W. J. "Jim" Estelle Unit
."

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 ...

. Retrieved on September 29, 2011. (E2, originally the Ellis II Unit) also known as the Estelle Supermax Penitentiary, is a prison located on Farm to Market Road 3478 in unincorporated Walker County,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, north of central

Huntsville Huntsville is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the 100th-most populous city in the U.S. The Huntsville metropolitan area had an estimated 525,465 ...

. The prison, with about of space, is operated by the

. The unit, which opened in June 1984, was named after Ward James "Jim" Estelle, a former prison director of Texas. The Estelle Unit has a geriatric facility, a program for physically handicapped inmates, a program for substance abuse, a high security unit, and a regional medical facility. The Estelle High Security Unit, the high security unit, is a

supermax 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. The objective is to ...

facility. The current warden is Michael Britt, appointed in November, 2022.Ward, Mike.
Hunt is on for escaped killer
" ''

Austin American-Statesman The ''Austin American-Statesman'' is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is owned by Hearst Communications. The distribution of the following ''The New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', '' ...

''. June 29, 1999. A1. Retrieved on November 27, 2010. "Clifford Dwayne Jones' escape from the Estelle High-Security Unit on Sunday afternoon was the first from a Texas prison this year and the first from the "super max" lockup, as the unit is called."

History

The unit opened in 1984. The Estelle High Security Unit was designed in response to an increase in prison violence in the Texas prison system.McVicker, Steve. "Unnecessary Roughness." ''

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

''. Thursday October 12, 2000
1
Retrieved on October 2, 2010. Around 1991 TDCJ planned to build a separate facility for elderly inmates. In 1995 the unit received its current name.''Texas Department of Criminal Justice''. Turner Publishing Company, 2004
74
, . In 1999, a prisoner named Clifford Dwayne Jones escaped by slipping one of his hands out of a pair of handcuffs and then scaling several walls. The inmate left behind his clothes and shoes, possibly to foil tracking dogs. The inmate was captured about 48 hours after his escape. Jones's escape was the first escape from the high security unit. On May 12, 2010 Thord "Catfish" Dockray, a prisoner with a history of mental illness, threw urine on correctional officers. Officers ordered him to exit his cell, but he refused. The officers utilized chemical agents to try to subdue Dockray, but he continued his assault. After Dockray was subdued, medics attended to Dockray, who refused medical care. On May 13 the prisoner was found face down in his cell. The prisoner was taken to Huntsville Memorial Hospital, where he died. As of 2010 a study by the

Bureau of Justice Statistics The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) of the U.S. Department of Justice is the principal federal agency responsible for measuring crime, criminal victimization, criminal offenders, victims of crime, correlates of crime, and the operation of c ...

stated that the percentage of prisoners who were sexually abused within the preceding year was 15.7% at Estelle. The BJS surveyed inmates in hundreds of state and federal prisons and county jails. Nationwide, the rate of inmates reporting sexual victimization within a prior 12-month period was 4.5 percent. The Estelle rate was the highest in the U.S. Two correctional officers secretly allowed three inmates to fight each other on April 29, 2015 and attempted to cover up the act. They later confessed and were given prison sentences.

Operations

The Estelle Unit is a part of a large compound, sharing space with the

Ellis Unit O. B. Ellis Unit (E1, previously Ellis I Unit) is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison located in unincorporated area, unincorporated Walker County, Texas, north of Huntsville, Texas, Huntsville. The unit, with about of space,‌ now h ...

, which is away from Estelle. The area housing the Ellis and Estelle units is wooded. The Estelle High Security Unit is a self-contained facility north of the main Estelle prison facility. The high security unit was the first of the

's "super seg" units, which have many administrative segregation cells. The security unit houses many of the most violent male prisoners in the State of Texas. The security unit also houses prisoners who purposefully cause problems in order to escape from the general population for fear of victimization.

Notable inmates

Current: Former: * Cesar Fierro *

Steven Jay Russell Steven Jay Russell (born December 31, 1957) is an American con artist, known for escaping from prison multiple times. '' I Love You Phillip Morris'', a film about his life and crimes, was produced in 2009. Life and crimes Russell was adop ...

McVicker, Steve.
King Con
" ''

''. Thursday February 6, 1997. * Yaser Said

References

External links

Estelle Unit
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Estelle Unit at INPM
- International Network of Prison Ministries
Estelle Unit Does It All—And Then Some
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National Commission on Correctional Health Care The National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC) is an independent, It is a non-profit organization with the stated goal of improving the standard of care in the field of correctional health care in the United States. With support fro ...

List of prisoners in the Estelle Unit
-

The Texas Observer ''The Texas Observer'' (also known as the ''Observer'') is an American magazine with a liberal political outlook. The ''Observer'' is published bimonthly by a 501(c)(3)Prisons in Walker County, Texas 1984 establishments in Texas