Alfred D. Hughes Unit

Alfred D. Hughes Unit
Location Route 2 Box 4400
Gatesville, Texas 76597
Coordinates 31°29′17″N 97°42′15″W / 31.488056°N 97.704167°W
Status Operational
Security class G1-G5, Administrative Segregation, Safekeeping
Capacity 2,984
Opened January 1990
Managed by TDCJ Correctional Institutions Division
Warden Kenneth Dean
County Coryell County
Country USA
Website www.tdcj.state.tx.us/unit_directory../ah.html
Aerial photograph of the prisons in Gatesville, January 13, 1996, United States Geological Survey
Topographical map of the Gatesville prison units (Hughes, Crain, Mountain View, and Hilltop), U.S. Geological Survey, 1994

Alfred D. Hughes Unit is a prison for men of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice located in Gatesville, Texas.

The 390 acres (160 ha) facility is located along Farm to Market Road 929, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of Texas Loop 36.[1]

History

In 1987 the Texas State Board of Corrections voted to build two new 2,250 inmate maximum security prisons in Amarillo and Gatesville and several medium security prisons. Charles Brown, who was the chairperson of the Texas Department of Corrections, said that the construction of each maximum security prison would cost $60 million. Al Hughes, who resigned as the Chairperson of the Texas Board of Corrections after the meeting that voted in favor of building the prisons, said that the Amarillo and Gatesville units could be built within 30 months.[2] The Hughes Unit opened in January 1990.[1]

In 1991 a 27-year old prisoner named Henry Rodriguez received multiple stab wounds in the Hughes recreation yard. He died in a hospital in Temple.[3]

In 1995 the Texas Board of Criminal Justice approved installing new units for violent prisoners in several existing facilities, including Hughes.[4]

In 2010 9% of Hughes's prisoners stated that they received sexual assaults from other prisoners; this self-reported rate is four times of the self-reported United States average.[5]

Notable prisoners

Samuel Hadden Gifford, perpetrator of the Murder of John Goosey and Stacy Barnett[6]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Hughes Unit." Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on November 19, 2010.
  2. ↑ "Major Prisons Slated At Gatesville, Amarillo." Associated Press at The Victoria Advocate. Tuesday November 10, 1987. Retrieved from Google News (13/16) on November 19, 2010.
  3. ↑ "TEXAS.BRIEFS Texas prison inmate dies of stab wounds Gatesville." San Antonio Express-News. August 6, 1991. 2A. Retrieved on November 19, 2010.
  4. ↑ Ward, Mike. "Women make pleas for prisons to control predatory inmates After hearing from convicts'relatives, state board approves new units for violent prisoners." Austin American-Statesman. November 18, 1995. Retrieved on November 19, 2010. "They will be added to existing prison units. The sites selected Friday for expansion are the Hughes Unit in Gatesville; the Allred Unit in Wichita Falls;[...]"
  5. ↑ Stannow, Lovisa and Scott Medlock. "Texas can curb prison sex assaults." Houston Chronicle. September 19, 2010. Retrieved on November 19, 2010.
  6. ↑ "Gifford, Samuel Hadden." Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on February 17, 2013.

External links