Patrick L. O'Daniel Unit

The Gatesville women's prison that houses Texas's women's death row — known until 2024 as the Mountain View Unit.

Overview

The Patrick L. O’Daniel Unit, formerly Mountain View, is one of five women’s facilities in Gatesville and the one with the most specialized mission: TDCJ’s death row information page states that the women on death row are housed here. The rest of the unit holds women across the custody range, with around-the-clock medical and inpatient mental health beds on site.

The site has held institutions since 1962, when it opened as a school for boys; TDCJ acquired it and opened the women’s prison in July 1975. Among its operations today is a Braille manufacturing facility, described in published accounts as one of the largest prison Braille programs in the country, transcribing textbooks for Texas schoolchildren.

What Makes Patrick L. O’Daniel Unit Different

• It houses Texas’s women’s death row — the female counterpart to the men’s row at Polunsky — which brings death row’s distinct visiting rules to this unit.
• The 2024 renaming means records and search results split between two names for the same prison; the unit code remains “MV.”
• Death row here includes a work-capable classification: under TDCJ’s visitation policy, work-capable women on death row are allowed weekly visits and use the general-population non-contact visiting area.
• A Braille manufacturing facility and Braille instruction operate on site, alongside horticulture, cosmetology, and academic education programs.
• Medical services run 24/7 with 20 inpatient mental health beds — a larger clinical footprint than the unit’s size suggests.

Visiting Hours and Procedures

The statewide rules above — approval, ID, prohibited items, and dress code — apply at O’Daniel. General population and death row follow different schedules and different scheduling paths.

Because death row visits route through the warden’s office, families arranging a first visit call the unit at (254) 865-7226. Account setup and phone rates are covered in Phone & Video Calls.

Getting There and Parking

O’Daniel is on Ransom Road off FM 215, about four miles north of central Gatesville per TDCJ’s directory.

TDCJ does not publish visitor parking details for the unit. There is no fixed-route bus to the unit, and no direct intercity bus serves Gatesville; The HOP’s in-town microtransit runs weekdays only, so weekend visits are 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) is a statewide nonprofit focused on education, advocacy, and prison-system navigation for families; 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
• 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