Houston County Release Records
A release is an exit from a named custodian. For a person booked at Houston County Jail, it means Houston County Sheriff's Office custody ended. That event may be a bond release, completion of county confinement, transfer, or another lawful disposition. It does not always mean the person returned to the community. A transfer to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, another jail, or immigration custody closes the Houston County booking while confinement continues elsewhere.
The official Houston County Current Inmates list is a live-custody view. A person who leaves its current dataset usually loses the public card and booking photograph. Absence is only a lead because the page has no released tab, archive, release reason, or destination field. The durable proof comes from the HCSO jail register or booking-out record. Court records explain the legal case, while TDCJ, parole, probation, BOP, or ICE records explain a later custody or supervision stage.
A missing current-inmate card does not prove freedom. Confirm the release or transfer with the custodian that closed the booking.
Houston County Release Types
The label attached to the exit controls its meaning. Bond ends that jail stay subject to the case and bond terms; it is not an acquittal. Time served generally reflects satisfaction of ordered confinement, but HCSO still holds the physical exit time. Dismissal is a court event and should be read from the actual docket or order. Parole applies to a state-prison sentence, while probation is community supervision ordered by a court. A detainer may send the person to a second custodian.
| Release type | What it means | Best next record |
|---|---|---|
| Bond | HCSO custody ends while the case and bond terms continue. | HCSO release entry and court docket |
| Time served | Ordered jail confinement may be satisfied. | Booking-out record and judgment |
| Transfer | The person leaves one facility for another custodian. | Receiving-agency field and new custodian |
| Parole | A TDCJ prisoner leaves prison under state supervision. | TDCJ offender and parole information |
| Discharge | The named agency's legal custody or supervision term ends. | Agency discharge field or record response |
| Dismissal | The court ends a charge; the jail exit remains a separate event. | Signed court order plus HCSO record |
- Detainer
- A hold asking one custodian to keep or transfer a person for another agency.
- Parole
- Conditional release from a prison sentence with TDCJ supervision.
- Probation
- Court-ordered community supervision, often without a state-prison release.
- Discharge
- Completion of the custody or supervision term identified by the reporting agency.
Fields in Houston County Releases
There is no single universal release document. The county jail system can preserve the physical booking and exit. A court file preserves judicial acts, such as bond, dismissal, judgment, sentence, credit, revocation, or community supervision. TDCJ uses its own status, projected-release, parole, and discharge fields. Asking for the right fields prevents a vague response that shows only a booking sheet.
| Field | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Full name and identifiers | Connects the record to the correct person and booking. |
| Booking or inmate number | Separates one Houston County jail episode from another. |
| Arrest and booking data | Establishes the start and source of county custody. |
| Charge and bond | Describes the listed allegations and bond tied to that booking. |
| Exact release date and time | Records when the named custodian ended physical custody. |
| Release disposition | Distinguishes bond, time served, transfer, or another recorded outcome. |
| Destination or receiving agency | Shows whether another custodian followed HCSO. |
| Booking photograph | Ties the existing image to the booking record. |
A court docket can outlive roster visibility but rarely proves the minute of release. Likewise, a TDCJ discharge date is not interchangeable with a Houston County jail exit. Match each fact to the office that created it.
Request Houston County Release Records
HCSO accepts a Texas Public Information Act request by mail, hand delivery, or email. Its official page names Zak Benge as the recipient. The page does not publish a special jail-record fee, guaranteed production date, or fax submission route. Chapter 552 procedures and lawful exceptions apply, so request existing records and ask for an estimate if cost or scope needs clarification.
- Identify the person by full name and aliases. Add date of birth, booking number, inmate number, and a narrow booking range when known.
- Ask for the booking sheet, exact release date and time, release disposition, receiving agency or destination for a transfer, charge and bond data, and booking photograph.
- Request the record in its existing electronic form where practical. Avoid unneeded sensitive identifiers.
- Send it to HCSO at 700A South 4th Street, Crockett, TX 75835, or email hcso@co.houston.tx.us. Keep proof of submission.
- If a court ruling is also needed, send a separate court-record request to the correct clerk.
700A South 4th Street
Crockett, TX 75835
936-544-2862
Sheriff and public-information instructions
Texas Local Schedule PS makes the county jail register permanent under item PS4200-06a. Booking-in/out, transfer, and release orders have a minimum retention of release or transfer plus two years under PS4200-10. Those are record-management minimums, not a promise that all fields are public or online. Lawful redaction, juvenile confidentiality, expunction, and other restrictions can still apply.
Houston County Records and Courts
Texas Government Code chapter 552 governs requests to HCSO. Court files follow judicial-access rules instead of the executive-agency Public Information Act route. An expunction under Code of Criminal Procedure chapter 55A can require return or destruction of covered records. An order of nondisclosure limits public access to covered criminal-history information but is not the same as expunction.
A missing case or booking can result from lawful restriction, indexing limits, age, or a wrong search. It is not proof that no event occurred. Houston County publishes its own expunction procedure, while the court decides eligibility and scope. HCSO cannot substitute for the signed order or judgment.
Which Houston County Clerk?
Houston County divides criminal records by jurisdiction. The District Clerk keeps felony files. Class A and B misdemeanors and Class C appeals route through the County Court at Law and County Clerk. Both routes point to the LGS Online Records Search, but the correct clerk supplies the underlying judgment or order.
Search by name, then compare case number, date, court, and charge. Read the register of actions as an index. Obtain the actual order when its legal effect matters. “Disposed” means the court resolved the case; it does not by itself prove that jail, prison, a detainer, or supervision ended.
Find Houston County Released Inmates
Begin with the custody system and an approximate date. Houston County Jail, Wainwright state prison, federal custody, and ICE each maintain different records. Silence in one system cannot answer what happened in another. Use identifiers whenever possible because a same-name match is not enough.
- Check the official HCSO current list. A matching card confirms current county custody at the displayed update, not release history.
- Search the Houston County court portal and route the case to the District Clerk or County Clerk based on jurisdiction.
- Use Texas IVSS Counties for a participating Houston County status event or future notice. Treat the event label as system-bounded.
- If HCSO transferred the person to state prison, search TDCJ by TDCJ or SID number and read each date by its exact label.
- Use BOP for federal imprisonment or ICE ODLS for current and recent immigration custody only when those systems apply.
- When the public paths do not resolve the exit, request the HCSO jail-register and booking-out entries.
The county publishes no 24-hour or 72-hour released-person feed. The Jail Releases: 24 Hours route explains how to define a same-day data request; a named-person search still needs the full chain above.
TDCJ Houston County Release Search
The TDCJ Offender Search covers state custody and related parole data, not every HCSO booking. Search by TDCJ number or State Identification number when known. Otherwise use the exact surname and given name, then verify the offense, county, sentence, and identifiers. If HCSO recorded a transfer into TDCJ, the county exit and TDCJ admission form a custody chain.
| Search or result field | How to use it |
|---|---|
| TDCJ number | Strongest public state-system identifier. |
| SID number | Texas state identification number for narrowing a match. |
| Name | Use exact spelling and verify common-name results. |
| Offense, county, sentence | Confirms that the result belongs to the expected case. |
| Projected Release Date | A calculation for leaving incarceration if parole does not happen sooner. |
| Scheduled Release date/location | Later processing information that can still change. |
| Discharge Date | Completion of the identified incarceration or supervision term. |
The official TDCJ search screen shows the correct starting form:
View the TDCJ offender-search source before using the fields shown below.
The form is a state-prison route. It should not replace an HCSO request for a person who only had a county-jail booking.
Houston County Roster Limits
The local roster rebuilds current cards from a current JSON dataset and renders separate update metadata as “Last updated.” Cards can show a photograph, names, booking and inmate numbers, status, block, arrest date, charges, bond amounts, and total bond. The public interface has no release date, reason, receiving agency, archive, or time-window selector. Its underlying data endpoints may reject direct access and are not stable public APIs.
Do not create a release list by subtracting yesterday's names from today's roster. A disappearance could reflect release, transfer, a data issue, or another event. Ask HCSO for existing release entries bounded by clear local-time endpoints. The county publishes no fixed refresh cadence or released-record retention period for the website.
The official current-inmate page demonstrates that narrow scope.
The screen can confirm a current card at an observed time. It cannot supply a historical Houston County release list.
Houston County Release Supervision
Houston County CSCD supervises adult probation ordered by local courts. Its office publishes staff extensions, a transfer clerk, and the Case Connect app, but no public person-name search. Case Connect supports a person's case connection; it is not a public released-inmate locator. The local office is at 110 North 2nd Street in Crockett and can route a case when the case number is available.
Parole follows a different track. BPP decides parole, while TDCJ Parole Division runs supervision. Houston County routes to the Huntsville District Parole Office, Region I, rather than a similarly named Houston metropolitan office. Wainwright's CHANGES and reentry-planning programs are prison programs, not Houston County CSCD services. The Probation & Parole page separates those offices and their records.
Houston County Release Alerts
Houston County's Sheriff page points to Texas IVSS Counties for county status searches and notices. Texas replaced the former county VINE platform with IVSS Counties in 2025. Search without registering, or register for offered call, text, or email notices. Read whether an event says booked, released, transferred, or something else. TDCJ IVSS is a separate service for state prisoners and people on parole or mandatory supervision.
What BOP Released Means
Federal custody requires federal tools. The BOP locator covers federal records from 1982 onward. A past date with no facility, or a RELEASED location, means BOP custody ended. It does not rule out supervised release or another custodian. IN TRANSIT, a regional office, and a Community Corrections Management location have different meanings and must not be rewritten as completed release.
Houston County ICE Transfers
An ICE detainer creates a two-custodian event. HCSO may close its jail booking as ICE starts custody, so “released by the jail” may describe a transfer rather than return to the community. Ask HCSO for the release disposition and receiving-agency field first. Then use the ICE Online Detainee Locator or the responsible ERO office.
ODLS covers current ICE custody and releases from ICE custody within the prior 60 days. It is not a lasting release archive. Search by a nine-digit A-Number and country of birth when possible, or use the exact recorded name, country of birth, and date of birth. No official evidence reviewed establishes an ICE detention contract or ICE facility at Houston County Jail.
Compare Houston County Custody Records
Choose the system by custodian, not by the person's location or where an arrest began. A Wainwright prisoner is in TDCJ even though the unit sits in Houston County. A Crockett Police arrest may lead to HCSO, but the booking record controls.
| System | What it can show | What it cannot prove alone |
|---|---|---|
| HCSO current list | Current county card at the shown update | Why an absent card disappeared |
| HCSO release record | County exit time, disposition, possible destination | End of another agency's custody |
| Houston County court | Bond, judgment, sentence, dismissal, supervision | Minute of physical jail exit |
| TDCJ offender search | State custody, projected, parole, release, discharge fields | Every county-jail release |
| IVSS systems | Participating status events and future notices | Certified historical release record |
| BOP or ICE | Named federal custodian's bounded status | Unqualified freedom from all custody |
Houston County Release Facilities
Houston County Jail is the local short-term custody hub. HCSO records whether a person bonded out, completed local confinement, or transferred. J. Dale Wainwright Unit is a TDCJ state prison, so statewide offender, release, and parole records control. Crockett Police Department is an arresting and records agency; its official page does not establish a separate municipal jail or roster.
Wainwright has a capacity of 2,464 and began in 1917. TDCJ renamed the former Eastham Unit for J. Dale Wainwright in 2021, so older “Eastham” records and the current Wainwright (EA) name refer to the same unit lineage. A transfer from that unit to another TDCJ unit remains incarceration.