Dawson State Jail

Last updated

The Jesse R. Dawson State Jail (JD) was a co-gender nonviolent offender state jail operated by the Corrections Corporation of America owned by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). It was located in Downtown Dallas, [1] on the banks of the Trinity River. [2]

For a long time, officials from the City of Dallas have advocated for the closure of the jail in order to use the land for the Trinity River Corridor Project. Because of some health-related deaths that occurred before May 2013, the Texas Civil Rights Project, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other area groups had advocated for the closure of the jail. The state lawmakers, as well, had wanted the prison closed because the State of Texas had a decrease in its state jail population.

Texas Senator John Whitmire advocated for closing Dawson and the Mineral Wells Pre-Parole Transfer Facility in late 2012. In May 2013 the state government moved to end the $97 million budget for the facility as a way of closing the facility. The facility was closed in August 2013.

The Trinity Park Conservancy purchased the jail for $3 million and set to transform the former prison into the anchor for new Trinity Park with park offices, bike rentals, restrooms, and restaurants. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dallas County, Texas</span> County in Texas, United States

Dallas County is the second-most populous county in the U.S. state of Texas with a 2020 U.S. census of 2,613,539, making it the ninth-most populous county in the country. Dallas County is included in the Dallas-Arlington-Fort Worth metropolitan statistical area—colloquially referred to as the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Municipal expansion within Dallas County has blurred the geographic lines between cities and between neighboring counties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gatesville, Texas</span> City in Texas, United States

Gatesville is a city in and the county seat of Coryell County, Texas, United States. Its population was 16,135 at the 2020 census. The city has five of the nine prisons and state jails for women operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. One of the facilities, the Patrick O'Daniel Unit, has the state's death row for women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hutchins, Texas</span> City in Texas, United States

Hutchins is a city in Dallas County, Texas, United States. Its population was 5,338 at the 2010 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mineral Wells, Texas</span> City in Texas, United States

Mineral Wells is a city in Palo Pinto and Parker Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 14,820 at the 2020 census. The city is named for mineral wells in the area, which were highly popular in the early 1900s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prison farm</span> Correctional facility where convicts work on a farm

A prison farm is a large correctional facility where penal labor convicts are forced to work—legally or illegally—on a farm, usually for manual labor, largely in the open air, such as in agriculture, logging, quarrying, and mining. In the United States, such forced labor is made legal by the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution; however, some other parts of the world have made penal labor illegal. The concepts of prison farm and labor camp overlap, with the idea that the prisoners are forced to work. The historical equivalent on a very large scale was called a penal colony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CoreCivic</span> U.S. prison-operating company

CoreCivic, formerly the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), is a company that owns and manages private prisons and detention centers and operates others on a concession basis. Co-founded in 1983 in Nashville, Tennessee by Thomas W. Beasley, Robert Crants, and T. Don Hutto, it received investments from the Tennessee Valley Authority, Vanderbilt University, and Jack C. Massey, the founder of Hospital Corporation of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal Correctional Institution, Seagoville</span> Low-security United States prison in Texas

The Federal Correctional Institution, Seagoville is a low-security United States federal prison for male inmates in Seagoville, Texas in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. The facility includes a detention center for male offenders and an adjacent satellite prison camp that houses minimum security-male offenders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Huntsville Unit</span> Texas state prison

Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville or Huntsville Unit (HV), nicknamed "Walls Unit", is a Texas state prison located in Huntsville, Texas, United States. The approximately 54.36-acre (22.00 ha) facility, near downtown Huntsville, is operated by the Correctional Institutions Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The facility, the oldest Texas state prison, opened in 1849.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GEO Group</span> American institutional facilities company

The GEO Group, Inc. (GEO) is a publicly traded C corporation that invests in private prisons and mental health facilities in the United States, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, the company's facilities include illegal immigration detention centers, minimum security detention centers, and mental-health and residential-treatment facilities. It also operates government-owned facilities pursuant to management contracts. As of December 31, 2021, the company managed and/or owned 86,000 beds at 106 facilities. In 2019, agencies of the federal government of the United States generated 53% of the company's revenues. Up until 2021 the company was designated as a real estate investment trust, at which time the board of directors elected to reclassify as a C corporation under the stated goal of reducing the company's debt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texas Department of Criminal Justice</span> Department of the government of Texas

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails, and private correctional facilities, funding and certain oversight of community supervision, and supervision of offenders released from prison on parole or mandatory supervision. The TDCJ operates the largest prison system in the United States.

Rosharon, is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located entirely in Brazoria County, Texas, United States, at the intersection of Farm to Market Road 521 and Farm to Market Road 1462. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 1,152. There are areas outside of the CDP, with Rosharon postal addresses, in Fort Bend County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texas Youth Commission</span> Texan state agency

The Texas Youth Commission (TYC) was a Texas state agency which operated juvenile corrections facilities in the state. The commission was headquartered in the Brown-Heatly Building in Austin. As of 2007, it was the second largest juvenile corrections agency in the United States, after the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. As of December 1, 2011, the agency was replaced by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Unit</span> Former prison in Sugar Land, Texas, US

The Central Unit was a Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) men's prison in Sugar Land, Texas. The approximately 325.8-acre (131.8 ha) facility is 2 miles (3.2 km) from the central part of the city of Sugar Land on U.S. Highway 90A.

The J. Dale Wainwright Unit is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) prison for men, located in unincorporated Houston County, Texas. Formerly called the Eastham Unit or "The Ham," the prison was renamed the J. Dale Wainwright Unit after a former chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice. The 12,789 acres (5,176 ha) prison is located on Farm to Market Road 230, near Lovelady and 13 miles (21 km) west of Trinity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. A. Holliday Transfer Facility</span>

The Holliday Transfer Facility, is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice transfer facility for men located in Huntsville, Texas. Holliday is along Interstate 45 and .5 miles (0.80 km) north of Texas State Highway 30. The unit, on a 1,412-acre (571 ha) plot of land, is co-located with the Wynne Unit.

The William P. "Bill" Clements Unit (BC) is a state prison of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) located in unincorporated Potter County, Texas, United States, east of Downtown Amarillo. It is located on Spur 591 off of Loop 335.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crystal City Correctional Center</span>

Crystal City Correctional Center is a closed private prison near Crystal City, Texas. It is about 40 miles (64 km) from the Mexico–United States border.

The Willacy County State Jail is a privately owned medium-security prison for men located in Raymondville, Willacy County, Texas, operated by Management and Training Corporation under contract with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. It has an official capacity of 1,069 inmates.

The Hutchins State Jail is a state prison for men located in Hutchins, a city in Dallas County, Texas, with a Dallas postal address. It is a part of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The state jail serves mixed security levels, with an official capacity of 2,276.

References

  1. "DAWSON (JD) Archived 2013-06-03 at the Wayback Machine ." Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on June 3, 2013.
  2. Wilonsky, Robert. "Dallas' Dawson State Jail on chopping block, but Texas Department of Criminal Justice has final say." The Dallas Morning News . May 28, 2013. Retrieved on June 3, 2013.
  3. Kalthoff • •, Ken (2019-05-30). "Dawson State Jail to Become Anchor Building for New Trinity Park". NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth. Retrieved 2024-03-31.

32°46′33″N96°48′56″W / 32.77583°N 96.81556°W / 32.77583; -96.81556