Sutton County Jail Inmate Bail & Bonds

A magistrate does. Every person arrested must be brought to a magistrate quickly, 48 hours at the very latest (Code Crim. Proc. arts. 14.06 and 15.17). That same 48-hour line appears in the local plan for appointed counsel, which also gives the magistrate the job of setting bail and its terms.

Texas lets many judges act as magistrates, from district judges and the county judge to the justice of the peace (Code Crim. Proc. art. 2A.151). This short hearing can happen in a room with the prisoner or over a video link. During it, the magistrate:

• names the charge and covers the rights to silence and to counsel;
• asks whether the prisoner wants an appointed lawyer, then helps with that paperwork;
• rules on bail within those 48 hours and picks the lightest terms that can still do the job (Code Crim. Proc. art. 17.028).

Jail staff at 325-387-2288 can say whether that hearing has happened yet.

Texas law (Code Crim. Proc. art. 17.01) recognizes two forms of bail, bail bonds and personal bonds, and families meet four versions of them:

• Cash bond. You pay the court every dollar of the bond. After the last hearing, and if every rule was kept, that cash is refunded minus any fee (art. 17.02).
• Surety bond. A bondsman backs the whole bond for a fee, and the family never gets that fee back.
• Personal bond. Nothing is paid up front; a signature and a promise to return are enough (art. 17.03). A charge of $20 or 3% of the bail, whichever is greater, may apply, and a court can drop it (art. 17.42).
• Written promise on a ticket charge. On a fine-only charge, a magistrate may simply write out a court date and release the person with no bond (art. 15.17(b)).

Some charges bar a personal bond entirely. Examples include listed violent crimes, gun possession by a felon, certain protective order violations, and terroristic threat charged at Class A or above (art. 17.03). A bond may add conditions, too, for instance an order to keep clear of the person who reported the crime.

No Texas-wide chart fixes bail by charge. Each figure is chosen for one person and one case. Seven factors guide the magistrate (Code Crim. Proc. art. 17.15):

• it should be high enough to bring the person back;
• it can't be set as a way to crush or punish someone;
• the type of crime counts, and any violence in it;
• the person's real ability to pay is weighed;
• the magistrate thinks about keeping the victim, officers and neighbors safe;
• a criminal record check and the public safety report count, and that report is needed for charges of Class B and up (art. 17.022);
• citizenship status is on the list too.

Warrantless arrests come with a backstop when no probable cause ruling arrives on time. A misdemeanor prisoner in that spot must be let out by hour 24, with any bond capped at $5,000. Felonies get until hour 48, with the bond held to $10,000 or less. A person who can't post that walks out on a personal bond (art. 17.033).

The exact bond on a current booking comes from the jail at 325-387-2288.

Bond at the jail is handled inside the Sheriff's Office, 401 E. Oak Street, Sonora, TX 76950. Work through this list in order:

1. Call 325-387-2288 and tell staff you want to post a bond.
2. Spell the prisoner's full name and share a birth date. Write down each charge and the bond on it.
3. Find out the hours bonds are accepted and the forms of money the front desk takes today.
4. If the desk accepts a money order or cashier's check, copy down the payee name it wants.
5. Bring photo ID and the full sum. Do not leave without a receipt.

Two articles of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 17.20 and 17.22, put guardrails on jailers. A sheriff or jailer accepting bail first looks up the prisoner's criminal record. When violence is part of the case, a jailer is not allowed to pick the bond amount.

Possibly, so call before you drive. Both felony and misdemeanor files sit with one office, the District and County Clerk in the Sutton County Annex, 300 E. Oak Street, Suite 3, Sonora, TX 76950, 325-387-3815.

• The window is open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with no lunch closing.
• Ask if the window takes cash bonds on filed cases and what kind of payment it wants.
• Carry ID, the full amount and any case number you have.

Fine-only Class C tickets are a matter for the Justice of the Peace. That office is in the Sutton County Courthouse, 102 N. Water Street, Sonora, TX 76950, 325-387-3322. It keeps weekday hours of 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., stops taking calls at 3:00 p.m., and sets Tuesdays and Thursdays aside for office work.

Accepted payment can shift, so check with whichever office will take the bond. For a bond at the jail, ring 325-387-2288. For a case already filed with the clerk, ring 325-387-3815.

The Justice of the Peace offers its own online and phone options. These cover JP tickets, fines and court costs only, not bail:

• The JP online ticket site takes guilty or no contest pleas within 30 days of the court date.
• Phone payments go through 800-701-8560.
• Past 30 days, a $15 time payment fee is added, and payment goes by cashier's check or money order to P.O. Box 165, Sonora, TX 76950.

Do not mail cash for any reason. Keep every receipt in one folder until the case is closed for good.

A bondsman, which the law calls a surety, signs a promise to pay the whole bond if the defendant skips court. In return, the bondsman charges a fee that stays with the bondsman.

• Texas puts no ceiling on that fee. Get the price on paper before you sign.
• State law makes counties of 110,000 or more residents keep a bail bond board to license bondsmen (Occ. Code 1704.002). A county without such a board can still have a list, since Code Crim. Proc. art. 17.141 lets the sheriff post qualified sureties. Call the Sheriff's Office at 325-387-2288 to learn who writes bonds locally.
• Ask the bondsman for a receipt every time you pay. Bondsmen may not go looking for customers inside any jail (Occ. Code 1704.304).
• Collateral, such as a pickup title or jewelry, is owed back within 30 days (Occ. Code 1704.301), counted from your written request after the case closes.
• The defendant's own lawyer is allowed to post the bond.

Under art. 17.19 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, any bondsman wanting off a bond starts by warning the defense attorney, then swears out an affidavit.

Every bond is tied to one case. A prisoner can stay put after paying for any of these reasons:

• A warrant from some other county. Bail can be set here on that out-of-county warrant, with the bond mailed on to the place that issued it (Code Crim. Proc. art. 15.18).
• Parole. Under Gov't Code 508.254, someone on state parole can sit in jail on a "blue warrant" until the violation hearing.
• Probation trouble. A fresh arrest may bring a request to revoke. The probation office serving this county is in Fort Stockton at 111 West Gallagher, Fort Stockton, TX 79735, 432-336-8562.
• Family violence. On a family violence charge, a four-hour hold follows the bond when further violence looks likely, and a magistrate can stretch it to 48 hours (art. 17.291).
• ICE. Immigration agents can file a detainer asking the jail to hold the prisoner.
• Drunk driving terms. Repeat DWI and a few related charges call for an ignition interlock before release (art. 17.441).

Ask jail staff at 325-387-2288 to read you each hold before you hand over money.

Under the Texas Constitution, most people charged with a crime can get bail. Under Tex. Const. art. I, §11, the main exception has long been a capital case with strong proof. The state can also ask for denial after a hearing when one of these applies (art. I, §§11a, 11b, 11c):

• someone with two prior felony convictions is charged with another felony, or someone on felony bail is charged again;
• a broken bond condition linked to safety;
• a broken family violence protective order.

Section 11d, approved in November 2025, covers murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated sexual assault, human trafficking and some other violent crimes. Only the prosecutor may ask for that hearing. Bail "shall be denied" if the evidence there shows the accused is likely to run off or to hurt someone. If the judge sets bail even so, written findings must explain it.

Felony cases are handled by the 112th District Attorney, whose main office is 400 South Nelson, Fort Stockton, TX 79735, 432-336-6294. Misdemeanors belong to the County Attorney, 105 W. Main, Sonora, TX 76950, 325-387-6553.

Yes, a court can lower a bond that is out of reach. A family can push for that in three ways:

1. Ask the defense lawyer, hired or appointed, to file a bond motion with the trial court.
2. Gather pay stubs, a rent receipt or deed, the names of nearby relatives and a frank tally of the family's money.
3. Suggest bond terms aimed at the judge's worries, like calling in weekly, an evening curfew or a stay-away order.

Anyone charged with a Class B or higher may swear in writing that they can't pay, and that sworn claim gets a prompt look (Code Crim. Proc. art. 17.028). Prosecutors also face a clock (art. 17.151). For a felony, they must be ready for trial in 90 days. A Class A misdemeanor allows 30, and smaller charges allow less. Past the deadline, the court has to reduce bail or grant a personal bond.

The clerk at 325-387-3815 can say which court has the case.

A defendant who can't pay a lawyer may ask the court for one. In this county, judges name private lawyers from an approved list rather than a public defender's office.

• At the magistrate hearing, the prisoner is asked about counsel and helped with the form.
• The District and County Clerk, 300 E. Oak Street, Suite 3, Sonora, TX 76950, 325-387-3815, also hands out request forms before the first court date.
• Felony lawyers are named by the District Judge and misdemeanor lawyers by the County Judge. The deadline is the third working day after the form reaches them.
• A capital murder charge is sent to the state's Regional Public Defender for Capital Cases.

Plans for appointed lawyers in this county appear on the Texas Indigent Defense Commission website. Its Austin office is at 209 West 14th Street, Room 202, Austin, TX 78701, 512-936-6994.

Most county courts are on East Oak Street, with the JP a short way off on Water Street:

• 112th District Court for felonies. The District and County Clerk keeps its files at the Sutton County Annex, 300 E. Oak Street, Suite 3, Sonora, TX 76950, 325-387-3815. The same court covers Crockett, Pecos, Reagan and Upton too.
• County Court, the constitutional kind, hears Class A and B charges. You will find the County Judge's office at 300 E. Oak Street, Suite 4, Sonora, TX 76950, 325-387-2711.
• Justice of the Peace for Class C fines, 102 N. Water Street, Sonora, TX 76950, 325-387-3322.
• City tickets from Sonora: City Hall, 201 E Main St, Sonora, TX 76950, 325-206-1257, can say where they are heard.
• Federal charges: O.C. Fisher Federal Building, 33 E. Twohig Avenue, Room 202, San Angelo, TX 76903, 325-655-4506.

When the case closes and the person obeyed every bond term, the cash returns to the person listed on the bail receipt (Code Crim. Proc. art. 17.02). A few deductions are possible:

• After a conviction, or after deferred adjudication, the clerk is allowed a fee of 5% of the cash, with $50 as the top (Local Gov't Code 117.055).
• That cash may also go toward the defendant's fines and court costs under art. 17.53.
• A bondsman's fee pays for the service, so it never comes back.

When the defendant misses court, the judge can forfeit the bond through a judgment nisi (arts. 22.01, 22.02). Under art. 22.13, a surety is cleared when the defendant is jailed again soon. On a misdemeanor that means within 180 days; a felony stretches it to 270. Bail jumping, the crime of not showing up, is a separate charge (Penal Code 38.10).

The clerk's office handles refund questions at 325-387-3815.

On release day, two things are worth asking about: the things the person had at booking and any balance on their jail account. The jail at 401 E. Oak Street, Sonora, TX 76950 handles both.

Ring 325-387-2288 before making the trip. Ask how a leftover balance is returned, what hours belongings are released, and whether the person must sign before you collect their things. A photo ID is needed. Our page on inmate account money says more about deposits and refunds.

Any federal case from here goes to San Angelo, where the Northern District holds court for its San Angelo Division. The building is the O.C. Fisher Federal Building, 33 E. Twohig Avenue, Room 202, San Angelo, TX 76903, 325-655-4506.

• The federal magistrate judge decides custody at a detention hearing (18 U.S.C. 3142), held at the first court date in San Angelo.
• Federal defendants who are held before trial are under the Marshals, who may book them into a county jail by contract. The San Angelo Marshals office, open during court terms, is at 33 East Twohig Street, Suite 106-D, San Angelo, TX 76903, 325-658-4056.
• Once a federal prison sentence is handed down, use the BOP inmate locator.

Texas bond rules play no part in a federal case.

No. A Texas bond has no effect on an immigration detainer. Here is what to expect:

1. Step one: an ICE officer sends the jail a detainer on a form numbered I-247A.
2. Once it is on file, jail staff may keep the prisoner up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. Unless the prisoner proves lawful status, every Texas jail must comply with an ICE detainer (art. 2A.060, Code Crim. Proc.). A Texas law from 2017 (Gov't Code 752.053) forbids local governments to water down immigration enforcement in any way.
4. Lawmakers added another duty in 2025 (Gov't Code ch. 753). Their deadline for each jail county to request an ICE 287(g) agreement is December 1, 2026. Call 325-387-2288 to ask about this county's status.
5. ICE then sends the person on to a detention center, sometimes hundreds of miles from Sonora. Look them up on the ICE Online Detainee Locator using full name and birth country.

If that lookup comes back empty, ICE points families to a field office. Texas offices include San Antonio, 3523 Crosspoint Drive, San Antonio, TX 78217, 210-564-3300, and Dallas, 8101 N. Stemmons Freeway, Dallas, TX 75247, 972-367-2200. Ask which office covers this part of Texas.

Prison time is handled by TDCJ, the state agency that runs the prisons. People with state jail felony sentences go to a state jail. Following sentencing, the wait for the move to TDCJ is spent in the Oak Street jail. Intake comes first, where TDCJ classifies each new arrival. TDCJ then picks a unit suited to the person.

• Search TDCJ inmates by last name on its inmate search page. If you know it, a TDCJ number or SID number narrows things down. It refreshes on working days and lists only people already inside TDCJ.
• To plan a prison visit or send a letter, our Texas state prisons page breaks the rules down by unit.

Texas juvenile court covers a child from 10 through 16 years old (Family Code 51.02). Turning 17 puts a person in the adult system. Children do not go through the adult bail process.

• Under Family Code 52.02, the officer holding a child must tell a parent or guardian without delay.
• A youth court judge reviews detention fast in Texas. Family Code 54.01 sets the hearing by the second working day in custody. Arrests made on Friday or Saturday speed that up to the next working day.
• Release to a parent is required unless one of the reasons in the law to keep the child applies.

Phone the Sheriff's Office at 325-387-2288 for the child's whereabouts and the hour the detention hearing starts.