1. Open the current inmate list on the county's site.
2. Put a last name in the search box. A short spelling, like the first four letters, catches typos.
3. Got a booking number from a deputy? Search that instead. It is the surest match.
4. Click a column to sort by name or arrest date. Recent arrests float up when you sort by date.
5. Try the location filter to narrow results by where people are held.
6. Write down the booking number and location. Every office you call later will ask for them.

The page carries no photos. Expect names, booking numbers, arrest dates and location. For anything else, phone the Sheriff's Office at 936-642-1424.

• Booking takes time. Prints, a photo and an inventory of belongings all come before the record shows up. Give it a couple of hours.
• Already out. A posted bond or a personal bond can send someone home before you search.
• Moved. Transfers to a contract jail happen often here, and a name may vanish briefly during the drive.
• Spelling. Hyphenated surnames, maiden names and nicknames trip up searches, so try each one.
• Data trouble. When the page shows a notice about a disruption, or the list is blank, the records are down for a bit.
• A different agency. A trooper or a neighboring county's deputies could have arrested and held them.

In every case, a deputy at 936-642-1424 can check the booking records by name and birth date. Keep the call short and polite, and have a pen ready.

The county's own jail had room for only seven people in a June 2022 state count. In August 2022 the same reports showed 36 more held elsewhere. The Sheriff's website names these jails as partners:

• Groveton (home base): Trinity County Jail, 214 W. 1st St., Groveton, TX 75845, 936-642-1424. Arrests are booked here.
• Crockett: Houston County Jail, 700A South 4th Street, Crockett, TX 75835, 936-544-3261.
• Cameron: Milam County Jail, 512 N. Jefferson, Cameron, TX 76520, 254-697-7063.
• Coldspring: San Jacinto County Jail, 75 W. Cedar Avenue, Coldspring, TX 77331, 936-653-4367.
• Meridian: Bosque County Jail, 266 FM 2840, Meridian, TX 76665, 254-435-9966.
• Glen Rose: Somervell County Jail, 750 E. Gibbs Blvd., Glen Rose, TX 76043, 254-897-2242.
• Hempstead: Waller County Jail, 100 Sheriff R. Glenn Smith Drive, Hempstead, TX 77445, 979-826-8282.
• Anderson: Grimes County Jail, 382 FM 149 West, Anderson, TX 77830, 936-873-6439.

To learn which partner jail has your person, ask the Groveton deputies first. Then follow that host jail's own rules on visits, deposits and mail.

No. The Sheriff's current inmate list shows text only, with no mugshots. A booking photo is still a public record in many cases. Here is how to ask for one:

• Write a short letter to the Sheriff that names the Public Information Act, the person and the day of arrest. Mail it to P.O. Box 95, Groveton, TX 75845. Gov't Code §552.108(c) still opens basic facts about an arrest to anyone, but a photo from a case still in progress might be withheld.
• Websites that sell mugshot removals are covered by Business & Commerce Code chapter 109. If a site asks $150 or more to remove a photo, any error or gap in its record must be fixed or taken down at no charge. Those sites also can't touch expunged or nondisclosed records.
• Photo taken during an ICE arrest? ICE answers FOIA requests made on its records request form, so ask there.
• Federal booking shots generally stay sealed. Now and then the Marshals Service hands one out while hunting a fugitive.

Texas swapped its old VINE alerts for IVSS-Counties, a no-cost service watching custody in county jails statewide. Enroll through the IVSS-Counties portal, or dial 866-268-8959 day or night; English and Spanish both work. Your details stay confidential.

Pick a phone call, text or email. You'll hear when the person is released, moved or has a change in status. Victims rely on it, but families use it too. Also check the Sheriff's list now and then, since a move to a partner jail can come with little warning.

The clock on seeing a magistrate is 48 hours from arrest, and sometimes that meeting happens on a TV screen (CCP art. 15.17). In that hearing they hear their rights, get asked if they need an appointed lawyer, and learn the bail on every count. Three kinds of bond are common:

• Cash bond: you put up every dollar, and it comes back once the case closes, though costs may be taken out.
• Surety bond: a licensed bail bond agent signs for the full amount and pockets a fee that stays theirs.
• Personal bond: nothing paid up front, just a signed pledge to return; the judge decides.

Some violent charges make a personal bond off-limits. A separate hold, say from a parole officer, another county or an ICE detainer, can keep them inside even after bond is posted. The details, steps and phone numbers are on our release and bond page.

Phone the Sheriff's Office at 936-642-1424. Deputies can read out each charge and its bond. Once prosecutors file, the formal charge sits with a clerk:

• Felonies: District Clerk, 219 W. 1st St., Groveton, TX 75845, 936-642-1118.
• Class A and B misdemeanors: County Clerk, 211 W. 1st St., Groveton, TX 75845, 936-642-1208.

The courts also run re:SearchTX. With a free account, it shows the charging papers and the final judgment, but no hearing times. Felony charges usually need a grand jury indictment, so the first charge can change.

Say yes when the magistrate offers an appointed lawyer and money is short. The request travels to the judge in charge of appointments.

Because the county is small, the appointing judge gets three working days, counting from receipt, to pick someone (CCP art. 1.051(c)). After appointment, that attorney has about one more working day for a sincere effort to reach their new client (CCP art. 26.04(j)). If you talk to them first, remind them to ask. To see how local judges pick lawyers, find this county on the TIDC plan list.

Visiting days and times can change, so call before you drive. For Groveton, dial 936-642-1424 and ask about the schedule, ID rules and whether visits are by video. For someone in a partner jail, call that jail, since its own rules apply.

State rules give every county jail a minimum. Each inmate gets no fewer than two non-contact visits weekly, twenty-plus minutes apiece. One or more of those must land in an evening or weekend slot. Some jails won a waiver from in-person visits and offer video ones (Gov't Code §511.009). More tips sit on our jail visiting page.

An online deposit service for the commissary account is linked from the Sheriff's jail page. With those funds, a person can buy soap, extra food, stamps or phone time. Our money page explains deposit choices in general.

Before you pay, confirm where the person is. A deposit made for Groveton won't follow someone held in Cameron or Coldspring. Ask the Sheriff's Office at 936-642-1424 about fees, limits and lobby options. Keep your receipt.

Nobody can phone into the jail to reach a prisoner. Calls only go outward, collect or charged to prepaid time that a family buys from the jail's phone vendor. The county's jail page links that company's sign-up page for families. Our jail phone page covers prepaid accounts.

Some jails also offer electronic messages. Read our jail email page, then ask the jail holding your person whether it is offered there. Calls can be recorded, so don't discuss the case.

Before mailing anything, call 936-642-1424 and ask for the correct inmate mail address. A person held at a partner jail gets mail at that jail's address, not in Groveton.

• Envelope: their legal name, then the booking number.
• Add your own name and return address.
• Ask what's banned before you tuck in photos or cards.

Texas jail standards don't cap letters. Jailers open a lawyer's letters only while the inmate looks on. Our mail page has more tips.

The jail where the person was last held keeps their bag of clothes, wallet and keys. If they were moved to Hempstead or Meridian, that may be where the bag sits. Phone 936-642-1424 first and ask:

1. which jail has the property right now;
2. whether the person must sign a release before you collect it;
3. which photo ID you need, and the hours for pickup.

Also ask how any money left on the commissary account gets paid back to the person.

Every county jail in Texas must give needed medical care. Call the jail holding the person and say what you know: medicines, allergies, recent injury, pregnancy or mental health needs. For Groveton, use 936-642-1424. Staff may say little back, yet your facts can still reach the nurse or doctor.

Bring prescriptions in the original bottle only if the jail says so. Think care is being refused? Raise it with Austin's jail regulators, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, at 512-463-5505. In an emergency, also ask the defense lawyer to raise it with the judge.

Sheriff's deputies serve most warrants here, at 936-642-1424, and constables pitch in: Precinct 1 at 936-642-3958, Precinct 3 at 936-594-3004, Precinct 4 at 936-831-3781. Across Texas, DPS spotlights its most-sought fugitives through its Texas 10 Most Wanted list.

Curious whether there's a warrant? A deputy or the court clerk can say. To clear one, report to whichever court signed it, ideally alongside your lawyer, or call that court for a fresh setting. District Court warrants (felonies) run through the District Clerk, 219 W. 1st St., Groveton, TX 75845, 936-642-1118.

Ask the clerk. The District Clerk keeps felony dates at 936-642-1118. For Class A or B misdemeanors, ring the County Clerk at 936-642-1208. Class C tickets belong to the JP precinct printed on the citation.

Quote the legal name and birthday, and a clerk can read you the cause number. Quote it on every later call. Our court page lists every courtroom, the JP offices and how a case moves from arrest to trial.

Federal charges from Groveton, Trinity or Apple Springs are filed in the Eastern District of Texas. Lufkin's Ward R. Burke U.S. Courthouse holds the clerk's office, 104 North Third Street, Lufkin, TX 75901, 936-632-2739.

Going home before trial needs a U.S. magistrate judge's OK, given only after a detention hearing (18 U.S.C. 3142). The U.S. Marshals Service holds them meanwhile, often in a county jail it rents. Its Lufkin office is at 936-219-6412. Once sentenced, people pass into Bureau of Prisons custody; the BOP inmate locator finds them by name or BOP register number.

1. The detainer comes first: ICE sends a Form I-247A over to whichever jail is housing them.
2. Groveton deputies, or the partner jail, can then keep the person for up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. Agents then transport them out of county custody. One ICE site in this region is the Montgomery Processing Center, 806 Hilbig Road, Conroe, TX 77301, 936-521-4900.
4. Look them up on the ICE Online Detainee Locator. Search by A-number, or else by name with birth date and birth country.

Texas adds three layers. Jails must follow detainers; lawful immigration status is the one way out (CCP art. 2A.060). A city council or commissioners court can't pass rules hampering ICE work; Gov't Code §752.053 forbids it. Then came S.B. 8 in 2025: each county keeping a jail must sign a 287(g) arrangement with ICE, with December 1, 2026 set as its deadline. The ICE Houston Field Office covers this area: 126 Northpoint Drive, Houston, TX 77060, 281-774-4816.

Prison and state jail time are served in units of the state prison system, known as TDCJ. Until its bus arrives, the person keeps a county bed. Intake comes next: medical checks, tests and a security rating decide which unit they'll live at.

Plug a name or prisoner number into the TDCJ inmate search; fresh data loads each working day. For visits, letters and deposits after they've settled, see our Texas state prisons listings.

A child aged 10 through 16 is not held in the adult jail. Instead, deputies or police deliver them to a juvenile detention center or release them to a parent. At 17, Texas law counts someone as an adult.

Detention gets a judge's review fast: two working days at most, shortened to one for kids taken in on a Friday or Saturday. State law also insists the child has counsel by then. The county site sends families to San Jacinto County Juvenile Probation, 1114 Dogwood, Livingston, TX 77351, 936-327-6850. Ring them for the detention center's name plus the hearing's date and hour.

The county had about 14,384 people in a July 2025 Census estimate. Here is who can arrest someone, and how to reach them.

• Sheriff's Office (patrol for all areas outside town limits, such as Apple Springs): 936-642-1424. Constable Precinct 2 shares this line.
• Trinity Police Department, P.O. Box 431, Trinity, TX 75862, 936-594-2505.
• Groveton Police Department, 163 W. Front St., Groveton, TX 75845, 936-642-1255. If no one picks up, call the Sheriff's Office.
• Constable Precinct 1, 126 W. 1st St., Groveton, TX 75845, 936-642-3958.
• Constable Precinct 3, P.O. Box 464, Trinity, TX 75862, 936-594-3004.
• Constable Precinct 4, P.O. Box 81, Apple Springs, TX 75926, 936-831-3781.
• Texas Highway Patrol troopers work the county's highways too. For a trooper's arrest, a quick call to the Sheriff's line above should reveal the DPS office involved.

No matter whose badge was on the arrest, jail booking runs through the Sheriff, so the county's inmate list stays your first stop.