TheHolliday Transfer Facility (TDCJ Identification Code: NF, also referred to as theHolliday Transfer Unit),[1] is aTexas Department of Criminal Justice transfer facility for men located inHuntsville, Texas. Holliday is alongInterstate 45 and .5 miles (0.80 km) north ofTexas State Highway 30. The unit, on a 1,412-acre (571 ha) plot of land, is co-located with theWynne Unit.[2]
Holliday, one of the largest transfer facilities in Texas, is across the street from theTexas Prison Museum.[3] Holliday is one of two prisons in the TDCJ that, as of 2003, is named after an African-American.[4]
Richard Watkins, a senior African-American prison warden, led an effort to have a prison named for C. A. Holliday, an African-American community activist andpastor in the Huntsville area. Watkins sent many letters toGovernor of TexasAnn Richards, asking her to name a prison after Holliday.[4] The $30 million Holliday Unit, with a capacity of around 2,000 beds,[5] opened in January 1994.[2] Cigarette smoking at Holliday was forbidden since the facility's opening, while a TDCJ-wide smoking ban, stemming from a November 18, 1994 Texas Board of Criminal Justice unanimous decision to forbid smoking at all TDCJ facilities, began on March 1, 1995.[5]
Holliday, an industrial-scale complex, has sheet metal siding and low sloping roofs. Robert Perkinson, author ofTexas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire, said that the "hastily-constructed" transfer unit "looks like an assemblage of discount tire outlets," and that the only features that indicate that it is a prison is therazor wire andguard towers. Jim Willett, a Huntsville resident and a former warden, said that Holliday is "a giant tin barn that serves as Texas's prison purgatory, the place you go between jail and the real thing."[3]
| Prison units |
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| State jail units |
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| Transfer units |
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| Psychiatric units |
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Above facilities are male-only unless noted by ♀(female-only) or ♂♀ (cogender) | |||||||||||||||||
30°43′39″N95°35′00″W / 30.72750°N 95.58333°W /30.72750; -95.58333
