Not all Texas prisons are the same. Some units are being rebuilt around rehabilitation and employment. Others are being recommended for closure because they are understaffed, dangerously hot, and offer almost nothing to prepare a person for life after release. This report compiles publicly available data on what works and what does not inside the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
The Bright Spot: Bartlett Innovation Unit
In October 2024, TDCJ reopened the former Bartlett State Jail as the Bartlett Innovation Unit — the department’s most explicit experiment in rehabilitation-centered incarceration. The Bartlett Unit is structured around what TDCJ calls the “2030 Vision”: a goal of 95% of releasing inmates securing employment before they walk out the door.
Programs currently operating at Bartlett include:
- THRIVE — A partnership between Windham School District and TDCJ. The inaugural THRIVE cohort graduated in March 2025 at the unit’s grand opening ceremony.
- Vocational training — Carpentry and Business Computers, with industry-recognized certifications.
- Adult Basic Education and GED — Foundational literacy and numeracy for those who need it.
- Animal therapy and skill development — A partnership with the Williamson County Animal Shelter trains inmates to work with dogs, building patience, responsibility, and a credential in animal care.
- Employer partnerships — TDCJ has connected with more than 1,100 employers statewide who are willing to hire people with felony records.
Bartlett is what the reform movement has been asking for: a facility where the environment is designed to produce a person who can hold a job, maintain housing, and not come back. It is a small unit, but it is a proof of concept that the rest of TDCJ could follow.
The Standard Bearer: Windham School District
The Windham School District is the educational arm of TDCJ, operating inside prison units across the state. In 2023, Windham enrolled 47,462 students — representing approximately 69% of all people released from TDCJ that year. Students earned 19,253 industry certifications, on-the-job training certificates, and occupational licenses in that same year.
Units with the highest Windham enrollment and active college-in-prison partnerships — including those working with Lee College, Lone Star College, and the Texas Prison Education Initiative — consistently produce better outcomes than units where inmates have little to do. More than 250 incarcerated Texans are on the waitlist for Lee College’s reentry program, which signals both how much demand exists and how far short supply falls.
Units Recommended for Closure: Persistent Failure
In January 2025, the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission — the state body charged with reviewing every major agency — released its staff report on TDCJ. The review occurred during a systemwide prison lockdown triggered by unprecedented levels of contraband, violence, and an inmate population that was projected to exceed the system’s operational capacity.
The Sunset staff recommended that TDCJ:
- Close facilities with persistent staffing challenges rather than continuing to operate them at dangerous understaffing levels.
- Prioritize closing prisons that lack air conditioning and retrofit or consolidate remaining units.
- Reallocate staff from closed units to remaining facilities so adequate supervision ratios can actually be maintained.
The units most at risk of closure are those that combine three chronic failures: near-30% officer vacancy rates, no air conditioning, and no meaningful rehabilitation programming. TDCJ did not publish a specific list of targeted units in its public-facing documents, but the Sunset report makes clear the agency cannot safely continue operating every facility at current staffing levels.
The Heat Problem: A System-Wide Failure
Approximately 70% of Texas prison beds are in areas without full air conditioning. Indoor temperatures routinely exceed 100°F during Texas summers. A 2022 JAMA Network study found that approximately 13% of deaths in Texas prisons during warm months between 2001 and 2019 may be attributable to extreme heat. Trial testimony in 2026 cited five suspected heat-related deaths in 2024–2025 alone.
In March 2025, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman ruled that housing Texas inmates in sweltering facilities without air conditioning is “plainly unconstitutional.” A full federal trial over mandatory statewide air conditioning began in spring 2026. The Texas prison system has known about this problem for decades. The question is whether the Legislature will fund the solution or wait for a court to order it.
What Data Transparency Would Actually Look Like
Currently, TDCJ does not publish a unit-by-unit rehabilitation scorecard. There is no public dashboard showing which facilities have the highest violence rates, lowest programming participation, or worst recidivism outcomes for their releasing population. Advocates and researchers have called for exactly this kind of unit-level transparency — and it is technically feasible using data TDCJ already collects through its Correctional Institutions Information Technology Systems (CITS).
Until that data is public, the clearest signal of which units are failing comes from three sources: Sunset Commission reports, federal court filings, and the voices of people who have lived inside those walls.