Capital Punishment in Texas - Processing, Transportation, and Confinement

Processing, Transportation, and Confinement

Male death row inmates are housed at the Polunsky Unit in West Livingston; female death row inmates are housed at the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville. All death row inmates at both units are physically segregated from the general population, recreate individually, and have individual 60 square feet (5.6 m2) cells. They receive special death row ID numbers instead of regular Texas Department of Criminal Justice numbers.

Death row prisoners, along with prisoners in administrative segregation, are seated individually on prison transport vehicles. The TDCJ makes death row prisoners wear various restrains, including belly chains and leg irons, while being transported. Death row offenders and offenders with life imprisonment without parole enter the TDCJ system through two points; men enter through the Byrd Unit in Huntsville, and women enter through the Reception Center in Christina Crain Unit, Gatesville. From there, death row inmates go to their designated death row facilities.