Huntsville Unit

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Huntsville Unit is a prison located on 815 12th Street in Huntsville, Texas, United States.

The facility is operated by the Correctional Institutions Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, administered as within Region I.

Huntsville Unit is the oldest prison in the state of Texas and houses the death chamber. Texas has the largest prison system in the United States.^[1]

Unlike other facilities in other states, death row is not located here. Death row (males only) was located here from 1928 to 1965, when they were moved to the nearby Ellis Unit. Escapes from the Ellis Unit led the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to relocate death row in 1999 to the Polunsky Unit, where it currently remains. The female death row is located at the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville.

The Huntsville Unit is also known as the 'Walls Unit' for its large brick walls around the prison.^{[citation needed]} The prison itself serves as a pre-release facility that all persons incarcerated must go to before they are released.

1 Death Penalty
2 Cultural references
3 See also
4 Footnotes
5 External links

[edit] Death Penalty

Between 1819 and 1923 the method of execution was hanging until Texas authorized the use of the electric chair. The chair - called Old Sparky was constructed by inmates. Between 1924 and 1964, 362 inmates were executed by electrocution.^[2] The chair now resides at the Texas Prison Museum, located on Interstate 45 on the north side of Huntsville which features displays of historical items from the prison system, including shanks and other items confiscated from inmates.

[edit] Cultural references

There is a song on Merle Haggard's 1971 album, Someday We'll Look Back, called Huntsville, which references being sent to Huntsville Prison.

The 2008 album Choices by the country group Hazzard includes the song, Christmas in Huntsville, which tells the story of an inmate on death row awaiting execution on Christmas for a murder he did not commit. [1]

Duane 'DOG' Chapman Served 18 months in Huntsville prison for a murder he allegedly committed in 1977, There are a couple of chapters in his book You Can Run But You Can't Hide about being there.