is already out. Some leave after the magistrate hearing on a personal bond, or with just a written court date on a fine-only charge.
• A different county made the arrest. The neighboring jails are listed in the next answer.
• Federal agents or ICE are involved. Their own search tools appear lower on this page.
• The spelling is off. Search with fewer letters, or try the other family name if the person uses two.

Since there is no town police lockup in the county, every local arrest goes to the same Galbraith Street jail. The Sheriff's Office can confirm a booking at 361-527-4140.

The county has a single adult lockup, the Jim Hogg County Detention Center. Its contact point is the Sheriff's Office at 211 E. Galbraith Street, Hebbronville, TX 78361, 361-527-4140. Men and women arrested here are both held there. A 2020 deal also lets it take Hidalgo County prisoners when beds are open.

Was the arrest close to a border with another county? Try these jails, too:

• North: Duval County Jail, 401 E. Collins Avenue, San Diego, TX 78384, 361-279-3351
• South: the Starr County Jail at 100 East 6th Street, Rio Grande City, TX 78582, 956-487-5571
• West: Webb County Jail, 913 Victoria Street, Laredo, TX 78040, 956-523-4400
• Southwest: Zapata County Regional Jail, 2300 N. Kennedy Street, Zapata, TX 78076, 956-765-9960

The IVSS-Counties lookup gives custody details only, without mugshots. For a booking photo from this jail, put your ask in writing and send or bring it to the Sheriff's Office, 211 E. Galbraith Street, Hebbronville, TX 78361. Call it a Public Information Act request. Under Government Code 552.108(c), the Sheriff must promptly give out the basic details of an arrest. If the Sheriff wants to hold anything back, the Attorney General usually has to rule on it, and you get told.

Private mugshots websites face limits too. If one wants $150 or more to remove a record, it still has to correct a wrong or partial record for free, and it may never show records that were expunged or sealed (Business and Commerce Code ch. 109).

Federal agencies rarely hand out booking photos. One exception: a fugitive's photo might be put out by the U.S. Marshals Service. For a photo kept by ICE, file a Freedom of Information Act request with ICE.

Families can sign up for this. IVSS-Counties will notify you, free of charge, through its website and toll-free line. You can hear about a booking or release, a move into TDCJ, or a court date being set or moved. An account is optional. Your registration stays private, so your loved one isn't told you signed up.

To register, use the IVSS-Counties website or phone 866-268-8959. Victims should also call the County Attorney at 361-527-3425 to learn their rights.

The first hearing, held inside 48 hours, is run by the arrest precinct's justice of the peace acting as magistrate. Bail and conditions are set there, and your loved one is asked about a free lawyer. Release then comes one of three ways:

• the whole bail paid in cash
• a bondsman the Sheriff approves, who charges a fee that is not returned
• a personal bond, where your loved one signs a promise to show up

The Sheriff's Office on Galbraith Street accepts bonds. Certain holds can still keep a person inside after paying. Our bail page goes deeper into amounts, holds and getting money back.

Your loved one first hears the charges from the magistrate. Family members can find them out like this:

• Phone the Sheriff's Office, 361-527-4140, and ask what the booking charges are.
• After charges are filed in court, search misdemeanors on the County Clerk case search and felonies on the District Clerk case search.
• Reach the clerk's office on Tilley Street at 361-527-4031.

Charge levels matter. Class C means a fine and nothing more. Class A and B charges carry possible time at Galbraith Street. Felonies risk a stretch in a state jail or in prison.

The best time to ask is at the magistrate hearing, where the judge explains how and helps fill out the request (art. 15.17). Deputies and jail staff are able to assist with the sworn form about money too. Once the request arrives, the court must assign a lawyer inside three working days (art. 1.051).

The county treats your loved one as unable to pay if they receive SSI, TANF, Medicaid, SNAP or public housing. Families whose take-home income sits at 125% of the federal poverty guidelines or lower qualify the same way. See the county's indigent defense plan for every rule.

Under Texas jail standards, people held in a county jail are allowed at least two noncontact visits a week, which means talking without touching. Each one lasts a minimum of 20 minutes, and the jail must schedule at least one for an evening or weekend. Visitors younger than 18 may need to arrive with a parent or guardian. Veterans can meet a veterans service officer without using up their regular visits.

Call 361-527-4140 before you make the drive. Ask about visiting days and hours, which ID to bring, and whether video visits work from home. General advice is on our visitation page.

The jail store, or commissary, is run by the Sheriff's Office. Money in your loved one's account lets them shop there. Phone 361-527-4140 and ask how deposits are taken today, for example a lobby machine, a money order or an online payment service.

Before sending anything, look over our inmate money page and the item lists on our commissary page.

Because each booking room in Texas must have a phone, many people can call home within hours. Later calls are made from the housing unit and are usually prepaid or collect. Ask the jail at 361-527-4140 who runs its phones and if tablet messaging is offered. Calls may be recorded, so don't discuss the case.

We explain call accounts on our inmate phone page and messaging on our jail email page.

Under Texas rules, letters in and out have no number or page limit. Ordinary mail can be opened by staff looking for contraband. A letter from a lawyer gets opened only with your loved one watching. Even with no money, your loved one is given writing supplies and postage so they can mail at least three letters each week.

Call 361-527-4140 first and ask for the correct mailing address, plus any limits on photos or postcards. Our inmate mail page has more ideas.

Whatever your loved one carried at booking, such as keys, cash or a phone, goes into jail storage. It is usually handed back on release day. Collecting it for someone else? Call first to learn if your loved one has to sign off. Ask about pickup times and any leftover account balance at 361-527-4140. Bring photo ID to 211 E. Galbraith Street, Hebbronville, TX 78361.

Phone the jail as soon as you can at 361-527-4140. Share any medicines, conditions or risk of self-harm. Art. 16.22 also covers mental health: if staff have good reason to think your loved one has mental illness or intellectual disability, that starts a 12-hour deadline for jail staff to alert the magistrate.

Every Texas jail has to post a way for people inside to complain. If that process doesn't fix things, remember that each county jail answers to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. You may file through its online jail complaint form or call 512-463-5505. In October 2026, that commission put this jail on its list of jails out of compliance.

With no town police department, Sheriff's deputies handle warrants everywhere in the county. To ask if one exists, call 361-527-4140. For people wanted across Texas, check the Texas 10 Most Wanted fugitives posted by DPS. Court cases can be looked up through the District Clerk and County Clerk portals. To resolve a warrant, get legal advice and go in with your lawyer to the court that issued it. Calling that court for another hearing date is a second route. Justice Court: 133 East David Street, Hebbronville, TX 78361, 361-527-5830. Clerk: 102 E. Tilley, Hebbronville, TX 78361, 361-527-4031.

For most hearings, call the County and District Clerk at 361-527-4031, open 9 to noon and 1 to 5 on weekdays. Keep the full name and birthday handy. The 229th District Court shares its judge with Duval and Starr, so felony days follow a set calendar posted on its official page. For a Class C case, phone the Justice Court at 361-527-5830.

To see how each court works, read our court guide.

Laredo hears federal cases from the county, at the U.S. courthouse on 1300 Victoria Street, Laredo, TX 78040, 956-723-3542. Under 18 U.S.C. 3142, a federal magistrate judge decides after a detention hearing whether your loved one waits for trial in custody.

The U.S. Marshals keep watch over federal defendants up to trial and sometimes rent county jail beds for them. Their Laredo office number is 956-794-1060. After sentencing, use the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator with a name or BOP register number.

1. Galbraith Street jail staff may get an ICE detainer, Form I-247A, about your loved one.
2. Then the Galbraith Street jail can hold your loved one up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released, waiting for ICE (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. Honoring detainers became the rule for Texas jails in 2017 (Government Code ch. 752; art. 2A.060). Proving U.S. citizenship or lawful status releases the hold. Government Code ch. 753, passed in 2025, made each Texas sheriff with a jail apply to ICE for 287(g) status, due December 1, 2026.
4. For this region, ICE works out of the Harlingen Field Office, 1717 Zoy Street, Harlingen, TX 78552, 956-389-7800. Detainees may be sent to places like the Rio Grande Processing Center, 1001 San Rio Blvd, Laredo, TX 78046, 956-718-4700.
5. Track people in ICE custody on the ICE Online Detainee Locator. Search by A-number if you know it, or else by name and birth country.

After a felony sentence, your loved one usually stays in the Galbraith Street jail until TDCJ comes for them. TDCJ's intake units test and classify each person, then assign a unit. After the move, the TDCJ inmate search finds people by SID, TDCJ number or last name. Updates post on working days only, so new arrivals can lag a day or more.

To plan a visit or send mail and money to a unit, browse our Texas state prisons pages.

Juvenile court, not the adult jail, takes the case if your child was age 10 to 16 when the alleged offense took place (Family Code 51.02). For anyone 17 or older, adult booking applies.

• After taking a child, officers must promptly call or reach the child's parent or guardian, per Family Code 52.02.
• Your child's first hearing on staying detained must happen in two working days or less. A court-appointed lawyer attends it with your child (Family Code 54.01).
• Your child may be sent to a regional center, like the Duval County juvenile detention center, 4998 S. FM 1329, San Diego, TX 78384, 361-279-2040.
• The County Attorney prosecutes youth cases and can say where your child is: 361-527-3425.

In most cases the Sheriff's Office made the arrest. No incorporated town exists here, so there is no city police force. Deputies patrol Hebbronville and the whole county, home to about 4,583 people by the Census estimate for July 1, 2024.

• Sheriff's Office, 211 E. Galbraith Street, Hebbronville, TX 78361, 361-527-4140, for patrol, arrests and the jail.
• Texas Department of Public Safety troopers may also arrest people on the highways. Anyone they arrest in the county goes to the same Galbraith Street jail, so the Sheriff's Office is still the place to call.
• Federal officers can arrest people on federal charges, which are heard in Laredo as described above.

For an emergency, dial 911.