Prisoners serve as pallbearers, chisel names in headstones, and dig graves using shovels and backhoes.

[1] As of 2012 TDCJ officials confirmed that the cemetery includes remains of 2,100 prisoners.

Franklin T. "Frank" Wilson, an assistant professor of criminology at Indiana State University,[6] and a former PhD student at Sam Houston State University,[1] did a study of the cemetery in 2011.

[1] It is located on 22 acres (8.9 ha) of land on a hill, 1 mile (1.6 km) from the Huntsville Unit and in proximity to Sam Houston State University.

[3] Robyn Ross of the Texas Observer stated that a person could, in fewer than 10 minutes, cross the cemetery by foot.

[7] The State of Texas covers the costs of funerals at Joe Byrd.

[2] Chaplain David Collier Sr., a chaplain in Huntsville, stated in 2014 that the most common reason why the families do not pick up the bodies is because they are unable to afford doing a burial themselves, so they often schedule a funeral in Huntsville and allow the state to bury the body.

[2] Prisoners working as the cemetery grounds crew stand witness in burials without family members or friends of the deceased.