The state's free lookup carries the load here. This routine works:

1. Open Texas IVSS-Counties in any browser.
2. Type the last and first name as they appear on the person's ID. Fewer letters can help when you aren't sure of a spelling.
3. Narrow the results to this county if the site gives you that choice.
4. Open the matching record and look at custody status, which says if they're held at this moment.
5. Still unsure? Phone the jail at 361-364-9630 and ask for booking.

The Sheriff's Office front desk, 361-364-9600, can confirm custody too. Have a birth date handy, since common names bring up several people.

Booking takes time. Officers must bring the person in, and staff take photos, fingerprints and property before a record exists. Wait a few hours and search again, or call the jail at 361-364-9630.

• Spelling. Try a middle name, a hyphenated or second surname, a maiden name or a nickname.
• Released early. Someone who bonds out fast, or whom the magistrate lets go, can be gone before you search.
• Another agency. City officers made the arrest? That department, listed in the last answer, can say where the person went. Official county and city pages we checked mention only the county jail for adults.
• Out-of-county warrant. If another county wanted them, they may be moved there. The next answer lists nearby jails.
• Federal or immigration custody. Those people show up on federal lookups instead, covered further down.

For adults, there's only the Sheriff's jail at 300 North Rachal, Sinton, TX 78387, 361-364-9630. The state jail commission rates it at 236 beds. Official pages show no annex, work-release center or private jail in the county. Youths under 17 go instead to the juvenile detention center, described near the bottom of this page.

Neighboring counties run their own jails. If the arrest happened over the line, or one of them holds a warrant, check these:

• Aransas County Detention Center, 811 E. Concho, Rockport, TX 78382, 361-790-0168
• Bee County Jail, 1509 Galloway Dr, Beeville, TX 78102, 361-362-3221
• Refugio County Jail, 405 Mesquite St., Refugio, TX 78377, 361-526-1698
• Jim Wells County Jail, 300 N Cameron Street, Alice, TX 78332, 361-668-0341

Mugshots in this county come by request rather than by search. IVSS-Counties shows custody status but no faces, so any booking photo must be requested in writing.

Address that letter to the Sheriff's Office, 300 North Rachal, Sinton, TX 78387, 361-364-9600, and mark it as a request under the Texas Public Information Act. Include the full name of whoever was arrested, plus the arrest date. The Government Code, at §552.108(c), orders quick release of the basic facts about any arrest. Because that section never mentions photos, Sheriff's staff decide first whether a mugshot counts. A delay past ten business days means they owe you a release date. Withholding usually means asking the Attorney General to rule, and the Open Records Division hears complaints when an office stalls.

Websites that sell mugshot removal face Bus. & Com. Code ch. 109. Where a site's removal fee is $150 or more, it must, for free, either correct a flawed or partial record or take it down. Expunged material is off limits to them, and so is anything sealed by a nondisclosure order. Photos taken by ICE come through an ICE FOIA request. Pictures from federal bookings almost never come out, although the U.S. Marshals may circulate one when a fugitive is wanted.

Registration on Texas IVSS-Counties is free, online or at 866-268-8959. The system follows custody status and location, so it serves families as well as victims, and it sends word when that status changes.

Watch the alerts closely the first few days. A transfer to another county, to a federal agency or to ICE can happen fast. If an alert seems wrong, call the jail at 361-364-9630 before driving anywhere.

Texas gives a magistrate 48 hours after arrest to see each adult (CCP art. 15.17). Locally, the Central Magistrate handles it at the courthouse, 400 W Sinton St, Sinton, TX 78387, 361-364-9300, on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Families can watch the hearings live, and the Teams link sits on the Sheriff's web page.

Bonds come in three forms. Cash bail is the full amount, paid at once. Surety bonds involve a licensed bondsman: the family pays a fee, and the bondsman stands behind every dollar if the person skips court. A personal bond rests on nothing but the defendant's signature. Listed violent charges rule out personal bonds. On the gravest charges, a judge may refuse bail entirely once a hearing is held.

Paying bond doesn't always end custody. An ICE detainer, an outside county's warrant, a parole violation warrant or the four-hour family violence hold can each delay release. Ask the jail at 361-364-9630 where and how to post a bond. Our bail page explains each step in depth.

At the first hearing, the magistrate names the arrest charge. Jail staff can read it to you by phone, too. The formal charge comes later. Prosecutors file an information for a misdemeanor, and a grand jury indicts on a felony.

• Felony files: District Clerk, 400 West Sinton Street, Room 144, Sinton, TX 78387, 361-364-9377. Press 2 for records.
• Misdemeanor files: County Clerk, 400 W. Sinton Street, Suite 124, Sinton, TX 78387, 361-364-9350.

A free login on re:SearchTX shows many filed charges and judgments statewide. Clerks find files fastest with a cause number or a birth date.

Anyone who can't afford counsel should tell the magistrate and fill out the request form right there. Texas gives officials 24 hours to pass that request to whoever names lawyers. Home to 72,053 people (Census estimate, July 2025), this county falls under the three-working-day deadline for naming a lawyer (CCP art. 1.051(c)).

The county's rules on who qualifies are in its indigent defense plan on the TIDC plan page. Relatives can't fill out the form for them, though a phone reminder to ask for counsel helps. A family hiring a private lawyer should share the cause number from the clerk.

The jail sorts visiting days by surname:

• Last names A through K: Tuesday 2 to 4 p.m. and Saturday 8 to 10 a.m.
• Last names L through Z: Wednesday 2 to 4 p.m. and Sunday 8 to 10 a.m.

Only immediate family on the person's visitation list may come, each with a valid photo ID. Anyone under 17 needs an adult along. A person held at this jail in the past six months can't visit.

Dress plainly: no hats, sunglasses, sleeveless or see-through tops, spandex, torn clothes, or shorts and skirts above the knee. Leave phones, purses, backpacks and diaper bags in the car, along with gum, tobacco, food and drinks. Walking out ends the visit. For a clergy or special visit, call the jail command at 361-364-9630. Our visitation page has the rest.

Deposits for commissary and other jail costs go in three ways, according to the jail's operations sheet:

• By phone at 866-345-1884.
• Online, through the jail's deposit service.
• At the kiosk in the Sheriff's Office front lobby, 300 North Rachal, Sinton, TX 78387, which takes cash or a credit card.

Have the person's full name and PID number ready. Fees and posting times are explained on our money page, and what they can buy is on the commissary page.

For calls and tablets, the jail at 361-364-9630 can tell you which company runs the service and how to open an account. Staff won't relay personal messages, except in a real emergency.

A phone has to be available in booking (37 TAC 259.119). That's often where the first call home is made. Our phone page and email and texting page cover accounts and costs.

Address every envelope like this:

Inmate's Full Name and San Patricio PID #
P.O. Box 1382
Sinton, Texas 78387

Without a sender's name and return address on the front, the jail won't hand the letter over. Staff open and check regular letters, and lawyer letters are opened only while the inmate looks on.

These items may come in: paperback books shipped straight from a publisher or bookstore, photos with no gang, nude, alcohol, drug or tobacco images, reading or prescription glasses, stamps, and magazines or newspapers the person subscribes to. Anything else is returned unopened or added to their property. State jail rules don't cap letters in either direction. Our mail page adds more tips.

Booking staff inventory clothes, wallets, phones and keys, then shelve them until the person leaves. Items that can't be sent in by mail also go into property.

To collect something for the person, call the jail at 361-364-9630 first. Before you drive over, learn whether paperwork signed by the person must name you, what ID the desk wants, and when pickup happens. Evidence stays with the arresting agency instead.

Call the jail command at 361-364-9630 and explain the problem. Share names of medicines, doses and the prescribing doctor, but don't bring pills unless staff ask for them. Health details are private, so the person may have to sign a consent before staff discuss their care with you.

Under 37 TAC 251.6(c), the jail must give inmates a written grievance procedure. When a health problem drags on, outside help comes from TCJS, the state jail standards agency. File on its online form or call 512-463-5505, and keep notes of every contact.

Three kinds of officers serve warrants in this county: Sheriff's deputies, the six precinct constables, and city police. For a name check, phone the Sheriff's Office at 361-364-9600. Texas lacks a public statewide warrant search. Its DPS Texas 10 Most Wanted list covers only the state's top fugitives. Before doing anything else, phone a defense lawyer. The lawyer can walk the person into the issuing court or ask that judge to reset the case. District Clerk (felonies): 400 West Sinton Street, Room 144, Sinton, TX 78387, 361-364-9377. County Clerk (misdemeanors): 400 W. Sinton Street, Suite 124, Sinton, TX 78387, 361-364-9350.

Clerks can read off the next setting if you have a full name and birth date. For felonies, that's the District Clerk at 361-364-9377. For misdemeanors, it's the County Clerk at 361-364-9350. For a fine-only ticket, check the citation itself, since it names the court and gives its address.

Both county courts at law and all three district courts sit in the courthouse. Our court page lists every courtroom's address and explains each stage, from magistrate to sentence.

A federal case filed here is heard at 1133 N. Shoreline Blvd., Corpus Christi, TX 78401, 361-888-3142, the Southern District's courthouse for the Corpus Christi Division.

1. Under 18 U.S.C. 3142, a federal magistrate in Corpus Christi decides at a detention hearing whether pretrial release is safe.
2. Throughout the case, custody rests with the U.S. Marshals, and many such prisoners sit in county jails that contract with them. Call their office at 1133 North Shoreline Boulevard, Suite 109, Corpus Christi, TX 78401, 361-888-3154, to learn where.
3. Federal sentencing moves the case to the Bureau of Prisons, whose BOP inmate locator lists the assigned prison.

The usual sequence after ICE gets involved:

1. First, ICE sends the jail its hold request, Form I-247A.
2. Under 8 CFR 287.7(d), the jail can then keep the person up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released, so officers from ICE can collect them.
3. Once ICE has them, it may send them to an immigration center. One in this field office's area is the Rio Grande Processing Center, 1001 San Rio Blvd, Laredo, TX 78046, 956-718-4700.
4. Searching the ICE Online Detainee Locator works best with an A-number. Otherwise, use a full name together with the birth country.
5. No hit? Call ICE's Harlingen Field Office, which covers this county: 1717 Zoy Street, Harlingen, TX 78552, 956-389-7800.

Texas made detainer compliance mandatory for jails in 2017 (S.B. 4). S.B. 8, from 2025, goes further. Every jail-running county must sign on with ICE's 287(g) program, with a cutoff of December 1, 2026, and a county that's turned down must reapply yearly. Locally, the Sheriff's Office at 361-364-9600 knows the status.

Once sentenced on a felony, a person usually stays in the county jail for a time. TDCJ, the state prison system, then takes them to intake for assessment and chooses a unit based on custody level and programs.

Plug any one of three things into the TDCJ inmate search: the surname with an initial, the SID, or the TDCJ number. Only people currently behind TDCJ walls appear, and records update on workdays, so someone just moved may need a day or two to surface. Browse our Texas state prisons page for the unit itself.

Juvenile court in Texas covers acts committed from a child's 10th birthday up to the day before the 17th (Family Code 51.02). Teens who are 17 get booked at the North Rachal jail, just as any grown-up would be.

Detained children from this county stay at its juvenile detention center, a locked 20-bed facility for boys and girls awaiting court. It also serves Aransas, Bee, Jim Wells, Kleberg, Live Oak, McMullen and Brooks counties. The state registry lists its phone as 361-364-9506.

Juvenile records aren't public, so you won't find the child on IVSS-Counties. Parents should call the 36th Judicial District Juvenile Probation office, 107 W. 5th Street, Sinton, TX 78387, 361-364-9500. Within two working days, a judge must decide whether the child stays locked up.

These eight city departments appear on the county's own agency list. Call the one that made the arrest about its report or anything it seized:

• Aransas Pass Police, 600 Cleveland Blvd., Aransas Pass, TX 78336, 361-758-5224
• Gregory Police, 204 W. Fourth St., Gregory, TX 78359, 361-643-7555
• Ingleside Police, 2425 8th St., Ingleside, TX 78362, 361-776-2531
• Mathis Police, 214 N. Nueces St., Mathis, TX 78368, 361-547-2113
• Odem Police, 700 Voss Ave., Odem, TX 78370, 361-368-3121
• Portland Police, 1902 Billy G. Webb Dr., Portland, TX 78374, 361-777-4444
• Sinton Police, 217 E. Market St., Sinton, TX 78387, 361-364-4400
• Taft Police, 331 Green Ave., Taft, TX 78390, 361-528-6011

Out in the rural stretches beyond city limits, deputies handle calls. Reach the Sheriff's Office at 300 North Rachal, Sinton, TX 78387, 361-364-9600. If a DPS trooper made the stop, ask the Sheriff's dispatcher which Highway Patrol office handled it.

Constables serve warrants and papers in six precincts:

• Precinct 1, 1301 W. Sinton St., Sinton, TX 78387, 361-364-9584
• Precinct 2, PO Box 73, Odem, TX 78370, 361-587-3603
• Precinct 4, PO Box 199, Portland, TX 78374, 361-587-3620
• Precinct 5, 619 N. Frio St., Mathis, TX 78368, 361-587-3853
• Precinct 6, 225 W. Wheeler, Suite A, Aransas Pass, TX 78336, 361-587-3665
• Precinct 8, PO Box 6, Taft, TX 78390, 361-587-3690