Reagan County Jail Inmate Bail & Bonds

A magistrate fixes it. Texas law has a magistrate see every arrested person before two days pass, sometimes over a camera feed instead of in a courtroom (CCP arts. 14.06, 15.17). The local plans for appointed lawyers use that same 48-hour clock. To find out the hour for your person, ring the jail at 325-884-2424.

Texas hands this power to a long list of officials, with JPs, the County Judge and district judges among them (CCP art. 2A.151). During this brief hearing, the magistrate:

• reads out each charge and explains the person's rights, like the right to say nothing
• asks whether they want the county to pay for a defense lawyer, and helps with that form
• studies a report on the person's record whenever the charge is Class B or higher (CCP arts. 17.022, 17.021); the law bars that report from scoring risk
• sets the bail and conditions, choosing the lightest ones that still protect others (CCP art. 17.028)

A person picked up without a warrant has one more shield. When no magistrate has found probable cause by hour 24 on a misdemeanor, the jail must let them out on a bond no higher than $5,000. Felony arrests get 48 hours, with $10,000 as the most the bond can be (CCP art. 17.033).

At the Big Lake jail, release comes either on money or on a signed word, as CCP articles 17.01 to 17.03 set out. In real life that looks like this:

• Cash. A relative or friend puts up every dollar. The money is refunded at the end, as long as the person showed up each time.
• Bondsman. A licensed surety signs for the whole amount. Its fee, often a share of the bail, stays with the company even if charges get dropped.
• Personal bond. Release rests on a signed promise, with no deposit. Lawmakers ruled it out for a set list of violent offenses, for a felon found holding a firearm, and for certain broken protective orders (CCP art. 17.03).
• Ticket-level charges. On a Class C case, release with just a written date to appear is allowed (CCP art. 15.17(b)).

Whatever the bond type, the magistrate may tack on rules, like staying a set distance from the alleged victim's home. A person facing a second drunk driving charge must have an ignition interlock, a breath test device, put in the car (CCP art. 17.441). Deeper detail on these options lives on our guide to Texas bail law.

Texas uses no single price list for bail. The magistrate sets a figure for each person. Even a county's own bond chart has to yield, since article 17.028 of the CCP comes first. Article 17.15 then lists what the magistrate weighs:

• high enough to bring the person back on each court date
• a sum that is not a tool to crush or punish them
• the crime and the way it happened
• what the person can actually afford
• whether release would put the victim, officers or the public in danger
• criminal record, open cases and citizenship

State law fixes only two dollar limits, the $5,000 and $10,000 caps for slow probable cause rulings. Completed bail forms from Texas courts go into a state portal called TOPICs. For your person's numbers, phone the jail at 325-884-2424 and keep a birth date ready.

Bonds are posted where the jail sits, in the county's Law Enforcement Center, 320 N. Plaza Ave., Big Lake, TX 76932. The office's postal box is P.O. Box 832, Big Lake, TX 76932. Follow this order:

1. Phone 325-884-2424 before you head out.
2. Give jail staff the person's full name, how it is spelled and a birth date. Get the bail for each separate charge, because each can need its own bond.
3. Find out which forms of payment staff accept this week and how a money order should be addressed.
4. Ask about any hold. In a family violence case, the person stays at least 4 hours past posting (CCP art. 17.291).
5. Have a photo ID with you and the bond amount to the penny. Save the receipt.

Before taking a bond, the jailer checks the person's record. If the charge involves violence, the jailer must leave the dollar figure to a magistrate (CCP arts. 17.22, 17.20).

Felony and misdemeanor papers share one clerk here, who serves as County and District Clerk at the courthouse across North Plaza Avenue from the jail. Its mail goes to P.O. Box 100, Big Lake, TX 76932, and its phone is 325-884-2442 during business hours. Call to ask if your bond can be filed there and what kinds of payment the window takes.

Class C tickets are handled by two smaller courts:

• Big Lake Municipal Court, City Hall, 608 N. Plaza, Big Lake, TX 76932, 325-884-2511; ask for the court clerk. Open Monday through Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Friday 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The city window takes cash and cards, plus money orders and cashier's checks. City fines may also be paid over the phone, mailed in as a cashier's check or money order, or paid online from the municipal court page.
• Justice of the Peace Court, for county tickets, 325-884-3482. Call for directions and the payment it accepts.

What the jail accepts can shift, so get it straight from staff at 325-884-2424. Ask about cash, cards, money orders and cashier's checks, and whether a service fee applies. Carry the precise amount in case the desk can't make change.

Article 17.02 sends any cash bail refund back to the name printed on that jail receipt. That makes the slip worth guarding. Never tuck cash or a check into a letter for the jail; the Sheriff's mail rules send those back.

Reagan County's population sits far under the 110,000 mark that forces a Texas county to run a bail bond board (OC 1704.002). In a county without a board, article 17.141 of the CCP allows the sheriff to post which sureties may write bonds. Call 325-884-2424 and ask to read it.

• Fees are not capped by Texas law. Get the quote on paper.
• Every payment to a bondsman earns you a receipt (OC 1704.304).
• A bondsman may not drum up business inside the Big Lake jail (OC 1704.305).
• Did you pledge a truck title or other property? Write the bondsman for its return after the case ends; 30 days is the limit (OC 1704.163).
• If a bondsman decides to surrender the client, the bondsman owes the defense lawyer a heads-up and the court a signed affidavit (CCP art. 17.19).
• The defense lawyer of record can also stand as surety on the bond.

Each bond answers for one charge only. Any of these can stop the release:

• Out-of-county warrants. Under article 15.18, a Big Lake magistrate can handle bail for that other county and send the bond there. If that doesn't happen, the person waits for a transfer.
• Parole. Parole officers can file what people call a blue warrant, and it keeps the person jailed until a parole hearing (GC 508.254).
• Probation trouble. A new arrest may bring a request to revoke probation. Adult probation for this area is run from 111 West Gallagher, Fort Stockton, TX 79735, 432-336-8562.
• Family violence. Four hours of extra time after bond, and up to 48 if a magistrate orders it in writing (CCP art. 17.291).
• Immigration. Texas requires jails to honor an ICE detainer (CCP art. 2A.060).

Have the jail at 325-884-2424 list each hold for you before you pay a cent.

Very rarely. Nearly everyone held on a Texas charge has a right to bail, and the state constitution spells out the exceptions in article I, sections 11 to 11c. A capital case with proof that is evident heads that short list. Some repeat-felony cases also qualify, as do cases where bond terms or a protective order were violated (Tex. Const. art. I).

In November 2025, voters added § 11d through Proposition 3. The listed charges include murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery and human trafficking, among others. For those, bail must be refused when a hearing proves the accused would likely run off or would endanger others. Granting bail anyway takes a written explanation from the judge. Separately, article 44.01 now gives prosecutors an appeal when they think bail is too low on one of the listed violent charges, and the accused stays in custody until it is decided.

Those requests are made by:

• Felonies: 112th District Attorney, P.O. Box 1187, Ozona, TX 76943, 325-392-2025. Its main office is at 400 South Nelson, Fort Stockton, TX 79735, 432-336-6294.
• Misdemeanors: County Attorney, P.O. Box 100, Big Lake, TX 76932, 325-884-2247.

Yes. A bond reduction motion, filed by the defense lawyer, goes to the judge handling the case. Relatives can help by bringing proof of work, a rent receipt or deed, and local relatives who will vouch, plus an honest figure you can pay. The law says ability to pay must count (CCP art. 17.15).

Time works in the person's favor too. When the prosecutor still can't announce ready, article 17.151 calls for a personal bond or a bail cut once the person has sat this long:

• 90 days held on a felony
• 30 days for a misdemeanor whose top penalty passes 180 days
• 15 days for a misdemeanor capped at 180 days or less
• 5 days when only a fine can be imposed

For felonies, prosecutors have their own tool: asking a district judge to review the bail (CCP art. 17.029). Hearing dates come from the clerk at 325-884-2442.

A free lawyer can be requested at the magistrate hearing. The form is short, and the magistrate must help with it. The clerk's counter has blank copies as well, and they are posted on the state indigent defense site. Filled-in forms go back to the combined County and District Clerk. From the day the clerk logs the form, Reagan's judges get three working days to pick counsel, the rule for counties this size (CCP art. 1.051).

Appointed lawyers here are private attorneys who take turns from an approved list, under two plans:

• Felonies: the four-county plan for the 112th District Court
• Misdemeanors: the three-county plan for the County Court

Capital murder cases are sent to a regional office that only defends death penalty and similar cases. It covers this county along with many others (806-696-3740; P.O. Box 2097, Lubbock, TX 79408). Watching over these local plans is the Texas Indigent Defense Commission, 209 West 14th Street, Room 202, Austin, TX 78701, 512-936-6994.

Nearly all local hearings take place in the courthouse facing the jail on North Plaza Avenue. Court mail goes to P.O. Box 100, Big Lake, TX 76932.

• 112th District Court hears felonies. Its judge travels among five counties, and the court's office is in the Crockett County Courthouse, 909 Ave D, Ozona, TX 76943, 325-392-5225. Local felony files stay with the clerk, 325-884-2442.
• County Court handles Class A and B misdemeanors at the Big Lake courthouse; the County Judge's office is 325-884-2665.
• Justice of the Peace handles county Class C tickets, 325-884-3482.
• Big Lake Municipal Court handles tickets written in town, City Hall, 608 N. Plaza, Big Lake, TX 76932, 325-884-2511.
• U.S. District Court hears federal charges at the O.C. Fisher Federal Building, 33 E. Twohig Avenue, Room 202, San Angelo, TX 76903, 325-655-4506.

Once the case wraps up with every condition met, the cash is refunded to whoever holds the receipt (CCP art. 17.02). Should the outcome be a conviction or deferred adjudication, a fee can come off first: 5 percent, at most $50. The clerk may also pull unpaid fines and court costs out of it (CCP art. 17.53; LGC 117.055).

Missing court starts a forfeiture. Under articles 22.01 and 22.02, the judge first signs an order with the Latin name judgment nisi. Article 22.13 then spares the bondsman if the person is caught or turns themselves in within half a year for a misdemeanor or nine months for a felony. Failing to appear can also be its own crime, bail jumping, anywhere between a Class C ticket and a third-degree felony (PC 38.10).

Call the clerk at 325-884-2442 about any refund.

The jail stores whatever the person carried in, from house keys to a cell phone, until they leave. Remind them to ask for their property and leftover account money on the way out. To collect things for them later, set a time by calling 325-884-2424.

Show a photo ID at 320 N. Plaza Ave., Big Lake, TX 76932. Staff may need a signed release from the person before giving you anything. Our inmate money page explains how account balances are usually handled.

A federal arrest in Big Lake sends the case to a federal courtroom in San Angelo run by the Northern District, at the O.C. Fisher Federal Building, 33 E. Twohig Avenue, Room 202, San Angelo, TX 76903, 325-655-4506. County bail and local bondsmen play no part.

1. The first federal hearing in San Angelo includes a detention decision by a magistrate judge (18 U.S.C. 3142). The result is either release with rules or a stay behind bars until trial.
2. A held defendant waits in a jail the U.S. Marshals Service chooses, often a county lockup paid to house federal prisoners. The marshals' San Angelo office, 33 East Twohig Street, Suite 106-D, San Angelo, TX 76903, 325-658-4056, has staff when court is in session. The Dallas district office takes calls at 214-767-0836.
3. A federal prison term puts the person on the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator.

Not by itself. Posting on the state charge in Big Lake leaves the federal hold in place. What follows, in sequence:

1. The Sheriff's jail receives Form I-247A, the detainer that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) uses.
2. The jail may then keep the person up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. Texas makes jails comply (CCP art. 2A.060). Release comes only if the person shows papers proving citizenship or lawful status. A 2017 state law also forbids local limits on immigration enforcement (GC 752.053).
4. Before December 1, 2026, sheriffs who keep a jail must, under a 2025 Texas law, request a 287(g) agreement from ICE. Call the Sheriff's Office at 325-884-2424 for this county's status.
5. Once federal officers collect the person from North Plaza, search the ICE Online Detainee Locator. An A-number works best; lacking it, try the name with the birth country.

Someone given state jail time serves it in a state jail facility. Prison time for bigger felonies is spent in a TDCJ unit. Someone sentenced in the courthouse on North Plaza often waits in Big Lake until TDCJ can take them. After that transfer, TDCJ staff test and classify each newcomer at an intake unit and then pick where the person will live.

• TDCJ's inmate search wants a last name plus first initial. TDCJ and SID numbers are accepted as well. Its records update on working days.
• Look up each unit's visiting hours and mail rules through our Texas state prisons page, which lists every unit.

Juvenile court here takes youths who were 10 to 16 years old on the day of the alleged crime. At 17, a person goes to adult court (FC 51.02). A youth is never booked into the North Plaza jail with adults. Officers take them to a juvenile site and must quickly tell a parent (FC 52.02).

• Juvenile detention needs a judge's OK quickly. Count two working days from custody; for Friday and Saturday arrests, count one. The youth's lawyer must be appointed before it starts (FC 54.01).
• That judge decides whether the youth goes home or stays in detention.
• Juvenile cases from this county go to Upton/Reagan Juvenile Probation, Upton County Courthouse, 205 E 10th St, Rankin, TX 79778, 432-693-2170. Ask the probation officers there where the youth is being held.