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In Brazil, the “regime disciplinar diferenciado” (differentiated disciplinary regime), known by the acronym RDD, and strongly based on the Supermax standard, was created primarily to handle inmates who are considered capable of continuing to run their crime syndicate or to order criminal actions from within the prison system, when confined in normal maximum security prisons that allow contact with other inmates. Since its inception, the following prisons were prepared for the housing of RDD inmates:

His Majesty’s Prison Service in England and Wales has had a long history in controlling prisoners that are high-risk. Prisoners are categorized into four main classifications (A, B, C, D) with A being “highly dangerous” with a high risk of escaping to category D in which inmates “can be reasonably trusted in open conditions.”In 1985, the state government of São Paulo created an annex to a psychiatric penitentiary hospital meant to house the most violent inmates of the region and established the Penitentiary of Rehabilitation Center of Taubaté, also known as Piranhão. Previously, high-risk inmates were housed at a prison on Anchieta Island; however, that closed down after a bloody massacre. At Taubaté, inmates spent 23 hours of a day in solitary confinement and spent 30 minutes a day with a small group of seven to ten inmates. Ill-treatment of inmates occurred on a daily basis, causing major psychological impairment. The British government formed the Control Review Committee in 1984 to allow for regulating long-term disruptive prisoners. The committee proposed special units (called CRC units) which were formally introduced in 1989 to control for highly-disruptive prisoners to be successfully reintegrated. Yet a series of escapes, riots, and investigations by authorities saw the units come to a close in 1998. They were replaced by Close Supervision Centres (CSC). It was reported to hold 60 of the most dangerous men in the UK in 2015. A super-maximum security (supermax) or administrative maximum (ADX) prison is a “control-unit” prison, or a unit within prisons, which represents the most secure level of custody in the prison systems of certain countries.In recent years a number of U.S. states have downgraded their supermax prisons, as has been done with Wallens Ridge State Prison, a former supermax prison in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. Other supermax prisons that have gained notoriety for their harsh conditions and attendant litigation by inmates and advocates are the former Boscobel (in Wisconsin), now named the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility, Red Onion State Prison (in western Virginia, the twin to Wallens Ridge State Prison), Tamms (in Illinois), and the Ohio State Penitentiary. Placement policies at the Ohio facility were the subject of a U.S. Supreme Court case (Wilkinson v. Austin) in 2005 where the Court decided that there had to be some, but only very limited, due process involved in supermax placement.

Stammheim Prison, in Stuttgart, Germany, opened as a supermax-style prison in 1964, with an additional wing built in 1975 to house members of the far-left militant Red Army Faction. At the time, it was considered one of the most secure prisons in the world.Those who are in a supermax prison are placed not as a punishment of their crimes but by their previous history when incarcerated or based on reliable evidence of an impending disruption, such as a gang leader or the leader of a radical movement. These decisions are made as administrative protection measures and the prisoners in a supermax are deemed by correctional workers as a threat to the safety and security of the institution itself. The United States Penitentiary Alcatraz Island, opened in 1934, has been considered a prototype and early standard for a supermax prison. A push for supermax prisons began in 1983, after two correctional officers, Merle Clutts and Robert Hoffman, were stabbed to death by inmates at Federal Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. Norman Carlson, the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, argued for a new type of prison to isolate uncontrollable inmates who “show absolutely no concern for human life”. USP Marion became the first “supermax” prison where inmates were isolated for 23 hours in their cells. By 1999, the United States contained at least 57 supermax facilities, spread across 30–34 states. However, many states now have created supermax prisons, either as stand-alone facilities or as secure units within lower-security prisons. State supermax prisons include Pelican Bay in California and Tamms in Illinois. In 2006, USP Marion, the original model for the modern supermax prison, was downgraded to a medium-security prison. The California State Prison, Corcoran (COR) is a hybrid model, incorporating a supermax partition, housing or having housed high-security prisoners such as Charles Manson.There is only one supermax prison remaining in the U.S. federal prison system, ADX Florence in Florence, Colorado. It houses numerous inmates who have a history of violent behavior in other prisons, with the goal of moving them from solitary confinement (up to 23 hours a day) to a less restrictive prison within three years. There is no set definition of a supermax prison; however, the United States Department of Justice and the National Institute of Corrections do agree on their purpose: “these units have basically the same function: to provide long-term, segregated housing for inmates classified as the highest security risks in a state’s prison system.” According to the National Institute of Corrections, an agency of the United States government, “a supermax is a stand-alone unit or part of another facility and is designated for violent or disruptive incarcerated individuals. It typically involves up to 23-hour-per-day, solitary confinement for an indefinite period of time. Those incarcerated in supermax housing have minimal contact with staff and other inmates,” a definition confirmed by a majority of prison wardens. Building a supermax prison, or even retrofitting an existing prison, is expensive. Construction of ADX Florence cost $60 million when it opened in 1994. In 2001, academics Leena Kurki and Norval Morris wrote that there was no universal, agreed upon definition for “supermax” and that prisons are classified inconsistently. They identified four general features of supermax prisons:An early form of supermax-style prison unit appeared in Australia in 1975, when “Katingal” was built inside the Long Bay Correctional Centre in Sydney. Dubbed the “electronic zoo” by inmates, Katingal was a super-maximum security prison block with 40 prison cells having electronically operated doors, surveillance cameras, and no windows. It was closed down two years later over human rights concerns. Since then, some maximum-security prisons have gone to full lockdown as well, while others have been built and dedicated to the supermax standard. In September 2001, the Australian state of New South Wales opened a facility in the Goulburn Correctional Centre to the supermax standard. While its condition is an improvement over that of Katingal of the 1970s, this new facility is nonetheless designed on the same principle of sensory deprivation. It has been set up for ‘AA’ prisoners who have been deemed a risk to public safety and the instruments of government and civil order or are believed to be beyond rehabilitation. Corrections Victoria in the state of Victoria also operates the Acacia and Melaleuca units at Barwon Prison which serve to hold the prisoners requiring the highest security in that state including Melbourne Gangland figures such as Tony Mokbel, and Carl Williams, who was murdered in the Acacia unit in 2010.

Compared to a maximum security facility, supermax prisons cost about three times more on average. The 1999 average annual cost for inmates at Colorado State Penitentiary, a supermax facility, was $32,383, compared with the annual inmate cost of $18,549 at the Colorado Correctional Center, a maximum-security prison; the cost of the latter facility being just 57% of the former. The increased cost is due to the technology needed to further maintain a supermax: high-security doors, fortified walls, and sophisticated electronic systems, and because more people must be hired to maintain the buildings and facilities.

Supermax and Security Housing Unit (SHU) prisons are controversial. One criticism is that the living conditions in such facilities violate the United States Constitution, specifically, the Eighth Amendment’s proscription against “cruel and unusual” punishments. A 2011 New York Bar Association comprehensive study suggested that supermax prisons constitute “torture under international law” and “cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution”. In 2012, a federal class action suit against the Federal Bureau of Prisons and officials who run ADX Florence SHU (Bacote v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, Civil Action 1:12-cv-01570) alleged chronic abuse, failure to properly diagnose prisoners, and neglect of prisoners who are seriously mentally ill.Throughout the 1990s, and the early-2000s, Brazil faced major challenges with gang structures within its prisons. The gang Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) gained notoriety in the prison system and had new members joining within the prisons. Riots were a common occurrence and the gang culture became uncontrollable, leading authorities to pass the controversial Regime Disciplinar Diferenciado (RDD), a culture founded from disciplinary punishment.The objective is to provide long-term, segregated housing for inmates classified as the highest security risks in the prison system and those who pose an extremely serious threat to both national and global security.

The amount of programming for those in prison varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Certain jurisdictions provide entertainment for their incarcerated population in the form of television, educational and self-help programs. Others provide instructors who speak through the cell door to individuals who are incarcerated. Some jurisdictions provide no programming to its incarcerated population. In a supermax, incarcerated people are generally allowed out of their cells for only one hour a day (one-and-a-half hours in California state prisons). Exercise is done in indoor spaces or small, secure, outdoor spaces, usually alone or in a pair and always watched by correctional officers. Group exercise is offered only to those who are in transition programs. However, it is best known for housing several inmates who have been deemed either too dangerous, too high-profile or too great a national security risk for even a maximum-security prison. They include several prisoners convicted of domestic and international terrorism, such as Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, who perpetrated the Oklahoma City Bombing; Richard Reid and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who separately attempted to detonate explosives on a commercial airplane flight; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Other notable inmates include Robert Hanssen, convicted of espionage for the Soviet Union and Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the head of the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel and the world’s most powerful drug lord, convicted in 2019. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page..

The list includes only those facilities under the supervision of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and includes some facilities operated under contract by private entities to TDCJ. It does not include federal prisons or county jails, nor does it include the North Texas State Hospital; though the facility houses those classified as “criminally insane” (such as Andrea Yates) the facility is under the supervision of the Texas Department of State Health Services.

In 1930 the facility was renamed as the Central State Prison Farm. The name “Central” originates from the prison’s status for many years as the central farming and distribution point of agricultural goods from correctional facilities. Construction of a new unit of the Central Farm, funded by the 41st Texas Legislature, began in late 1930. The $350,000 unit was completed in late 1932. It consisted of 12 acres (4.9 ha) of land, including a main building with administration and inmate housing, and an industrial facilities building with a canner, meatpacking plant, and powerhouse.The Central Barber Shop, the prison barber shop, was located in the tower structure. The Austin American-Statesman said that a cohort of the criminal duo Bonnie and Clyde was said to have lived in a closet within the tower structure.The cemetery was once open to the public. It is now surrounded by two fences with the inner one locked to protect the site. It was declared an Historic Texas Cemetery in 2007. The city of Sugar Land announced in 2012 plans to build a park on the surrounding undeveloped land, and park plans were designed the same year. The park would include the cemetery with a walkway encircling it. However, a bond proposal to fund the park failed to gain passage in November 2013.The state planned to spread the prisoners throughout the state, and not place too many Central prisoners at any remaining unit. Many prisoners went to the Jester State Prison Farm family of units, near Sugar Land, and the Darrington Unit. The legislature estimated that the closure would mean annual savings of $1.25 million. After the closure, the Texas General Land Office took possession of the property. Central Unit had operated for 112 years.

In March 2018 an employee doing excavation for the Fort Bend Independent School District near the former prison site, discovered a human bone that was not recent. The school district notified the Texas Historical Commission that there appeared to be a newly discovered burial ground. A grave with 95 bodies was found.

The Smithville Prison Property (29°37′03″N 95°39′09″W / 29.61750°N 95.65250°W / 29.61750; -95.65250), near the northwest corner of Texas State Highway 6 and U.S. Highway 90A and east of the runway of Sugar Land Regional Airport, had employee housing and farmland. In 2010 it had 96 acres (39 ha) of land. In February 2011 it had 85 acres (34 ha) of land. Smithville was adjacent to the airport’s southeast corner. The road in Smithville was lined with trees. The prison warden and other top officials lived there.In 2006 Smithville was rezoned from Kempner to Austin, with grades 9-10 immediately zoned to Austin, and grades 11-12 zoned to Kempner, with a phasing in by grade. Smithville had since been rezoned back to Kempner.

In 1878 the state began to lease convicts as laborers to private companies operating on the Imperial Sugar property. This practice was widespread in Texas and across the South after Reconstruction, when few states had prisons. Many states generated substantial revenues from the fees for convict leasing. They passed what were known as Black Codes, criminalizing behavior they believed associated with freedmen and charging them fees for convictions, for instance, for so-called vagrancy. Because in a cash-poor economy, men often couldn’t pay the fee, they were required to work off the costs as convict laborers. The states made so much money that they had incentives to convict poor men for minor offenses. Convict leasing was little regulated; the state did not protect the convicts or oversee their treatment. This system was thoroughly explored and documented in Douglas A. Blackmon’s Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II (2008).Reginald Moore, designated as caretaker of the cemetery by the Texas Historical Commission, who is a former Texas Department of Corrections employee, has criticized the City of Sugar Land and state of Texas for attempting to erase the history of the Black Codes and convict leasing by plans for the cemetery. Moore, the founder of the Texas Slave Descendant Society, and others such as anthropologist Fred McGhee, have called for commemoration of the graveyard and its occupants.

In 2009 the 43,000 square feet (4,000 m) Two Camp Building and its nearby land were adapted and opened as the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Sugar Land. The subdivision donated the building and land to the City of Sugar Land, and the city leases the building to the museum. The museum spent $3 million to help renovate the building.Mike Ward of the Austin American-Statesman stated that the three factors that led to the closure of the Central Unit were the expansion of suburban development, the stabilization of the state’s adult prison population, and pressure to take budget cuts. Herman Weston was the unit’s final warden. When the State of Texas acquired the land in 1908, the prison property had 5,435 acres (2,199 ha) of land. Since then the state has sold parcels of the Central Unit, reducing its size, and various local and state bodies have also claimed land, much of it to support transportation improvements. From 1921 to 1984, the state sold a total of 945 acres (382 ha) to private individuals and industries. Sugar Land officials denied the claims of covering up the racial history of the city. It said that a historical marker to be erected at the site of the cemetery would memorialize injustices against African Americans in the Texas prison system during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Activists of the Texas Slave Descendant Society said that a museum would be more appropriate as commemoration. They complained that federal historical laws had been circumvented by the City in accepting the transfer of this property and making plans without consulting with appropriate parties on effects on the historical property. As a response, a United States federal agency, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, began an investigation into the issue in early 2014.Allen Bogard, the City Manager of Sugar Land, said that he believed that the Central Unit property “has a much higher purpose and value to the state of Texas to be utilized for economic development purposes.” Some Sugar Land residents supported the idea of the prison leaving. Some residents feared that sexually oriented businesses, such as strip clubs, could open in a light industrial commercial park zone once the prison was closed. By 2009 the airport received a $2 million grant for airport expansion, and the grant could be used to buy the prison property. In 2009 the State of Texas authorized the purchase of the Smithville portion by the City of Sugar Land. If the prison closes, the TDCJ would lose the Central Unit’s 1,060 prisoner beds. In mid-2011 the State of Texas had a severe budget shortfall. State legislators determined they needed to close the Central Unit to save money. On May 30, 2011, the regular session of the 82nd Texas Legislature concluded. The legislature voted to close the Central Unit by removing funding on September 1 of that year. Mike Ward of the Austin American-Statesman said that, one week prior to the decision, “it appeared” that the Central Unit would remain open because legislators questioned whether removing capacity for 1,500 prisoners was a good decision. Residents of the staff housing were zoned to the Fort Bend Independent School District. Residents of the main Central Unit property were zoned to Cornerstone Elementary School, Sartartia Middle School, and Austin High School. Residents of the Smithville property were zoned to Lakeview Elementary School, Sugar Land Middle School, and Kempner High School.

In 2000 the prison operated the “Texas Fresh Approach” program, a collaborative developed by the TDCJ, Miller Brewing Co., and the Texas Association of Second Harvest Food Banks. As part of the program, prisoners grew vegetables, which were sent to food banks throughout Texas. The TDCJ officials said that the work supported helping others. Miller paid for the transportation of vegetables in the “Fighting Hunger in Texas” program.By 2010, due to the expansion of Greater Houston, housing developments such as Chelsea Harbor were constructed within .5 miles (0.80 km) of the prison grounds. In February 2011 the prison had 330 acres (130 ha) of land remaining.

The Imperial State Farm Cemetery, a small prison cemetery located on the south side of U.S. Highway 90A in the northwest part of Telfair, has graves of deceased prisoners. The cemetery, also known as the Old Imperial Farm Cemetery, has at least 33 graves, with the earliest three dated from 1912. Most graves are those of African-American inmates. The earliest are of men arrested on trumped-up charges under the discriminatory Black Codes, in order to supply labor for the state’s convict lease system. This practice was widespread in the South before most states built prisons; some made a large portion of their budgets from convict leasing, which has been called “slavery by another name.” The state conducted little regulation of treatment of prisoners, many of whom were abused, and poorly fed and housed by their employers. At least one grave notes that the inmate drowned while attempting to escape. Three graves are post dated to the 1930s.

The City of Sugar Land made moving the facility one of its main priorities for the 2007 state legislative session. John Whitmire, a member of the Texas State Senate, advocated moving the facility to an area in Brazoria County, Texas near the community of Rosharon. The area has several existing TDCJ facilities. Whitmire said that a prison in that location would be less expensive to operate and would allow the state to alleviate a shortage of correction personnel by consolidating staff members. In 2007 TDCJ officials said that discussions to move the Central Unit from Sugar Land to Brazoria County were preliminary. During the same year, Whitmire promoted a bill calling for a study for the feasibility of selling the land of the Central Unit. The bill awaited the signature of Governor of Texas Rick Perry. As of that year the Texas General Land Office estimated the value of the land to $10.1 million.The compound included 113 housing units for staff members and their families; the units include 48 duplexes, 42 officer’s quarters, 9 mobile home spaces, and 14 single family units. If Central closes, state employee housing would likely not be available for many TDCJ employees who transfer to other units.

The State of Texas bought the 5,200-acre (2,100 ha) area in 1908. The Imperial State Prison Farm, one of the first penal institutions owned by the State of Texas, opened in 1909 in the Imperial Sugar plantation. Originally it had 3,700 acres (1,500 ha) and was the hub of the Texas state correctional agriculture production.

Hal Croft, the acting deputy director of asset management of the land office, said in a press release “That property is like the center of a doughnut — prime property now because it has been surrounded by development.” If the prison is sold, the resulting funds would be used to fund public schools; they cannot be used to build another prison facility.Central Unit included a detergent and soap factory, a mechanic shop, a freight transportation terminal, and farming operations. Sugar Land Distribution Center (SLDC), a men’s correctional facility supply warehouse, was inside the unit.

In August 2011, Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced that the prison will be closing. Spokesperson Michelle Lyons said it will become the first prison in Texas history to close and not be replaced. 71 prison guards will go to other prisons to work. On August 2, 2011, 200 prison guards and 80 prisoners remained to move the trucking hub and soap factory out of Central. The Roach Unit was scheduled to take the former Central soap factory and the Ramsey Unit was scheduled to take the trucking hub. By the end of August, the prison was scheduled to be completely vacant.

In August 2011, the TDCJ announced that the Central Unit would be the first prison in Texas to close without being replaced. The state wanted to save money at a time of budget shortfalls.By 2008 the city and the state were conducting a joint study researching whether the TDCJ should close the Central Unit and sell the land. Mayor of Sugar Land Dave Wallace said “Let’s just say that a prison is not the highest and best use for that land right now.” During that year the TDCJ granted the prison’s access easements to the City of Sugar Land. By 2009 the City of Sugar Land had already zoned the land that the prison occupied to a light industrial commercial park zone.

The state intended for Central to become the central intake and rehabilitation prison in the prison system. In the mid-1930s Central had nearly 700 prisoners. In 1935 Central housed both White and African American prisoners, who were segregated. In the 1950s the prison had over 1,000 inmates.A Greek Revival brick building of the Central Unit located east of the Brazos River, named Two Camp, opened in 1939. At one time it housed 400 young African-American prisoners. The facility closed in 1969.A 1935 resurvey by the Texas State Reclamation Department caused the facility to lose 148 acres (60 ha). In 1964 130 acres (53 ha) were transferred to the Texas State Highway Department. In 1985 the Texas State Highway and Public Transportation Commission took ownership of 109 acres (44 ha). In 1986 the Fort Bend Independent School District took control of 56 acres (23 ha). In 1991 the Texas State Department of Highways and Public Transportation took 3,697 acres (1,496 ha). In 2001 14 acres (5.7 ha) were transferred to the Permanent School Fund.

The Central Unit (C, previously the Imperial State Prison Farm and the Central State Prison Farm) was a Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) men’s prison in Sugar Land, Texas. The approximately 325.8-acre (131.8 ha) facility is 2 miles (3.2 km) from the central part of the city of Sugar Land on U.S. Highway 90A.Since then, most of the former prison plantation land has been redeveloped by Newland Communities as a master-planned community known as Telfair. Newland Communities had bought the land in 2002 from the State of Texas, long planning such development. Two Camp, a former prison building, has been renovated as the Houston Museum of Natural Science Sugar Land. Other parts of the site are zoned for light industrial use to support the airport.

In 1932 a concrete housing unit for 600 prisoners opened, replacing wooden barracks that were situated at three work camps. Prominent architects had designed the concrete building. It includes a cupola that prison guards once used as a lookout.The Central Unit property includes the main prison unit and the Smithville Prison Property (CPU). The prison property is adjacent to the Sugar Land Regional Airport. Prisoners grow crops on land next to the airport’s runway. Many of the remaining buildings were constructed in an Art Deco architecture style. Several neighborhoods had been built nearby.

As of 2014 the City of Sugar Land plans to convert much of the property into an industrial park. The city government of Sugar Land approved paying Hines Interests Limited Partnership $207,800 as part of a contract in order to do a feasibility study on the new usage of the land in mid-November 2014.

By 2007 residential development began to surround the prison. In addition, the Central Unit is in land zoned by the county for expansion of the Sugar Land Regional Airport. The airport was considering expansion of its facilities, and was seeking a $30 million federal grant to study those possibilities.In 1991 3,700 acres (1,500 ha) of land was transferred to the Texas Department of Transportation for the construction of Texas State Highway 99 (Grand Parkway) and other highways; much of that land included territory that was originally a part of the Central Unit. By 2007 the state had sold land, and surrounding development over the years reduced the prison to 336 acres (136 ha). Texas state senator John Whitmire served as chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee from 1993 to present. With Texas representative Jerry Madden, chairman of corrections since 2005, Whitmire helped institute prison reform in the state. The creation of drug rehabilitation programs, the reduction of sentencing for drug crimes, an increase in the number of parole officers and the creation of special courts for specific crimes helped to reduce the state prison population and even led to the first prison closures in state history. The agency has also implemented a “Safe Prisons” program with the goal of implementing PREA policy throughout the state prisons and jails and reducing the incidents of prison rape. The TDCJ has a 120-bed medical facility at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. In 1987 the Texas Legislature voted in a ban on most cosmetic surgery for prisoners, and UTMB began denying such in 1989.The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails, and private correctional facilities, funding and certain oversight of community supervision, and supervision of offenders released from prison on parole or mandatory supervision. The TDCJ operates the largest prison system in the United States.In 2014, the Human Rights Clinic of the University of Texas School of Law released a report stating that the temperatures in many TDCJ units are too high over the summer and that at least 14 inmates had been killed by the heat since 2007. In 2013, the TDCJ had signed a deal for a climate-controlled housing system for pig breeding; this was worth $750,000. In response, John Whitmire of the Texas State Senate stated, “the people of Texas don’t want air-conditioned prisons, and there’s a lot of other things on my list above the heat. It’s hot in Texas, and a lot of Texans who are not in prison don’t have air conditioning.” That year, a federal judge declared that the TDCJ is making it impossible for Muslim inmates to practice their religion.

In 1993, Texas State Comptroller John Sharp proposed that the TDCJ end its healthcare department and transfer responsibilities to the universities to reduce costs. During that time, most TDCJ prison units were in south and east Texas, and UTMB was to provide for the care of 80% of the managed care for TDCJ, while Texas Tech was to provide the remaining 20%. In September 1994, UTMB and Texas Tech took responsibility for 3,000 healthcare workers and a $270 million budget. In 2011, the board considered ending its contract with UTMB and having regional hospitals provide care for prisoners. In 2018, the department said it needed an additional $281 million in its 2020 budget to provide the required minimum amount of health care. To save money, the department rarely provides prisoners dentures, finding it cheaper to simply produce a blended diet in such cases.The Community Justice Assistance Division supervises adults who are on probation. In 1989, the 71st Texas Legislature began using the term “community supervision” in place of the term “adult probation.” CJAD has its central office in the Price Daniel, Sr. Building in Austin.

In 2010, a study from the National Women’s Law Center and the Rebecca Project for Human Rights ranked the Texas prison system as giving “B+” care to women. A 2018 report by the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition stated that women in the TDCJ have fewer career-training and employment programs available than men; women had only two certification programs, while men had 21.

In 1974, the TDC had about 17,000 prisoners; 44% were black, 39% were non-Hispanic white, 16% were Hispanic and Latino, and 1% were of other races. About 96% were male and 4% were female. At the time, all 14 prison units of the TDC were in Southeast Texas.The prison system began as a single institution, located in Huntsville. A second prison facility, Rusk Penitentiary, began receiving convicts in January 1883. Before the Ruiz v. Estelle court case, the Texas Department of Corrections had 18 units, including 16 for males and two for females.

Most visits to a medical professional costs inmates $2–8, in which they use they copay to relief these costs. At first, this rate sounds not too harsh but an important factor to put in is how much inmates earn. For most inmates, a wage is consistent of maybe a few cents per hour. This small set could mean that it would take an inmate a very long time before a “checkup” can be “bought”. Fortunately though, care is not restricted if one does not have the necessary funds.

In 1921, George W. Dixon of The Prison Journal published a report on the Texas Prison System facilities. His article stated that the prisons were among the most “brutal” in the world. Dixon said that the prisons featured corporal punishment such as whipping, beatings, and isolation.In July and August 1974, a major riot at the Huntsville Walls prison resulted in the murder of two hostages. This was not a riot, but an escape attempt in which the whole Huntsville Unit was shut down. Inmates were Fred Gomez Carrasco, Rudolpho Domingez and Ignacio Cueves. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has the Offender Orientation Handbook, a guidebook explaining the rules prisoners are required to follow, posted on its website in English and Spanish. Individual prisoners receive formal orientations and copies of the manual after undergoing initial processing. The manual has 111 pages of rules of behavior. It is intended to establish governance over all aspects of prison life. The prison rule system is modeled on the free-world penal system, but it does not have judicial review and rights. The number of regulations has increased due to court orders, incidents, and managerial initiative. Prisoners in the general population are seated together, with prisoners handcuffed in pairs. Prisoners in administrative segregation and prisoners under death sentences are seated individually; various restraints, including belly chains and leg irons, are placed on those prisoners. Each prisoner transport vehicle has two urinals and two water dispensers. As of 2005, all of the transportation vans and half of the chain buses have air conditioning.The Correctional Institutions Division, which operates secure correctional facilities for adults, has its headquarters in the Brad Livingston Administrative Headquarters in Huntsville. TDCJ-CID, formed in 2003, was a merger of the Institutions Division, the Operations Division, the Private Facilities Division, and the State Jail Division.

State jail offenders are released from their units of assignment. All people released receive a set of nonprison clothing and a bus voucher. State jail offenders receive a voucher to their counties of conviction. Prison offenders receive $50 upon their release and another $50 after reporting to their parole officers. Released state jail offenders do not receive money. Inmates in Substance Abuse Felony Punishment Facilities are also directly released.The Texas Prison System purchased its first prison farm in 1885. The oldest TDCJ units still in operation, originally established between 1849 and 1933, include Huntsville Unit (1849), Wynne Unit (1883), Jester I Unit (1885, brick building in 1932), Vance (Harlem/Jester II) Unit (1885, brick building in 1933), Clemens Unit (1893), Ramsey (I) Unit (1908), Stringfellow (Ramsey II) Unit (1908), Goree Unit (1907), Memorial (Darrington) Unit (1917), and J. Dale Wainwright (Eastham) Unit (1917); prior to their closures Central Unit (1909, rebuilt in 1932) and Retrieve (later Wayne Scott) Unit (1919) were among the oldest prisons. The Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery, the state’s main prison cemetery, is where prisoners not claimed by their families are buried. It is located on 22 acres (8.9 ha) of land on a hill, 1 mile (1.6 km) from the Huntsville Unit and in proximity to Sam Houston State University. It is the largest prison cemetery in Texas. Byrd’s first prisoners were interred there in the mid-1800s, and the prison agencies of Texas have maintained the cemetery since then. There is currently no standard policy for what happens when a woman gives birth while incarcerated, because only recently have states begun to ban the shackling of pregnant women during active labor and childbirth. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has created an initiative in collaboration with the University of Texas Medical Branch, called BAMBI (Baby and Mother Bonding Initiative). Within this program, eligible offenders will be provided with an opportunity to bond and form attachments, “…which is important to healthy growth and development, socialization, and psychological development during the infant’s formative years, while in a safe and secure environment.” However, all mothers within this program are only allowed to remain in it for 12 months. After this period they must have completed their sentence, and be prepared to transition back into society. The University of Texas Medical Branch found through their research with the BAMBI program that, “As the number of women giving birth in prisons continues to trend upward, the need for more programs to promote [the] best outcomes for both mother and infants is crucial.”In the two decades leading to 2011, many proposals were placed in the Texas Legislature to move the TDCJ headquarters to Austin. One reason why the proposals failed was because Huntsville-area prison officials opposed the move. In the 1990s, John Whitmire, a member of the Texas Senate, made an effort to have the TDCJ headquarters moved. During the last state legislative session before September 1, 2011, Texas House of Representatives member Jerry Madden decided not to ask for the TDCJ headquarters to be moved to Austin.

Historically, the Huntsville Unit served as the administrative headquarters of the Texas Prison System; the superintendent and the other executive officers worked in the prison, and all of the central offices of the system’s departments and all of the permanent records were located in the prison.In addition, the Hilltop Unit uses buildings from the former Gatesville State School, a juvenile correctional facility, making the Hilltop Unit’s prison facility the third-oldest correctional facility still-used in Texas after the Huntsville and Jester I. The largest TDCJ prison is the Coffield Unit, with a capacity of 4,021 inmates. The largest female prison is the Christina Crain Unit, with a capacity of 2,013 inmates.

In 2019, the Texas Senate passed a bill, allowing inmates to have access to a greater variety of feminine hygiene products. They have access to various sized tampons and pads and can receive up to 10 free products per day.

Some units have employee housing; most employee housing was constructed prior to the TDCJ’s early to mid-1990s prison expansion. As of 2008, of the 22 units that are staffed below 80% of their employee capacities, eight (36%) of the units have officers’ quarters. As of that year, the TDCJ requested funding from the Texas Legislature for three 80-bed officers’ quarters to be built next to three prisons that the agency considers to be “critically staffed.”

For a period in the early 20th century, Eastham housed women before a sexual abuse scandal caused the Texas prison system to move women closer to Huntsville. Before the prisons in Gatesville opened in the 1980s, women in the Texas prison system were housed in the Goree Unit in Huntsville.Healthcare in Texas was mostly straight forward. Not much of it was changed over time due to its simplicity. One aspect that did change was how the cost of healthcare for incarcerated persons fluctuated.

The TDCJ maintains training academies in Beeville, Gatesville, Huntsville, Palestine, Plainview, and Rosharon. Trainees who do not live within a commuting distance to the training academies take state-owned housing, only if room is available.

As of 2017, 2.3 million incarcerated Americans depend on prisons for their healthcare. These incarcerated individuals face limited access to medical exams and prescriptions medications compared to the general population as they are not eligible for Medicaid while incarcerated. On top of that, inmates face fees for seeking medical treatment. In 35 states, inmates have medical co-payments which come out of their commissary accounts (made up of prison job payments and contributions from their family). The copays are enforced to prevent inmates from abusing the healthcare system, however, it becomes a burden on inmates whose job makes little to no money and can become a financial strain on the family.

The Ben A. Reid Community Corrections Center, a halfway house operated by GEO and previously operated by Cornell, is located in the former Southern Bible College facility in Houston. As of 2004, the facility housed almost 400 parolees; 224 of them were subject to sex offender registration. Because of aspects of state law and because of a shortage of halfway houses, almost two-thirds of the sex offenders were from outside of Harris County. Reid is the largest of the three halfway houses that take sex offenders and out of county parolees, so Reid gets a significant number of paroled sex offenders.

On September 1, 2009, two laws were passed in the 81st Texas legislature. One prohibited the use of restraints on female prisoners during childbirth. The other asked that the counties write and implement procedures in regards to the health of their pregnant inmate population. Another law was passed in 2019 that stipulated that pregnant inmates cannot be shackled at all during their pregnancy or when they are recovering after childbirth. As there is no set policy for how long a mother can remain with her infant after birth, the other proposal that has yet to be passed would allow 72 hours of bonding time if the inmate does not qualify for the BAMBI program. Also, it mandates more formal training for officers to protect the physical and mental safety of pregnant inmates.In the 1980s, the government of Texas began building more prisons. During that decade, impoverished rural communities viewed the prisons as a boon, as they provided jobs.The University of Texas Medical Branch provides health care to offenders in the eastern, northern, and southern sections of Texas. The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center provides health care to offenders in the western part of Texas. In addition, private corporations provide healthcare services. Hospitalized offenders may go to the Hospital Galveston Unit, the Montford Unit in unincorporated Lubbock County, or area hospitals.

The state of Texas began housing death-row inmates in the Huntsville Unit in 1928. In 1965, the male death-row inmates moved to the Ellis Unit. In 1999, the male death row moved to Polunsky. In the 1923-1973 period, Texas state authorities had three female death-row inmates; the first, Emma “Straight Eight” Oliver, was held at Huntsville Unit after her 1949 sentencing, but had her sentence commuted to life imprisonment in 1951. Mary Anderson, sentenced to death in 1978, was held at Goree Unit. Her death sentence was reversed in 1982, and the sentence was changed to life. An issue that was prominent in prison systems was the associated costs with treatment. For this reason, the Correctional Managed Health Care Committee (CMHCC) was established in 1993. This committee focused their attention to the rising costs of healthcare today and how that effects inmates inside custody. The CMHCC hopes to open a statewide managed health care plan giving offenders the ability to afford care with timely access. Death-row offenders and offenders with life imprisonment without parole enter the TDCJ system through two points; men enter through the Byrd Unit in Huntsville, and women enter through the Reception Center in Christina Crain Unit, Gatesville. From there, inmates with life without parole sentences go on to their assigned facilities. Male death-row offenders go to the Allan B. Polunsky Unit, and female death-row offenders go to the Mountain View Unit.

Regional offices of the CID are: Region I, headquartered in Huntsville; Region II, headquartered on TDCJ prison property in Anderson County, near Palestine; Region III, headquartered on the property of the Darrington Unit in Brazoria County, near Rosharon; Region IV, headquartered in the former Chase Field Industrial Complex (a TDCJ property) in Beeville; Region V, headquartered in Plainview; and Region VI, headquartered on TDCJ property in Gatesville.

Cornell operates a halfway house in Beaumont, which as of 2004 houses 170 people. Horizon Management, L.L.C. operates the El Paso facility in unincorporated El Paso County, which houses 165 people. In addition, Wayback House operates the Wayback House in Dallas, E.P. Southern Corrections operates the Austin Transition Center in Austin, and Avalon operates the Fort Worth Transitional Center in Fort Worth.On average, about 250 babies are born to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The Santa Maria Hostel provides a residential setting for these mothers and their infants.

The prisoner transportation network of the TDCJ is headquartered in Huntsville. As of 2005, the network has 326 employees, including 319 uniformed employees. The TDCJ’s regional prisoner transportation hubs are located in Abilene, Amarillo, Beeville, Huntsville, Palestine, and Rosharon. Of the transportation hubs, the Central Region hub in Huntsville transports the largest number of prisoners to the greatest number of units. The Abilene hub controls the largest land area.The TDCJ has its headquarters in Huntsville. The administrative facility, known as the Brad Livingston Administrative Headquarters, and previously BOT Complex (for its former owner, see below), is located at Spur 59 off Texas Highway 75 North. The complex also faces Interstate 45. The complex includes the Central Region Warehouse and the Huntsville Prison Store. The Texas prison system had been headquartered in Huntsville since Texas’s founding as a republic, and the TDCJ is the only major state agency not headquartered in Austin, the state capital.

Smoking is prohibited at all TDCJ facilities. On November 18, 1994, the Texas Board of Criminal Justice voted to ban smoking at all TDCJ facilities, beginning on March 1, 1995. The Holliday Unit in Huntsville already had a smoking ban in place prior to the TDCJ system-wide ban. The Windham School District provides offenders of the TDCJ with educational services. The district was created in 1969 to provide adult education in Texas prisons. The district was the first school system of its size to be established within a statewide prison system. Windham is one of the largest correctional education systems in the United States, providing educational programs and services in most TDCJ facilities. The school district is a separate and distinct organization from the TDCJ. In 1979, Ruiz v. Estelle found that the conditions of imprisonment within the TDC prison system constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the United States Constitution. The decision led to federal oversight of the system, with a prison construction boom and “sweeping reforms … that fundamentally changed how Texas prisons operated.”

In 1987, the Texas State Board of Corrections voted to build two new 2,250-inmate maximum-security prisons in Gatesville and Amarillo and several 1,000-inmate medium-security prisons in Liberty County, Marlin, Snyder, and Woodville. The TDC units in Amarillo and Snyder were the first ones located outside of Central Texas and East Texas.James Anthum “Andy” Collins, the executive director of the TDCJ from April 10, 1994, to around December 1995, became a consultant for VitaPro, a company selling a meat substitute that was used in Texas prisons. Shirley Southerland, a prisoner at the Hobby Unit, stated that her fellow prisoners discovered that the VitaPro product was intended for consumption by canines. Collins arranged for VitaPro to be used while he was still the head of the TDCJ. Collins had awarded a $33.7 million contract to the company. Robert Draper of the Texas Monthly accused various TDCJ board members and state officials in the early to mid-1990s of capitalizing on the rapid expansion of Texas prisons – from 1994 to 1996 the number of prisoners almost doubled and the number of the prison units increased from 65 to 108 – and trying to establish favorable business contracts and/or get prisons named after them. Draper reasoned, “If [Allan B. Polunsky] and other board members didn’t care about ethics, why should Andy Collins?”

The state jail felony classification was created in 1993 as part of a reformation of sentencing laws. In July 1998, Texas had 18 state jails (including six privately operated facilities) with 9,023 state jail felons and 14,940 people awaiting transfer to prisons. During that year, 53.3% of state jail felons were convicted of possession or delivery of a controlled substance. As of 1998, 85% of the state jail felons had prior arrest records, and 58% of the state jail felons had previously never been incarcerated.

The parole division contracts with several agencies which operate halfway houses. Organizations that contract with the TDCJ include GEO Group (previously Cornell Corrections), Southern Corrections, Wayback House, E.P. Horizon Management, L.L.C., and Avalon. As of 2004,e nine halfway houses are in Texas. According to state law, former prisoners must be paroled to their counties of conviction, usually their home counties, if those counties have acceptable halfway-housing facilities available. Most counties do not have such facilities available. As of 2004, three facilities accept sex offenders and parolees from other counties; they are the halfway houses in Beaumont, El Paso County, and Houston.In case of an escalated dispute, officers submit a “case” and an inmate or multiple inmates appear in front of a court described by Perkinson as “makeshift.” Perkinson explains that several federal court orders have shaped the prison courts, which “have all of the trappings of adversarial justice,” including a defense counsel (a correctional officer appointed by a presiding major), physical evidence, and witnesses. According to Perkinson, though, “the house [(the prosecution)] rarely loses.” Jorge Renaud, a man who served as a prisoner in Texas’s state prisons, said usually when an inmate is charged with a prison offense, the sole question to be determined is the severity of the punishment to be given to the inmate.Originally, women were housed in the Huntsville Unit. Beginning in 1883, women were housed in the Johnson Farm, a privately owned cotton plantation near Huntsville. After Governor Thomas Mitchell Campbell took office in January 1907, he moved the women from Johnson to the Eastham Farm (now Eastham Unit) to try to protect women from predatory prison guards.In 2001, after the escape of the Texas 7, TDCJ officials stated that the room where the newspaper was published was a security risk and suspended the publication. The TDCJ fired the four prisoners who previously were responsible for composing the issues, and the control over the publication was passed to the Windham School District.

Requesting care in prison systems involves a simple procedural checklist that must be met in order to see any type of medical professional. Firstly, an incarnated person must fill out Sick Call Request form that should be answered within a 48-hour time period. After 48 hours, If there is no response, the person is to advance to fill out an I-60 form which states general issues faced. If the process continues to yield no approval, a Step 1 Grievance is to filled out. This level of documentation is very strictly reviewed. Continuing to hear no response for an extended period of time indicates the time to advance to a Step 2 Grievance. After these options, the prisoner may now file a lawsuit for ‘exhausting administrative remedies.’