{{Short description|Men's prison in Huntsville, Texas}} {{Infobox prison | name = Thomas Goree Unit | image = GoreeUnitHuntsvilleTX.jpg | caption = | pushpin_map = USA Texas | pushpin_map_caption = Location in Texas | location = [[Huntsville, Texas]] | coordinates = {{coord|30|40|26|N|95|30|55|W|scale:10000_type:landmark_region:US-TX|display=inline,title}} | status = Operational | classification = [[List of security classification of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice|G1–G3]{, Administrative Segregation, Outside Trusty, Transient]] | capacity = Unit: 1000 Trusty Camp: 321 | population = | populationdate = | opened = 1907 | closed = | former_name = | managed_by = [[Texas Department of Criminal Justice#Correctional Institutions Division|TDCJ Correctional Institutions Division]] | director = | governor = | warden = Cynthia Tilley | street-address = 7405 Hwy 75 South | city = [[Huntsville, Texas|Huntsville]] | county = [[Walker County, Texas|Walker County]] | state = [[Texas|TX]] | postcode = | zip = 77344 | country = [[United States of America|US]] | website = {{URL|http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/unit_directory../gr.html}} | prisoners = }} [[File:GoreeUnitAerial.PNG|thumb|Aerial photograph of the Goree Unit, January 23, 1995, [[U.S. Geological Survey]]]] [[File:GoreeUnitNewTopo.PNG|thumb|Topographical map of the Goree Unit, July 1, 1976, U.S. Geological Survey]]
The '''Thomas Goree Unit''' ('''GR''') is a [[Texas Department of Criminal Justice]] men's prison, located in [[Huntsville, Texas]], {{convert|4|mi|km}} south of downtown Huntsville on [[Texas State Highway 75]] South. The Goree Unit is located within Region I.<ref name="Profile">"[http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/unitdirectory/gr.htm Goree Unit]"; {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100725201152/http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/unitdirectory/gr.htm |date=2010-07-25 }}. [[Texas Department of Criminal Justice]]. Retrieved on September 29, 2011.</ref> First opened in 1911, it served as the only women's correctional facility in Texas until 1982, after the women were moved to state prisons in [[Gatesville, Texas|Gatesville]]. For a period Goree held the state's sole female death row inmate, until her conviction was changed to a non-capital offense. There was more than one death row female at Goree in 1979.
==History== The unit was named after Major [[T. J. Goree|Thomas J. Goree]], who, in the late 19th century, served as a prison superintendent.<ref>"[https://web.archive.org/web/19980113083840/http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/tdcj1995.htm 1995 Annual Report]." [[Texas Department of Criminal Justice]]. Retrieved on July 21, 2010.</ref> The unit was first established in 1907,<ref name="Profile"/> and it opened in 1911 as the '''Goree State Farm for Women''', a women's prison. The facility had separate portions for White and African-American women. White and Hispanic women worked in the garment factory, while Black women worked in the fields.<ref name="StateFarmforwomen">"[http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/exhibits/prisons/reform/goree.html The Goree State Farm for Women]." [[Texas State Library & Archives Commission]]. Retrieved on July 18, 2010.</ref>
In the 1930s Goree included the main building, separate sets of dormitories for black and white prisoners, an orchard, a cannery, a barn, crop fields, a hen house, and a cemetery for prisoners who had not been taken by surviving relatives. The dormitories had bars bolted onto the windows. During that decade, 150 prisoners resided at Goree. The [[Goree All Girl String Band]], a group of prisoners from the unit, performed in the 1940s.<ref name="Hollandsworth1">Hollandsworth, Skip. "O Sister, Where Art Thou?" ''[[Texas Monthly]]''. May 2003. [http://www.texasmonthly.com/2003-05-01/feature.php 1]. Retrieved on October 20, 2011.</ref>
Goree, within a short driving distance from the [[Texas Department of Criminal Justice]] headquarters, had been rebuilt and expanded during the administrations of O. B. Ellis and [[George Beto]]. Robert Perkinson, author of ''[[Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire]]'', said that Goree's main building "showcases a bygone nod to rehabilitation."<ref name="Perkinson252">Perkinson, Robert. ''[[Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire]]''. First Edition. [[Metropolitan Books]], 2010. p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=HOxmcfIopugC&pg=PA252 252]. {{ISBN|978-0-8050-8069-8}}.</ref> The main building has dormitories which face gardens. Instead of bars, the residential rooms use decorative latticework. A visitor stated that Goree appeared "more or less like a college dormitory."<ref name="Perkinson252"/>
On one occasion Goree held a female death row prisoner, Mary Anderson,<ref>Jackson, Bruce and Diane Christian. ''In This Timeless Time: Living and Dying on Death Row in America''. [[University of North Carolina]], 2012. {{ISBN|0807835390}}, 9780807835395. p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=PG7IEOzabuMC&pg=PA143 143].</ref> Texas Department of Corrections (TDC)# 607. Anderson was sentenced to death on October 31, 1978,<ref name=TDCJnolonger>"[http://tdcj.state.tx.us/death_row/dr_offenders_no_longer_on_dr.html Offenders No Longer on Death Row]." [[Texas Department of Criminal Justice]]. Retrieved on January 25, 2016.</ref> but her death sentence was reversed in 1982.<ref name=OSheap340>O'Shea, Kathleen A. ''Women and the Death Penalty in the United States, 1900-1998''. [[Greenwood Publishing Group]], 1999. {{ISBN|027595952X}}, 9780275959524. p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=YvdKyEJo0osC&pg=PA340 340].</ref> The sentence was changed to murder and Anderson, who received a 50-year sentence, became TDC#285253. She was paroled on January 14, 1991.<ref name=TDCJnolonger/>
In the 1980s the state moved women prisoners to facilities in [[Gatesville, Texas|Gatesville]].<ref name="StateFarmforwomen"/> In 1982 Goree was converted into a men's prison. The prison authorities placed wire mesh on the dormitory windows. Prisoners are not permitted to be in the gardens. The prison gained a single perimeter fence with [[concertina wire]]; previously the area was unfenced.<ref name="Perkinson252"/>
==Inmates== Male: * David Ruíz (plaintiff of ''[[Ruiz v. Estelle]]'')<ref name="Perkinson251">Perkinson, Robert. ''[[Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire]]''. First Edition. [[Metropolitan Books]], 2010. p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=HOxmcfIopugC&pg=PA251 251]. {{ISBN|978-0-8050-8069-8}}.</ref> Female: * [[Candy Barr]]<ref>"[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ERpLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4SINAAAAIBAJ&pg=4464,2855964&dq=candy-barr+goree&hl=en Strip-teaser Candy Barr given parole]." ''[[The Press-Courier]]''. Saturday March 25, 1963. Page 20. Retrieved from [[Google News]] (1 of 10) on October 20, 2011.</ref> * [[Goree All Girl String Band]]
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Portal|Texas}} * [http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/unit_directory/gr.html Goree Unit] * "[http://archive.poyi.org/items/show/5035 Goree Women's Prison]." Pictures of the Year Archive - Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the [[Missouri School of Journalism]]
{{TDCJ-CID prisons}} {{Huntsville, Texas}} {{Women's prisons in the United States}} {{Authority control}}
[[Category:Prisons in Huntsville, Texas]] [[Category:Capital punishment in Texas]]<!--Because it held a woman on death row until 1978; ultimately she was never executed--> [[Category:1907 establishments in Texas]]