Ellis Unit

O. B. Ellis Unit (E1, previously Ellis I Unit[1]) 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.[2] Ellis is situated in a wooded area shared with the Estelle Unit, which is located 3 miles (4.8 km) away from Ellis.[3] From 1965 to 1999 it was the location of the State of Texas men's death row.

O.B. Ellis Unit
Location in Texas
Location1697 FM 980
Huntsville, Texas 77343
Coordinates30°53′05″N 95°27′18″W
StatusOperational
Security classG1-G5, Administrative Segregation, GRAD/ ASDP, Outside Trusty
CapacityUnit: 2,073 Trusty Camp: 409
OpenedJuly 1965
Former nameEllis I Unit
Managed byTDCJ Correctional Institutions Division
WardenKelly Strong
CountyWalker County
CountryUSA
Websitewww.tdcj.texas.gov/unit_directory/e.html

History
A topographic map of the Ellis Unit, July 1, 1983 - U.S. Geological Survey

The unit opened in July 1965.[2] It was named after Oscar B. Ellis, a former prison director of Texas.[4] George Beto designed the unit himself, making it to be the strictest prison in the system, and Jim Estelle, the following prison director, continued the course of action Beto established.[5]

From 1965 to 1999 the unit housed the male death row, which had moved from Huntsville Unit.[6] Michael Berryhill, an author, said "You had 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."[5] The book In This Timeless Time includes content about the unit's death row.[7]

In April 1981, Eroy Brown, 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.[5]

After a prisoner named Rodney Hulin fatally injured himself at the Clemens Unit, he was transferred to the Hospital Galveston Unit and then the Ellis Unit. Hulin died in the Ellis Unit in 1997.[8]

In November 1998,[9] six condemned men were absent from their cells for several hours and then coordinated an escape attempt.[10] One of the men, Martin Gurule (TDCJ# 999063[11]),[9] successfully escaped and was later found dead in a location near the prison grounds.[12] TDCJ officials said that he drowned on the day of his escape.[13] According to the TDCJ, the prison escape attempt had hastened the agency's decision to move death row inmates to a new location.[12] TDCJ officials also stated that overcrowding at Ellis was another factor in the death row move.[14]

Six months after the escape attempt, the TDCJ decided to move the death row.[10] The Texas Board of Criminal Justice approved the relocation of the men's death row on Friday May 21, 1999.[14] In 1999 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.[15] The death row transfer, which took ten months, was the largest transfer of condemned prisoners in history and was performed under heavy security.[9]

In 2011 the Ellis Unit furniture and wood plant was moved to the Lewis Unit.[16]

Facilities

It has a capacity of about 2,000 prisoners.[14]

As of 1999 the prison sometimes had temperatures over 90 degrees Fahrenheit since there were no tempered air systems nor air conditioner units.[15]

Death row
Aerial photograph of the Ellis and Estelle units, March 8, 1989, U.S. Geological Survey

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 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,[17] now TDCJ#1743674 due to a reduction of the sentence to life imprisonment on November 3, 2011[18]), 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 the rules by smoking, getting tattoos, making wine, and engaging in sexual intercourse with other inmates and officers. Privileges decreased as years passed.[19]

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.[15]

Steve Earle recorded "Ellis Unit One" for the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. The song's lyrics focus on the effect of the death penalty on the guards that carry it out. Earle has been a vocal critic against the death penalty.[20][21]

Notable prisoners

Death row prisoners

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:

  • Juan Garza - On July 13, 1999, federal authorities moved Garza, who had committed the crime in Texas but was under a federal death sentence, out of the custody of the TDCJ and into Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) custody.[11] Garza was one of three condemned inmates moved from the Texas state male death row on that day due to the opening of the new federal death row wing in USP Terre Haute, Terre Haute, Indiana.[55] (executed in Terre Haute June 19, 2001)
  • Louis Jones Jr. (transferred to BOP custody)[11][55] executed in 2003

Non-death row prisoners

Former inmates:

See also
  • Walker County Jane Doe, an unidentified murder victim believed to have been searching for the Ellis Unit after witnesses had met her a day before she was killed.

References
  1. "Inmate escapes Ellis I prison." Associated Press/Austin American-Statesman. June 10, 1989. B6. Retrieved on August 22, 2010. "Authorities were searching for a state prison inmate serving time for burglary convictions who apparently escaped from the Ellis I Unit on..."
  2. "Ellis Unit Archived 2014-01-09 at the Wayback Machine." Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on 2014-01-08.
  3. Ward, Mike. "Hunt is on for escaped killer." Austin American-Statesman. June 29, 1999. A1. Retrieved on November 27, 2010.
  4. "1995 Annual Report." Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on July 21, 2010.
  5. Turner, Allan. "Author revisits Texas prisons brutality case." Houston Chronicle. Saturday December 10, 2011. Retrieved on December 19, 2011.
  6. "Death Row Facts Archived August 6, 2009, at the Wayback Machine." Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on May 7, 2010.
  7. Helicher, Karl (2012-05-31). "In This Timeless Time". ForeWord. Retrieved 2019-07-24.
  8. Berryhill, Michael. "What Really Happened To Rodeny Hulin?" [sic] Houston Press. August 7, 1997. 7. Retrieved on January 17, 2010.
  9. Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Turner Publishing Company, 2004. 103. ISBN 1-56311-964-1, ISBN 978-1-56311-964-4.
  10. "Prisoners at new Death Row unit face increased isolation Inmates caged 'like animals waiting for slaughter,'activist says." Fort Worth Star-Telegram. February 28, 2000. 1 News. Retrieved on May 7, 2010.
  11. "Offenders No Longer on Death Row Archived 2010-07-25 at the Wayback Machine." Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on August 22, 2010.
  12. Staff and Wire Reports. "Death-row inmates take officer hostage Warden negotiates with prisoners." The Dallas Morning News. February 22, 2000. Retrieved on May 7, 2010. "He was later found dead near the prison, but his escape hastened the decision to house death-row inmates at Terrell Unit, prison officials have said."
  13. Winingham, Ralph and Matt Flores. "Officials say Gurule died day of escape." San Antonio Express-News. December 5, 1998. 1A. Retrieved on May 9, 2010.
  14. "Prison board OKs moving death row." Associated Press at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Saturday May 22, 1999. Retrieved on March 24, 2016.
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