Ward County Jail Inmate Bail & Bonds

A magistrate. Ward's lawyer plan, shared with Loving and Reeves, gives officers 48 hours after an arrest to bring the person before one. State law uses that limit too. Texas law lets that hearing happen over video (CCP 15.17).

In that short appearance, expect the magistrate to:

• say what each charge is and explain that the person may keep quiet and may have counsel
• offer the appointed-lawyer form and walk through it
• settle bail and conditions, picking the least restrictive mix that still works for this one person (CCP 17.028)

For Class B and every higher level, the magistrate must first study a public safety report. It lists past cases, yet it holds no risk score and names no dollar figure (CCP 17.022). Booking at 432-943-6703 can say roughly when magistration happens.

Three kinds of release show up in cases here (CCP 17.01-17.03):

• Cash bond. The whole bail amount gets deposited with the county and sits there until a judge closes the file.
• Surety bond. For a fee that stays theirs, a licensed bondsman vouches for the entire bail.
• Personal bond. The person's signed pledge stands in for money.

Some people can't get that third option. The list covers certain violent offenses, felons holding guns, protective order breaches and terroristic threats graded Class A or higher. With burglary and certain drug felonies, the court hearing the case decides alone whether one is allowed (CCP 17.03).

Texas publishes no statewide price chart, so each magistrate sizes the bond for the person in front of them. Any local schedule must yield to individual facts (CCP 17.028). The factors (CCP 17.15):

• enough to make court dates likely
• never a tool of oppression
• what this person can actually afford
• the offense, violence, prior record, and the safety of victims, officers and the community

Two ceilings come straight from statute. Suppose officers arrest someone with no warrant and probable cause still hasn't been decided by the deadline. Then misdemeanor bail can't top $5,000 and felony bail can't top $10,000 (CCP 17.033). Your person's own number is known at Booking, 432-943-6703.

Jail bonds are handled at the Sheriff's building, 415 E. Monahans Parkway, Monahans, TX 79756. Go in this order:

1. Call 432-943-6703; Booking takes bond questions.
2. Write down every charge with its bond figure and bond type.
3. Learn which payment kinds are taken right now, and whose name a money order needs.
4. Find out about holds or other cases that would still block the door.
5. Arrive carrying photo ID and the full sum. Put the receipt in the name that should receive any refund.
6. Tuck that receipt away somewhere you won't lose it.

Jailers taking a bond look up the person's record first. Where violence is charged, setting the amount is not their call (CCP 17.20, 17.22).

Phone first, since each case's office decides where its bond gets paid. Pick the office matching the charge:

• District Clerk (felony files), Ward County Courthouse, 400 South Allen, Monahans, TX 79756, 432-943-2751
• County Clerk (Class A and B files), 400 S Allen, Suite 101, Monahans, TX 79756, 432-943-3294. Open Monday through Thursday until 4:30 p.m., Friday until 4 p.m., starting at 8 a.m.
• JP Precincts 1 and 4, 3600 S Stockton Street, Monahans, TX 79756, 432-943-7227
• JP Precincts 2 and 3, 3600 S Stockton Street, Monahans, TX 79756, 432-943-7237

Class C tickets carry fines only, and the justice courts mostly release on personal bonds for them, so cash is seldom part of it (CCP 45A.107).

Ask Booking at 432-943-6703 before leaving home, because accepted payments can change. Arriving with the wrong kind adds hours to your person's wait.

The two JP courts link an online citation payment page. It's built for tickets, using a citation number, and isn't meant for jail bonds.

• Pay only at a jail or clerk window, and walk away with a receipt.
• Refunds of cash bail follow the receipt's name (CCP 17.02).
• Cash should never go through the mail.

Yes, if licensed. Texas requires a licensing board for bondsmen only in counties of 110,000-plus people (Occupations Code 1704.002), and Ward counted about 11,125 in mid-2025, per the Census Bureau. Counties lacking a board can rely on a sheriff's posted roll of sureties whose finances were checked (CCP 17.141). The Sheriff's Office on the Parkway can say whether such a roll exists.

Points from the bondsman law:

• Fees have no legal ceiling, so shop around.
• In board counties, every payment or item you give a bondsman must be receipted (Occupations Code 1704.305). Ask for one in Ward too.
• Where a board exists, bondsmen can't recruit clients in jails (Occupations Code 1704.304), so be wary of anyone who approaches you there.
• Did you pledge a truck title or a deed? Write the bondsman once every case and payment wraps up. In a board county, return is due within a month of that letter (Occupations Code 1704.301).
• A licensed lawyer who represents the person on that charge can put up the bond too, no bondsman license required.

A paid bond clears just its own case. Keep an eye out for these other snags:

• Out-of-county warrants. A magistrate in Monahans may set bail on one; the bond paperwork then travels to the county whose court signed that warrant (CCP 15.18).
• Parole violations. These usually mean staying put until the parole hearing.
• Probation. Ward, Loving and Reeves share an adult probation office at 700-A Daggett, Pecos, TX 79772, 432-447-6600.
• Family violence. Where officers think more violence is likely, a four-hour wait follows the posting of bond. A magistrate may order up to 48 more (CCP 17.291).
• ICE. A detainer runs on its own track, explained in the detainer answer.

Ask Booking at 432-943-6703 to read off all holds before anyone pays.

Bail is the normal rule. For generations the big exception has been capital cases where proof is evident (Tex. Const. art. I, sec. 11). Other narrow denials apply to some repeat felonies and to broken safety conditions (Tex. Const. art. I, secs. 11a-11c).

Proposition 3, which Texans adopted in the November 4, 2025 election, put sec. 11d into Tex. Const. art. I. That section applies to murder, capital murder and a short list of other grave violent or sexual crimes, among them aggravated robbery, aggravated kidnapping and human trafficking. Only the prosecutor can ask for denial. After a hearing, bail must be refused if the state shows the person likely won't come back, or shows clear and convincing proof of danger. A judge who still allows bail on one of these charges has to write down findings. In those same violent cases, a 2025 law also lets the state ask a higher court to raise a bail it calls too low (CCP 44.01).

Two prosecutor offices serve Ward:

• 143rd District Attorney, Monahans Business Center, 601 W. I-20 North Service Road, Monahans, TX 79756, 432-251-0456
• County Attorney, 201 East 4th Street, Monahans, TX 79756, 432-943-4211

Yes. Counsel files a motion seeking a lower figure or easier conditions, and families can feed that motion with:

1. pay stubs, rent receipts and bills proving what the family can raise
2. proof of a local address, a job and close family in the area
3. a concrete place to live while the case runs

Under CCP 17.15, a magistrate has to weigh a person's means. Prosecution delay matters as well. When prosecutors still aren't ready for trial after a set number of days, the law gives the person a personal bond or trims the bail. Those deadlines: felonies 90 days, Class A cases 30 days, Class B cases 15 days, with exceptions (CCP 17.151).

Felony requests go to the 143rd District Court, 400 S. Allen, Suite 200, Monahans, TX 79756, 432-943-2749.

A single indigent defense plan covers Ward, Loving and Reeves, effective January 1, 2026. In short:

• Magistrates supply the request form. Earlier than that, ask the District Clerk (felony) or County Clerk (misdemeanor) for one.
• Within three working days of receiving it, the judge rules on need and names counsel.
• Getting SNAP, Medicaid, TANF, SSI or housing aid creates a presumption of need. Household net income no higher than the federal poverty guideline does too, if assets are low.
• Bail money, or help from relatives and friends, isn't counted against the person.

Local lawyers take turns from the appointment list. Capital murder defense is handed off to a Lubbock-based team, the Regional Public Defender for Capital Cases, 806-696-3740, P.O. Box 2097, Lubbock, TX 79408. Ward's shared plan routes capital cases there.

Nearly all of them sit inside the courthouse at 400 South Allen, Monahans, TX 79756:

• 143rd District Court (felonies, shared with Loving and Reeves), 400 S. Allen, Suite 200, Monahans, TX 79756, 432-943-2749
• District Clerk, 400 South Allen, Monahans, TX 79756, 432-943-2751
• County Clerk (misdemeanor filings), 400 S Allen, Suite 101, Monahans, TX 79756, 432-943-3294
• Justice courts (Class C), 3600 S Stockton Street, Monahans, TX 79756: Precincts 1 and 4 at 432-943-7227, Precincts 2 and 3 at 432-943-7237
• U.S. District Court, Pecos Division, in the federal courthouse named for Lucius D. Bunton III, 410 South Cedar, Pecos, TX 79772, 432-445-4228

If every condition was met, the county repays a cash deposit after the case, payable to the receipt's named depositor (CCP 17.02). Clerks hand out a no-cost motion form so you can claim it.

• The clerk's cut is 5%, at most $50. That fee needs a conviction or deferred adjudication; a not-guilty verdict or a dropped case leaves the deposit whole (Local Government Code 117.055).
• Any fines or costs the person owes may come out of that deposit (CCP 17.53).
• Not showing up for court can mean the judge forfeits the bond (CCP 22.01). Bondsmen escape payment by getting the person jailed again in time, within half a year on misdemeanors or nine months on felonies (CCP 22.13).
• Missing court on purpose becomes a new charge of its own, Penal Code 38.10, ranked by the original case.

To chase a refund, phone the clerk whose office keeps the file. Felony refunds sit with the District Clerk, 432-943-2751.

Sort this out before your person walks out of the Parkway building. Phone 432-943-6703 and ask how a leftover commissary balance gets paid out, and when property taken at booking can be picked up.

Bring photo ID to 415 E. Monahans Parkway, Monahans, TX 79756. Collecting for someone else might require a note they signed. For deposit and refund basics, see our money for inmates page.

Federal charges from Ward are heard in Pecos, one of the Western District's divisions:

• The clerk sits in that same Pecos federal building, 410 South Cedar, Pecos, TX 79772, 432-445-4228.
• A federal judge decides custody at a detention hearing, which usually comes at the first court date (18 U.S.C. 3142).
• Between arrest and trial, federal defendants are U.S. Marshals Service prisoners, usually in rented county jail space. Pecos office: 410 South Cedar, Pecos, TX 79772, 432-445-5495.
• Federal Public Defender, Pecos: 410 South Cedar Street, 1st Floor, Pecos, TX 79772, 432-445-2024.
• After a prison sentence, search the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator.

No. Posting bail settles Texas custody, not federal immigration custody:

1. ICE sends the Parkway jail Form I-247A, its detainer.
2. Because of it, release can be pushed back up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. Since 2017, state law has required Texas jails to follow detainers. That hold drops away for anyone able to prove citizenship or lawful presence (CCP 2A.060). Under Government Code 752.053, no Texas county or city may set policies curbing immigration enforcement.
4. A 2025 statute adds a deadline for jail-running counties: by December 1, 2026, the sheriff must have sought a 287(g) agreement from ICE. The Sheriff's Office can tell you Ward's standing.
5. ICE agents take the person to a facility of ICE's choosing. Search the ICE Online Detainee Locator. Enter the A-number, or if that's unknown, the full name and the person's birth country.

State jail felony sentences, 180 days up to two years, are served in a state jail unit per Penal Code 12.35. Bigger felonies, third degree and up, mean a sentence in one of TDCJ's prisons. Once a judge sentences them, people sit in Monahans until TDCJ calls for them. Intake then decides which unit fits.

• Look them up through the TDCJ inmate search. It accepts a surname with first initial, or a TDCJ number, and updates on business days.
• For visiting and mailing at a particular prison, open our Texas state prisons page and pick the unit.

Ages 10 to 16, judged by the offense date, put a case in juvenile court; 17-year-olds are adults under the criminal law (Family Code 51.02). Children follow a separate path from adult bail:

• Family Code 52.02 tells police to call a parent or guardian promptly.
• For a detained child, a judge reviews custody within two working days. A Friday or Saturday detention moves that hearing up to the first working day. Texas assigns the child a lawyer before that hearing (Family Code 54.01).
• Counsel for youths comes from the juvenile board plan for Loving, Reeves and Ward.

Families can learn where a child is being kept by phoning the Sheriff's Office, 432-943-6703, and asking for juvenile probation's number.