99-504: O. B. Ellis Unit ( E1 , previously Ellis I Unit ) is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison located in unincorporated Walker County, Texas , 12 miles (19 km) north of Huntsville . The unit, with about 11,427 acres (4,624 ha) of space, now houses up to 2,400 male prisoners. Ellis is situated in a wooded area shared with the Estelle Unit , which is located 3 miles (4.8 km) away from Ellis. From 1965 to 1999 it
198-460: A socialist and tends to vote for Democratic candidates, despite not agreeing entirely with their politics. During the 2016 election, he expressed support for Senator Bernie Sanders , whom he considered to have pushed Hillary Clinton to the left on important issues. In a 2017 interview Earle said about President Donald Trump : "We've never had an orangutan in the White House before. There's
297-466: A Comin' on Winter Harvest Records and it was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 1996. The album was characterized as a return to the "folksy acoustic" sound of his early career. In 1996, Earle formed his own record label, E-Squared Records , and released the album I Feel Alright , which combined the musical sounds of country, rock and rockabilly. Earle released
396-550: A Hank Williams song, in the spring of 2011. The album was produced by T Bone Burnett and deals with questions of mortality with a "more country" sound than his earlier work. During the second half of his 2011 tour with The Dukes and Duchesses and Moorer, the drum kit was adorned with the slogan " we are the 99% " a reference to the Occupy movement of September 2011. On February 17, 2015, Earle released his sixteenth studio album, Terraplane . On September 10, 2015, Earle &
495-527: A Top Ten single in 1986 and his song "Goodbye's All We've Got Left" reached the Top Ten in 1987. That same year he released a compilation of earlier recordings, entitled Early Tracks , and an album with the Dukes, called Exit 0 , which "received critical acclaim" for its blend of country and rock. Earle released Copperhead Road on Uni Records in 1988 which was characterized as "a quixotic project that mixed
594-495: A capacity of 2,013 inmates. Originally, many Texas prison farms had no cells; the prisoners were housed in racially segregated dormitory units referred to as "tanks". In the 1960s, the Texas Prison System began referring to the prisons as "units". Chad R. Trulson and James W. Marquart, authors of First Available Cell: Desegregation of the Texas Prison System , said that the word unit was a euphemism that probably
693-513: 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 highest level of educational programming available in state jails are general equivalency diploma classes. The TDCJ operates three psychiatric units, including Jester IV Unit , Skyview Unit, and the John Montford Psychiatric Unit. As of March 2013,
792-462: A death row inmate on the night before his execution. According to death row offender Jonathan Bruce Reed (Texas Department of Criminal Justice Death Row #642, now TDCJ#1743674 due to a reduction of the sentence to life imprisonment on November 3, 2011), the attitude of the death row was "We can afford you some sort of reasonable life—within security confines" and that death row inmates "lived as humans". Reed said that condemned inmates sometimes violated
891-556: A disc jockey. On May 12, 2009, Earle released a tribute album, Townes , on New West Records . The album contained 15 songs written by Townes Van Zandt . Guest artists appearing on the album included Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine , Moorer, and his son Justin. The album earned Earle a third Grammy award, again for best contemporary folk album. In 2010, Earle was awarded the National Coalition to Abolish
990-537: A lot of 'What does this button do?' going on. It's scary. He really is a fascist. Whether he intended to be or not, he's a real live fascist." However, Earle has called for the American left to engage with the concerns of working class Trump voters, saying in 2017: "…maybe that's one of the things we need to examine from my side because we're responsible. The left has lost touch with American people, and it's time to discuss that". In 2020, he stated: "I thought that, given
1089-509: 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 2017, the use of solitary confinement as punishment was ended. The Texas Board of Criminal Justice oversees the TDCJ. The board selects
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#17327834788251188-499: A lyrical folk tradition with hard rock and eclectic Irish influences such as The Pogues , who guested on the record". The album's title track portrays a Vietnam veteran who uses his family background in running moonshine to become a marijuana grower/seller. It was Earle's highest-peaking song to date in the United States and has sold 1.1 million digital copies there as of September 2017. Then Earle began "three years in
1287-533: 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 . In 1979, Ruiz v. Estelle found that the conditions of imprisonment within the TDC prison system constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of
1386-705: A man who served as a prisoner in Texas's state prisons and the author Behind the Walls: A Guide for Families and Friends of Texas Prison Inmates , 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. 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
1485-546: A mysterious vaporization" according to the Chicago Sun-Times . His 1990 album The Hard Way had a strong rock sound and was followed by "a shoddy live album" called Shut Up and Die Like an Aviator . In August 1991, Earle appeared on the TV show The Texas Connection "looking pale and blown out". In light of Earle's "increasing drug use", MCA Records did not renew his contract and Earle didn't record any music for
1584-596: A novel, a play, and a book of short stories. Earle is the father of late singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle with whom he frequently collaborated. Earle was born on January 17, 1955 in Fort Monroe, Virginia , where his father was stationed as an air traffic controller. The family moved to Texas before Earle's second birthday and he grew up primarily in the San Antonio area. Earle began learning
1683-529: A prisoner who had been convicted of armed robbery and burglary, drowned Wallace Pack, the warden, and shot Billy Moore, the unit's farm manager, during a struggle for Pack's gun. Brown said that they were planning to kill him since he was going to expose a prison theft scheme. Thirty-five of 36 jurors voted in Brown's favor. After a prisoner named Rodney Hulin fatally injured himself at the Clemens Unit , he
1782-513: A smoking ban in place prior to the TDCJ system-wide ban. Offenders in all TDCJ units wear uniforms consisting of cotton white pullover shirts and white elastic-waist trousers. The TDCJ requires prisoners to wear uniforms so they can easily be identified and to prevent correctional officers from forming associations and giving preferential treatment to any prisoners. The TDCJ retired clothing with belts and buttons and introduced trousers with expandable waists. Shoes worn by prisoners may be issued by
1881-548: A song from the perspective of a prison guard working on death row in "Ellis Unit One", a song written for the film Dead Man Walking , the title based on the name of the State of Texas men's death row . He is pro-choice and has argued that rich Americans have always had access to abortions; he says the political issue in the US is really whether poor women should have access. His 2012 novel I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive describes
1980-554: A songwriter in Nashville and released his first EP in 1982. Earle's breakthrough album was the 1986 debut album Guitar Town ; the eponymous lead single peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Hot Country chart. Since then, he has released 20 more studio albums and received three Grammy awards each for Best Contemporary Folk Album ; he has four additional nominations in the same category. " Copperhead Road "
2079-569: A state jail who are convicted of a state jail offense must be held for at least 75 days and may not be held longer than 2 years. Individuals may not parole or have mandatory supervision release from state jails. 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
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#17327834788252178-402: 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
2277-520: 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. Robert Perkinson , author of Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire (2010), wrote that the Offender Orientation Handbook "encapsulates
2376-545: Is invoked by officials whenever a daily conflict occurs. 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 counsel substitute and a presiding captain, physical evidence, and witnesses. According to Perkinson, though, "the house [(the prosecution)] rarely loses." Jorge Renaud,
2475-425: Is not established in the prison because the "churlish" inmates do not have the inclination and "often," the reading ability to follow the "finer dictates" of the handbook, and the correctional officers, "moderately trained, high-turnover stiffs earning Waffle House wages," do not have the energy and time to enforce the rules strictly. According to Perkinson, the handbook is never consistently or fully enforced, but it
2574-516: Is the location of the state of Texas execution chamber. The Polunsky death row has about 290 prisoners. As of March 2013, eight male death-row prisoners are housed in Jester IV Unit, a psychiatric unit, instead of Polunsky. Steve Earle Stephen Fain Earle ( / ɜːr l / ; born January 17, 1955) is an American country , rock and folk singer-songwriter. He began his career as
2673-496: The Houston Press compiled lists of some books that have been banned by the TDCJ, noting some are considered classics of the literary canon. The TDCJ uses regional release centers for male prisoners. Most male prisoners are released to be closer to their counties of conviction, approved release counties, or residences. Male prisoners who have detainers, are classified as sex offenders, have electronic monitoring imposed by
2772-594: The Allan B. Polunsky Unit , and female death-row offenders go to the Mountain View Unit . 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,
2871-935: The French M. Robertson Unit in Abilene; and the William G. McConnell Unit near Beeville. All female prisoners who are not state jail prisoners or Substance Abuse Felony Punishment Facility prisoners are released from the Christina Crain Unit (formerly the Gatesville Unit) in Gatesville. Rick Thaler, the director of the Correctional Institutions Division, predicted in 2010 that the Huntsville Unit, which serves as
2970-461: The Guardian , Earle said about John Henry, "I know why I get up in the morning now: to figure out a way to make sure he’s going to be alright when I’m gone. That’s my job. That’s what I do.” In 1993, Earle was arrested for possession of heroin and in 1994, for cocaine and weapons possession. A judge sentenced him to a year in jail after he admitted possession and failed to appear in court. He
3069-579: The Jerusalem album and was released as the live album Just an American Boy in 2003. In 2004, Earle released the album The Revolution Starts Now , a collection of songs influenced by the Iraq War and the policies of the George W. Bush administration and won a Grammy for best contemporary folk album. The title song was used by General Motors in a TV advertisement. The album was released during
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3168-742: The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles , or have certain special conditions of the Super Intensive Supervision Program are released from Huntsville Unit, regardless of their counties of conviction, residences, or approved release counties. Regional release facilities for men include the Huntsville Unit, the William P. Clements Jr. Unit near Amarillo; the Hutchins State Jail in Hutchins , near Dallas ;
3267-629: The Texas House of Representatives , mayors, police officers, and judges. In previous eras, prisons were only named after deceased TDCJ employees and state governors. By the 2000s, so many new prisons were being built that the TDCJ had to change its naming policy. 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
3366-602: 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 1989, the TDCJ and the Board of Criminal Justice were created. The board is composed of nine members appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the senate to six-year, overlapping terms. This new agency absorbed functions of three state agencies -
3465-501: 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." An employee who obtains a residence in a state-owned house on or after September 1, 1997, pays $ 50 per month during
3564-603: 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. 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
3663-574: The Death Penalty 's Shining Star of Abolition award. Earle has recorded two other anti-death penalty songs: "Billy Austin", and "Ellis Unit One" for the 1995 film Dead Man Walking . In 2010–2011, Earle appeared in seasons 1 and 2 of the HBO show Treme as Harley Wyatt, a talented street musician who mentors another character. Earle released his first novel and fourteenth studio album, both titled I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive after
3762-691: The Dukes released a new internet single titled "Mississippi, It's Time". The song's lyrics are directed towards the state of Mississippi and their refusal to abandon the Confederate Flag and remove it from their state flag. The song was released for sale the following day with all proceeds going towards the Southern Poverty Law Center , a civil rights organization. On June 10, 2016, Earle released an album of duets with Shawn Colvin , titled simply Colvin And Earle , which
3861-575: The Dukes. Acting as Earle's manager, John Lomax sent the EP to Epic Records , and they signed Earle to a recording contract in 1983. In 1983, Earle signed a record deal with CBS and recorded a " neo-rockabilly album". After losing his publishing contract with Dea and Carter, Earle met producer Tony Brown and after severing his ties with Lomax and Epic Records obtained a seven-record deal with MCA Records . Earle released his first full-length album, Guitar Town , on MCA Records in 1986. The title track became
3960-896: The Earth Stood Still . In 2023, Earle said he is working on a musical of the film Tender Mercies . Steve Earle features prominently in Love at the Five and Dime: The Songwriting Legacy of Nanci Griffith (Texas A&M University Press, 2024). The Steve Earle Show (formerly known as The Revolution Starts Now ) was a weekly radio show on the Air America Radio network hosted by Earle. It highlighted some of Earle's favorite artists, blending in-studio performances with liberal political talk and commentary. The show aired Sundays on some Air America affiliates from 10 to 11 PM ET. The show last aired on June 10, 2007, and that
4059-682: 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
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4158-626: The Huntsville Unit. However, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, most inmates are now released from the last unit they were assigned to in their incarceration. Male inmates with health and mental health difficulties and sex offenders are still mostly released from Huntsville. The TDCJ houses male death-row inmates in the Polunsky Unit and female death-row inmates in the Mountain View Unit. The Huntsville Unit
4257-596: The Institutional Division operated prisons and the State Jail Division (TDCJ-SJD ) operated state jails. As of 2010, of the counties in Texas, the five with the highest numbers of state prisons and jails were Walker , Brazoria and Coryell (tie), and Anderson and Liberty (tie). As of 2001, prisons may be named after people who are dead or who are still alive, and namesakes have included Governors of Texas, TDCJ employees, members of
4356-449: The O.P.P. (Ontario Provincial Police) is obviously not gonna be thrilled. My hope is that I'll be far too out-in-the-open and far too public for the police to do anything and get away with it. But the point is, that's not a reason for doing or not doing anything, because…I very nearly went to prison myself for something I didn't do, simply because a law enforcement agency didn't want to admit that somebody had fucked up—they didn't want to open
4455-558: The Operations Division, the Private Facilities Division, and the State Jail Division. The division operates prisons, which are facilities for people convicted of capital offenses and people convicted of first-, second-, and third-degree felony offenses, and state jails, facilities for people convicted of state jail felony offenses. Before the 2003 formation of the Correctional Institutions Division,
4554-984: The Texas Department of Corrections, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles , and the Texas Adult Probation Commission. 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. 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
4653-420: The U.S. presidential campaign. The song "The Revolution Starts Now" was used in the promotional materials for Michael Moore 's anti-war documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11 and appears on the album Songs and Artists That Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11 . That year Earle was the subject of a documentary DVD called Just an American Boy . In 2006, Earle contributed a cover of Randy Newman 's song " Rednecks " to
4752-524: The United States with the highest numbers of reported prison rape cases in 2006. In 2007, the TDCJ reported a total of 234 reported sexual assaults in its prisons. Michelle Lyons , the TDCJ spokesperson, said, "The actual reports we have are not consistent with the results in the survey, but because it's anonymous, there's no way for us to verify that additional number." In 2008, the TDCJ planned to install cell phone-jamming devices at its units, but encountered resistance from cell phone companies. In 2014,
4851-549: The album El Corazon (The Heart) in 1997 which one reviewer called "the capstone of this [Earle's] remarkable comeback". According to Earle, he wrote the song "Over Yonder" about a death row inmate with whom he exchanged letters before attending his execution in 1998. He made a foray into bluegrass influenced music in 1999 when he released the album The Mountain with the Del McCoury Band . In 2000, Earle recorded his album Transcendental Blues , which features
4950-536: The album after relocating to New York City, and this was his first use of digital audio recording. The album features Earle's then-wife, Allison Moorer , on "Days Aren't Long Enough" and "Down Here Below". The album includes Earle's version of Tom Waits ' song " Way Down in the Hole " which was the theme song for the fifth season of the HBO series The Wire in which Earle appeared as a recovering drug addict and drug counselor named Walon (Earle's character appears in
5049-694: The conviction of six Satan's Choice bikers for a 1978 murder in Port Hope , arguing that the accused were innocent, framed by the ruthless Corporal Terry Hall of the Ontario Provincial Police's Special Squad. In the song Earle compares the conviction of the "Port Hope 6" to the massacre of the Black Donnellys in 1880. In 1990, Earle stated in an interview about "Justice in Ontario": "There's some concern about reprisals because
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#17327834788255148-479: The country charts in 1982. Carl Perkins recorded Earle's song "Mustang Wine", and two of his songs were recorded by Zella Lehr . Later Dea and Carter created an independent record label called LSI and invited Earle to begin recording his own material on their label. Connie Smith recorded Earle's composition " A Far Cry from You " in 1985 which reached a minor position on the country charts as well. Earle released an EP called Pink & Black in 1982 featuring
5247-524: The day and playing music at night. During this period Earle wrote songs and played bass guitar in Guy Clark 's band and sang on Clark's 1975 album Old No. 1 . Earle appeared in the 1976 film Heartworn Highways , a documentary on the Nashville music scene which included David Allan Coe , Guy Clark , Townes van Zandt , and Rodney Crowell . Earle lived in Nashville for several years and assumed
5346-441: The day of his escape. According to the TDCJ, the prison escape attempt had hastened the agency's decision to move death row inmates to a new location. TDCJ officials also stated that overcrowding at Ellis was another factor in the death row move. Six months after the escape attempt, the TDCJ decided to move the death row. The Texas Board of Criminal Justice approved the relocation of the men's death row on Friday May 21, 1999. In 1999
5445-467: The death penalty was reinstated in Texas. In the early 2000s, Earle's album Jerusalem expressed his anti-war, anti-death penalty and his other "leftist views". The album's song "John Walker's Blues", about the captured American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh created controversy. Earle responded by appearing on a variety of news and editorial programs and defended the song and his views on patriotism and terrorism. His subsequent tour featured
5544-431: The effect of the death penalty on the guards that carry it out. Earle has been a vocal critic against the death penalty. Former Texas-sentenced inmates (all death row inmates on this list had been transferred to Polunsky Unit in 1999, commuted, released, and/or executed) Former federal-sentenced inmates: Former inmates: Texas Department of Criminal Justice The Texas Department of Criminal Justice ( TDCJ )
5643-654: The executive director, who manages the TDCJ. The members of the board are appointed by the Governor of Texas . The department encompasses these major divisions: 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,
5742-465: The fact that abortion was illegal. Her father was a doctor at the local hospital in San Antonio while several other girls he knew at the time were not able to get abortions; they lacked access to those with the necessary power to arrange an abortion, which he credits as the origin of his pro-choice views. In 1974, at the age of 19, Earle moved to Nashville and began working blue-collar jobs during
5841-529: The fact that people who can't afford decent legal representation—who are subject to something like this happening and turning out very badly—feed my kids. That's where my money comes from and that's where my freedom comes from". Earle is a vocal opponent of capital punishment , which he considers his primary area of political activism. Several of his songs have provided descriptions of the experiences of death row inmates, including "Billy Austin" and "Over Yonder (Jonathan's Song)". Conversely, he has also written
5940-750: The fire. Earle was the musical director for the 2020 play Coal Country about the 2010 West Virginia mining disaster where 29 men died. The play by Jessica Blank and Eric Jensen ran at the Public Theater in New York and was cut short by the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. He was nominated for Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel awards for his work on the play's music. Songs from the play are on his 2020 album Ghosts of West Virginia. In June 2021 Earle joined Willie Nile on Nile's new song "Blood on Your Hands" to be featured on Nile's upcoming album The Day
6039-404: 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
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#17327834788256138-439: The first, fourth, and fifth seasons). In 2008, Earle produced Joan Baez 's album Day After Tomorrow . Prior to their collaboration on Day After Tomorrow , Baez had covered two Earle songs, "Christmas in Washington" and "Jerusalem", on previous albums; "Jerusalem" had also become a staple of Baez' concerts. In the winter, he toured Europe and North America in support of Washington Square Serenade , performing both solo and with
6237-864: The fiscal year of 1998, and for each subsequent year, 20% of the fair market rental valuation of the property. A resident of state-owned bachelor officers' quarters or a renter of a state-owned mobile home lot pays $ 50 per month. 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
6336-451: The guitar at the age of 11 and entered a school talent contest at age 13. He ran away from home at age 14 to search for his idol, singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt . Earle was "rebellious" as a young man and dropped out of school at the age of 16. He moved to Houston with his 19-year-old uncle, also a musician. While in Houston Earle finally met Van Zandt. Earle was opposed to the Vietnam war as he recalled in 2012: "The anti-war movement
6435-435: The largest prison farms and prison properties in the state, including Goree Unit , the Jester units , Polunsky Unit , the Ramsey units, and Wynne Unit , are located in those counties. The state of Texas began building adult prisons outside of the historic cotton belt in the 1980s. 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
6534-399: The largest prison system in the United States. The department has its headquarters in the Brad Livingston Administrative Headquarters in Huntsville and offices at the Price Daniel Sr. Building in downtown Austin . In 1848, the Texas Legislature passed "An Act to Establish a State Penitentiary", which created an oversight board to manage the treatment of convicts and administration of
6633-413: The male death row was relocated to the Polunsky Unit (originally known as the Terrell Unit) in West Livingston, Texas . The first 55 inmates, all classified as being disruptive, were moved on Friday June 18, 1999. The death row transfer, which took ten months, was the largest transfer of condemned prisoners in history and was performed under heavy security. In 2011 the Ellis Unit furniture and wood plant
6732-669: The next four years. By July 1993 Earle was reported to have regained his normal weight and had started to write new material. At that time a writer for the Chicago Sun-Times called Earle "a visionary symbol of the New Traditionalist movement in country music." In 1994, two staff members at Warner/Chappell publishing company and Earle's former manager, John Dotson, created an in-house CD of Earle's songs entitled Uncut Gems and showcased it to some recording artists in Nashville. This resulted in several of Earle's songs being recorded by Travis Tritt , Stacy Dean Campbell and Robert Earl Keen . After his recording hiatus, Earle released Train
6831-488: The number of the prison units increased from 65 to 108 – and trying to establish favorable business contracts and get prisons named after them. Draper reasoned, "If [ Allan B. Polunsky ] and other board members didn't care about ethics, why should Andy Collins?" According to a December 2007 survey of prisoners from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics , five TDCJ units, Allred Unit , Clemens Unit , Coffield Unit , Estelle Unit , and Mountain View Unit , were among those in
6930-427: The oldest prisons. 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
7029-409: The organization of the managing board of the department occurred over the next 100 years. 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,
7128-590: The penitentiaries. Land was acquired in Huntsville and Rusk for later facilities. 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. Various administrative changes where
7227-451: The position of staff songwriter at the publishing company Sunbury Dunbar. Later Earle grew tired of Nashville and returned to Texas where he started a band called The Dukes. In the 1980s, Earle returned to Nashville once again and worked as a songwriter for the publishers Roy Dea and Pat Carter. A song he co-wrote, "When You Fall in Love", was recorded by Johnny Lee and made number 14 on
7326-813: 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 . Most of the TDCJ prisons are located in the historic cotton slavery belt around the former location of Stephen F. Austin 's colony. Counties that have housed adult correctional facilities, such as Brazoria, Fort Bend , Polk , and Walker , once had slave majority populations. Many of
7425-789: The regional release center for greater Houston , would remain the TDCJ's largest release center despite the decrease of traffic of released prisoners. 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. Prior to September 2010, most male prison offenders were released from
7524-845: The right to wear long hair after court action. Robert Perkinson, author of Texas Tough , says that the uniforms make prisoners "look like shapeless hospital orderlies." Jorge Renaud, a former prisoner, states that the uniforms are part of the prison system's depersonalization process. The TDCJ reviews books to determine whether they are appropriate for prisoners. In 2010, the agency disclosed that it reviewed 89,795 books, with 40,285 authors represented. The agency did not disclose how many of those books were banned. The system's banned list includes some novels that were written by National Book Award winners, Nobel laureates , and Pulitzer Prize -winners, and some books of paintings made by notable artists. The Austin American-Statesman and
7623-439: The rules by smoking, getting tattoos, making wine, and engaging in sexual intercourse with other inmates and officers. Privileges decreased as years passed. The cells at Ellis's death row had bars on them. Sometimes there were two death row inmates per cell. Inmates were permitted to watch televisions located in the facility. Steve Earle recorded "Ellis Unit One" for the 1995 film Dead Man Walking . The song's lyrics focus on
7722-410: The song " Galway Girl ". Earle presented excerpts of his poetry and fiction writing at the 2000 New Yorker Festival. His novel, I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive , was published in the spring of 2011 and a collection of short stories called Doghouse Roses followed that June. Earle wrote and produced an off-Broadway play about the death of Karla Faye Tucker , the first woman executed since
7821-739: The state or purchased from the commissary. Male prisoners must be clean-shaven, unless they have been approved to grow a 1/2 inch religious beard, a provision that went into effect August 1, 2015. Usually their hair is required to be trimmed to the backs of their heads and necks. TDCJ-CID says that "Female offenders will not have extreme haircuts." In 2016, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that religious inmates such as Muslims are allowed to grow 4-inch beards as well as wear religious clothing, so long as prisoners do not hide contraband. Inmate with longer hair are inspected by shaking their hair with their fingers. Prisoners must have hair cut around their ears. Native American prisoners, since 2019, received
7920-473: The time. He then married Lou-Anne Gill a second time, and finally, in 2005, he married singer-songwriter Allison Moorer with whom he had a third son, John Henry Earle, in April 2010. John Henry was diagnosed with autism before age two. In March 2014, Earle announced that he and Moorer had separated. Earle has primary custody of John Henry during the school year and then tours in the summer. In an interview with
8019-446: The toughest convicts, and the general philosophy was you needed the toughest warden. Wallace Pack was assigned to keep the lid on Ellis. The inmates in the prison were restless. There were work stoppages and strikes, and with Judge Justice's opinion, there was an air of expectancy that the brutality and terrible conditions would end." The book In This Timeless Time includes content about the unit's death row. In April 1981, Eroy Brown,
8118-493: The transportation vans and half of the chain buses have air conditioning. 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
8217-618: The tribute album Sail Away: The Songs of Randy Newman . Earle hosted a radio show on Air America from August 2004 until June 2007. Later he began hosting a show called Hardcore Troubadour on the Outlaw Country channel. Earle is also the subject of two biographies, Steve Earle: Fearless Heart, Outlaw Poet , by David McGee and Hardcore Troubadour: The Life and Near Death of Steve Earle by Lauren St John . In September 2007, Earle released his twelfth studio album, Washington Square Serenade , on New West Records . Earle recorded
8316-551: The unit closest to his or her county of residence. 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
8415-591: The units are at capacity. Brandi Grissom of the Texas Monthly said, "So acute is the need for psychiatric prisoners that if Texas built a fourth facility, it would be full as soon as it opened." The State Classification Committee and designated Classification and Records Office staff members assign each institutional prisoner to his or her first unit after the prisoner completes his or her tests and interviews; offenders are not allowed to choose their units of assignment. The state assigns each state jail offender to
8514-415: The way things are now, it was maybe my responsibility to make a record that spoke to and for people who didn't vote the way that I did. One of the dangers that we're in is if people like me keep thinking that everyone who voted for Trump is a racist or an asshole, then we're fucked, because it's simply not true." In his 1990 song "Justice in Ontario", Earle sang about the Port Hope 8 case . Earle criticized
8613-448: The weary institutional dream of imposing perfect discipline on potential chaos" and that the "sweeping and tedious rules" "cover a bewildering range of restrictions and obligations." As examples Perkinson referred to the "no fighting," "offenders will brush their teeth daily," and "horseplay is prohibited," which he refers to, respectively, as "sensible," "well meaning," and a "catchall." Perkinson said that in practice, "totalitarian order"
8712-553: The whole can of worms and all the other complaints that were constantly brought against the Dallas police department. You can't stand by and let stuff like that go down without saying anything about it. And I think I especially have a responsibility to do that, 'cause if I didn't have any money right now I'd be in prison in Texas—I'm convinced of that. It was that close. But I was able to afford decent legal representation. And it comes down to
8811-487: Was a rebroadcast of a past episode. Earle subsequently started DJing on a show on Sirius Satellite Radio called Hardcore Troubadour. Earle has been married seven times, including twice to the same woman. He married Sandra "Sandy" Henderson in Houston at the age of 18, but left her to move to Nashville a year later where he met and married his second wife, Cynthia Dunn. Earle married his third wife, Carol-Ann Hunter, who
8910-502: Was a very personal thing for me. I didn't finish high school, so I wasn't a candidate for a student deferment. I was fucking going." The end of the Selective Service Act and the draft lottery in 1973 prevented him from being drafted, but several of his friends were drafted, which he credits as the origin of his politicization. Earle also noted that when he was a young man, his girlfriend was able to get an abortion despite
9009-546: Was accompanied by a tour in London and the US. On June 16, 2017, Earle & the Dukes released his seventeenth studio album, So You Wannabe An Outlaw . GUY , Earle's tribute album to his songwriting hero Guy Clark was released on March 29, 2019. Earle was among hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire . Earle was one of five artists who filed a class action lawsuit against Universal on June 21, in response to an earlier Times report on
9108-485: 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
9207-406: Was intended to refer to progressive penal practices, professionalism, and a distancing from a legacy of racism. State jails house inmates convicted of state jail felony offenses, which include lower-level assault and drug, family, and property offenses. In addition the Texas Board of Criminal Justice designated state jails as transfer units for individuals who are bound for prisons. Individuals in
9306-521: Was moved to the Lewis Unit . It has a capacity of about 2,000 prisoners. As of 2022 the prison sometimes had temperatures over 90 degrees Fahrenheit since there were no tempered air systems nor air conditioner units. When the unit housed the male death row, condemned inmates worked in a garment factory, played basketball, assisted each other with legal work, and worshiped together. The prison guards allowed other offenders to gather and say goodbye to
9405-591: Was released from jail after serving 60 days of his sentence. He then completed an outpatient drug treatment program at the Cedarwood Center in Hendersonville, Tennessee . As a recovering heroin addict, Earle has used his experience in his songwriting. Earle's sister, Stacey Earle , is also a musician and songwriter. Earle is outspoken with his political views, and often addresses them in his lyrics and in interviews. Politically, he identifies as
9504-806: Was released in 1988 and is his bestselling single; it peaked on its initial release at number 10 on the Mainstream Rock chart, and had a 21st-century resurgence reaching number 15 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, buoyed by vigorous online sales. His songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash , Waylon Jennings , Willie Nelson , Levon Helm , The Highwaymen , Travis Tritt , Vince Gill , Patty Loveless , Shawn Colvin , Bob Seger , Percy Sledge , Dailey & Vincent , and Emmylou Harris . Earle has appeared in film and television, most notably as recurring characters in HBO 's critically acclaimed shows The Wire and Treme . He has also written
9603-586: Was the location of the State of Texas men's death row . The unit opened in July 1965. It was named after Oscar B. Ellis, a former prison director of Texas. George Beto designed the unit, making it to be the strictest prison in the system, and Jim Estelle, the following prison director, continued the course of action Beto established. From 1965 to 1999 the unit housed the male death row , which had moved from Huntsville Unit . Michael Berryhill, an author, said "You had
9702-461: Was the mother of their son, singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle (1982–2020). Next, he married Lou-Anne Gill (with whom he had a second son, Ian Dublin Earle, in January 1987). In December 1987, a groupie , Theresa Baker, claimed her daughter (Jessica Montana Baker) was fathered by Earle, though the initial DNA test was inconclusive and Earle did not submit to a second. His fifth wife was Teresa Ensenat, an A&R executive for Geffen Records at
9801-593: Was transferred to the Hospital Galveston Unit and then the Ellis Unit. Hulin died in the Ellis Unit in 1997. In November 1998, six condemned men were absent from their cells for several hours and then coordinated an escape attempt. One of the men, Martin Gurule (TDCJ# 999063), successfully escaped and was later found dead in a location near the prison grounds. TDCJ officials said that he drowned on
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