Lookup Houston County Inmate Records

Houston County Jail Roster Overview

The official Houston County Inmate List is the county jail roster linked from the Houston County Sheriff Department page. It is free, public, and does not require a login. The roster appears on the county website and loads live inmate cards from JSON and metadata feeds. The visible title area says Houston County Inmate List, while the embedded roster title says Current Inmates. The research found current in-custody examples, not a released-inmate tab or a historical booking database.

Houston County inmate records on the roster are local jail records. They do not replace District Clerk court files, TDCJ prison profiles, BOP custody records, or ICE detainee records. A recent arrest in Crockett, Grapeland, Lovelady, Kennard, Latexo, or another county community should usually be checked in the county jail roster first. A sentenced state prisoner should be checked through TDCJ. Federal custody and immigration custody use federal channels even when a person may have passed through Houston County Jail.

Search Houston County Inmate Records

The roster uses one search box. That makes it simple, but it also means spelling and number accuracy matter. Start with the least specific term that is likely to work. A surname is often enough. If there are many results, add a first name or use the booking number from a bond receipt, court paper, or jail call. If the roster feed cannot load, the widget displays an error message instead of silent blank results.

1. Open the official Houston County Inmate List from the county website.
2. Wait for the last-updated display and inmate cards to load.
3. Type a first name, middle name, last name, booking number, or inmate number in the search box.
4. Use Sort by Name, Booking Number, Arrest Date, or Bond Amount if the results need to be reordered.
5. Read the inmate card for status, location, arrest date, charge lines, and bond information.
6. If no record appears, call the jail, submit a records request, check IVSS, or use TDCJ, BOP, or ICE if the person left county custody.

Houston County Roster Search Fields

The roster does not publish separate filters for date of birth, arresting agency, facility, charge type, or release date. Search matching is performed against first name, middle name, last name, booking number, and inmate number. The sort option changes display order. Bond sorting uses the total of per-charge bail amounts, so a person with several bond lines may sort differently than a person with one charge.

The county capture of the Houston County Inmate List shows the one-box roster search and the public inmate-card layout.

Because the roster is embedded on the county site, the public-facing page and the data feed should be treated together as the official county roster channel.

What Houston County Inmate Profiles Show

A Houston County inmate profile is a current booking card. It is useful for confirming custody and reading charge and bond lines, but it is not a full prosecution file. The roster does not show date of birth, age, race, sex, height, weight, arresting agency, court date, judge, projected release date, warrant number, or prior booking history in the sampled public fields. For filed charges and case status after arrest, use the District Clerk path described on the court records after jail arrest page.

Houston County, TDCJ, BOP, and ICE

Use the custody system that matches the person's status. Houston County Jail handles current local jail custody. TDCJ handles sentenced Texas prisoners, including those at J. Dale Wainwright Unit in Lovelady. The BOP locator handles people in federal Bureau of Prisons custody, while U.S. Marshals custody may involve federal pretrial transport or detention before BOP designation. ICE handles immigration detainee location, not county booking photos or county court dates.

Houston County Jail Facilities

Houston County has one sheriff-operated county jail page and one state prison page in the facility map. The county jail is the record source for current local custody. Wainwright is a TDCJ prison and should not be searched through the county roster unless the person is separately booked in the county jail.

Booking Process in Houston County

Houston County did not publish a full intake manual in the inspected sheriff pages, but the roster shows the public record created by booking. Jail staff identify the person, create or update the inmate number, assign a booking number, record the arrest or booking time, take a booking photo, enter public charge and bond information, and assign a block or location label. The metadata feed supplies the last-updated line for the roster page.

A person may not appear on the roster at the exact moment of arrest. Transport, intake, identification, medical or security screening, classification, magistration, and data updates can all take time. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 15.17 supplies the state-level first appearance framework, but the research did not locate a Houston County-specific promise for appearance timing. Bond and court routing can change after the initial booking card appears.

Houston County Bond Information

Houston County roster cards display bond by charge under Bond Information. A charge line can show a dollar amount, but the record should not be read in isolation. A $0.00 line may mean no bond has been set, a hold exists, the charge is not bondable at that point, the entry is incomplete, or another agency controls release. Texas bail law is in Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 17, and bail bond sureties are regulated under Texas Occupations Code Chapter 1704.

• Call Houston County Jail at 936-544-2862 before traveling or paying anyone.
• Ask whether all charges have a bond and whether a hold or detainer blocks release.
• Confirm court-set bond and conditions with the court or clerk after the case is filed.
• Use a licensed bail bond surety under Texas law when a surety bond is needed.
• Keep receipts and case numbers because bond obligations follow court rules.

Houston County Visitation and Mail

The sheriff page links an official inmate mail and correspondence procedure PDF, but the research did not extract readable rule text from it. The inspected county pages did not publish a formal visitation schedule, video-visit vendor, phone provider, commissary fee table, money-deposit vendor, attorney-visit schedule, or visitor dress code. The safest accurate rule is to confirm visits, mail, phone, and money details with the jail before sending items or arriving at the facility.

Houston County Jail Records Requests

When the roster is not enough, Houston County Sheriff's Office provides a Public Information Act request channel. Requests may be mailed or hand delivered to Zak Benge, Houston County Sheriff's Office, 700A South 4th Street, Crockett, TX 75835, or emailed to hcso@co.houston.tx.us. The sheriff page did not publish a separate open-records form, copy fee schedule, or processing-time promise. A clear request should name the record wanted, such as a booking record, jail roster entry, arrest report, bond record, or booking photograph.

Released or older Houston County inmate records may require this request route because the public roster did not show a released-inmate search in the inspected source. Include enough identifiers to separate people with similar names, but do not ask the sheriff to interpret court outcomes or legal eligibility for expunction. Filed felony case records remain with the District Clerk, and DA-office records have their own request path through the District Attorney page.