Jim Wells County Inmate Population
The Jim Wells County inmate population means the people held in the county jail before trial, after a warrant arrest, during a short local sentence, or while waiting for bond, release, court action, or transfer. The primary local detention site is the Jim Wells County Jail, operated by the Jim Wells County Sheriff's Department. The county research found no separate long-term city jail, Texas Department of Criminal Justice unit, Bureau of Prisons facility, or ICE detention center physically inside Jim Wells County. That matters because a name missing from the county roster does not always mean the person has no custody record.
Jim Wells County jail custody is local custody. A person arrested by a sheriff's deputy, Alice Police officer, DPS trooper, constable, or another law-enforcement agency may be booked into the jail if not released at the scene. After felony sentencing, the lookup path usually moves to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Federal sentenced prisoners are searched through the Bureau of Prisons, and immigration detainees are searched through ICE. The Jim Wells County inmate population page therefore has two jobs: show the sourced population facts that exist and route each custody question to the correct public system.
Jim Wells County Inmate Statistics
The most useful official population figure came from Jim Wells County's inmate-healthcare procurement materials. The county's 2024 RFP states that the Jim Wells County Jail houses male and female inmates and had an average daily population of 80 over the prior 12 months. The same RFP told bidders to base the next service year on an average daily population of 80. No official rated-capacity number, annual booking count, or average length-of-stay figure was located in the county and TCJS sources reviewed for this build.
| Measure | Figure | Source / Year |
|---|---|---|
| County jail average daily population | 80 | Jim Wells County inmate-healthcare RFP, 2024 |
| Population served | Male and female inmates | Jim Wells County inmate-healthcare RFP, 2024 |
| Rated jail capacity | Not located in official sources reviewed | County and TCJS materials checked |
| TDCJ facilities in county | 0 located | TDCJ unit directory |
| BOP or ICE facilities in county | 0 located | BOP and ICE facility sources checked |
The county bidding page is the source that led to the jail-population figure. The screenshot below comes from Jim Wells County's bidding page, where the inmate-healthcare RFP was posted.
The RFP is more useful for population work than a general jail page because it gives the ADP basis used for jail medical staffing and services.
Jim Wells County Population Trends
Jim Wells County did not publish a multi-year public jail dashboard in the official materials reviewed. The trend that can be stated with confidence is narrower: the RFP lookback period and planning period both used an average daily population of 80. That is not the same as a five-year trend line, and it should not be stretched into one. A current roster count may rise or fall on any given day as arrests, magistrate warnings, bond postings, releases, and transfers occur.
| Year or Period | ADP or Count | What the Source Supports |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 RFP lookback | 80 ADP | County said the prior 12 months averaged 80 inmates |
| 2025 planning basis | 80 ADP | County told proposers to price the next service year on ADP 80 |
| 2023 and earlier | Not located | No official annual jail population series found |
When a public source does not provide a metric, the better result is to mark it as missing. Jim Wells County has one official local ADP figure, a clear facility map, and several public lookup paths. It does not have a published local dashboard for bed capacity, annual bookings, charge mix, race, age, pretrial share, or average length of stay in the sources reviewed.
Who Is in Jim Wells Jail
The Jim Wells County inmate population includes male and female inmates, according to the county RFP. The public research did not locate official local counts by sex, charge level, race, age, sentence status, or hold type. Still, the legal categories are important. A county jail population can include people arrested on new charges, people arrested on warrants, defendants waiting for court action, people serving short county sentences, and people waiting on transport or transfer paperwork.
- Pretrial detainees: people held while charges, bond, and court dates are pending.
- Local-sentence inmates: people serving a county jail sentence rather than a state prison sentence.
- Warrant or hold inmates: people held on a bench warrant, another county warrant, probation matter, parole hold, federal hold, or detainer.
- Transfer cases: people waiting to move to TDCJ, federal custody, ICE custody, or another agency after local processing.
These terms explain why one name may appear on the Jim Wells County roster one week and then move to another system later. A booking record follows the county jail event. A court record follows the filed case. A TDCJ profile follows the state-prison sentence after transfer.
Jim Wells County Jail Laws
Texas law controls both access to records and the baseline standards for county jail operations. The Texas Public Information Act is the starting point for booking-record and mugshot requests. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards is the state body that regulates county jail construction, maintenance, and operation. Texas criminal procedure rules also shape the first hours after arrest, including magistrate warnings and bond decisions.
Key legal sources:
Texas Government Code Chapter 552 treats Texas government records as public unless an exception or statute allows withholding.
Texas Government Code Chapter 511 creates and empowers the Texas Commission on Jail Standards.
TCJS Minimum Jail Standards include jail population and inmate roster reporting forms.
Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 17 governs bail, bond, and release conditions after arrest.
The standards do not mean every internal jail field is public online. Juvenile records, sealed records, expunged records, medical records, security details, and some law-enforcement information may be restricted. For public users, the practical split is simple: use the current roster for current custody, use a Public Information Act request for non-online county records, and use court or state systems for cases and prison custody.
Search Jim Wells County Inmates
The official local path starts at the sheriff's jail page, which tells users to click the Jail tab and open the Current Jail Roster. The roster link points to a vendor-hosted portal at jwcs.mvl-dev.com. The sheriff's jail page adds a practical warning: Apple and Android users may need Chrome installed to view the roster correctly. That local detail is important because a failed mobile page load can look like a failed inmate search.
The roster is best read as a current-custody tool for Jim Wells County Jail. It is not a complete list of every past arrest in Jim Wells County, every court charge filed by the district attorney, every TDCJ prisoner from the county, or every federal or immigration detainee. If the name is not listed, the next step depends on the person's likely status.
- Open the Jim Wells County sheriff jail page.
- Select the Current Jail Roster link.
- Use Chrome on a mobile device if the roster will not load.
- Search or browse by name when the portal is available.
- Read any charge or bond line as a booking record, then check court records for filed charges.
- Call 361-668-0341 or use the county records request process if the roster does not answer the question.
The sheriff jail page is the public doorway for the roster. The screenshot below is from the official sheriff jail page.
The roster link and Chrome notice make the sheriff jail page the safest first stop before moving to phone, records, court, state, or federal channels.
Jim Wells County Roster Fields
The live roster was documented with access limits because the portal depends on browser behavior. Use cautious field language. The roster is intended to identify current jail inmates, but the sheriff's static page does not publish a fixed list of every field or a refresh interval. A profile may show name, booking date, charge information, bond information, arresting agency, and a booking photo if the portal publishes one.
| Field Label | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Last name or name search | Text | Unspecified | Used to narrow current roster results when search is exposed |
| First name | Text | Unspecified | May narrow a common-name search or appear on a profile |
| Booking or inmate number | Text | Unspecified | Exact format not published in sheriff instructions |
| Current roster list | List or table | No | Browseable current roster path linked from the sheriff jail page |
| Search or reset | Button | Not applicable | Portal controls may vary by browser session |
A roster entry is not a conviction record. Booking charges can be amended, reduced, rejected, or replaced by later court filings. The court record after arrest must be checked in the Jim Wells County e-services portal or through the proper clerk when the filed charge or disposition matters.
Jim Wells County Records Requests
Current custody starts with the roster, but older or missing jail records may require a county Public Information Act request. Jim Wells County's public information page says requesters should download the application, enter the information correctly, and identify the office from which the information is requested. Requests go to the County of Jim Wells Record Request Department at 200 N. Almond Street, Alice, Texas 78332, or by fax at 361-661-1372.
For jail records, the request should identify the Sheriff's Department or jail, the person's full name, date of birth if known, booking date, arresting agency, and the exact record wanted. Examples include a booking sheet, booking photograph, charge line, release date, or jail incident record. The county did not publish a booking-record fee schedule in the sources reviewed, so fees should be confirmed through the request process.
The county records channel is shown on the Jim Wells County public information request page.
This channel is the correct fallback when a booking is no longer visible on the current roster or when an official copy is needed.
Jim Wells Jail vs Prison
Jim Wells County Jail and TDCJ serve different parts of the custody path. The county jail handles local booking, pretrial custody, short local sentences, and transfer holds. TDCJ handles sentenced state-prison custody after conviction and state intake. A person may disappear from the county roster because they bonded out, were released, were moved to another county, or were transferred to TDCJ after sentencing.
| Question | County Jail | State Prison |
|---|---|---|
| Who is held | Pretrial detainees, warrant arrests, local sentences, transfer holds | Sentenced state prisoners after transfer |
| Agency | Jim Wells County Sheriff's Department | Texas Department of Criminal Justice |
| Lookup | Sheriff-linked current jail roster | TDCJ online inmate search |
| Typical fields | Booking, charge, bond, custody status, possible photo | Location, offense, sentence, projected release information |
The TDCJ inmate information page says state inmate location, offense, and projected release information may be obtained online, by email, or by telephone. That makes TDCJ a required fallback for Jim Wells County cases after state-prison transfer, but it should not be used for a person newly booked in Alice.
State Federal ICE Search
Federal and immigration custody are separate from the Jim Wells County inmate population. The BOP inmate locator covers federal inmates incarcerated from 1982 to the present and can show name, register number, age, race, sex, release date, and location. It is not a public mugshot gallery. ICE's Online Detainee Locator System is the immigration detention search path and generally requires a browser session with JavaScript.
Texas VINELink is a custody notification service. It helps users register for custody or release alerts, but it does not replace the sheriff roster, the court portal, or TDCJ records. If a Jim Wells County inmate has an immigration hold, the person may still be in the county jail until transfer. After transfer to ICE, the county roster may no longer be the right lookup tool.
Jim Wells County Detention Facilities
The facility map found one Jim Wells County detention facility that should be treated as a full facility page. The Jim Wells County Jail is the local county jail in Alice. City police departments, including Alice Police Department, may make arrests and may process people briefly, but no official separate municipal jail roster or long-term city detention facility was located.
- Jim Wells County Jail - county jail operated by the Jim Wells County Sheriff's Department for male and female local inmates, including pretrial detainees and local-sentence inmates.
The sheriff site is also a local alert channel. The homepage advertises a sheriff app and breaking-news alerts for smartphones, but the research did not locate app-store URLs or a verified app-only inmate-search feature. Treat it as an alerts channel unless a current store listing proves more.
Booking Court and Release
A local arrest may begin with the Sheriff's Department, Alice Police Department, DPS, a constable, or another agency. If local custody is required, the person is transported to the Jim Wells County Jail, identified, searched, medically screened, photographed, fingerprinted, and entered into the booking system. Texas arrested persons then move toward magistrate warnings and bond decisions. The roster may show a booking charge or warrant charge, but the prosecutor and court record determine the filed case.
Bond in Texas is governed by Chapter 17 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Jim Wells County did not publish a local bond-payment page in the sources reviewed, so payment location, accepted payment types, and release timing must be confirmed through the jail or court. A person may have a bond on one charge and still remain in custody because of another county warrant, parole hold, probation matter, immigration detainer, federal hold, TDCJ paperwork, or no-bond court order.
Note: Confirm bond, holds, and release status with the jail or court before relying on a roster charge line.
Jim Wells Custody Terms
Custody records use short terms that can be easy to misread. These definitions are practical, not legal advice. They help separate jail custody from court charges, prison transfer, and release decisions.
- Booking
- The jail intake event after arrest, including identity, property, medical screening, fingerprints, and a booking photo.
- Roster
- The public current-custody list or portal linked by the Sheriff's Department.
- Bond
- A court-set release condition or amount that may allow release while the case is pending.
- Detainer
- A hold or request from another agency or jurisdiction that can delay release.
- TDCJ
- The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, used for sentenced state-prison custody after transfer.
- Expunction
- A court process that may remove qualifying arrest records from public access under Texas law.
Jim Wells County Inmate FAQ
How large is the Jim Wells County inmate population? The sourced local figure is an average daily population of 80 at the Jim Wells County Jail, from the county's 2024 inmate-healthcare RFP. No official rated-capacity figure was found in the county or TCJS materials reviewed.
Where do I search for a current Jim Wells County inmate? Start at the sheriff's jail page and open the Current Jail Roster. If the roster does not load on a phone or tablet, the sheriff page says Apple and Android users may need Chrome.
What if the person is not on the roster? Call the sheriff or jail at 361-668-0341, file a county Public Information Act request for older jail records, check the court portal for filed cases, or use TDCJ, BOP, or ICE if transfer or federal custody is possible.
Does Jim Wells County have a state prison? No TDCJ unit was found in Jim Wells County in the official unit directory. Sentenced state prisoners from the county are searched through TDCJ, not through a local state-prison page.