Skyview Unit
Skyview Unit is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) co-gender state prison in Rusk, Texas; it is on Farm to Market Road 2972, west of Texas State Highway 69 North. It opened in July 1988.[1]
It is on a 58-acre (23 ha) lot, co-located with the Hodge Unit.[1] It has a capacity of 528 prisoners, most of whom live in dormitories.[2]
The prison houses mentally ill inmates. Prison guards assigned to Skyview take special training to come to this prison. As of 1999[update] most prisoners stay for about 20-60 days before returning to a general purpose prison, but some stay long-term. In 1999, Steve McVicker of the Dallas Observer wrote that at Hodge and Skyview "both guards and prisoners seem more relaxed than their counterparts at other prisons".[2] As of 1999[update], unlike most TDCJ prisons, Skyview is air conditioned, so the prison administrators at that time turned away prisoners who they suspect are faking mental illnesses.[2]
As of April 2020 there were 479 inmates.[3]
Notable inmates
[edit]- Diane Zamora – convicted for the murder of Adrianne Jones
- Patrick Crusius – perpetrator of the 2019 El Paso Walmart shooting
References
[edit]- 1 2 "Skyview (SV)." Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on March 31, 2016.
- 1 2 3 McVicker, Steve. "Cruel and Unusual." Dallas Observer. Thursday July 8, 1999. Retrieved on March 30, 2016.
- ↑ "Skyview Unit | Texas Prison Inmates". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
External links
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Above facilities are male-only unless noted by ♀(female-only) or ♂♀ (cogender) | |||||||||||||||||
