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Central Unit

1909 establishments in Texas2011 disestablishments in TexasPrisons in Fort Bend County, TexasReportedly haunted locations in TexasSugar Land, Texas
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The Central Unit (C, previously the Imperial State Prison Farm and the Central State Prison Farm) was a Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) men's prison in Sugar Land, Texas. The approximately 325.8-acre (131.8 ha) facility is 2 miles (3.2 km) from the central part of the city of Sugar Land on U.S. Highway 90A. The unit first opened in April 1909. The unit had 950 beds for men but related facilities increased capacity at the site.Sugar Land Regional Airport was developed adjacent to this unit, with the runway between two parts of the prison property. The Central Unit was the only state prison within the city limits of Sugar Land which, since 1960, has been highly developed as a suburban, upscale residential and business city.In August 2011, the TDCJ announced that the Central Unit would be the first prison in Texas to close without being replaced. The state wanted to save money at a time of budget shortfalls.Since then, most of the former prison plantation land has been redeveloped by Newland Communities as a master-planned community known as Telfair. Newland Communities had bought the land in 2002 from the State of Texas, long planning such development. Two Camp, a former prison building, has been renovated as the Houston Museum of Natural Science Sugar Land. Other parts of the site are zoned for light industrial use to support the airport.

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Central Unit
Midway Drive, Sugar Land

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 29.614722222222 ° E -95.662222222222 °
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Address

Midway Drive 99
77479 Sugar Land
Texas, United States
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Wayne Scott Unit

The Wayne Scott Unit (J4), formerly known as the Beauford H. Jester IV Unit, is a psychiatric facility of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice located in unincorporated Fort Bend County, Texas, 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Richmond. It is a part of the Jester State Prison Farm property and it is located on U.S. Highway 90A.The unit was established in November 1993. The facility features wide hallways, skylights, and floor-to-ceiling windows. The cement walls have murals made by prisoners that depict wildlife. Jester IV is located in the middle of a cornfield. After the closure of the nearby Central Unit in 2011, John Whitmire, the chairperson of the criminal justice committee of the Texas Senate, said that the decision to open Jester IV was a decision that "I think we'll regret." In 2011 a middle school, James Bowie Middle School, and a strip commercial center opened across the street from Jester IV and Jester III Unit.As of March 2013 Jester IV housed 550 prisoners. They are among the most mentally ill and violent prisoners in the TDCJ. While male death row prisoners are normally housed in the Polunsky Unit near Livingston, Texas, eight are instead housed in Jester IV as of March 2013. Marc Bookman of Mother Jones said in 2013 that "by all accounts Jester IV is a quieter place" compared to Polunsky.The prison was renamed to Wayne Scott Unit in 2021. The name "Wayne Scott Unit" was formerly held by a Brazoria County prison originally known as the Retrieve Unit; the main facility of that prison closed in 2020.