ABSTRACT
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is the prison system for the State of Texas. The Texas prison system was formed in 1848 with the construction of a single prison in Huntsville. A second prison in Hodge was opened in 1883. In 1983, the Texas prison system was housing 36,769 prisoners with fewer than 20 prisons. By 2015, TDCJ was housing 148,146 prisoners in 122 prison units statewide. Within a 32-year period, the number of Texas prison facilities increased by more than 500% and prison population increased by more than 400%. The TDCJ’s operating budget for fiscal year 2015 was $3,175,589,052. This chapter examines the prison system in Texas from the perspective of Adonay Davila, a retired Senior Warden from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
