Gurney Unit, TX

1385 FM 3328, Palestine, TX 75803, in Anderson County. TDCJ describes the location as six miles south of Tennessee Colony. The facility's own number is (903) 928-3118.

It is open. TDCJ lists Gurney in its current unit directory with a named senior warden, 434 employees and a capacity of 1,130, and the facility appears in TDCJ's live Unit Visitation Schedule with full hours on all four visit types. Some directory sites still carry a closed label from the period when the facility was idled.

1,130, per TDCJ's current unit directory page. Older listings elsewhere still show 2,128, which was the capacity before the facility was idled. If you see the larger number, it is out of date.

It holds people while they move between assignments, not for the length of a sentence. TDCJ types Gurney as a Transfer Facility, lists Transient among its custody levels, and lists Inmate Intake and Receiving among its operations. The Texas Legislature repealed the statutory transfer facility designation in 2021, which is why some TDCJ listings now say only Prison.

Contact, Regular, Restricted and Video visits all run Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM. There are no weekday slots. These hours were read from TDCJ's Unit Visitation Schedule on August 29, 2026.

Not to the facility. Personal mail, cards and photos go to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, [Full First and Last Name] [TDCJ Number], PO Box 660400, Dallas, TX 75266-0400. Mail missing the full commitment name and TDCJ number is returned to sender.

No facility-specific handbook and no facility-specific visitation form exist for Gurney. TDCJ publishes statewide documents instead: the General Information Guide for Families of Inmates and the I-218 visitation rules. The Visitors List is set up on Form RO-1, which the incarcerated person submits, not the visitor.