Karnes County Detention Facility Overview
Karnes County Detention Facility is a GEO Secure Services facility at 810 Commerce Street in Karnes City. GEO lists the phone as (830) 780-3525, fax as (830) 780-4057, capacity as 679 beds, client as the U.S. Marshals Service, and ACA accreditation. It is a federal contract facility, not the 50-bed Karnes County Jail operated by the sheriff.
A 2022 PREA audit snippet described the facility as medium custody, serving adult male and female population, with no youthful inmates. It also noted that the facility had not been over capacity in the prior 12 months, listed 143 staff with inmate contact, and listed 5 individual contractors authorized to enter. Those details point to institutional federal detention operations rather than a county booking roster.
Karnes County Detention Facility Capacity and Population
GEO's public facility page lists a design capacity of 679 beds for Karnes County Detention Facility. TCJS also reports a larger private/federal Karnes row, labeled "Karnes (P)," with 550 capacity and 511 total population on June 1, 2026. The research cautions that the TCJS private/federal row and GEO design capacities are not necessarily the same reporting unit.
For a same-day count or custody status, call the facility. Public capacity numbers are useful for facility context, but they do not prove that a specific federal detainee is currently housed at 810 Commerce Street.
How to Look Up Someone at Karnes County Detention Facility
The facility is tied to U.S. Marshals Service detention, so a person may be a pretrial federal detainee, a federal prisoner in transit, or someone later transferred to Bureau of Prisons custody. The BOP inmate locator is useful for sentenced federal prisoners from 1982 to present, but it may not show every USMS pretrial detainee held in a contract facility. For facility-level questions, use the 810 Commerce Street facility phone.
- Call Karnes County Detention Facility at (830) 780-3525 for facility inquiry and visiting or mail rules.
- If the person has a federal criminal case, check the federal court case information or contact the attorney of record.
- Use the BOP locator when the person has been sentenced or may be in Bureau of Prisons custody.
- Do not use the Karnes County Jail roster as the main search path for this USMS/GEO facility.
| Custody Situation | Where to Check | Important Limit |
|---|---|---|
| USMS pretrial or holdover detainee | Facility phone, federal court, attorney, or USMS channel. | May not appear in BOP public locator. |
| Sentenced federal prisoner | BOP inmate locator. | Location or release date can lag or change. |
| Local county jail inmate | Karnes County Jail channels. | Separate sheriff custody system. |
| ICE detainee | ICE ODLS or ICE facility phone. | Separate facility at 409 FM 1144. |
GEO Facility Source
The GEO facility page is the matching public source for this facility's address, phone, fax, capacity, client, and accreditation status.
The GEO page is different from the Karnes County Sheriff's Office page. That distinction matters because a searcher who uses only county jail channels may miss a person held under federal authority at 810 Commerce Street.
Karnes County Detention Facility Address and Contact
Use the facility phone for current facility questions, including whether a detainee can receive visits, how mail should be addressed, and what legal-visit procedures apply. Because this is a federal contract facility, the rules may differ from the county jail and from ICE detention.
Karnes County Detention Facility
810 Commerce Street
Karnes City, TX 78118
(830) 780-3525
Fax listed by GEO: (830) 780-4057.
Visiting Someone at Karnes County Detention Facility
GEO's facility page provides address, phone, fax, client, capacity, and accreditation, but the inspected research did not locate a detailed public visitation schedule for this facility. Federal detainee visitation, attorney visits, approved identification, clothing rules, property limits, and legal mail can differ from county jail rules.
| Topic | Published Finding | Best Action |
|---|---|---|
| Public visitation schedule | Not documented in the research. | Call (830) 780-3525 before travel. |
| Legal visits | Federal detainee procedures may differ from county jail rules. | Attorneys should contact the facility directly. |
| Visitor approval | Not published in the inspected public snippet. | Ask the facility about ID, approval, and arrival timing. |
| Property and contraband rules | Not published in the inspected public snippet. | Confirm before bringing documents or property. |
Mail, Phone, and Money at Karnes County Detention Facility
The research did not identify a public commissary fee table, deposit vendor, phone-rate sheet, or mail format for the USMS/GEO facility. Do not borrow the county jail's lack of published rules or ICE rules from the 409 FM 1144 facility. Call the facility and ask for the current mail format, accepted funds process, legal mail handling, and phone procedures.
| Service | Provider / Detail |
|---|---|
| Mail Address | Confirm full detainee name, register or booking identifier, and facility-specific format by phone. |
| Phone / Video | Provider and rates not documented in the research. |
| Money Deposit | Vendor, fees, and accepted methods not documented. Call first. |
Federal Intake and Transfers at Karnes County Detention Facility
Federal contract detention does not work like a local street-arrest booking page. A detainee may arrive through the U.S. Marshals Service after a federal arrest, court hearing, writ, transfer, or holdover movement. The public county portal may not show that custody because the person is not held in the sheriff's 50-bed local jail.
If a person later receives a federal prison sentence and moves into BOP custody, the BOP locator becomes the better public search tool. BOP results can include name, register number, age, race, sex, release date, and location, but the locator itself warns that release date and custody status can change.
When the public BOP search does not show a current location, that does not rule out USMS contract custody at Karnes County Detention Facility. Federal pretrial custody, writ movements, and holdover housing can sit outside the public sentenced-prisoner view. A careful lookup uses both the facility phone and the federal case context before deciding that the person has been released or moved.
About Karnes County Detention Facility
The GEO page lists ACA accreditation, and the 2022 PREA audit snippet identified adult male and female population, medium custody/security level, no youthful inmates, and no over-capacity condition in the prior 12 months. Research also found a May 2022 Department of Justice announcement about a correctional officer arrest for suspected contraband or narcotics smuggling at this facility. That older item is facility-history context, not a current custody-status source.
Note: Confirm custody, visiting approval, and mail rules directly with the facility before traveling to 810 Commerce Street.