Carol S. Vance Unit

Faith-based TDCJ men's prison in Richmond, Fort Bend County, part of the Jester complex, with weekend visitation.

Overview

The Carol S. Vance Unit is a small TDCJ men’s prison in Fort Bend County, located four miles east of Richmond. TDCJ lists it at about 378 beds, making it one of the smaller units in the system.

The Vance Unit is TDCJ’s flagship faith-based unit and the home of the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, a faith-based treatment program in which the State runs security and physical care while the faith program runs the programming.

What Makes the Vance Unit Different

• A faith-based unit — home of the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, with the State running security and physical care while the faith program runs the programming
• The former Jester II Unit; the page carries “Jester II” as an alias because TDCJ records and older references still use that name
• Part of the Richmond Jester complex, where several units sit close together and their names are easy to confuse; the TDCJ inmate locator shows the exact unit a person is assigned to, and a nearby complex unit is a different visitation list
• A small unit at about 378 beds, with custody levels in the G1-G2 range, so the visiting format follows the incarcerated person’s classification

Visiting Hours and Procedures

The statewide rules above — approval, ID, prohibited items, and dress code — apply at the Vance Unit. What follows is specific to this unit.

Weekend visiting at the Vance Unit is scheduled through the TDCJ Online Visitation Portal, and every visitor must be on the incarcerated person’s approved visitor list before a visit can be booked. The visit format depends on the incarcerated person’s classification, so two families arriving the same morning may have different experiences.

Because the Vance Unit shares the Richmond Jester complex with other units whose names are similar, the TDCJ inmate locator is the way to confirm the exact unit a person is assigned to before traveling.

Getting There and Parking

The Vance Unit is in Fort Bend County, four miles east of Richmond and southwest of Houston. The trip is by private vehicle.

Phones, Mail, and Video

Contact has a sequence to it. A phone number must be on the incarcerated person’s approved contact list before calls can connect, and after intake or a transfer that approval can take time to process. Calls are placed by the incarcerated person on TDCJ’s Securus phone system; a prison cannot be called into. Account setup, rates, and video options are covered in Phone & Video Calls. What can be mailed and how it is handled is covered in Mail & Packages.

Nearby Services

Richmond is the nearest service center for gas, food, groceries, and lodging before the unit, and the greater Houston area to the northeast offers broader options.

For support beyond the unit itself, the Texas Inmate Families Association is a statewide nonprofit focused on education, advocacy, and prison-system navigation resources for families with someone in TDCJ custody.

Learn More

For detailed information about visiting and communicating with someone at a Texas state prison:

• Visiting in Texas — TDCJ approval process, dress code, scheduling
• Mail & Packages — what you can send and what gets rejected
• Phone & Video Calls — Securus accounts, call costs, video visits
• Sending Money — how to add funds to a TDCJ trust account
• Medical & Mental Health — healthcare in TDCJ facilities
• Transfers — what happens during transfers