Carole S. Young Medical Facility

A TDCJ medical facility in Dickinson, near Galveston — it provides specialized and long-term medical care for incarcerated women transferred from across the state.

Overview

The Carole S. Young Medical Facility is a TDCJ medical facility in Dickinson, in Galveston County, within the Houston–Galveston area. TDCJ lists it at about 328 beds. It provides specialized, geriatric, and long-term medical care for people transferred from units across Texas, and TDCJ records its population as women.

The state’s main prison hospital, Hospital Galveston, is operated by the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) nearby in Galveston, and the facility sits within that regional medical network.

What Makes Carole S. Young Medical Facility Different

• A medical facility rather than a general-population prison — TDCJ lists it at about 328 beds and records its population as women
• Provides specialized, geriatric, and long-term medical care for people transferred from units across Texas, so many residents arrive from other facilities for treatment
• Sits in the Houston–Galveston area in Galveston County, near UTMB’s Hospital Galveston, the main prison hospital in the TDCJ system
• Because care levels vary, the visiting format follows a resident’s medical and housing status rather than one facility-wide rule

Visiting Hours and Procedures

The statewide rules above — approval, ID, prohibited items, and dress code — apply at Carole S. Young Medical Facility. What follows is specific to this facility.

TDCJ uses weekend visitation across its units, and visits are scheduled through the TDCJ Online Visitation Portal. The portal shows the current days, time slots, and visit type available for a specific resident, which is set by the facility and the person’s status.

Because this is a medical facility, visiting for patients in medical or infirmary housing may follow a different format than standard general-population visiting. Room assignments, contact arrangements, and timing can depend on a resident’s medical and housing status, so two visits on the same weekend may differ. The format for a specific resident is confirmed through the portal and with the facility.

Getting There and Parking

Carole S. Young Medical Facility is in Dickinson, in the Houston–Galveston corridor along Interstate 45.

There is no fixed-route bus to the facility; the trip is by car. Connect Transit, the public transit system in the Galveston–Texas City area, runs limited fixed routes that do not serve the facility, so reaching it by transit is not practical.

The nearest hospital with a 24-hour emergency room is HCA Houston Healthcare Mainland (Mainland Medical Center) in Texas City. UTMB Health also operates a hospital with a 24-hour emergency room in Galveston.

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.

Nearby Services

Dickinson sits in the built-up Houston–Galveston corridor, so gas, food, groceries, and lodging are available in Dickinson and the neighboring cities of League City, Texas City, and Galveston. Hotel sites list chain properties along the I-45 corridor in League City and Texas City, and additional lodging is available in Galveston.

For support beyond the facility 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