East Texas Multi-Use Facility

Texas's only privately operated TDCJ unit, run by MTC in Henderson — a co-gender substance-abuse treatment facility on the statewide weekend visitation system.

Overview

The East Texas Multi-Use Facility is a TDCJ unit in Henderson, in Rusk County. TDCJ lists its capacity at about 1,060. It is the one TDCJ unit operated by a private company — Management & Training Corporation (MTC) — under contract with the agency.

Two facts set it apart from most TDCJ units: it is co-gender, holding both men and women, and its mission is substance-abuse treatment rather than general-population confinement.

What Makes East Texas Different

• The only privately operated TDCJ unit — run by MTC under contract with TDCJ, while the people held here remain in TDCJ custody and appear on the TDCJ inmate locator
• Co-gender — it holds both men and women, which is uncommon for a TDCJ unit, so families confirm how visiting is arranged for the relevant population
• Substance-abuse treatment mission, including the Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) Recovery Program and other therapeutic-community programming
• As a privately operated unit, the phone and commissary vendors can differ from the TDCJ statewide defaults; families confirm the current providers with the unit

Visiting Hours and Procedures

The statewide rules above — approval, ID, prohibited items, and dress code — apply at the East Texas Multi-Use Facility. The TDCJ approved-visitor list and the statewide online scheduler apply as they do at agency-run units. What follows is specific to this unit.

Because the unit is co-gender, the visiting arrangement follows the incarcerated person’s housing and population, so families confirm the specific schedule and process for the person they are visiting. Whether the statewide online scheduler is wired up for this unit is worth confirming directly with the facility, since a privately operated unit can handle scheduling differently.

Getting There and Parking

The East Texas Multi-Use Facility is in Henderson, in Rusk County, in the East Texas region. Henderson sits south of Longview and Kilgore and southeast of Tyler, off US 79 and US 259.

There is no fixed-route bus to the unit, so the trip is by private vehicle.

Mail

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; a prison cannot be called into. As a privately operated unit, the phone and commissary vendors can differ from the TDCJ statewide defaults, so families confirm the current providers with the unit. Account setup, rates, and video options are covered in Phone & Video Calls.

Incoming personal mail goes to the unit. It is addressed to the incarcerated person’s full name and TDCJ number at East Texas Multi-Use Facility, 900 Industrial Drive, Henderson, TX 75652. TDCJ does not use an off-site mail-scanning vendor; standard TDCJ correspondence rules apply, and what can and cannot be sent is covered in Mail & Packages.

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