I'll probably be writing a book about the experiences I had in this jail. I was transferred to this jail from the Fort Bend County Jail in Richmond, Texas, and at the time I had no idea that I was going from a lukewarm frying pan to a blistering fire. Another prisoner rode with me, and as we approached he said, "the mother of all jails, the house of pain" ... County jail is not a penitentiary, a place of penitence. It's supposed to be a detention center, a place where suspects are detained to await trial. Since the Salem witch trials our culture is supposedly forbidden to torture people into making confessions. However, this is exactly what happens in Lew Sterrett "Justice Center" in Dallas, Texas. Prisoners spend days in freezing cold temporary holding cells by the courtrooms and are often forgotten by guards. It happened to me. The Texas criminal justice system is already inherently flawed. Death jails like Lew Sterrett only serve to make the state of Texas and the entire United States more like a decaying third world country. For eleven years this jail failed to pass federal inspections, each year being threatened with shutdown or federal takeover. Empty threats. If you are ever accused of a crime, here are some of the things you can expect: First, whatever crime you're accused of will be bumped up to a more severe crime simply because this is a system built on dishonesty. Additionally, the crimes on the books have names that fail to distinguish the lesser crimes from the greater, and your crime will be read out in front of other prisoners during your arraignment. I will refrain from examples, but if you've been falsely accused of a serious crime, the uneducated captives in the courtroom who will soon be sharing a "tank" with you will not consider the possibility of your innocence, and you may spend your entire stay in Lew Sterrett locked in mortal combat. There are certain prisoners who are frequently moved from one tank to another for fighting, a maneuver designed to break up conflicts, but in actuality creates fight tours within the jail. New inmates with massive biceps are often likely to challenge the apparently biggest or strongest inmate to a fight to assert dominance, and there is a strong chance that this will be ignored by the shiftless worthless guards. I personally pried two men apart while one was attempting to strangle the other to death, saving one from death and the other from the death penalty, and they weren't even the alpha males of the tank. Fights are common. There is also a fairly active drug traffic in this jail as prisoners sell their prescription meds in exchange for commissary. The commissary contract is held by a criminal company that offers a very small sampling of low quality goods at ten times the "real world" prices, which is in stark contrast to legitimate commissary contracts in places like Fort Bend County which feature reasonable prices and a decent variety of goods, even including necessities like vitamins and underclothes. You'll find none of those in Lew Sterrett. In fact, almost every conceivable product you could have in Lew Sterrett is already banned. Additionally, I had people attempt to send books for me to read, and some of them were apparently stolen by guards before they could make it to me. The correct procedure for the opening of legal mail in a jail in Texas is to open it in front of the prisoner to look for contraband, then hand it to the prisoner directly. It is illegal to pre-open any mail marked as legal mail because communication with your legal counsel is supposed to be private. I had many letters from my lawyer, clearly stamped "LEGAL MAIL - CONFIDENTIAL" in red ink, pre-opened in Lew Sterrett. Waiting in temporary holding cell If you know something about the law yourself and intend to represent yourself, you will be sorely disappointed in the facilities available to you in Lew Sterrett. I clearly indicated my intention to represent myself on the forms during induction, and despite this my rights were ignored. I was denied access to the law library for MONTHS, and when I finally got access to it, I had about an hour to do research and to try to get a turn using the single functional typewriter to write my own motions. In the end I was forced to write several motions, including one for an examining trial, by hand. My motions were summarily ignored, and due to my lack of access to facilities were too late for an examining trial, which must take place before indictment. I was also denied Catholic church services by the guards. Attempts to submit "inmate request forms" (colloqially called "kites" by prisoners) never did anything. Guards ignored me when I took ill and almost died. Requests for medical attention were ignored. My cell mate in the end was a schizophrenic with epilepsy. Only one seizure of several got the guards attention. I saw others almost die. A guard told me point blank, "You're a prisoner. You don't have rights." I disagree. read more

I will never forget November 27,2010 being in Lew Sterret Jail (Mad House). This was in fact my first time in thirty years going to jail for a charge, I did not commit to my understanding. However, It all started off that morning when me and my husband got into a verbal argument. However, the situation fell apart when I called the police on my husband. I was taken to jail by Dallas police officers who never asked me my side of the situation. Even though, I was the one that place the call from jump. Moreover, My husband only received a summons to go court, and he was not taken into jail. I was the lady mistreated like a refugee by all of them, and on top of that i was arrested because of their decision to the matter. And I was put into hand cuffs that were So tight around my wrist. It felt as if my skin was peeling along the sides of the metal. In,fact I asked several officers before leaving the scene to PLease loosen the cuffs on my wrist, because they were too tight. And I was told by one Cop this is not television lady we cannot adjust them anymore. Two hours sitting and waiting in the back of a police car with no air conditioning just exhausted from the heat. Omg when we finally made inside that place it was devastating to see those inmates being treated so badly by deputy sheriiff's . One deputy actually twisted one guy's arm into he begged him to let go. I never in my life would have thought Jail was this bad for human beings. How could people treat others so crucial and not no it? I was also given old sandwiches that looked as if someone ran the meat against the DIRTY walls. There was no Water in ANY of the fountain's every last one of them were broken that day, so the inmates had nothing to drink until we made upstairs which was worst off than the booking area. It was so cold everyone stood close to each in holding cells laying against the walls just to keep warm because the temp inside their was below ZERO. Later on that night we were transferred up stairs to an area with other inmates who had been in jail for centuries LONG with many charges such as MURDER, DRUGS, PROSTITUTION, ETC.... However, there were also NO clean Panties for us women, No SOAP, LAUNDRY was backed up, including NO Personal Care products to use at all for us CITIZENS. In fact I was only there two days, but it felt like TWO YEARS! And to make matters worst anyone who tried to be nice to others in need back there the deputy's would get upset, and tell you mind your own business. That is totally disrespectful not to help people in need of some type of care asking of, but it all happened clearly in my eye site. The food was ALWAYS cold each day, and sometimes it was not enough to go around for everyone in the dome, so if you're not in line when it arrives you are out of luck/chuck. This place is SIMILAR to a third world country every man for themselves. I mean every inmate is treated so bad that anyone who witness this BRUTALITY would pour out their hearts. All the guards are like wardens and BIG chief's inside Lew Sterrett and all of them wanna be in control of your life while your in jail. My opinion is that this place should be held for animals living in the wild life, not human beings with decent jobs paying taxes, and yes I hated watching every moment of it. I was so disorganized from being incarcerated @ Lew Sterrett. I have decided to leave Texas once my trial is over and I plan to reside in another state that has better Laws & Justice FOR ALL!!!!!!( read more

This crapheap of a jail needs to be burned to the ground. The losers that work there need to be tarred and feathered and then ran out of town on a rail. I just had a nice stay of about 18 hours in there and i can tell you that the people working there are the biggest lowlife pieces or crap on earth. I will admit that the people in the bookin area are not that bad but that is where any sense of being treated like a human ends. They give you these "sandwiches" that hogs would probably not eat. Being hungry i choked one down. I am not even sure if it was even meat between the bread. I have never seen anything at any grocery store like it in my life. Needless to say the crap gave me an incredible case of heartburn. After being transferred to a holding cell that i was left in for hours i was then transferred to a holding cell in the bookout section about 10:30 pm and was left in there until 9:30 the next morning. The toilet in the cell had obvious human waste in it. It stank the entire cell up. Back to the heartburn issue. I asked the jailer on duty for something for the heartburn that was eating my throat numerous times. They refused to give me anything so i sat there in that stinking cell with a raging case of heartburn from about 8 pm one day until they released me at 10:30 the next day. Plus ,i have bad teeth that i need to take ibuprofen for. They also refused to give me anything for that so i was sitting there in pain from my teeth and had raging heartburn for a long time. At some point something needs to be done about the atrocities against human beings that is occurring at this very minute that you are reading this review. The washed up losers that work there act as though you did something to them personally and couldn't care less if you are alive or dead. That place needs to be torn down. If any attorney that might read this thinks i have a case against the jail for refusing to provide me any kind of medical attention that i requested please leave a message on here for me. It must be a requirement to not have a heart in order to work there. They are all a bunch of power hungry losers. Washed up losers that cant find a real job. People incarcerated are still human beings and deserve to be treated as such. Not treated like total garbage and left in nasty stinky cells and ignored when they ask for something. THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT OF DALLAS NEEDS TO GET OFF THEIR BUTTS AND GO IN THAT DUMP AND MAKE THOSE IDIOTS CLEAN THAT DUMP UP ! THEY OBVIOUSLY WON'T GO IN THE PLACE EITHER JUDGING HOW NASTY,VILE AND DISGUSTING THE WHOLE PLACE IS. people i was in there with told me how they bumped their charges up. THAT SHOULD BE AGAINST THE LAW !!!! HOW CAN THEY CHANGE THE CHARGE YOU WERE CHARGED WITH TO SOMETHING YOU DIDNT DO ? WE HAVE A LAWLESS JUSTICE SYSTEM IN DALLAS. SOMEBODY NEEDS TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE HARSH ,CARELESS, HEARTLESS TREATMENT OF PEOPLE THAT OCCURS 24 HOURS A DAY IN THAT HELL HOLE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THERE SHOULD BE THE OPTION OF GIVING NEGATIVE STAR RATINGS. I WOULD RATE THAT GARBAGE HEAP AT A NEGATIVE THOUSAND STARS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! read more

this place is a cesspool and is the closest thing to hell you will ever encounter. i was charged with a crime i did not commit at the airport where the nightmare began. my nightmare ended at the lew sterrett jail. i saw a young man beaten nearly to death in the booking area. they cracked his head on the concrete floor and handcuffed both his legs and hands together and then 6 of them put their knees on his back all the way to his head and then once down and out and unable to move beat him in his face until blood poored from his nose and mouth and a puddle of blood was under his head on the concrete floor. i saw a young girl being torchered and strapped down to a straight jacket type chair. she screamed for 8 hours in pain. it was horrible and frightening. i thought maybe she was mentally ill until close to the end of my time in this dungeon and they placed her in the holding cell with me after making us strip naked in front of female and male guards and making us put on prison garments. when she told me she was the girl they had strapped to that straight jacket chair i was shocked because she was a very pleasant and very nice young lady and did NOT deserve what they did to her. the guards-both male and female-were walking by her and laughing at her as she was screaming in pain like they were getting off on her misery and pain she was in. i cant understand how a psychopath can be working as a police officer or guard etc. and i can assure you that ANYONE who can walk by a person screaming in pain and misery and laugh at that person is a PSYCHOPATH. they should be arrested and in jail themselves because in my opinion they are CRIMIALS themselves. avoid this place at all costs. your very sanity and life may depend on it. this is worse than any movie i have ever seen. read more

The place is the Guantanamo Bay of Dallas. If the corrections officer's could physically torture people I think they would and enjoy it. The guards love to treat the fellow humans like what I would imagine the nazis treated people they consider sun-human. They hate there job and it's obvious by the constant lack of compassion for there fellow man. I can imagine there job is tough but they definitely seem to get a kick by being bully's. They act like they would still have there job if there wasn't people who committed crimes. The nursing staff was the only people I encountered to actually seem to care for the people who pass through. If you find yourself in Dallas county's jail be prepared to be considered sub-human. The mostly p.o.c staff really seem to enjoy being harsh to people of there same race as they casually look at tik-tok and act like they are doing the world a favor by being there to shit in there fellow man. I left feeling sorry for most of there guards because either they were bullied in there past or just the type of hall monitors from grade school who enjoy making a hard place to be even harder with there lack of compassion. I'm glad I got to go just to be witness to how horrible people can enjoy such a shit job. Also if you don't speak English be prepared to be berated by DeVo with a badge , A back the blue Tiffany Haddish with a night stick , a Sam Cooke with a crooked badge and your normal asshole White guy who apparently could make it as a cop. If you don't think the justice system needs a change then I hope with all hope you find your self there. read more

Lew Sterrett is the worst jail I've ever been to,I was stuck in the "sitting room" for about 14 hours, I saw entire rooms go to court before I was even allowed a phone call,the animals that they call guards were rude,unprofessional,and mostly just trying to fill the hole in their lives left by not being good enough to be a real cop by harassing and directly insulting inmates,let me walk you through the timeline when I spent 2 days in this shit hole last weekend:get checked in at 5am,in the "sitting room" by 8 am,at about 10 pm I was finally able to get my bond amount,from there I was taken to a holding tank where I was finally able to call my family to bail me out I posted bail at 10:30 and was not released until 6 am. This place is horrible,the people who work here are absolute animals and should not have a job working with people,the only food I got over this entire time was 2 bologna sandwiches and never was able to get to sleep or stay warm as they took my jacket when I got in,I only slept for about an hour the entire time I was here as the guards kept waking everyone up to tell them useless nonsense like "if you have to go to the bathroom raise your hand and we will allow you one by one" and things like that,this place needs to be demolished and replaced with a facility that is ready to handle the intake of Dallas and with guards who actually know how to act like a human being without being complete assholes or at least ones who know how to do their damn jobs,I've been to underfunded federal prisons that I would rate better than this fucking place read more

I happened on this by accident and wanted to post this information for people who have loved ones looking at doing time in dallas county, or people looking at time there themselves who haven't been...and people who aren't going to be shocked that the food sucks or they don't get the same number of beans as another guy. Yes, Lew Sterret sucks. JAIL sucks. And yes, the feds have threatened to shut it down. BUT If you don't have a violent criminal record, aren't in for a violent felony, and aren't a psych patient, you will most likely be placed in the new South Tower. The south tower, no shit, has microwaves, ice machines and flat screen tv's. For those of you scared of fights, a guard is in each "pod," monitoring everyone at all times. You can't even eat a honey bun in your bed at night without getting caught. Better yet, be RESPECTFUL to everyone and don't get in a fight! Yes, some of the guards are rude, but some of them are cool as hell. If you are lucky enough to get to serve your time here instead of tdc, and lucky enough to land in the south tower, then it's really not that bad. The longest i've been in was 2 months, and me and a couple of friends i made called it "summer reading camp." Read books, play cards, write letters and chill. read more

I'm definitely filing a report on this nasty ghetto disgusting place! I know it's jail, but this place is definitely out of guidelines!!! They're over capacity on the weekends so they make people sit in very cold holding cells with no blanket or mattress for a whole day then move you to another holding cell.. There's people bringing in drugs in wadded up toilet paper in their vaginas! A lady was having withdraws off heroine in my cell & she was throwing up the entire time!! They let her lay in her throw up! Most of the guards are very ratchet, seem uneducated, eat, gossip, & just sit on the clock just for a paycheck! If you're going to work with people you should have somewhat of a heart & try to be a bit more helping!!!!!!!!!!!!! There was only One Caucasian officer by the name of Mulberry or something like that on the West tower (I believe) who was such a beautiful person!!!!! I wrote this review kind of fast, but I'm going to write another with more detailed information & the next one will be more punctual. read more

Jails are for people who make mistakes and have to do the time for the crime. This jail not only does that, but uses different forms of torture. Let's elaborate a bit. First, the guards like fucking with you constantly and from just about all of them. Second, they will abuse the girls sexually when possible. If they feel they can get away with it. Third they like it when seeing you curled up on concrete floor in 35° blowing cold air constantly. Friend of mine showed up and had glass imbedded in his face from officer checking him in and put foot at bottom of door while opening door pushed his face thru the glass. Can you say damn he is Rich now? Health code needs to go undercover and see what some good people have to go thru when they don't have enough for some tickets. Not only are you being punished your being literally being abused. Dallas is the worst place I have ever lived. Lots of black s racists. If we work together we will all come up together. Hello wake the fuck up.. read more

The 2 guards named Yvarra and Rocha. The assaulted a inmate in 3/29. The inmate was asking for help for his foot. The guards attacked him and pulled his injured feet. These clowns assaulted a fall risk patient who weighed 100 lbs. The inmate was wrongfully charge so this is extra horrible. The crooked guards Yvarra and Rocha wrote up false reports saying the inmate attacked them. Yvarra and Rocha harrassed the inmate everyday. They lied to him and caused the doctors to not take care of his foot. The inmate pressed the medical button all night. The medical dept failed to check on this person. These 2 guards will pay and there is no covering this up. Rocha and Yvarra should not work in this position. They harrassed the inmate to the point of no return. They tried to force a signature from inmate to cover their mistakes. You do not deserve to even work with animals. read more

MAN I would have to really agree,,,this is this most disgusting and miserable place in dallas. Foul urine smells and days old rotting feces in unsanitized toilets that are purposely unatended. This is just the central bookin too,,,,just wait until you are moved upstairs to either west or north tower. The third floor infirmery can really have some interesting sites,,such as mentally ill criminals,,or down right lunatics. Oh you hit the employees right on the button!! They dont care or will they ever care about you or how your stay is while you are there. After all they only get paid about 9 or ten dollars a hour to watch over a bunch of people who constantly need something and will never shut up!!! My advice is to never break the law so you never have to go there or their new facility (south tower). read more

Wow this is the crappiest place on earth. I have been here twice(last time was November 06, and I would like to say the accomodations were dirty, dingy and downright disgusting. The staff seem like former Walmart employees or even criminals themselves(not to say that all inmates are convicted criminals because they are not). One word of advice...as soon as you get in, grab the nearest toilet paper roll(they are like gold in here) eat a couple of bologna sandwhiches, drink some fake cool aid, and live for the moment because you never know what the hell is about to happen around or too you. read more

The people that work here are clowns! Dallas county will hire anyone! Can you hire someone who knows where their inmates are and teach them how to understand the system they use daily? Other counties are pretty tired of calling your employees idiots with a job who feel some type of entitlement..........I think they need common sense and training, how do you not know that an inmate hasn't been transferred to another county and you refuse to look or just keep saying "I don't know"? Idiots!!! Hello Walmart? I think you lost some of your employees read more

Dallas county jail sucks, the people who work there need education. They are idiots, they can't speak well they act like they have never had manners. They don't know how to treat people. They can't cook. They move like snails. Would you treat you r dog that way!? They show no respect to their self or other people. if you ask the a question, they don't have an answer. just a dumb look on their face. read more

This jail sucks ass.... It always smells like piss ugh!!!! But to my real rant.... My husband is currently in jail for tickets...... I've tried calling the jail for about 3 days now and nobody picks up the phone... I'm so sick of this place. Can't wait to move outta funky ass Texas I swear negative 15 million stars! read more

this mf need to be shut down, yall got loved ones here ??? yall need to check innnnnn w them alwayssssss cause these dirty ass workers gone do they best to do what their job doesnt ask them to do ! internal affairs yall need to reach out and let them know whats going on from the inside out !!! read more

If you call to try to get information about a person in jail.They will hang up on you.You will wait an hour or more to just get a answere.I went down there they was sitting on their ass,The phones just ringing.,they were on their phone probaly ordering uber eats. read more

If I could give zero stars I would,because damn these prisons be locking up the most innocent people of all time I want whoever was in charge I'm between 2014-2020 to go into one of these cells just lucky he got out but then later he got deported in 2019 read more

I hate this place Dallas is the most overpopulated because of it's arrests for less than 7grams of weed. Not that I am glorifying the action but they should focus arrests on actual crimes! Not stupidity. read more