For Your Information about TDCJ

Here is some new vocabulary or slang that those of us on the outside might hear while supporting our loved one’s on the inside.

Call Huntsville – This means to call the corporate office of TDCJ, rather than calling the unit where you loved one is housed.

Catch Chain – Leaving the prison. Usually a bus is transporting your LO to another facility.

Chow – The cafeteria “I have to hang up. They are calling chow.”

CO – Correctional Officer, a prison guard

Heart Check – An initiation where inmates test a new inmate to see if he has heart, e.g. to see if he will fight or back down. (consolation: I have heard it’s a lot better than 20 years ago where this was the norm.)

LO – Loved One, your loved one who is incarcerated. It’s nicer that saying prisoner or inmate.

pod – A housing unit. Useful to know which one your LO is in, in case you hear there are issues (e.g. phones are down in pod B4)

Rec – Recreation time, for example, in the basketball gym or outdoors.

Rock n’ roll – A pod that tends to have a high number of fights and issues. “That pod was rock n roll.”

Store – The commissary store where your LO can purchases food and hygiene items.

Soups – Ramen Noodles, They are worth $0.35 and are used a lot for trading.

UCC – Unit Classification Committee who work on classifying your LO during his stay at an intake unit.

Unit – There are 100 prisons in TDCJ and they are called Units. e.g. The Beto Unit just means the Beto Prison.