Barry Telford Unit

Barry B. Telford Unit
Location 3899 State Hwy 98
New Boston, Texas 75570
Coordinates 33°25′17″N 94°28′35″W / 33.4214167°N 094.4764833°W / 33.4214167; -094.4764833
Status Operational
Security class G1-G5, Administrative segregation, safekeeping
Capacity 2,872
Opened July 1995
Managed by TDCJ Correctional Institutions Division
Warden Joseph Wilson
County Bowie County
Country US
Website www.tdcj.state.tx.us/unit_directory/to.html

The Barry B. Telford Unit (TO) aka Telford Unit (opened July 1995) is a Texas state prison located in unincorporated Bowie County, Texas. The facility, along Texas State Highway 98, is 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Interstate 30. It has a "New Boston, Texas" mailing address,[1] and is in proximity to Texarkana.[2] The Telford Unit is operated by Texas Department of Criminal Justice Correctional Institutions Division, administered within Region II.[1]

History

On July 11, 1997, William Speer, a White prisoner at Telford (then TDCJ#668485), killed a 47-year old white prisoner in his cell. Speer was sentenced to death and became TDCJ#999398. He is now in the Polunsky Unit.[3]

On April 1, 1999, a White prisoner named Lee Andrew Taylor,[4] nicknamed "Tiny",[5] fatally stabbed a black prisoner, Donta Green,[2] in a dayroom. Taylor was a member of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, a prison gang ("security threat group" in TDCJ parlance) and the death was a result of racial tension. Taylor (TDCJ #765153 as a non-death row inmate) was serving a life sentence for aggravated robbery;[4] The prisoner stated that the stabbing was self-defense.[2] However Taylor was sentenced to death,[4] and moved to the Polunsky Unit.[5] He (TDCJ #999344 as a death row inmate) was executed at the Huntsville Unit on June 16, 2011.[6]

On July 15, 2015, Officer Timothy Davison was beaten to death by an inmate he was escorting back to his cell. The inmate managed to free his hand from his handcuffs and grabbed the officer's slot pry tool and beat him in the head with it. The accused inmate, Billy Joel Tracy, 38, who has a history of violent behavior, was indicted in December 2015 for capital murder and is facing the death penalty. Tracy is currently housed in the Polunsky Unit awaiting trail.

References

  1. 1 2 "Telford TO", Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Accessed 2014-01-08
  2. 1 2 3 "Texas inmate who killed fellow prisoner set to die" (Archive). Associated Press at the Amarillo Globe-News. June 16, 2011. Retrieved on January 20, 2016.
  3. ↑ "Speer, William." Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on January 26, 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 "Taylor, Lee Andrew." Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on January 20, 2016.
  5. 1 2 Hannaford, Alex. "Inmates Aren’t the Only Victims of the Prison-Industrial Complex" (Archive). The Nation. September 16, 2014. Retrieved on January 20, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Last Statement Lee Taylor, TDCJ #999344." Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on January 20, 2016.

External links

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