W. J. "Jim" Estelle Unit[1] (E2, originally the Ellis II Unit) is a prison located on Farm to Market Road 3478 in unincorporated Walker County, Texas, United States, 10 miles (16 km) north of central Huntsville. The prison, with about 5,459 square feet (507.2 m2) of space, is operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The unit, which opened in June 1984, was named after Ward James "Jim" Estelle, a former prison director of Texas.[2]
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.[3] The Estelle High Security Unit, the high security unit, is a supermax facility.[4]
Contents |
The unit opened in 1984.[1] The Estelle High Security Unit was designed in response to an increase in prison violence in the Texas prison system.[5]
Around 1991 TDCJ planned to build a separate facility for elderly inmates.[6] In 1995 the unit received its current name.[7] 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.[4] The inmate was captured about 48 hours after his escape.[7] Jones's escape was the first escape from the high security unit.[4]
In May 1999 Mark Knox, an inmate, sexually harassed a nurse. In retaliation several prison guards beat Knox. Knox filed a $600,000 federal lawsuit against four guards, the nurse, and several other TDCJ employees, saying that his civil rights were violated.[8] The State of Texas filed assault charges against Knox.[5] Since the incident occurred, three of the prison stopped working in the TDCJ. Of the three who left, one resigned to work in the Mexia, Texas police department, one resigned under investigation, and one resigned after TDCJ officials recommended his termination. One guard continued working for the TDCJ.[9] Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the federal lawsuit against the guards, nurse, and TDCJ officials. The jurors decided that the plaintiffs were innocent of the federal charges.[10]
On May 12, 2010 Thord "Catfish" Dockray, a prisoner with a history of mental illness, threw urine on prison guards. Guards ordered him to exit his cell, but he refused. The guards released chemicals 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.[11]
The Estelle Unit is a part of a large compound, sharing space with the Ellis Unit, which is 3 miles (4.8 km) away from Estelle. The area housing the Ellis and Estelle units is wooded.[4]
The Estelle High Security Unit is a self-contained facility north of the main Estelle prison facility.[4] The high security unit is one of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice'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.[5]
The alarming rank of the Estelle Unit for sexual assaults came after the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics surveyed inmates in hundreds of state and federal prisons, as well as county lockups. Nationwide, the rate of inmates reporting sexual victimization within a prior 12-month period was 4.5 percent. At Estelle, it was 15.7 percent,rating it highest it the country. "sexual history in TDCJ." Houston Chronicle.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||