For Your Information about TDCJ

How long until he is picked up?

After your loved one has received a sentence from their county court, a TDCJ bus will come pick up your LO (loved one) from county jail within 7 weeks. At my LOs jail, it was 42-50 days after their sentencing date that they were picked up.  *Pick up is first come, first served, meaning pick up goes in order of when they were sentenced, or more precisely, when their paperwork was filed at TDCJ.

Will he go to an overflow jail before TDCJ?

County jails such as Harris , Bexar, or Tarrant Counties are overcrowded and they can move your LO to an overflow jail. My loved one, within a week after sentencing, was moved to a Harris County overflow jail in Beaumont to ease overcrowding. TDCJ picked him up from that overflow jail.  An overflow jail is still county jail, and is NOT the same thing as going to TDCJ.

How will I know when he leaves county jail?

For security reasons, they do not disclose the date or destinations of inmate transports.

Some ways you might know he left county jail

• You look at the county jail website and he isn’t there
• You have a future visit scheduled and that is canceled
• You have a commissary order that gets canceled or is refunded.
• If he has a friend nearby, he can ask his friend to call or message you to let you know.
• If he is told early enough in the night, he might message or call you, but usually they aren’t given advanced notice.

 Once he disappears from county jail, look at the TDCJ inmate lookup website in 1 or 2 days, and you can see what unit he is in. My LO appeared in 48 hours.  I followed a few cases and the people picked up from county on Tuesday were on the TDCJ site on Thursday, and the people picked up on Wednesday showed up on the site on Friday. It can be up to 5 business days and the site is not updated on weekends.

Where will they go?

All new or returning prisoners will first go to an intake unit for a few weeks or months. Intake Units are also called Transfer Units. From Harris County, most inmates will go to Holliday Transfer Unit in Huntsville, or Garza West in Beeville, but sometimes they go elsewhere. I tracked one friend who went to his transfer unit in October and was just placed at a permanent unit in June, and others are placed within weeks.  

What assessments are done at intake Units?

Your LO will have various assessments and tasks done at intake with the goal of deciding on the best location for permanent placement.

Intake Tasks

• haircut
• pod assignment
• medical assessment
• education assessment
• mental health assessment
• behavioral assessment
• tattoo check – to note identifying or gang-related tattoos
• Visitation List
• dental visit
• Training on hydration and heat illness
• Training on PREA rape prevention act
• issuance of id card
• issuance of tablet
• receive commissary privileges
• record your voice session to be used as voice recognition for phone calls
• Classification where custody level is assigned

 The process helps the officers to assign your LO to a permanent unit with the appropriate level of security and programs.  For example, a young person who hasn’t finished high school will be placed at a Unit with a GED program.  Death row inmates must go to maximum security units.

Will he be placed in a prison near home?

Maybe. It seems like they try to place people somewhat near their county of origin, but bigger considerations are security, programs, and free beds and that is why many families are making 9 hour drives.

Which Units are Intake Units?

Of the 100 prisons, maybe 8 of them are intake units.  Common intake units are Holliday Unit in Huntsville, Garza West Unit in Beeville, and Middleton Unit in Abilene. Galveston and Harris County inmates tend to go to Holliday.  Dallas and Tarrant Counties tend to go to Middleton. Bexar county tends to go to Garza West usually, but they may be sent to any transfer unit in Texas where there is a free bed. 

How long will my loved one be at his Intake Unit?

On average, your LO will be there for 2 months, but it can be shorter or longer. They have appointments and tasks on different days (e.g. medical assessment, issuance of id etc).  Then, one unannounced day, your LO will be told to pack up and will be put on a bus to his permanent unit. 

It is possible, especially for shorter sentences, that the intake unit is your permanent assignment and you will never be transferred elsewhere. It is also possible to be paroled directly from an intake unit.

Also See the “Before you Leave County Jail” article

Before you Leave County Jail

When can I talk to him?

They do not get a phone call when they arrive so plan on being out of communication with each other for a couple of weeks until he gets a tablet and you can start e-messaging. See the blog about Tablets and Phones for detailed info about when you will be able to communicate.

How can I talk to him?!? Tablets and Phones at TDCJ

What if he doesn’t show up on the TDCJ website?

• It can take up to 5 business days for your LOs name to show up
• TDCJ inmate site is not updated on weekends
• Did your LO have a hold at another county? They can be sentenced to TDCJ, but then go to a different county jail if he has pending charges there.
• Call the county jail to ask

More TDCJ For Your Information Articles

https://fyitexasprisons.com/

Disclaimer: I have a LO at TDCJ and this is my personal understanding of how things work.  It may not be accurate and things change pretty quickly at TDCJ.  Always check the TDCJ website or call the unit for the correct and current information. Feel free to comment any corrections to this article or if you have helpful information.

Asterisks

*Pick up is first come, first serve, but there can be exceptions for special needs.