The W. F. Ramsey Unit (previously Ramsey I Unit) is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison farm located in unincorporated Brazoria County, Texas, with a Rosharon postal address; it is not inside the Rosharon census-designated place. The prison is located on

Farm to Market Road 655 A farm (also called an Agriculture, agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to Agriculture, agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food produ ...

, west of Farm to Market Road 521,Ramsey Unit
" Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on July 16, 2010. and south of Houston. The unit is co-located with the

Stringfellow Unit The A. M. "Mac" Stringfellow Unit (previously Ramsey II Unit) is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison located in unincorporated Brazoria County, Texas, with a Rosharon, Texas postal address it is not inside the Rosharon census-designate ...

and the

Terrell Unit The Charles T. Terrell Unit is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison located in unincorporated Brazoria County, Texas, with a Rosharon, Texas postal address; it is not inside the Rosharon census-designated place. The facility is locate ...

History

The unit opened in July 1908. The Ramsey Prison Farm consisted of five former plantations.Convict Leasing and State Account Farming (1883-1909)
"

Texas State Library and Archives The Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) refers to the agency in the state of Texas that assists the people of Texas to effectively use information, archival resources, public records and library materials to improve their lives, th ...

. Retrieved on April 29, 2011. In 1935, Ramsey housed African American prisoners. In 1963, before racial desegregation took place, the Ramsey I Unit housed white prisoners. In 2011, the

Central Unit 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 facility is from the central part of the cit ...

closed. The former truck distribution center at Central moved to Ramsey.

Operations

The University of Houston–Clear Lake offers a master's degree program at Ramsey. Prisoners may pay the State of Texas after their release. The Texas Legislature designated portions of Angleton ISD that by September 1, 1995 had not been annexed by

Alvin Community College Alvin Community College (ACC) is a public community college in Alvin, Texas. Alvin Community College provides educational opportunities in workforce training, academics, technical fields, adult basic education, and personal development. As defi ...

as in the

Brazosport College Brazosport College (BC) is a public community college in Lake Jackson, Texas. The college was opened in 1968 and offers primarily associate degrees and some bachelor's degrees. The campus features The Clarion, a regional musical performance ven ...

zone. As Ramsey Unit is not in the maps of Alvin CC, it is in the Brazosport College zone. There was a section of H.B. No. 2744, filed on March 6, 2007, which would have changed the boundary between Alvin CC and Brazosport CC to put the Ramsey Unit in the Alvin CC service boundary.

Notable inmates

Notable inmates of the Ramsey Unit include: Current (): * Shawn Allen Berry - Murderer of James Byrd, Jr.Keys, Perryn.
JASPER: THE ROAD BACK: Did prison time turn man into one of Byrd's killers?
'' Beaumont Enterprise''. June 9, 2008. Retrieved on July 23, 2010. *

David Owen Brooks David Owen Brooks (February 12, 1955 – May 28, 2020) was an American convicted murderer and accomplice of serial killer Dean Corll, who, along with Elmer Wayne Henley, abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered at least 28 boys and young men bet ...

- perpetrator of the Houston Mass Murders * Carlos Coy ( South Park Mexican)Perkinson, Robert. ''Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire''. First Edition. Metropolitan Books, 2010. 254. . * David Henry Tuck - perpetrator of the

2006 Harris County, Texas hate crime assault The 2006 Harris County, Texas hate crime assault was the beating, torture, and sexual assault of a Latino student, by two white youths during the early morning of April 22, 2006, in an unincorporated section of Harris County, Texas, United States ...

* Roy Oliver - Murderer of Jordan Edwards * Eddie Ray Routh - serving life without parole for the murders of Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield. * Feanyichi Ezekwesi Uvukansi - Perpetrator of 2012 shooting outside a southwest Houston nightclub that left three people dead and rapper Trae tha Truth injured. Former: * David Ruíz, plaintiff of ''

Ruiz v. Estelle ''Ruiz v. Estelle'', 503 F. Supp. 1265 (S.D. Tex. 1980), filed in United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, eventually became the most far-reaching lawsuit on the conditions of prison incarceration in American history. It ...

'', served time at the historic Ramsey Farm. * Michael Morton - Exonerated of the crime which he was convicted of. He had requested a transfer to Ramsey so he could complete a master's degree program there.

References

External links

*
Ramsey Unit
" Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Map of Ramsey Unit: Texas Tribune
{{TDCJ-CID prisons Prisons in Brazoria County, Texas Buildings and structures in Brazoria County, Texas 1908 establishments in Texas