Llano County Jail

By Lew K. Cohn
Managing Editor

Death at the Llano County Jail was one hot-button question tossed at the sheriff's candidates at a primary forum in Horseshoe Bay on Wednesday, Jan. 29.

From staff reports

A Buchanan Dam man will face manslaughter and aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury charges, following a collision that killed a man and injured his family member, according to Llano County documents.

A 56-year-old Llano woman’s death is being investigated after she had to be transported from the Llano County Jail to an Austin hospital, where she died Tuesday, Jan 2.

Cindy Lou Yonker died at Dell Seton Medical Center in Austin, where she was being treated for an undisclosed medical condition.

Yonker had been arrested for public intoxication at 3:20 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 24, by a Llano police officer after the officer and a Llano County Sheriff’s deputy responded to a disturbance call at Lowe’s grocery store, 104 W. Young, Llano.

A Letter from Llano County Sheriff Bill Blackburn:

I would like to address the article in last week’s paper concerning the “depopulation” of the Llano County Jail.

First, only in the last two weeks did I know the term “depopulation” existed.

As to my current understanding of the term, it would mean shutting down jail operation, firing all jail personnel, transfer all prisoners to Burnet County Jail, transport people arrested in Llano County to Burnet for incarceration, which includes all arrest made by the City of Llano, Sunrise Beach Village, the portion of Horseshoe Bay that lies in Llano County and all arrest made by Llano County SO in all of Llano County, all arrests made by Texas Rangers, Texas DPS troopers, Texas Parks and Wildlife and any and all Federal Agencies that arrest in Llano County.

This story appeared in the Tuesday, Aug. 6, edition of The Highlander. It prompted a letter to the editor on Thursday, Aug. 10, also found here on HighlanderNews.com and to be included in the Friday, Aug. 11, print edition of The Highlander.

By Phil Reynolds

The Highlander

Llano County commissioners got an earful Monday from county residents who want to keep the county jail open.

Commissioners held a budget workshop but part of that involved a study by Precinct One Commissioner Peter Jones on the feasibility of turning Llano County Jail prisoners over to Burnet County under a contract yet to be written.

Jones emphasized that he hasn’t finished the study. But he said preliminary numbers indicate that the county could save some $170,000 a year by sending inmates to the reginal jail in Burnet.