Here is the process, start to finish:

1. Open the county's jail inmate search, or go to Texas IVSS-Counties.
2. On IVSS-Counties, enter a last name, or just the first few letters of it.
3. Pick the match with the right name and read the custody details shown.
4. To get alerts on that person, register for notices on the same site.
5. Call the jail at 325-387-2288 to confirm the charge, bond amount and court date.

Results on IVSS-Counties are limited to people held right now or under supervision. Once someone walks out, their record may drop off the search.

Four things usually explain a blank result:

• Still being booked. A very new arrest may not be entered yet.
• Spelled another way. Cut the last name down to a few letters, or test a nickname or a name used before marriage.
• Already out. They may have posted bond, been let go on a personal bond, or had the charge dropped.
• Moved. A transfer may have sent them to a different county jail, a TDCJ unit, the U.S. Marshals or ICE. Later answers on this page cover each one.

A phone call clears this up fastest. Jail staff at 325-387-2288 know whether the person was booked in. For court files, ring the District and County Clerk at 325-387-3815.

This county runs a single jail, at 401 E. Oak Street, Sonora, TX 76950. A Texas Commission on Jail Standards count for August 1, 2022 showed one person from here housed in another county's jail, without naming it.

Nearby county jails with their own JailExchange pages:

• Crockett County Jail
• Schleicher County Jail
• Menard County Jail
• Kimble County Jail
• Edwards County Detention Center
• Val Verde County Jail

Phone the Sheriff's Office at 325-387-2288 before a long drive to confirm today's location.

The state's IVSS-Counties search shows custody status, not booking photos. Mugshots and other Sheriff's records can be requested by letter, using the Texas Public Information Act. Under Gov't Code 552.108(c), the core details of an arrest belong to the public, and the Sheriff must release them without delay.

• Address it to the Sheriff's Office, 401 E. Oak Street, Sonora, TX 76950. A quick call to 325-387-2288 tells you how the office takes requests.
• Give the full name, booking date and what records you want.
• Records that take longer than ten business days come with a written date for when they will be ready.

An immigration photo takes a formal ICE records request. Booking pictures from federal cases are rarely released, apart from wanted posters the U.S. Marshals put out. Some mugshot websites charge $150 or more for removal. State law bars them from charging to fix or pull a mugshot record with errors or gaps (Bus. & Com. Code ch. 109).

Register on Texas IVSS-Counties for free. Signing up is confidential, and the person in custody won't be told. An account is optional.

• Notices go out after a booking or release, when a hearing date changes or is added, and on custody moves like a transfer into TDCJ.
• Prefer the phone? Dial 866-268-8959. Help is there all day and night, in Spanish or English.
• Once the person is in state prison, call TDCJ Victim Services at 800-848-4284.

By the 48-hour mark, each arrested person stands before a magistrate, who explains their rights and sets bail (Code Crim. Proc. art. 15.17). Texas uses three kinds of release:

• Cash bond: the whole amount paid in. Once the case closes, and if release terms were kept, that deposit goes back.
• Surety bond: a bail bondsman or other backer signs on and owes the whole bond if court is missed.
• Personal bond: release on a signature alone, no cash or bondsman, with a pledge to make every court date. Some violent charges rule it out (art. 17.03).

Phone 325-387-2288 to learn the bond figure and whether any hold applies. Payment, bondsmen, refunds and lowering a bond are all covered in depth on our bail page.

Phone the jail at 325-387-2288, and staff can tell you the charge listed at booking. Once the prosecutor files the case, the clerk has the formal charge. Felonies come by indictment and most misdemeanors by a filing called an information.

• Ring the District and County Clerk at 325-387-3815 for Class A, Class B and felony files.
• Felony filings appear on the clerk's District Court docket search.
• Charging papers from Texas courts are viewable through re:SearchTX, with a free account.
• Class C tickets sit with the Justice of the Peace at 325-387-3322.

On the first visit with a magistrate, a request for free counsel can be made, and forms get filled out with help. Remind your loved one to answer yes if they can't afford to hire one.

• This county uses a list of private lawyers, not a public defender office.
• The County Judge, for misdemeanors, or the District Judge, for felonies, makes the pick within three working days.
• Forms also come from the clerk at 325-387-3815 or from the Texas Indigent Defense Commission, 512-936-6994.
• Income, debts and family size all count in deciding who qualifies. Making bail does not by itself rule someone out.

Ask the jail at 325-387-2288 which days are open for visits and who may come. Texas jail standards promise every prisoner a minimum:

• A pair of in-person, no-contact visits per week, each lasting 20 minutes or more.
• A weekly visiting slot on an evening or weekend.
• A rule on who must bring a minor, such as a parent, guardian or lawyer.
• Free visits for veterans, either with a veterans service officer or with a peer coordinator.

See our visitation page for tips on video visits and what to expect.

Ask the jail at 325-387-2288 how deposits are made and if any limits apply.

Our inmate money page lays out ways to deposit funds. To see what an account can buy, visit our commissary page.

A phone in booking is required by Texas jail standards. For calling from the housing area and any costs, ask the jail at 325-387-2288.

Read our jail phone page for prepaid accounts, and our inmate messaging page for email or tablet messages where a jail allows them.

The jail's street address is 401 E. Oak Street, Sonora, TX 76950. Phone 325-387-2288 before you write to check how to address the envelope and what may go inside.

Texas jail rules protect mail in a few ways:

• People in jail may write as many letters as they like, of any length.
• Letters sent in can be any number and any page count.
• A lawyer's letter gets opened with the prisoner watching, just to look for contraband.
• Even prisoners with an empty account get paper and stamps, enough for three letters a week at minimum.

Our inmate mail page has more tips.

Wallets, phones and other items from booking stay in the jail's care during the stay.

Call 325-387-2288 to ask how property is returned. Also ask if the prisoner may release items to a relative, which ID you need, and good times to stop in.

Tell jail staff right away about any illness, injury, medicines or mental health needs. Call 325-387-2288 and ask for the officer on duty.

• Under Code Crim. Proc. art. 16.22, a magistrate learns within 12 hours if jailers suspect mental illness.
• Each Texas jail has a complaint process. It appears in the inmate handbook and on notices in common areas.
• For problems the jail does not resolve, the state's jail regulator accepts complaints. Its Texas Commission on Jail Standards complaint form is online, and the phone is 512-463-5505.

Sheriff's deputies handle warrants in the countryside, while town officers handle them in the city. With a warrant question, dial the Sheriff's Office, 325-387-2288, or the Sonora Police Department, 325-387-3888. Texas shows its most wanted fugitives in a DPS Texas 10 Most Wanted gallery. By phone, the clerk can confirm a filed case. To clear a warrant, a lawyer should guide the surrender to the judge who issued it. That court can also be phoned about setting a new date. JP tickets unpaid 60 days after the court date go to a collections office. The District and County Clerk is at 300 E. Oak Street, Suite 3, Sonora, TX 76950, 325-387-3815.

For misdemeanor and felony dates, the District and County Clerk answers at 325-387-3815. Class C ticket dates are set by the Justice of the Peace, 325-387-3322, so call before 3:00 p.m. The county website also has a District Court calendar.

See our court page for which judge hears the case and what each stage involves.

A federal arrest from here lands in the Northern District of Texas, in its San Angelo Division. Hearings take place in the O.C. Fisher Federal Building, 33 E. Twohig Avenue, Room 202, San Angelo, TX 76903, 325-655-4506.

• Release in a federal case is settled early. At a detention hearing, the U.S. magistrate judge chooses jail or home for the wait until trial (18 U.S.C. 3142).
• Federal prisoners who are not released stay in the U.S. Marshals' custody. Their San Angelo office is staffed during court terms at 33 East Twohig Street, Suite 106-D, San Angelo, TX 76903, 325-658-4056.
• Someone held for the Marshals in a county jail may not show on the federal prison search yet.
• Federal inmates serving a sentence are listed by the BOP inmate locator. Try a name, or the register number if you have it.

1. ICE asks the jail to hold the prisoner by filing a detainer, Form I-247A.
2. Jailers are then allowed to keep the person up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. Texas law makes the jail honor it and let the prisoner know about it. Proof of lawful status is the exception (Code Crim. Proc. art. 2A.060).
4. ICE officers collect the prisoner and drive them to a federal immigration lockup.
5. Next, try the ICE Online Detainee Locator. Type the A-number, or use a full name with the birth country.
6. If the locator shows nothing, call an ICE field office. San Antonio's is at 3523 Crosspoint Drive, San Antonio, TX 78217, 210-564-3300. Ask which office covers this area.

A 2025 Texas law also set a December 1, 2026 deadline for sheriffs who run jails to request 287(g) agreements. To learn this county's status, phone the Sheriff at 325-387-2288.

After sentencing, a person bound for prison waits in the county jail until TDCJ takes them. TDCJ intake comes first, and then the agency assigns a unit.

• Search TDCJ's records with the TDCJ inmate search, starting with the surname. A TDCJ or SID number works better when you know it. Updates come on working days only, so data lags by at least 24 hours.
• People in county jail waiting for transfer are left off until TDCJ has them.
• Units across the state get a profile each on our Texas state prisons page.

Texas law counts ages 10 through 16 as children, and they are held in a youth detention center apart from the adult jail. Family Code 51.02 treats anyone 17 or older as an adult.

• Family Code 52.02 tells officers to inform a parent promptly of the custody and explain the cause.
• A child kept in detention must get a hearing no later than working day two, per Family Code 54.01. A Friday or Saturday pickup shifts it to the first working day. The child will have an appointed lawyer by then.
• Class C cases with the Justice of the Peace may go through the youth diversion plan.

Want to know which center the child went to? Call the Sheriff's Office at 325-387-2288.

If you are not sure who made the arrest, here is who covers what:

• Sonora Police Department, 609 S Water Ave, Sonora, TX 76950, 325-387-3888 (the chief's office line). City police patrol inside the town limits.
• Sutton County Sheriff's Office, 401 E. Oak Street, Sonora, TX 76950, 325-387-2288. Deputies patrol the rest of the county and run the jail.
• Texas Highway Patrol: troopers from the Department of Public Safety work state roads; the Sheriff's Office can give the closest DPS office.

For an emergency, dial 911.