Holliday is along Interstate 45 and .5 miles (0.80 km) north of Texas State Highway 30.
Watkins sent many letters to Governor of Texas Ann Richards, asking her to name a prison after Holliday.
[5] Holliday, an industrial-scale complex, has sheet metal siding and low sloping roofs.
Robert Perkinson, author of Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire, said that the "hastily-constructed" transfer unit "looks like an assemblage of discount tire outlets," and that the only features that indicate that it is a prison is the razor wire and guard towers.
Jim Willett, a Huntsville resident and a former warden, said that Holliday is "a giant tin barn that serves as Texas's prison purgatory, the place you go between jail and the real thing.