The Wichita County Jail in Wichita Falls, Texas is the county jail facility for Wichita County, Texas.  The Wichita County Jail is run by the Wichita County Sheriff, David Duke.  The goal of the Wichita County Sheriff’s Department is to provide service and transparency to the community.

The Detention Bureau is the part of the Wichita County Sheriff’s Office that runs the Wichita County Jail.  In fact, the Detention Bureau handles everything related to prisoners in the custody of the Wichita County Jail.  These duties include intake, release, housing, and transportation.

While most people in Wichita County do not see the activities of the Detention Bureau, it is actually the largest part of the Wichita County Sheriff’s Office.  The Wichita County Jail System actually has two facilities.  Their combined capacity is 624 people.  While the average population is 558, the jail population has been on the rise.

In addition, the Detention Bureau’s Transportation Division handles the transportation for prisoners to and from the jail, medical appointment, and court appointments.  In addition, the Transportation Division also picks up prisoners from other counties and states.

In 2005, the Wichita County Jail was assessed by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, which performed a Facility Needs Analysis.  At the time, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards found that the Wichita County Jail operates above its current female capacity.  They found that the intake and processing area was old and could be difficult to operate and maintain.  They suggested, at the time, that the jail move to a site that was sufficient for growth.  Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that the jail is in need of updates and that living conditions might be compromised as a result.

Like most county-level jails, the Wichita County Jail is considered a medium-security facility.  It is a jail that holds for both pretrial detainees and post-conviction inmates awaiting sentencing or movement to another facility.  Wichita County Jail does not have any long-term detainees.

Because the Wichita County Jail is designed primarily as a temporary holding facility, it does not have the same range of programming or services that one would find at a long-term detention facility.

Wichita County Jail Address

Wichita County Jail
900 7^th Street, Room 100
Wichita Falls, TX 76301

Mailing Address

The Wichita County Jail mailing address is:

Wichita County Jail
900 7^th Street, Room 100
Wichita Falls, TX 76301

Inmate Mailing Address

To send inmate mail via the U.S. Postal Service, you send it to the following address:

Inmate Name
Wichita County Jail
900 7^th Street, Room 100
Wichita Falls, TX 76301

Inmates can receive regular mail via the USPS.  Inmates cannot receive mail that is originally from a sender different from the one on the return address.  Inmates cannot receive mail that includes writing supplies like blank envelopes, stamps, scrap book paper, tracing paper, or blank paper.  Inmates cannot receive mail with unknown food or substances.  Inmates cannot get clothing or accessories in the mail.  Inmates cannot get art supplies like markers, paints, crayons, colored pencils, or pens. Inmate mail cannot have fasteners in it like stickers, papers clips, glue, or staples.

Inmates can receive photos, but the photos must be suitable for a jail population.  Photos cannot include images with gang activity, nudity, illegal activity, alcohol, or drugs.  Photos also cannot be Polaroids.  Inmates cannot receive more than 10 photos per letter.  Photos must be 8x10 or smaller.

Inmates can receive greeting cards.  However, the greeting cards have to meet certain standards.  They cannot contain glitter, glue or electronic substances.  They cannot be larger than 8x10.  They cannot be left blank.  They cannot be trifold, multilayered, or padded.

The outside of the envelope has to have a complete name and address in the return address.  There cannot be any writing or drawing on the outside of the envelope.

Inmates cannot get prepaid calling cards or currency.

Inmates cannot get cut outs, tear outs, newspaper clippings, photo copies, or home-printed materials.  Any shipments of printed material must be from the publisher.

Inmates can receive published material like books and magazines.  However, these published materials cannot be sent from individuals.  They must be sent either directly from a recognized publisher or from an authorized bookseller.  If you have questions about whether your bookseller can send books to the jail, contact the jail for more information.

Both incoming and outgoing mail may be searched and scanned prior to delivery.  All inmate mail will be scanned for contraband.  In addition to the above-listed items, contraband includes items like weapons, drugs, and escape plans. Sending contraband to an inmate can expose you to potential prosecution.

Phone Numbers

There is a main contact number for the Wichita County Sheriff’s Department: 940-766-8170.  The fax number is 940-766-8102.  The Wichita County Sheriff’s Department’s normal hours of operation are Monday- Friday 8:00am to 5:00pm.   

Inmate Roster

Wichita County Jail has an inmate search function.  This function lists inmates alphabetically by name.  It lists the name, booking date, age, race, and sex.  If you select the VINE link at the bottom of the inmate’s records, you can find the inmate’s offender identification number (SO number) and date of birth.  If you click on the record, you can see a copy of the inmate’s booking photo/mugshot.  It also provides the inmate’s address at the time that the inmate was booked, as well as the number of days that the inmate has spent in jail.  At the bottom of the record, it provides information about the inmate’s charges, including a description of each charge and a bond amount, if any, for the charges.  The arresting agency is listed next to each charge, and if the charges have been resolved, the disposition of the charges are listed, as well.

Visitation

All visitors must comply with visitation rules at all times or the visit may be terminated and the visitor’s visitation privileges may be revoked. 

Adults are permitted to bring one child with them to visitation.  Infants that must be held do not count towards the one-child limit, but toddlers do.  Children must be supervised at all times.  Furthermore, if more than two children are at the visitation, there must be one adult, at least seventeen or older, to supervise each child.

Visitors must wear proper clothing.  The Wichita County Jail does not define proper clothing.  However, many jails have similar dress codes.  They prohibit revealing clothing, tank tops, midriff tops, short-shorts, short-skirts, see-through clothing, baggy clothes, clothes with racist sayings, clothes that could signal gang affiliation, and sometimes multiple clothing layers that could be used to conceal things.

In addition, visitors cannot bring cell phones into visitation with them.

To visit an inmate, you need an ID issued by a state government or the federal government.  Valid forms of ID include Driver’s Licenses, state-issued ID’s, and military ID’s.  School ID’s are not accepted.  If you have any questions about whether your ID would be acceptable, you can contact the jail before coming to visitation.

Last names starting with A through L have visitation on Tuesday.  Last names starting with M through Z have visitation on Wednesday.  Inmates who are in solitary or on a keep separate list have visitation on Thursday.

However, visitation hours change around holidays, so if you plan to visit an inmate the same week as a holiday, you may want to call the jail or look online to see if the jail has posted a special holiday-week schedule.

Phone Privileges

Inmates can place outgoing calls, but cannot receive incoming calls.  If you have an emergency and you feel like the inmate needs to be contacted, you can contact the jail, but the jail will not take messages for inmates and generally will not relay information to inmates. They may make some exceptions for specific circumstances.

If you receive phone calls from inmates, you cannot use any call features.  This is because inmates are only permitted to talk to people at the number they are directly contacting.  Three way calls are call-forwarding are both prohibited and may result in loss of phone privileges. The person assisting you in making your three-way call will have their number removed from the system as well as the number the call is forward to.

All phone calls are monitored automatically by the phone system.  Calls may be recorded.

The phone service provider for Wichita County Jail is Global Tel Link.  You can contact them at 877-650-4249 to set up an account with them.  This may be necessary, because some phones, including most cell phones, cannot receive collect calls.

Trust Accounts / Commissary / Send Money

Wichita County Jail uses Access Corrections for inmate trust accounts.  Wichita County Jail allows inmates to have money in trust accounts.   You can send money order or cashier’s checks directly to an inmate, and they can have it placed on their accounts.  In addition, the jail facilities also have kiosks where you can use credit cards to deposit money on inmate accounts.

If you want to pick up relative’s property, you can come to the jail from 8:00am to 5:00pm from Monday to Friday.  Property can only be released in the inmates has filled out a property release form.  The Sheriff’s Office will only hold property for 30 days after the individuals are released from the jail; after that time, the property will be destroyed.

Inmate money is held separately from inmate property.  Released inmates can pick up their money from the main Sheriff’s Office building, located at the Wichita County Courthouse.  Funds will only be released Monday-Friday, from 10:00am to 3:00pm.  Money will only be released to the person listed on the “Released Inmate Money Instruction Sheet,” and people picking up the money must present a government-issued ID in order to get the money.

Bail Information

In Wichita County, Texas, bail bonds are overseen by the Wichita County Bail Bond Board.  The Wichita County Bail Bond Board supervises and regulates every aspect of the bonding experience, which means it regulates commercial bail bondsmen.  However, you do not pay bail or bond to Wichita County Bail Bond Board.

A judge sets the bail in Wichita County.  You will be taken in front of one of the County Courts at Law for your bail to be set.  County Courts at Law were created by the Texas Legislature to provide local legal services.  The judges are elected, and must be licensed attorneys who have practiced for at least four years.  Their duties are outlined in Texas Government Code § 25, which gives them the right to set bail and accept payment of bail.

The county courts have criminal jurisdiction of Class A and B misdemeanors and appellate jurisdiction over Class C offenses and justice of the peace and municipal court decisions.  Some of the county courts also have limited felony jurisdiction.

In Wichita County, Texas, judges look at a number of factors when determining bond amounts.  The goal of bond is to ensure that a defendant appears for trial.  Therefore, a judge takes into account: the crime allegedly committed, the defendant’s criminal history, the defendant’s financial resources, and the defendant’s ties to the community in order to determine how much of a flight risk a defendant is.  Once those factors have been considered, the judge determines bail.  The judge that sets the bail presides over the court where the bond is to be paid.

In Texas, there multiple types of bonds: cash bonds, surety bonds, and personal recognizance (PR) bonds.  As their name suggests, cash bonds are bonds for the exact amounts of money of the bond.  Cash bonds must be paid in full in order for a defendant to be released from jail. Though called cash bonds, the exact amount must be paid in cash or by a money order or cashier’s check.  PR bonds release a defendant from incarceration without the payment of money, based on the defendant’s promise to appear at a later court date.  PR bonds may have some non-monetary conditions.  Surety bonds are bonds, generally a percentage of the total bond amount, which are not posted by friends or relatives, but by professional bonds people.  The bonding company and the person guaranteeing the bond (the guarantor) enter into an agreement for the bonding company to post bond on behalf of a defendant in exchange for a fee.  The fee is usually 10% of the bond amount.  When a surety bond is posted and a defendant fails to appear, the guarantor is liable for the entire amount of the bond.

The Wichita County Jail will not recommend any particular bondsman.  However, if a bondsman or bond company is working in Wichita County, it has been approved by the Wichita County Bail Bond Board.  If you need the services of a bondsman, you can find one in the Yellow Pages or online.

Conclusion

The Wichita County Detention Center, located at 900 7^th Street, Wichita Falls, Texas, is the county jail facility for Wichita County, Texas.  It is run by the Wichita County Sheriff’s Office’s Detention Bureau.  The Wichita County jail houses inmates who have been detained by the Wichita County Sheriff’s Office as well as inmates who are detained by other law enforcement agencies in Wichita County.

The Wichita County Jail is designated as a temporary holding facility, which houses both pretrial detainees and post-conviction inmates awaiting sentencing or movement to another facility. Although there are no long-term inmates at the Wichita County Jail, the facility is known to have problems with overcrowding, particularly for its female inmates.  These problems have been documented for over a decade, without any significant improvement.  However, Wichita County voters recently approved a bond that is aimed at correcting conditions at the jail.  While it may take years to see any type of significant improvement, this new bond means that the jail will be changing dramatically in the foreseeable future.