The Christina Melton Crain Unit (formerly the Gatesville Unit) is a

Texas Department of Criminal Justice 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 ...

prison for females in

Gatesville, Texas Gatesville is a city in and the county seat of Coryell County, Texas, United States. Its population was 16,135 at the 2020 census. The city has five of the nine prisons and state jails for women operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. ...

. The prison is along

Texas State Highway 36 State Highway 36 (SH 36) runs from Freeport to Abilene. It was designated as the 36th Division Memorial Highway between Cameron and Sealy by the Texas Legislature in 1985. History SH 36 was originally proposed on November 21, 1917, as a route ...

, north of central Gatesville. The unit, with about of space, is co-located with the Hilltop Unit, the Dr. Lane Murray Unit, and the Linda Woodman Unit.Crain Unit
."

. Retrieved on May 10, 2010. Nearby also is the

Mountain View Unit Mountain View Unit is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison housing female offenders in Gatesville, Texas. The unit, with about of land, is located north of central Gatesville on Farm to Market Road 215. The prison is located in a 45 ...

, which houses all Texas female inmates on death row. Crain Unit's regular program houses around 1,500 women, and it is one of Texas's main prisons for women.Ward, Mike.
Christina Crain has prison named in her honor
(). '' Austin American-Statesman''. Thursday August 14, 2008. Retrieved on May 10, 2010. Female prison offenders of the TDCJ are released from this unit.General Information Guide for Families of Offenders
." Texas Department of Criminal Justice. July 2008. 26-27. Retrieved on June 29, 2010. With a capacity of 2,013 inmates, Crain is the TDCJ's largest female prison.

History

The Gatesville Unit, formed on portions of the former

Gatesville State School The Gatesville State School for Boys was a juvenile corrections facility in Gatesville, Texas. The facility was converted into two prisons for adults, the Christina Crain Unit (formerly Gatesville Unit), and the Hilltop Unit.

,''Texas Department of Criminal Justice''. Turner Publishing Company, 2004
78
, . opened in August 1980. The portions of Gatesville State School that became the Crain Unit include the Live Oak, Riverside,Gatesville State School for Boys
" '' Handbook of Texas''. Retrieved on July 23, 2010. Sycamore, Terrace, and Valley schools, while the Hackberry and Hilltop units of the former state school became the Hilltop Unit. The Gatesville Unit was named after the City of Gatesville. From its opening until several years before 2010, the Gatesville Unit was primarily a work farm, and staff members placed new prisoners in the fields to work. Due to reductions in staffing levels and new security mandates, the prison's agricultural operations were reduced.Perkinson, Robert. '' Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire''. First Edition.

Metropolitan Books Henry Holt and Company is an American book-publishing company based in New York City. One of the oldest publishers in the United States, it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt. Currently, the company publishes in the fields ...

, 2010. p
35
. In 2008 the Texas Board of Criminal Justice unanimously voted to rename the Gatesville Unit after Christina Melton Crain, the first female chairperson of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice. On that day the name change became effective immediately. Crain, a resident of the Preston Hollow area of

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, worked as a lawyer. She left the Texas Board of Criminal Justice in May 2008.Jennings, Diane.
Gatesville prison renamed for Dallas lawyer Christina Melton Crain
." ''

The Dallas Morning News ''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885 by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the '' Galvest ...

''. Monday November 24, 2008. Retrieved on October 4, 2010.

Location, composition, and operations

The Christina Crain Unit houses all non-death row custody levels and is equipped to hold 2,014 prisoners. Crain consists of seven separate satellite units, each serving a distinct purpose.Karotkin, Leah. "A Visit to Gatesville." ''

Houston Press The ''Houston Press'' is an online newspaper published in Houston, Texas, United States. It is headquartered in the Midtown area. It was also a weekly print newspaper until November 2017. The publication is supported entirely by advertising ...

''. Thursday December 9, 1993
1
Retrieved on September 27, 2010. Crain's Reception Center is the place where new female arrivals to the TDCJ are processed. In addition the center houses a boot camp program.Karotkin, Leah. "A Visit to Gatesville." ''

''. Thursday December 9, 1993
4
Retrieved on September 27, 2010. The 174 bed Valley Unit houses pregnant, elderly, and developmentally delayed prisoners.Karotkin, Leah. "A Visit to Gatesville." ''

''. Thursday December 9, 1993
5
Retrieved on September 27, 2010. As of 1993 72 beds are reserved for the mentally retarded. In addition Valley houses the prison library. Female prisoners throughout Texas who are not state jail prisoners or substance abuse felony punishment facility residents are released from the Crain Unit.
."

. September–October 2010. Retrieved on March 1, 2011. Most women in Crain live in dormitories described by Leah Karotkin of the ''

'' as "drab" and "low-slung." Most inmates work seven hours per day. Jobs include painting and repairing buildings, maintaining and repairing large equipment such as boiler units, hoeing fields, and fixing potholes.Karotkin, Leah. "A Visit to Gatesville." ''

''. Thursday December 9, 1993
3
Retrieved on September 27, 2010. Crain includes a trustee camp, which was one of the first to be built by the TDCJ. The camp, which has no perimeter fence, houses non-violent minimum custody inmates who need less supervision than regular inmates and who are less likely to escape than regular inmates. The trustees live in an open dormitory and work in prisoner and prison guard beauty shops, food service, landscaping, and transportation. Women in the Valley Unit work as beauty operators, clerks, cooks, kitchen workers, and landscape gardeners. Crain has 20 beds available for the Sentence Alternative to Incarceration Program, a 90-day program for first time offenders between the ages of 17 and 25. The boot camp is housed in a former infirmary in the Reception Center. 32 isolation cells are reserved for difficult prisoners. Amy Smith of the ''

Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogra ...

'' wrote that the Terrace Unit campus "resembles a 1950s-era elementary school that has survived decades of budget cuts." It has three regular dorms and a cellblock building with small 2 person cells. Terrace Unit houses about 340 total inmates. It is a medical unit which holds many of Crain's elderly inmates. Air conditioning was installed in Spring 2018 in the regular dorms but not in cellblock. As of 1993 women who are about to give birth are transported to the

Hospital Galveston A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emergency ...

unit in

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Ga ...

, which is located five hours away from Gatesville by automobile. Women incarcerated in TDCJ who must be seen by a specialist also go to UTMB Hospital units in Texas City or Galveston. In order to go on this trip, also referred to as "medical chain", the women must ride on old school buses from their prison units to stay overnight a
Thomas Goree Unit
then ride another bus to the hospital unit. After the women see the doctor, they must make the return trip the same way. Goree is a men's prison unit. The temporary cells which hold the women on medical chain are infested with cockroaches. Male inmates watch the women through the windows as they are shuttled to and from the buses at Goree. The male inmates yell and expose their privates through the windows to the women. The cells the women stay in overnight are not cleaned regularly, and surgical sites commonly get infected from the trip.

Prisoner life

In 1993 Leah Karotkin of the ''

'' said "Anticipating my visit to Gatesville, I had expected more drama. Instead, I was struck by the simple endless monotony of the prison, disappointingly mundane rather than what I expected. More than hard-time punishment, alienation and loneliness seem to be the goals, or at least the most obvious effects, of the institution. Still, it's clear, Gatesville is a pretty rough place to be." In 2010 Robert Perkinson, author of '' Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire'', said that Crain was "not the hardest place to do time in Texas."Perkinson, Robert. '' Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire''. First Edition.

, 2010. p
37
. "Gatesville is not the hardest place to do time in Texas." (Note: Crain's former name is the "Gatesville Unit") Major Janice Wilson, who was the head prison guard in 1993, said during that year that many women in Crain gain close bonds with women who they sympathize or feel sorry for. Some women had been in romantic relationships where they received battery, and some had experienced several romantic relationships that, to them, were not good. According to Wilson these women become friends, and some of the women engage in homosexual relationships. As of 1993 the institution forbids sexual conduct between two prisoners, and women can lose class time if they are caught. In several published reports that existed by 1993, prisoners said that the isolation is a factor in the sexual relationships that are formed at the unit. Wilson added that the aspect many women dislike the most about Crain is the lack of accessibility to their families and children. For many, visits occur infrequently and women do not often get to make telephone calls. Many relatives have very little money and do not have much time that they can use to visit their imprisoned relatives. Wilson said that a constant underlying internal tension existed at Crain.

Demographics

the prison had about 2,000 inmates, about 540 correctional officers, and about 210 other employees.

Programs

Robert Perkinson, author of '' Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire'', said that the Crain Unit has a "rich assortment of programming" compared to most Texas prisons. The unit includes a female boot camp and a Substance Abuse Felony Punishment (SAFP) facility.Perkinson, Robert. ''Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire''. First Edition.

, 2010. p
36
.

Notable inmates

Current: *

Celeste Beard Celeste Beard Johnson (born February 13, 1963), more commonly known as Celeste Beard, is an American convicted murderer who is serving a life sentence at the Lane Murray (SHU) in Gatesville, Texas, for the 1999 murder of her millionaire husban ...

Vickie Dawn Jackson Vickie Dawn Carson Jackson (née Carson; born February 13, 1966) is an American serial killer who killed at least 10 patients at the Nocona General Hospital in Nocona, Texas between 2000 and 2001, using the muscle paralytic drug mivacurium. Desp ...

Debra Jeter Debra is a feminine given name. Debra may refer to: People * Debra Adelaide (born 1958), Australian writer * Debra Allbery (born 1957), American poet * Debra R. Anderson (1949-2022), American politician * Debra Austin (born 1955), American ba ...

Former: * Krystal Maddox (a perpetrator of the

1999 Kingwood robbery incidents In May to July 1999 four teenage girls from the Kingwood region of Houston, Texas engaged in a robbery spree, robbing four grocery stores and a bakery.Jerome, Richard.The Lost Girls (). ''People''. September 13, 1999 Vol. 52 No. 10. Retrieved on F ...

)Henderson, Gracie.
Parole denied for two of the Kingwood "Queens of Armed Robbery
(). Houston Community Newspapers & Media Group. Thursday July 17, 2003. Retrieved on February 15, 2016. *

Yolanda Saldívar Yolanda Saldívar (; born September 19, 1960) is an American former nurse who was convicted of the murder of singer Selena in 1995. Saldívar had been the president of Selena's fan club and the manager of her boutiques, but she lost both positio ...

* Lisa Warzeka (a perpetrator of the 1999 Kingwood robbery incidents)Leung, Rebecca.
Queens Of Armed Robbery
(). CBS News. March 30, 2004. Retrieved on February 15, 2016. * Susan Wright ()

References

External links

*
Crain Unit
"

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Crain, Christina Unit Prisons in Gatesville, Texas Women's prisons in Texas 1980 establishments in Texas Buildings and structures in Coryell County, Texas