The W. F. Ramsey Unit (previously Ramsey I Unit) is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison farm located in unincorporated Brazoria County, Texas, with a Rosharon postal address; it is not inside the Rosharon census-designated place."2010 CENSUS - CENSUS BLOCK MAP: Rosharon CDP, TX." U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on January 21, 2018. The prison is located on Farm to Market Road 655, west of Farm to Market Road 521,"Ramsey Unit." Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on July 16, 2010. and south of Houston."Texas Department of Criminal Justice offers gang members chance for new life." Texas Department of Criminal Justice. September/October 2009. Retrieved on November 19, 2010. The unit is co-located with the Stringfellow Unit and the Terrell Unit.
History The unit opened in July 1908. The Ramsey Prison Farm consisted of five former plantations."Convict Leasing and State Account Farming (1883-1909)." Texas State Library and Archives. Retrieved on April 29, 2011. In 1935, Ramsey housed African American prisoners.Trulson, Chad R., James W. Marquart, and Ben M. Crouch. First Available Cell: Desegregation of the Texas Prison System. University of Texas Press, 2009. 81. Retrieved from Google Books on July 16, 2010. , . In 1963, before racial desegregation took place, the Ramsey I Unit housed white prisoners.Trulson, Chad R., James W. Marquart, and Ben M. Crouch. First Available Cell: Desegregation of the Texas Prison System. University of Texas Press, 2009. 82. Retrieved from Google Books on July 16, 2010. , .
In 2011, the Central Unit closed. The former truck distribution center at Central moved to Ramsey.Ward, Mike. "Texas closing prison as part of cutbacks" (Archive). Austin American-Statesman at the Killeen Daily Herald. Wednesday August 3, 2011. Retrieved on September 23, 2011.
Operations The University of Houston–Clear Lake offers bachelor's and master's degree programs at Ramsey. Prisoners may pay the State of Texas after their release.Stevens, Wesley. Learning to Sing in a Strange Land: When a Loved One Goes to Prison. Wipf and Stock Publishers, January 8, 2009. , 9781621897965. p. 83 (Google Books PT97).
The Texas Legislature designated portions of Angleton ISD that by September 1, 1995 had not been annexed by Alvin Community College as in the Brazosport College zone.Texas Education Code Sec. 130.170. BRAZOSPORT COLLEGE DISTRICT SERVICE AREA.: "(2) the Angleton Independent School District, except the part annexed by the Alvin Community College District before September 1, 1995." As Ramsey Unit is not in the maps of Alvin CC, it is in the Brazosport College zone.The Taxation Map and College Zone map of Alvin Community College do not show Ramsey Unit, and based upon Texas Education Code Sec. 130.170. it would be in the Brazosport College zone. There was a section of H.B. No. 2744,"H.B. No. 2744." Texas Legislature. Retrieved on March 11, 2011. "(3) the territory located in Brazoria County, situated to the west of the Alvin Community College District boundary as it existed on January 1, 2003, extending west to the eastern border of Fort Bend County, and south to County Roads 49, 34, and 255, including the City of Rosharon and the Darrington and Ramsey Units of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice." filed on March 6, 2007,"Bill: HB 2744." Texas Legislature. Retrieved on March 11, 2011. which would have changed the boundary between Alvin CC and Brazosport CC to put the Ramsey Unit in the Alvin CC service boundary.
Notable inmates Notable inmates of the Ramsey Unit include:
Current (): Inmate NameRegister NumberStatusDetails Shawn Allen Berry 04693746 / 00894758 Serving a life sentence. Eligible for parole in 2038. Participated, along with Lawrence Brewer and John King, in the brutal 1998 murder of James Byrd Jr., in which Byrd was chained to a truck, and his body was dragged with the moving vehicle.Keys, Perryn. "JASPER: THE ROAD BACK: Did prison time turn man into one of Byrd's killers?" Beaumont Enterprise. June 9, 2008. Retrieved on July 23, 2010."Berry, Shawn Allen " (Archive ). Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on December 28, 2015. David Henry Tuck 06716680 / 01403389 Serving a life sentence. Eligible for parole in 2036. Known for the 2006 Harris County, Texas hate crime assault in which he, along with Keith Robert Turner attacked fellow high school student David Ritcheson."Tuck, David Henry" (Archive) Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on December 28, 2015. Roy Oliver 09347254 / 02216845 Serving a 15 year sentence. Eligible for parole in 2026. Police officer who committed the 2017 Murder of Jordan Edwards in which Oliver shot him in a moving vehicle that was leaving a party. Aaron York Dean 10872300 / 02424353 Serving an 11 year sentence. Eligible for parole in 2028. Convicted of manslaughter over the 2019 Killing of Atatiana Jefferson, in which Dean killed her after showing up to her house with reports of an open front door. Carlos Coy 04236244 / 01110642 Serving a 45 year sentence. Eligible for parole in 2024. Rapper known as South Park Mexican who was sentenced in 2002 for molesting a minor.Perkinson, Robert. Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire. First Edition. Metropolitan Books, 2010. 254. . Steven Hobbs 08928224 / 02389446 Serving a life sentence. Eligible for parole in 2041. Serial killer who murdered 2 people, and sexually assaulted many others. Juan David Ortiz 11398548 / 02423750 Serving a life sentence without parole. Former Border Patrol agent who murdered 4 people in 2018. Eddie Ray Routh 08977806 / 01980993 Serving a life sentence without parole. Perpetrator of the 2013 Murders of Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield"Routh, Eddie Ray" (). Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on April 15, 2021. Feanyichi Ezekwesi Uvukansi - Perpetrator of 2012 shooting outside a southwest Houston nightclub that left three people dead and rapper Trae tha Truth injured.
Former: David Ruíz, plaintiff of Ruiz v. Estelle, served time at the historic Ramsey Farm. Michael Morton - Exonerated of the crime which he was convicted of. He had requested a transfer to Ramsey so he could complete a master's degree program there. David Owen Brooks - perpetrator of the Houston Mass Murders"Offender Information Detail Brooks, David Owen" (Archive). Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on December 28, 2015 Ray Hill (American activist) - LGBT+ and Prison Rights activist, former host of The Prison Show on KPFT.
References
External links
"Ramsey Unit." Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Map of Ramsey Unit: Texas Tribune