Texas Jail Abbreviations, Codes, and Acronyms: Charges, Bonds, Holds

Texas jail abbreviations are the shorthand codes you see on inmate rosters, booking sheets, and criminal history records that tell you the severity of a charge, the specific offense, the ID numbers tracking a person or case, the type of bond, whether a hold blocks release, and where the case stands in court. Most of these codes are consistent across Texas counties because the records feed into statewide systems run by the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Formatting varies a little from one booking system to the next, but the core codes below will decode almost anything you find.

A single roster line usually strings several codes together. An entry reading “POSS CS PG2 — FSJ — SUR $15,000 — DC” means possession of a Penalty Group 2 controlled substance, charged as a state jail felony, with a $15,000 surety bond, pending in district court. Add “HOLD-OA: TARRANT CO” and the person stays in custody even if that bond is posted, because Tarrant County has a warrant waiting. The sections below break down each piece of that puzzle.

Offense Level Codes

Every Texas criminal charge falls into a classification that sets the punishment range. Rosters use letter-number codes for these tiers.

Misdemeanors

MC — Class C Misdemeanor. Fine-only, up to $500, no jail time. Traffic tickets and minor disorderly conduct sit here.¹
MB — Class B Misdemeanor. Up to 180 days in county jail and a fine up to $2,000. First-offense DWI and small-amount marijuana possession are typical.¹
MA — Class A Misdemeanor. Up to one year in county jail and a fine up to $4,000. Assault causing bodily injury and DWI with a blood alcohol level of 0.15 or higher land here.²

Felonies

FSJ — State Jail Felony. A Texas-specific tier. Punishment runs from 180 days to two years in a state jail, plus a fine up to $10,000. Theft of property worth $2,500 to $30,000 and low-level drug possession fall here.¹
F3 — Third Degree Felony. Two to ten years in prison, fine up to $10,000.¹
F2 — Second Degree Felony. Two to twenty years in prison, fine up to $10,000.¹
F1 — First Degree Felony. Five to ninety-nine years or life in prison, fine up to $10,000.³
Cap F — Capital Felony. Reserved for capital murder, punishable by life without parole or the death penalty depending on whether the state seeks execution.¹

One wrinkle: a judge can reduce a state jail felony and impose Class A misdemeanor punishment based on the circumstances and the defendant’s background.⁴ The charge may still show as FSJ on the roster while the actual sentence falls within the MA range, which confuses families who see a felony code but hear about a misdemeanor sentence.

Charge Description Shorthand

Beyond the tier, the charge itself gets abbreviated. Common entries:

DWI — Driving While Intoxicated
POSS, PCS, or POCS — Possession of a Controlled Substance
AGG ASSAULT — Aggravated Assault
AGG ROB — Aggravated Robbery
ASSAULT BI — Assault Causing Bodily Injury
ASSLT FAM VIOL — Assault Family Violence
UUMV — Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle
BURGL HAB — Burglary of a Habitation
THEFT PROP — Theft of Property (usually followed by a dollar range indicating the offense level)
EVAD ARR — Evading Arrest or Detention

These often sit right next to the tier code. “POSS CS PG1 — FSJ” means possession of a controlled substance from Penalty Group 1 charged as a state jail felony. The PG number refers to how Texas groups controlled substances by type and danger level.

ID Numbers on a Booking Record

Texas uses several different numbers to track people and cases, and mixing them up is easy.

SID (State Identification Number) — Assigned by DPS based on fingerprints. The SID follows the person for life and ties every Texas arrest into one criminal history record accessible to any law enforcement agency in the state.⁵
TRN (Tracking Number) — Identifies a specific arrest. It links all charges from that one arrest event through to their dispositions. One person may have many TRNs.
SPN (System Person Number) — A local identifier used by some large urban counties, most notably Harris County, working like an SID but only within that county.
SO# or SOID (Sheriff’s Office ID) — Similar to the SPN, a county-level number linking a person’s local bookings.

The SID follows a person statewide; the SPN and SOID only work inside the issuing county. A case number is separate again, because it follows the criminal charge rather than the person. One booking with three charges will have one SID, one TRN, and three case numbers.

Bond Types and Release Codes

Bond information is usually the first thing families look for. The bond type tells you what it takes to get someone out.

PR — Personal Recognizance Bond. Release on a written promise to appear, no cash or collateral required. Texas magistrates have discretion to grant a PR bond in many cases, though certain violent offenses and other charges are excluded.⁶
SUR — Surety Bond. The most common type. A bail bondsman guarantees the full amount for a nonrefundable fee, typically 10 to 15 percent.
CASH — Cash Bond. Someone pays the full amount directly to the jail or court. It comes back (minus fees) after the case ends, provided the defendant made all appearances.
NO BOND or HOLD — Not eligible for release, either because no bond has been set yet or because a judge has denied bail.

Warrant and Missed-Court Codes

FTA — Failure to Appear. The defendant missed a scheduled hearing. An FTA also blocks Texas driver license renewal until it is cleared.⁷
FTP — Failure to Pay. A court-ordered fine or fee went unpaid. Also blocks driver license renewal.⁷
BF — Bond Forfeiture. The defendant violated bond terms, usually by missing court. The bond is voided and the full amount may be owed by whoever posted it.
CAPIAS — A court-issued arrest warrant, often triggered by an FTA or a motion to revoke probation.

Holds and Detainers That Block Release

An inmate can satisfy every local bond requirement and still not walk out if another agency has placed a hold. These codes are among the most frustrating for families to see.

IMMHOLD or ICE HOLD — A detainer request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE asks the jail to hold the person for up to 48 hours beyond scheduled release so federal agents can take custody. Whether a Texas county honors the request varies; immigration detainers are requests, not court orders, and some jurisdictions decline to hold people solely on them.⁸
HOLD FOR OTHER AGENCY or HOLD-OA — Another county or state has an active warrant. The current jail holds the person for transfer.
US MARSHAL HOLD — A federal detainer for non-immigration charges, such as federal drug or weapons cases.
PAROLE HOLD or BPP HOLD — The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has issued a warrant alleging a parole violation. These almost always mean the inmate stays in custody until a parole hearing.

When multiple holds appear on the same record, each has to be resolved separately before release. Posting bond on the local charge accomplishes nothing if a hold from another county is still active.

Probation and Parole Violation Codes

Two codes in this category appear constantly, and both mean serious trouble on a case that was supposedly already resolved.

MTR — Motion to Revoke. Filed when the state alleges a defendant on regular community supervision violated a condition. An MTR triggers a warrant, and after a hearing the judge can impose the full original sentence.⁹
MTAG — Motion to Adjudicate Guilt. The equivalent of an MTR for someone on deferred adjudication probation, where no formal guilty finding was ever entered. If the state files an MTAG, the judge can enter that finding and impose any sentence within the full range for the original charge.

The practical difference matters. Someone whose regular probation is revoked already has a conviction. Someone facing an MTAG may be convicted for the first time at that hearing. Either way, the defendant usually sits in jail on a no-bond hold or a high bond until the hearing. Texas law requires the hearing within 20 days of the defendant’s request, though delays are common.⁹

Case Disposition Codes

Disposition codes appear more often on background checks and court records than on live jail rosters, but they tell you how a case ended. Counties use slightly different sets. Some of the most common:

DISM — Dismissed. Charge dropped before trial.¹⁰
CONV — Convicted. Found guilty or pleaded guilty and sentenced.
NAOG — Non-adjudication of guilt on an agreed plea. This is the code for a deferred adjudication, where the judge places the defendant on probation without formally entering a conviction.¹⁰
PGBC — Plea of guilty before the court (an agreed plea deal).¹⁰
JCJP — Not guilty plea, found guilty by a jury, sentenced by the jury.¹⁰
TBCI — Not guilty plea, found innocent by the judge.¹⁰

A dismissed charge and a deferred adjudication are not the same thing, even though neither results in a standard conviction. A dismissal means the case went away entirely. A deferred adjudication (NAOG) means the defendant completed probation conditions and avoided a formal conviction, but the arrest and plea stay on the record unless a court grants a petition for nondisclosure.

Court Venue and Case Progress Codes

Jail records also track which court is handling a case and what stage it has reached.

Court Codes

CC — County Court. Handles misdemeanors, with exclusive jurisdiction over Class A and Class B cases. Large counties use CCL for a County Court at Law, a statutory court with the same jurisdiction.¹¹
DC — District Court. Handles all felony cases. DC on a roster entry means the charge is a felony or has been elevated to one.¹²
JP — Justice of the Peace Court. Handles Class C misdemeanors, magistrate warnings at booking, and initial bail settings.

Case Progress Codes

GJI — Grand Jury Indictment. A grand jury has reviewed the evidence and formally charged the defendant with a felony. Texas requires grand jury review of all felony charges before trial.¹³
GJ-NB — Grand Jury No-Bill. The grand jury declined to indict. This effectively kills the case unless the state resubmits with new evidence.
NGI — Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity. The person committed the act but was legally insane at the time. This is not release; the person is typically committed to a state mental health facility.
PEND IND — Pending Indictment. The felony charge has been filed but not yet reviewed by the grand jury.

State Prison and Treatment Facility Codes

When a case moves past county jail and into the state system, a new set of abbreviations appears.

TDCJ — Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the state agency that runs all prisons and state jails.
SAFPF — Substance Abuse Felony Punishment Facility. A six-month in-prison treatment program for people sentenced as a condition of probation or voted in by the Board of Pardons and Paroles, followed by residential aftercare and outpatient treatment.¹⁴
ISF — Intermediate Sanction Facility. A short-term lockup for people who violated a parole or probation condition but whose violation isn’t severe enough for full revocation.¹⁵
SJF — State Jail Facility. Where state jail felony sentences are served, separate from prison units used for higher felonies.
TDC or ID — Institutional Division. The prison system for second degree, first degree, and capital felony sentences.

SAFPF or ISF on a record is generally a better outcome than a straight prison sentence. Both are rehabilitation-focused alternatives that keep the person within reach of eventual release on supervision.

When You Hit a Code That Isn’t Listed

County jail websites in Texas almost never publish a legend for their codes. If you find an abbreviation not covered here, call the county clerk’s office or the sheriff’s office directly. Booking staff work with these codes all day and can usually translate an unfamiliar entry in seconds.

1
Office of the Attorney General of Texas. Penal Code Offenses by Punishment Range
2
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code 12.21 – Class A Misdemeanor
3
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code 12.32 – First Degree Felony Punishment
4
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code 12.44
5
Texas Department of Public Safety. TxDPS Crime Records Service Secure Website User Guide
6
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 17.03 – Personal Bond
7
Department of Public Safety. Section 8 – Failure to Appear and Failure to Pay FTA/FTP
8
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Immigration Detainers
9
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 42A.751
10
Dallas County. Dallas County Criminal Background Search
11
State of Texas. Texas Government Code 26.045 – Original Criminal Jurisdiction
12
State of Texas. Texas Government Code 24.007 – Jurisdiction
13
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 20A.051
14
Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Rehabilitation and Reentry Division – Substance Abuse Treatment
15
Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Unit Directory