Search Cooke County Detention Center Inmates

Cooke County Jail Overview

The official Cooke County jail page identifies the adult detention facility as the Cooke County Detention Center, also called the Cooke County Jail. It is operated by the Cooke County Sheriff's Office from the Justice Center in Gainesville. This is the county jail for adults arrested by sheriff's deputies, city police, constables, and other Texas agencies when the booking is accepted into Cooke County custody.

The jail holds pretrial detainees, people serving short county sentences, local holds, and people waiting for release, court action, transfer, or another agency's decision. A booking at this jail is not the same as a sentence to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Once an adult is sentenced to state prison or state jail, the search moves from the county roster to the TDCJ inmate search.

The county describes the facility as a 212-bed indirect-supervision jail staffed by 45 employees. The jail page names Jail Administrator Nathan Ervin and Jail Lieutenant Ann Yett for jail command under Sheriff Ray Sappington. Four shifts run the Jail and Transport Division, with supervisors and detention officers responsible for jail policy, security, inmate movement, and staff safety.

The Cooke County jail page screenshot below is the matched facility image from the local manifest.

The page is important because it ties the address, capacity, visitation schedule, bond link, roster access, and jail command to one official Cooke County source.

Cooke County Detention Capacity

Cooke County lists the jail's rated capacity as 212 beds. The same number appears in the Texas Commission on Jail Standards population material captured for this project. A point-in-time inspection of the public roster API on June 29, 2026 found 132 visible entries, while an older TCJS abbreviated report line showed 191 total population and 90.09 percent capacity use. Those figures answer different questions, so they should not be merged into one live population claim.

Capacity is the number of jail beds approved for the facility. A roster count is a snapshot of people visible online at the time of inspection. Average daily population, often shortened to ADP, is a reporting measure based on jail population over time. For the Cooke County Detention Center, the safest reading is that official county material confirms the bed count, TCJS material gives state reporting context, and the roster gives current custody information when it is working.

Cooke County Jail Roster Search

The official inmate lookup for this facility is the Cooke County Sheriff's Office Jail Roster. It covers adult county-jail custody and recent bookings shown in the county portal. It does not cover TJJD youth custody, adult TDCJ prison custody, sentenced federal prisoners, or ICE detainees who are no longer held in Cooke County Jail.

The roster has tabs for current inmates, 24-hour arrests, and inmates by arrest date. It also has first-name and last-name fields, a search button, reset button, and pagination. A public row can show name, inmate number, sex, height, weight, arrest date, days in jail, mugshot status, charge counts, statute, charge description, bond amount, bond type, and total bond. Raw system data may include more fields than the page displays, but the public page is the right source to use for ordinary custody checks.

1. Open the official Cooke County Sheriff's Office Jail Roster.
2. Use Current Inmates for a person believed to be held now, or use 24 Hours Arrests for a very recent booking.
3. Search by last name, first name, or both. Neither field was marked as required during research.
4. Review the roster row for charge, bond, photo, and custody clues.
5. If the person is missing, call the jail or use the sheriff open-records process for older booking records.

A person sentenced from a Cooke County felony case may leave the county jail and later appear in TDCJ custody. In that situation, the county roster may stop being the best source. The statewide TDCJ locator can be searched by name, SID number, current TDCJ number, or previous TDCJ number.

Cooke County Detention Contact

The jail and sheriff share the Justice Center address. Use the jail phone for custody confirmation, visitation questions, bond directions, and practical questions about mail, deposits, property, and records. For emergencies, call 911 rather than the non-emergency jail line.

The Cooke County courthouse is downtown at 101 South Dixon Street, but jail visits, bond questions, jail records, and custody questions route to County Road 451. Court-file questions may belong downtown with the District Clerk or County Clerk, depending on whether the charge is felony or misdemeanor.

Cooke County Jail Visitation

Cooke County publishes a gender-based visitation schedule for the jail. The county page does not publish a full visitor handbook, dress code, child-visitor rule, locker policy, visit length rule, holiday rule, or attorney-visit schedule in accessible text. Visitors should call the jail before traveling, bring government photo identification, arrive early enough for screening, and expect the schedule to change during lockdowns, staffing needs, court movement, medical events, or severe weather.

Do not use this schedule for the Gainesville State Juvenile Correctional Facility. TJJD youth visitation follows state juvenile rules, family resources, facility approval, and youth-specific contact procedures, not Cooke County Jail hours.

Cooke County Jail Bond and Money

Cooke County links cash-bond questions and secure payment to Bail.Cash/CookeTX. Before paying, confirm that the person is still in Cooke County custody and that the charge is eligible for the type of bond being paid. The roster may show bond amounts, bond type, and total bond, but a hold, detainer, warrant from another jurisdiction, parole issue, or no-bond charge can still block release.

The county inmate communications page links deposit and payment vendors, but it does not publish detailed call rates, commissary limits, tablet rules, mail scanning rules, or property-release procedures in the captured text. Use the linked channels and call the jail before sending money or mail if the inmate number, booking name format, or delivery rule is unclear.

Cooke County Detention Records

For current adult custody, start with the roster. For a released person, older booking record, offense report, arrest report, or booking photo not visible online, use the sheriff open-records process. Cooke County's open-records page says public-information requests should be sent in writing to the department that has custody of the record. A request sent to the wrong department can delay access, and the receiving department has no duty to forward a request for another office.

The Cooke County public-information page and the sheriff open-records request form are the practical route for sheriff booking material not shown in the public roster. Formal court filings are different. Felony cases route through the District Clerk and district court systems. County-level misdemeanor records route through the County Clerk and county court systems. The jail record shows booking and custody. The court record shows the case filed after arrest.

Cooke County Booking Intake

Cooke County does not publish a full booking manual, so the best local detail comes from roster fields and Texas process. After an adult arrest, intake usually includes identity collection, property inventory, medical and mental-health screening, fingerprints, a booking photograph, charge entry, bond or hold entry, and classification for housing. The Cooke roster confirms local use of booking and inmate numbers, arrest dates, demographics, mugshot status, charges, bond fields, and some housing fields.

New bookings may not appear right away. The roster has a 24 Hours Arrests tab and an arrest-date tab, but the county does not publish a refresh interval. For a very recent arrest, search by last name only, check the 24-hour view, and call 940-665-3471 if the name is still missing. Some records may be delayed because of identity checks, court processing, juvenile confidentiality, medical status, or another agency's custody.

Cooke County Jail Oversight

County jails in Texas are regulated by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards under Government Code Chapter 511 and state jail standards. TCJS publishes county population reports, immigration-detainer reports, non-compliant jail lists, and death or escape reporting guidance. Research for this project did not confirm Cooke County on the current TCJS non-compliant jail list.

Local news also matters, but it should be kept in context. KXII reported in March 2025 that officials were investigating after an inmate at the Cooke County Jail died. That report is a dated news item, not a finding of wrongdoing. For current facility operations, custody confirmation, visitation, and records, rely on the sheriff's office, TCJS records, court records, or the agency that owns the record being requested.