The red brick Freestone County Courthouse with white columns at its entrance, red, white and blue bunting on the windows and an American flag on the roof — The Freestone County Courthouse in Fairfield in June 2010. (Photo: Larry D. Moore / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0)

November 1, 2026 · 4 min read

Freestone County Asks Voters for $49.98 Million to Replace Its 43-Bed Jail

Freestone County has no debt and a 43-bed jail that local officers say is too small. On Tuesday, voters decide on $49.98 million for a justice center with a jail, sheriff's office and courtrooms.

This is a preview. Freestone County voters decide this question on Tuesday, Nov. 3, and no results are in yet.

Freestone County has a jail with 43 beds, and for years local officers have said that is not enough. On Tuesday, county voters will decide whether to borrow up to $49.98 million to build a new justice center that would hold the jail, the sheriff's office and courtrooms.

What is on the ballot

The Commissioners Court adopted the order calling the election on Aug. 12, 2026. County Judge Lloyd L. Lane signed it. The ballot reads:

Freestone County Proposition A: "THIS IS A TAX INCREASE; the issuance of bonds in an amount of $49,980,000 for the County's justice center and jail, and the levy of taxes sufficient to pay the principal of and interest on the bonds."

The full measure in the order describes "constructing, rehabilitating, renovating, improving, upgrading, updating, expanding, enlarging, and equipping the County's justice center, which will include the jail, the sheriff's office, courtrooms, and other related infrastructure." The order does not name a site or give a building size.

Why the county says it needs a jail

The push did not start this year. In June 2025, the Freestone County Times reported that the Teague Police Department had sent county leaders a letter saying the jail was refusing to process some arrests, even on valid warrants, because of overcrowding. "As a county, we have 43 beds and have outsourced other places to house them, even though they don't want to," Sheriff Jeremy Shipley said at that meeting. "I have to choose wisely who to book, the worse cases, because of the lack of room we have at our facility."

Lane, then the Precinct 3 commissioner, said the county's biggest problem was liability. "Someone who is pulled over, their drugs are confiscated, we don't have a place for them, they go get high the next day and go out and kill someone, we have a lawsuit on our hands because they should have been locked up," he said.

A week later, the Times reported on a May 2025 case in which a man tried to stab two Fairfield EMS paramedics. A Wortham police letter said he "was refused at the jail." Shipley disputed that. "I don't know where this misinformation is coming from," he told the paper, adding that bed space "is an issue, and we have to do what we can until that issue is fixed." Precinct 1 Justice of the Peace Theresa Farris told the paper that overflow inmates go to Limestone County, "where taxpayers pay thousands a year to house them."

We did not find a published figure for what the county spends now to house inmates elsewhere, so we cannot compare it with the bond's cost.

A two-story red brick building with a crenellated parapet roofline, tall white-framed windows and an iron bell on a stone base in the grassy front yard

The Old Freestone County Jail in Fairfield, built in 1857, photographed in July 2015. It is a historic building, not the jail in use today. Photo: Jim Evans / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The cost

The county's voter information document, attached to the order, says Freestone County has no outstanding debt: $0 in principal and $0 in interest as of the date the election was ordered.

Principal: $49,980,000
Estimated interest at an assumed 5% rate: $48,021,250
Estimated total over 30 years: $98,001,250
Estimated maximum yearly tax increase on a $100,000 homestead: $76.04

By our own math, that is about 96 cents of interest for every dollar borrowed, and about $6.34 a month on a $100,000 homestead. The $76.04 figure assumes a homestead exemption of 1%, with a $5,000 minimum, and assumes appraised values rise 3% a year for five years and then stay flat. The order sets a maximum net effective interest rate of 5.00%.

One line in the documents does not match. Section 6 of the order says the county's debt service tax rate is $0 per $100 of value, which fits a county with no debt. The attached voter information document lists that same rate, "as of the date the election was ordered," as $0.3335. We could not tell from the documents which figure is meant, and voters may want to ask the county.

How to vote

Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday. Under the order and the county's notice of election, voters on Election Day must vote at the polling place for the precinct where they are registered. Precinct locations are listed in the notice and on the county elections page. Polling places include the Fairfield Civic Center (Green Barn), 839 E. Commerce, and the Teague Civic Center, 515 Main St.

Other debt-free governments have also asked voters to borrow this fall, including Washington County and Childress ISD.

Our view

Keeping the public safe is one of the first jobs of local government. When officers say they cannot book people arrested on valid warrants, that is a serious problem, and it is fair for county leaders to ask voters to fix it.

It is also a lot of money for a county with no debt today: nearly $98 million over 30 years, by the county's own estimate. Voters deserve a straight answer on the tax rate figures that do not match, and on what the county now spends housing inmates elsewhere. A yes vote should come from a clear look at both the need and the cost. A no vote should come with an honest answer to the question the sheriff asked last year: what happens to the people who should be in jail?