1. Open the Sheriff's Arrest Report. The county links to it from its jail information page.
2. Find the surname, then check that the given name and booking date fit, since cousins and strangers alike can carry the same family name.
3. If the entry shows a jail ID number, copy it. You will need it on any money order.
4. Jot down each charge, so you can ask the court clerk about it later.
5. Still stuck? Call the jail's dispatch desk at 325-762-9555. Someone picks up at any hour.

The list comes from the Sheriff's Office, but an outside company hosts the website. If it won't load, a phone call gets the same answer.

Here is why a search can miss someone:

• Booking isn't finished. The listing comes after prints, the booking photo and intake forms, so a very recent arrest can lag behind.
• Released. They might be out on bond already, or freed on conditions by a magistrate.
• A spelling problem. Try part of the name, a legal first name or a maiden name.
• Arrested in another county. That county's jail would hold them. The next answer lists nearby jails.
• Held by federal agents or ICE. Those cases have their own answers, numbers 17 and 18.

During office hours, Sheriff's administration answers at 325-762-9500. At night or on weekends, ring dispatch at 325-762-9555.

The county has a single lockup: the Shackelford County Jail, 791 W. US Hwy 180, Albany, TX 76430, 325-762-9555. Sheriff's deputies and jail staff share that Hwy 180 building. A 2022 state count gave it room for 27 people, so it is small.

When the arrest happens in Stephens, Callahan or another bordering county, that county does the booking. Nearby options:

• Stephens County Jail, 210 East Dyer, Breckenridge, TX 76424, 254-559-2705, to the east.
• Callahan County Jail, 432 Market Street, Baird, TX 79504, 325-854-1444, to the south.
• Eastland County Jail, 201 West White, Eastland, TX 76448, 254-629-1774, to the southeast.
• Taylor County Adult Detention Center, 910 S. 27th St., Abilene, TX 79602, 325-691-7423, in Abilene.

People held on immigration charges may be sent to the Rolling Plains Detention Center, 118 County Road 206, Haskell, TX 79521, 940-864-6200, an ICE facility northwest of here.

Start with the Arrest Report entry. If it has no photo, ask the Sheriff's Office for one. Texas treats a request for mugshots as a Public Information Act request, and it must be in writing. Mail the request to the Sheriff's Office, 791 W. US Hwy 180, Albany, TX 76430, or call 325-762-9500 first for the right mailing details. Even during an open case, the basic arrest facts are public (Government Code 552.108(c)).

News outlets can ask the Sheriff's Office the same way. Requests for an ICE photo go through the agency's FOIA records page. As for federal booking photos, they mostly stay sealed. One exception is a fugitive's picture released by the U.S. Marshals.

Commercial mugshot sites face limits too (Bus. & Com. Code ch. 109). When a site asks $150 or more to pull a record down, any wrong or partial record must be fixed or removed free. Records cleared by expunction or nondisclosure can't be posted there at all. Some removal fees remain legal.

Texas IVSS-Counties handles this for free. Look up a prisoner there to see whether they're in custody and at which facility. Sign up, and it contacts you after a release or transfer. Registration is confidential, and service is offered in English and Spanish.

• Enroll at ivss-counties.tdcj.texas.gov.
• Prefer to talk? Call 866-268-8959 any hour.

For a quick yes or no on a release, the jail can also tell you by phone at 325-762-9555.

A magistrate meets with each new prisoner inside 48 hours. That officer reads the charges, explains the person's rights, and fixes the bail amount and any conditions. Three kinds of bond are common in Texas:

• Cash bond. Feed the whole sum into the deposit kiosk in the jail's public lobby, which never closes. Cash carries a $4.00 fee, and cards carry card fees.
• Surety bond. A licensed bondsman posts the bail for a fee you won't get back.
• Personal bond. Release rests on a signed pledge to appear, and nothing is paid at the start. Some violent charges rule this out.

Another county's warrant or an ICE detainer may hold a person even with bail paid. Amounts, violent-charge limits and getting money back: our bail page handles all three.

Charges first appear on the Arrest Report and are read aloud at the magistrate hearing. After a prosecutor files the case, the paperwork goes to one of three courts:

• Felonies go before the 259th District Court.
• Misdemeanors of Class A or B, the jailable kind, land in the County Court.
• Class C tickets, which carry fines alone: the Justice of the Peace court.

The County and District Clerk keeps felony and County Court files at 225 South Main Street, Albany, TX 76430, 325-762-9415. You can also try the clerk's records search, or re:SearchTX, a free statewide site that needs an account. Follow the case from start to finish with our court guide.

The magistrate asks every prisoner about a court-appointed lawyer and helps with the paperwork. Say yes if money is tight. Article 26.04 of the CCP gives the appointed lawyer one working day after appointment to try contacting the client.

The state's indigent defense commission lists this county in the area served by the Concho Valley PDO in San Angelo: 113 W. Beauregard St., Edd B. Keyes Bldg., 1st Fl., San Angelo, TX 76903, 325-229-4671. Ask that office whether it handles the case. The county's appointment rules are posted with the Texas Indigent Defense Commission, 209 West 14th Street, Room 202, Austin, TX 78701, 512-936-6994.

The jail's information page sets out these rules:

• Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., plus Saturday evening, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.
• How often: two visits a week for each prisoner, 20 minutes at most.
• Who: immediate family only. Visitors under 17 need a parent, legal guardian or legal counsel beside them.
• Check-in: bring a valid picture ID and sign the Visitor's Roster. It asks for the prisoner's name, your name, the date, your address, your relationship, your phone and your ID number.
• Conduct: any disturbance ends the visit. If a child causes it, the adult leaves with the child.
• Former inmates: no visits until 90 days after their own release.

The Sheriff's main page gives a shorter schedule, so call 325-762-9500 before you drive over. Our visitation page adds general advice.

Deposits go into the prisoner's trust account, and that balance covers commissary buys. Choose one method:

1. Lobby kiosk, open around the clock inside the jail's front lobby. Cash costs a $4.00 fee, and a credit card costs card fees.
2. Online. Pay by credit card at jailatm.com. Card fees apply.
3. Money order by mail. Send it to Shackelford County Jail, 791 W. US Hwy 180, Albany, TX 76430. Write the prisoner's full name and jail ID number on every money order.

These deposit options are for spending money, not for bail. Our money page has general tips.

Phone and message services in county jails are set up by each jail, and the account rules vary. Call the jail at 325-762-9500. Ask which company runs calls and messages, how to set up an account and the price per call.

Don't discuss the charges on jail phones or messages. The prisoner's own words can become evidence. For general help, open our phone page or our email page.

Money orders go to the jail's street address, 791 W. US Hwy 180, Albany, TX 76430, with the full name and jail ID number. Before mailing a letter, call 325-762-9500 to confirm the same address works and to ask which items, photos or papers are allowed.

Statewide standards apply here too. Letters are unlimited in number. Letters from an attorney are unsealed only while the prisoner looks on. Our mail page covers the rest.

Jail staff store clothes, phones, wallets and other items collected during booking. To learn how those things come back at release, or whether a relative may collect something sooner, call 325-762-9500. Ask if the prisoner has to sign a release, when pickup is possible, and which ID to bring.

Ask the same office how cash taken at booking is handed back at release.

Phone the jail without delay at 325-762-9555. Give the prisoner's name, the problem and any medicines they take, with doses and the prescribing doctor. Ask how to drop off medicine or records if the jail allows it.

If you believe a serious health need is being ignored, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards reviews complaints. It accepts complaints through an online form, by phone at 512-463-5505, or through info@tcjs.state.tx.us.

Deputies serve arrest warrants anywhere in the county. To ask about one, dial the Sheriff's Office, 325-762-9500, or look at the Sheriff's page, which has a Most Wanted Report section. Tips about a wanted person go to dispatch at 325-762-9555. Texas constables are peace officers too; the county keeps a Constable page. The state's top fugitives fill DPS's Texas 10 Most Wanted list. You can also ask the County and District Clerk, 225 South Main Street, Albany, TX 76430, 325-762-9415. Clearing one starts with legal advice. Next, surrender at the Hwy 180 jail, or contact the court named on the warrant about rescheduling.

Every court keeps its own docket. The County and District Clerk answers for felony and County Court cases at 325-762-9415; have the name and birth date handy. A Class C ticket runs through the Justice of the Peace, 309 South 2nd Street, Albany, TX 76430, 325-762-9430.

The statewide re:SearchTX site shows charges and filings, not hearing dates, so a phone call is the surest way. What each hearing means is laid out in our Shackelford court guide.

Abilene's federal courthouse, which serves this area for the Northern District of Texas, sits at 341 Pine Street, Room 2008, Abilene, TX 79601, 325-677-6311. A detention hearing comes early, and a magistrate judge uses it to choose between release and jail before trial.

Federal prisoners awaiting sentence answer to the U.S. Marshals, who may rent beds in county or private jails. Ask the Marshals office where someone is: 341 Pine Street, Room 207, Abilene, TX 79601, 325-672-2147. The Bureau of Prisons takes sentenced federal prisoners; its inmate locator shows where each one is.

1. The detainer. A Form I-247A lands at the Albany jail, sent by immigration officers who want the person kept.
2. The extra time. The jail may keep them up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. The pickup. ICE officers take custody. The person may go to a detention center such as the Rolling Plains Detention Center, 118 County Road 206, Haskell, TX 79521, 940-864-6200.
4. Finding them. Search the ICE Online Detainee Locator by A-number. No A-number? Try the person's full name and native country instead. Phone help comes from the Dallas Field Office, 8101 N. Stemmons Freeway, Dallas, TX 75247, 972-367-2200.

Under a 2017 Texas law, local agencies may not limit immigration enforcement, and jails must honor ICE detainers. Since a 2025 law, sheriffs in counties with jails have until December 1, 2026 to pursue 287(g) agreements with ICE. Call the Sheriff's Office at 325-762-9500 to hear where this county stands.

A felony sentence doesn't mean an instant transfer. The person stays in the Hwy 180 jail until a transfer to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. There, intake staff sort out each new prisoner's needs before choosing a unit that fits.

Plug in a name, a TDCJ number or an SID at the TDCJ inmate search to locate them. We profile Texas units on our state prisons page.

Texas treats children from 10 through 16 as juveniles. Seventeen-year-olds count as adults under Texas criminal law, so the county jail can hold them. Parents of a child taken into custody must be told promptly.

For a detained child, the closest center on the state registry is in Abilene: the Taylor County Juvenile Detention Center, 889 South 25th Street, Abilene, TX 79602, 325-691-7462. A judge must review a child's detention inside two working days. Before that review starts, the child must have a lawyer. To learn where a child is held, call the County Attorney, who handles juvenile cases, at 325-762-9410.

Countywide patrol and the jail both fall to the Sheriff's Office:

• Shackelford County Sheriff's Office, 791 W. US Hwy 180, Albany, TX 76430. Administration: 325-762-9500. Dispatch, 24 hours: 325-762-9555.
• Albany and Moran. For a stop or arrest inside the city of Albany or the town of Moran, call the Sheriff's dispatch line above and ask who made the arrest.
• Constable. See the county's Constable page. To reach that office, call the courthouse at 225 South Main Street, Albany, TX 76430, 325-762-9400.
• State troopers. If a DPS trooper made the stop on a highway, the jail can tell you so when you call.