G1-G4, Transient, Outside Trusty, Developmentally Disabled, Substance Abuse (women) · State Prison · TDCJ

Christina Melton Crain Unit

Gatesville, Coryell County, Texas

Visiting schedules change without notice. Always call before traveling.

Call Visiting Office: (254) 865-8431 Info last verified: June 2026

The hub of TDCJ's Gatesville women's campus — listed for offender intake/receiving and release, with the system's first all-female infirmary.

Statewide rules that apply at every TDCJ unit

These rules are set by TDCJ and apply at every unit. The full list — including all permitted and prohibited items and the approval process — is in Visiting in Texas.

Dress code

Tight-fitting, revealing, or see-through clothing is not allowed.
Sleeveless shirts and dresses are allowed only if the shoulders stay covered.
Shorts and skirts must be no shorter than three inches above the middle of the knee while standing.
Clothing with profane or offensive images or language is not allowed.
Visitors may not wear all-white clothing (incarcerated people wear white). Sandals and open-toe shoes are allowed.

ID: Each adult visitor (18 or older) must present a current government-issued photo ID, and at least one ID document must show a current physical address.
What to bring: No cell phones, smartwatches, cameras, other electronics, tobacco, paper money, food, or outside drinks. A small clear bag or change purse and up to $35 in coins for vending machines are allowed.
Scheduling: Visits are booked through the TDCJ Online Visitation Portal, at least one and no more than seven days ahead. One visit per weekend is standard.

Full statewide rules: Visiting in Texas

Overview

The Christina Melton Crain Unit is the largest and most central of the four women’s facilities sharing TDCJ’s Gatesville campus, next door to Hilltop on the same street and co-located with Murray and Woodman. Its custody range (G1-G4 plus transient and outside trusty) and its listed operations — offender intake/receiving, a food service warehouse, and a regional release site — make it both an entry and an exit point for women in the Texas system.

Published accounts trace the unit to 1980 and note it was renamed from the Gatesville Unit in 2008 for Christina Melton Crain, the first woman to chair the Texas Board of Criminal Justice — so older paperwork may carry the old name.

What Makes Christina Melton Crain Unit Different

It sits at both ends of a sentence: TDCJ lists “Offender Intake/Receiving” among its operations and designates it a regional release site for the women’s complex.
TDCJ opened its first all-female infirmary here in July 2020 — up to 13 beds for women who are oxygen-dependent, have paralysis, or otherwise cannot manage daily living activities — and the unit’s medical line includes Hospital Galveston physicians for OB/GYN care.
Specialized programs TDCJ lists here include the Developmental Disabilities Program, a boot-camp alternative incarceration program for women, and a special-needs substance abuse felony punishment facility (SAFPF).
It is one of 13 TDCJ units with Securus kiosks for remote video visitation, which is why the TDCJ portal posts no video hours for Crain — video visits are registered and scheduled on the Securus website instead.
The Patriot Paws service-dog training program and a college pipeline through Central Texas College operate on site.

Visiting Hours and Procedures

The statewide rules above — approval, ID, prohibited items, and dress code — apply at Crain. What follows is specific to this unit, including the intake restrictions that affect newly arrived women.

Visiting days and hours (TDCJ unit visitation schedule, June 2026):

Saturday: 8:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Sunday: 8:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
The same posted window covers contact, regular (non-contact), and restricted visiting.

During intake, in order:

The incarcerated person submits a visitor list (up to 10 names with addresses and phone numbers) during processing — the person, not the visitor, requests additions.
No visits are allowed until unit staff have processed that list, and the standard one-visit-per-week entitlement excludes people being processed through intake.
Contact visits require completed intake plus at least 60 days in TDCJ custody.

Video visiting: Through Securus — visitors register on the Securus website to schedule remote video visits at Crain; the TDCJ portal handles only in-person visits here.

Scheduling: In-person visits through the TDCJ Online Visitation Portal once the visitor list is processed.

One exception to the 60-day rule: under TDCJ’s visitation policy, women received into the SAFP substance-abuse program are eligible for contact visits at any time after program intake, at the warden’s discretion. TDCJ does not publish how long visitor-list processing or women’s intake typically takes; the unit confirms visit eligibility by phone. TDCJ also does not notify families of a transfer to a long-term unit; the incarcerated person does, and the inmate locator shows the current assignment. Account setup and phone rates are covered in Phone & Video Calls.

Getting There and Parking

Crain is on State School Road off Highway 36, about three miles north of central Gatesville, with TX-36 and US-84 connecting to the interstate corridors.

TDCJ does not publish visitor parking details for the unit. There is no fixed-route bus: The HOP, the regional transit district’s service, runs in-town Gatesville microtransit on weekdays only — it does not operate on weekend visiting days — so the trip is by car.

Nearby Services

Gatesville is a small town with services along Main Street and the TX-36 corridor; hotel sites list a handful of in-town properties, including Days Inn by Wyndham and Comfort Inn & Suites. Waco, about an hour east, has the nearest large hotel and restaurant cluster.

Coryell Health on West Main Street in Gatesville operates the local hospital with a Level IV trauma center emergency room; the nearest comprehensive (Level I) trauma center is Baylor Scott & White in Temple, about 35 miles away.

For support beyond the unit itself, the Texas Incarcerated Families Association (TIFA) runs workshops orienting new families to TDCJ and distributes TDCJ-approved clear coin purses for members to use when visiting; its helpline is (512) 371-0900.

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

Sources

This page is compiled from the following publicly available sources. Policies change without notice — confirm current details with the facility before relying on them.