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Allan B. Polunsky Unit

Allan B. Polunsky Unit
PolunskyUnitWestLivingstonTX.jpg
Allan B. Polunsky Unit is located in Texas
Allan B. Polunsky Unit
Location in Texas
Location 3872 FM 350 South
Livingston, Texas 77351 USA
Coordinates 30°41′56″N 95°00′51″W / 30.6989°N 95.0143°W / 30.6989; -95.0143Coordinates: 30°41′56″N 95°00′51″W / 30.6989°N 95.0143°W / 30.6989; -95.0143
Status Operational
Security class G1-G5, Administrative Segregation, Death Row
Capacity 2,984
Opened November 1993
Managed by TDCJ Correctional Institutions Division
Warden Gary Hunter
County Polk County
Country US
Website www.tdcj.state.tx.us/unit_directory/tl.html

Allan B. Polunsky Unit (TL, formerly the Terrell Unit) is a prison in West Livingston, unincorporated Polk County, Texas, United States, located approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) southwest of Livingston along Farm to Market Road 350. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice operates the facility. The unit houses the State of Texas death row for men, and it has a maximum capacity of 2,900.Livingston Municipal Airport is located on the other side of FM 350. The unit, along the Big Thicket, is 60 miles (97 km) east of Huntsville.

Polunsky was named after Allan B. Polunsky, a former chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice who is now the chairman of the Public Safety Commission, the governing board of the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Polunsky houses Texas's "supermax" units and is notable for being the location of Texas's death row for men (executions, though, are conducted at the Huntsville Unit in Huntsville).

The Terrell Unit opened in November 1993. At the time of its opening the public did not associate the prison with the death penalty, as the state's male death row inmates were housed at the Ellis Unit near Huntsville. In November 1998 Martin Gurule, a death row inmate in the Ellis Unit, escaped. He drowned in a nearby creek and his body was found a week later.

After the incident occurred, the TDCJ considered moving the death row for men, and the Terrell Unit was the favored choice for the relocation. According to the TDCJ, the prison escape attempt had hastened the agency's decision to move death row inmates to a new location. TDCJ officials also stated that overcrowding at Ellis was another factor in the death row move. Six months after the escape attempt, the TDCJ decided to move the death row. The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty criticized the move of the death penalty, saying that the conditions of the prisoners were worse than those in their previous location. The Texas Board of Criminal Justice approved the relocation of the men's death row on Friday May 21, 1999.


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