William P. Clements Unit

The Texas Panhandle's TDCJ prison in Amarillo, a large multi-custody unit with restrictive housing and specialized mental health programs.

Overview

The William P. Clements Unit is the Texas Panhandle’s major state prison, on the eastern edge of Amarillo. TDCJ’s current Region V directory lists it as the only unit in Amarillo — the region’s other units sit in towns like Dalhart, Pampa, Lubbock, and Abilene — so families across the Panhandle, and many driving from Dallas-Fort Worth or Oklahoma, converge here.

Opened in 1990, the unit houses the full custody range (G1 through G5 plus security detention) with a 17-bed infirmary and a telemedicine center. The site was built co-located with the Nathaniel J. Neal Unit; TDCJ idled Neal in late 2020, moving its staff to Clements, and Neal no longer appears in TDCJ’s current unit directory.

What Makes William P. Clements Unit Different

• Its custody mix spans the whole range, so the visiting format follows the incarcerated person’s classification — contact visiting for general population, non-contact procedures for restrictive housing, on the same posted schedule.
• It hosts one of TDCJ’s specialized mental health programs, the Program for the Aggressive Mentally Ill Offender (PAMIO), plus an administrative segregation step-down program — a reason men with serious mental health needs are transferred here from across the state.
• It is one of the better-served TDCJ units for video visiting, with posted weekday windows in addition to weekend hours, and it is on TDCJ’s list of units that schedule remote video visits through Securus.
• It is a TDCJ regional release site and hosts officer training academies, with a beef processing plant and shoe factory on site.
• Distance defines visits here: the unit serves a region where many families drive four hours or more each way.

Visiting Hours and Procedures

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

The weekday video windows matter for this unit’s geography: a family in Dallas or Oklahoma City can hold a video visit midweek without the long drive. Account setup and rates are covered in Phone & Video Calls.

Getting There and Parking

Clements is on Spur 591, a short state highway running east from Loop 335 — TxDOT designated the spur in 1989 essentially to serve the prison site.

TDCJ does not publish visitor parking details for the unit. No Amarillo city bus route reaches Spur 591, so the final approach is by car.

Panhandle weather is a real planning factor on these routes: winter storms have closed I-40 and US-287 in the region, sometimes stranding travelers. TxDOT’s DriveTexas site and the National Weather Service Amarillo office publish current road conditions, and TDCJ posts weather-related visitation alerts on its website.

Nearby Services

The closest services cluster is along I-40 East near Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport, about three miles south of the unit, with chain hotels including Holiday Inn Express & Suites East, Holiday Inn East, La Quinta Mid City, and Fairfield Inn & Suites. Amarillo’s full commercial corridors are west of downtown.

Hospitals with 24-hour emergency rooms are in Amarillo’s west-side medical district, about 20 minutes from the unit: Northwest Texas Healthcare System, the lead trauma facility for the upper Panhandle, and BSA Hospital on Wallace Boulevard.

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