Dempsie Henley State Jail

A women's TDCJ state jail near Dayton in Liberty County, with a substance-abuse treatment mission and weekend visitation.

Overview

The Dempsie Henley State Jail is a small TDCJ state jail for women in Liberty County, north of Dayton off Highway 321. TDCJ lists it at about 384 beds, and it shares a campus area with the co-located Lucile Plane and L.V. Hightower units.

Two facts shape almost everything about visiting here: the unit is a women’s facility, and its population is driven by a substance-abuse treatment mission rather than standard general-population housing.

What Makes Henley Different

• A women’s state jail near Dayton that runs the women’s Substance Abuse Felony Punishment (SAFPF) program
• Programming-driven population — the unit operates substance-abuse treatment, including an In-Prison Therapeutic Community and an Intermediate Sanction Facility (ISF) program, so housing follows the treatment track
• Program participation can affect visiting, so the current arrangements are worth confirming with the unit before a trip
• Co-located with the Plane and Hightower units, which share a switchboard; the TDCJ inmate locator shows the exact unit a person is assigned to, and a co-located unit is a different visitation list

Visiting Hours and Procedures

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

Henley’s treatment mission is the main reason one posted schedule does not mean one visiting experience. SAFPF and other program phases can carry their own visit eligibility and scheduling rules, so the same posted weekend hours can apply differently depending on where the incarcerated person is in the program. Confirm the current arrangements with the unit before traveling.

Getting There and Parking

Henley is in Liberty County, north of Dayton and east of the Houston metro. The unit sits off Highway 321 in an unincorporated area, and the trip is by private vehicle.

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

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

Dayton is a small city, with limited commercial services. Dayton and nearby Liberty are the nearest service centers for gas, food, groceries, and lodging, and the Houston metro to the west offers fuller options for families traveling from a distance.

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