The Polk County Inmate Population
The Polk County inmate population starts with the Polk County Jail in Livingston, which is run by the Polk County Sheriff's Office / Jail Division. The jail holds people arrested by local agencies before trial, people serving short county sentences, parole violators, and some people waiting for transfer to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The county also has state and immigration custody systems nearby, but those are not counted the same way. Allan B. Polunsky Unit is a TDCJ prison, not a county jail. IAH Secure Adult Detention Facility is an ICE detention facility, not a sheriff's roster site.
That split is the key to reading Polk County inmate population data. A person booked after a Livingston, Corrigan, Onalaska, DPS, sheriff, court, probation, or tribal police arrest may first appear in the Citizen Connect county roster. If the person is sentenced to TDCJ, the search moves to the state prison locator after transfer. If the person is in civil immigration custody, the ICE detainee locator is the correct system. Federal prison custody is searched through the BOP locator. The same name can move across these systems while the local arrest record, court case, and custody record remain separate.
Polk County Inmate Population Statistics
The strongest official population source located for Polk County is the Texas Commission on Jail Standards population reports. TCJS publishes workbooks built from county jail submissions, and it notes that submitting departments are responsible for data quality and timeliness. In the June 2026 workbook, Polk County Jail had a rated capacity of 362 beds and a June 1, 2026 total jail population of 209. That works out to about 57.7 percent of rated capacity.
| Measure | Figure | Source / Date |
|---|---|---|
| Rated capacity, Polk County Jail | 362 | TCJS PopRptCurrent.xlsx, June 2026 workbook |
| Total jail population | 209 | TCJS June 1, 2026 Polk row |
| Percent of capacity | 57.7% | TCJS June 1, 2026 row, 209 divided by 362 |
| County population used for rate workbook | 54,258 | TCJS IncarcerationRateCurrent.xlsx, June 2026 |
| Incarceration rate | 4.88 per 1,000 | TCJS June 1, 2026 incarceration-rate row |
The TCJS population reports page is the source path for the county jail population and capacity workbooks used in the Polk County figures.
That state reporting page is separate from the sheriff's jail roster, which is why population totals and inmate-name searches should be treated as two different tasks.
The TCJS population report page is also useful because it separates county jail population reporting from state prison population. Polunsky Unit's TDCJ capacity should not be added to the county jail count unless the question is about all detention facilities physically located in Polk County.
Polk County Jail Population Trends
Recent TCJS rows show a jail population that moves within the same 362-bed capacity rather than a simple one-way rise or fall. The December 2021 row placed the jail population at 219. A January 2024 historical row showed 190. A January 2025 row showed 224. The September 2025 incarceration-rate row showed a lower count of 163, then the June 2026 workbook showed 209. Those shifts matter because a roster lookup is a live custody question, while the Polk County inmate population trend is a monthly reporting question.
| Date | Population / Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Dec. 2021 | 219 population; 60.5% capacity | TCJS December 2021 abbreviated population row |
| Jan. 1, 2024 | 190 population; 52.5% capacity | TCJS historical workbook row |
| Jan. 1, 2025 | 224 population; 61.9% capacity | TCJS historical workbook row |
| Sept. 1, 2025 | 163 population; rate 3.72 per 1,000 | TCJS incarceration-rate workbook |
| June 1, 2026 | 209 population; rate 4.88 per 1,000 | TCJS June 2026 workbooks |
The county's own transfer page adds context that raw bed capacity does not show. Polk County says some inmates have been temporarily relocated because jail standards require one officer per 48 inmates. That means the county can be below rated capacity and still use out-of-county housing for compliance, staffing, or classification needs.
Polk County Inmate Population Makeup
The TCJS workbook gives useful custody categories, but it is not a race or age demographic report. The June 1, 2026 Polk row includes local pretrial felony, local pretrial Class A/B misdemeanor, local pretrial state-jail felony, sentenced and transfer categories, and housed-elsewhere categories. Visible values in the research include 104 local pretrial felony males and 21 local pretrial felony females, 18 local pretrial Class A/B misdemeanor males and 5 females, and 17 local pretrial state-jail felony males and 9 females. The build should not turn those fields into a full demographic profile because the workbook does not support that claim.
- Pretrial
- A person held before final case disposition, often while bond, first appearance, or court filing issues are pending.
- TDCJ transfer
- Movement from Polk County Jail to the Texas prison system after TDCJ notifies the sheriff that transfer can occur.
- Detainer
- A hold or request from another agency, such as parole, immigration, or another jurisdiction.
- Classification
- The jail or prison process that assigns custody and housing based on risk, health, charge type, and conduct.
Polk County Jail Capacity
Polk County Jail's TCJS-rated capacity is 362. The June 2026 county jail population of 209 was below that count, but capacity is not the only operating limit. Polk County's out-of-county transfer notice states that some inmates have been moved because jail standards require a ratio of one officer for every 48 inmates. For families, that changes the search path. A person can remain a Polk County inmate while physically housed at Angelina County Jail or at a Louisiana facility under Polk County instructions.
The same notice is one of the most Polk-specific pieces of custody guidance. It tells families to use Angelina County's jail website for some transferred inmates and gives separate Louisiana rules for trust deposits, phone accounts, no-contact visitation forms, and scanned mail. When a current roster search does not line up with what a family has been told, transfer status is one of the first local facts to check.
Polk County Inmate Population Laws
Texas law sets the public-record, jail-standard, bond, and custody-reporting rules behind Polk County inmate population work. The county roster is a sheriff custody record. TCJS population workbooks are jail-standard reporting records. Court files become separate records once charges are filed. A booking charge, a court charge, and a conviction are not the same thing.
Key Statutes:
Texas Government Code Chapter 552 gives the Texas Public Information Act framework for public records, subject to exceptions.
Texas Government Code Chapter 511 creates TCJS authority over county jail standards, inspections, and regulation.
Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 15.17 requires prompt magistrate warnings after arrest.
Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 49.18 governs custodial death investigation and reporting.
Texas Local Government Code Chapter 351 covers county jail and sheriff jail-management duties.
Polk County State Prison Population
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is the statewide prison system for sentenced state prisoners. Polk County has one major TDCJ facility inside its borders: Allan B. Polunsky Unit, five miles southwest of Livingston on FM 350. TDCJ lists Polunsky as a male unit with G1 through G5 custody, death row, security detention, and mental-health custody. Its published capacity is 2,984, which is separate from the Polk County Jail's county-jail capacity.
Polk County's TDCJ transfer page says sentenced inmates are processed through the sheriff's jail and moved when TDCJ gives notice. It also says the jail tracks parole violators and works with Texas Parole for hearings or release. For a person who has already left county custody, the TDCJ inmate search is the right lookup, not Citizen Connect.
Search Polk County Inmate Population
The official current-custody search is Citizen Connect's Polk County Inmate Confinements portal. Polk County's jail information hub labels the same channel as the current inmate list. The roster is public, uses Southern Software / Citizen Connect, and organizes lookup by current confinements, recent admits, release date range, name, charge, and arresting agency. Heavy or automated use can trigger a Google reCAPTCHA message.
- Open the Citizen Connect Inmate Confinements page for Polk County Sheriff's Office.
- Use Get Current Confinements for the live jail population, or use Last 24 Hour Admits and Last 7 Days Admits for recent bookings.
- Search by first, middle, and last name when a full current list is too broad.
- Use charge or arresting-agency search when the name spelling is uncertain or a court, police department, DPS, or sheriff arresting agency is known.
- If the person is sentenced, transferred, federal, or in ICE custody, move to TDCJ, BOP, or ICE instead of repeating the county roster search.
The Citizen Connect inmate-confinements page shows the roster tabs that support current custody, admits, releases, names, charges, and arresting-agency searches.
The roster screenshot matches the lookup half of the Polk County inmate population work: it is for finding a person, not for reading monthly TCJS capacity totals.
Polk County Roster Search Fields
The roster's tabs are more useful than a single name box because Polk County exposes current confinement, admit, release, name, charge, and arresting-agency paths. The date-range tabs use start and end fields in MM/DD/YYYY format and display a message limiting date ranges to 31 days or less. That makes the portal useful for recent custody checks, but not a full historical archive.
| Field Label | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current Confinements | Tab / button | No | Get Current Confinements shows the live custody list. |
| Last 24 Hour Admits | Button | No | Quick recent-booking search. |
| Last 7 Days Admits | Button | No | Recent-admit search for the past week. |
| Admits or Releases Date Range | Date fields | No | Start and end dates use MM/DD/YYYY and must stay within 31 days. |
| First, Middle, Last Name | Text | No | Name-tab fields. Last name is usually the best first filter. |
| Charge | Text | No | Charge-tab field, with placeholder text such as DUI. |
| Arresting Agency | Dropdown | No | Includes Polk County SO, Livingston PD, Corrigan PD, Onalaska PD, courts, DPS, probation, and other agencies. |
The Citizen Connect public-safety portal also links related contacts, reports, tips, most-wanted, arrest-search, and criminal-papers channels. Those are adjacent sources, not replacements for the current inmate confinement roster.
Past Polk County Inmate Records
Citizen Connect includes Releases by Date Range, Last 24 Hour Admits, and Last 7 Days Admits controls, but the research did not find a published long-term retention period for released roster records. For older booking records, missing mugshots, or records not exposed on the live roster, the fallback is the Polk County Sheriff's Office and the Texas Public Information Act. The sheriff's general contact line, jail phone, and Citizen Connect email are the practical starting points when no jail-specific public-information request form is posted on the jail pages.
Past custody can also move into a court or corrections system. A court disposition should be checked through Re:SearchTX or the local clerk, not by assuming a jail booking charge was the final charge. A sentenced prison record should be checked through TDCJ. If a Polk County inmate was housed elsewhere because of jail-standard compliance, the county transfer page may explain why family-contact rules changed while the person remained under Polk County authority.
Polk County Inmate Record Fields
The inspected Citizen Connect record is card-based. A result card can show a public booking photo, inmate name, booking number, demographics row, booked date and time, arresting agency, arrest date and time, bond total, charges, per-charge bond information, and a View Full Details link. The dynamic full details page did not expose extra static fields during inspection, so the card inventory is the safer field list.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Name | Displayed inmate name in the booking-card header. |
| Booking number | Blue booking-number pill and internal BookingID link path. |
| Mugshot | Booking photo when available, with a fallback image path when absent. |
| Booked | Booking date and time row. |
| Arresting agency | Agency tied to the arrest or booking entry. |
| Bond total | Total bond when a bond is present. |
| Charges | Charge count, numbered charge descriptions, and bond details when shown. |
County Jail or TDCJ
The Polk County inmate population is often misunderstood because the county jail, TDCJ prison, BOP custody, and ICE detention use different systems. A person arrested in Polk County before trial is searched in Citizen Connect. A person sentenced to the Texas prison system is searched in TDCJ. A federal prisoner is searched through BOP. An immigration detainee is searched through ICE ODLS. VINELink Texas can help with custody-status notifications, but it is not the main record source.
| Custody Type | Who It Covers | Where to Look |
|---|---|---|
| County jail | Pretrial detainees, short county sentences, parole holds, transfer-ready inmates | Citizen Connect Inmate Confinements |
| State prison | Sentenced TDCJ inmates, including Polunsky Unit prisoners | Texas Department of Criminal Justice inmate search |
| Federal prison | Federal inmates from 1982 to present | Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator |
| Immigration detention | ICE civil immigration detainees | ICE Online Detainee Locator System |
| Notifications | Custody-status alert registration where data is available | VINELink Texas |
Polk County State Federal Search
The TDCJ inmate search accepts last name, first name or initial, TDCJ number, SID number, gender, and race. TDCJ says name searches require the last name and at least a first initial. It also says the website is updated on working days only and information is at least 24 hours old. That delay is normal for state prison data and should not be confused with a missing county jail booking.
The BOP inmate locator searches federal inmates by number or name and covers federal custody from 1982 to present. BOP cautions that release dates can change because of sentence recalculation. ICE custody uses the ICE Online Detainee Locator System. Direct inspection of the ICE page was blocked during research, so the safe claim is only that ICE custody is searched in ODLS and should not be expected to appear as a county roster mugshot entry.
Polk County Detention Facilities
Polk County custody research points to one primary county jail, one major state prison in the county, one ICE detention facility associated with Livingston, and two serving facilities named in Polk County's out-of-county transfer instructions. Each has a different lookup path.
- Polk County Jail holds local pretrial detainees, county-sentenced inmates, parole violators, transfer-ready inmates, and other sheriff custody.
- Allan B. Polunsky Unit is a TDCJ state prison for male sentenced prisoners, including death row and specialized custody levels.
- IAH Secure Adult Detention Facility is tied to ICE civil immigration detention and uses ICE ODLS, not the county roster.
- Angelina County Jail is named by Polk County as an out-of-county housing destination for some transferred Polk inmates.
- LA Workforce - DeQuincy is the Louisiana transfer facility with Polk-specific deposit, phone, visitation-form, and scanned-mail instructions.
Polk County Inmate Population FAQ
How large is the Polk County inmate population?
TCJS reported 209 people in the Polk County Jail population on June 1, 2026, against a rated capacity of 362. That count is county jail population only. It does not include all TDCJ prisoners at Polunsky Unit as county jail inmates.
How do I search Polk County inmates?
Use the Citizen Connect Inmate Confinements roster for current county jail custody. The same portal supports current confinements, recent admits, releases by date range, name, charge, and arresting agency search.
Why might an inmate be outside Polk County?
Polk County says some inmates have been temporarily relocated because jail standards require one officer for every 48 inmates. The county transfer page gives family instructions for Angelina County and for a Louisiana facility.
When should TDCJ be searched?
TDCJ should be searched after a person has moved from county jail custody into the Texas prison system. Polk County's TDCJ transfer page says sentenced inmates move upon notification by TDCJ.
Do Polk County mugshots appear online?
Citizen Connect current-confinements cards display booking photos when available. Older or absent booking photos should be requested from the sheriff under the Public Information Act rather than from commercial mugshot sites.
Can VINELink replace the roster?
No. VINELink Texas is useful for custody-status alerts where data is available, but official custody facts should be verified with the sheriff, TDCJ, BOP, or ICE locator that controls the record.