Christina Melton Crain Unit

[1] Nearby also is the Mountain View Unit, which houses all Texas female inmates on death row.

Due to reductions in staffing levels and new security mandates, the prison's agricultural operations were reduced.

[11] The Christina Crain Unit houses all non-death row custody levels and is equipped to hold 2,014 prisoners.

[13] The 174 bed Valley Unit houses pregnant, elderly, and developmentally delayed prisoners.

[15] Most women in Crain live in dormitories described by Leah Karotkin of the Houston Press as "drab" and "low-slung."

[16] Women in the Valley Unit work as beauty operators, clerks, cooks, kitchen workers, and landscape gardeners.

[13] Amy Smith of the Austin Chronicle wrote that the Terrace Unit campus "resembles a 1950s-era elementary school that has survived decades of budget cuts.

As of 1993 the institution forbids sexual conduct between two prisoners, and women can lose class time if they are caught.

[16] In several published reports that existed by 1993, prisoners said that the isolation is a factor in the sexual relationships that are formed at the unit.

Wilson added that the aspect many women dislike the most about Crain is the lack of accessibility to their families and children.

The unit includes a female boot camp and a Substance Abuse Felony Punishment (SAFP) facility.

Topographical map of the Gatesville prison units (Crain, Mountain View , Hilltop , and Hughes ), U.S. Geological Survey , 1994
Aerial photograph of the prisons in Gatesville, January 13, 1996, United States Geological Survey