Mountain View Unit is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison housing
female offenders in Gatesville, Texas. The unit, with about 97 acres of land,
is located 4 miles north of central Gatesville on Farm to Market Road 215.
The prison is located in a 45 minute driving distance from Waco. In addition
to its other functions, Mountain View Unit houses the state's female death row
inmates. Death row offenders are housed
separately from the rest of the prisoners in single-person cells
measuring 60 square feet, with each cell having a window. They do not have
recreation individually. Some are allowed to watch television, though this
is dependent upon agreeing to work for free, and all have a radio.
Karla Faye Tucker, executed February 3, 1998, was the first woman to be executed
in Texas since 1863. The most recent female to be executed was Lisa Coleman,
executed on September 17, 2014. Among the better known death row
offenders at Mountain View are Linda Carty, Brittany Holberg and Darlie
Routier. A notable woman in the prison is Yolanda
Saldívar, the murderer of Tejano superstar Selena. Saldívar shot and
killed her on March 31, 1995 in Selena's hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas.
Saldívar is currently serving her sentence of life imprisonment. She will
be eligible for parole on March 30, 2025, the day before the 30th
anniversary of Selena's murder. As of 2004 the facility is not
signposted from the area main highway. History
The Mountain View State School closed in 1975, and its boys were sent to other
facilities. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice bought the land and
buildings. The facility re-opened as a women's prison. The Mountain View Unit
opened in July 1975. Around 2001 several inmates at Mountain
View were in a Windham School District effort to translate textbooks into
braille. Operation
Ruth Hill of The Observer described the unit as "intimidating," saying that the
"bunker-like buildings are punctuated with slit windows and wreathed in wire,
with guard towers on every corner". In regards to the name Hill stated "But
there is no mountain, and from the prison's death row, there is no view".
The female death row inmates may participate in a work program and have
limited viewing of a television located outside of their cells. Each death row
inmate may have limited association with the other inmates. The women on death
row are permitted to knit and sew. The current death row building opened in
2000. Amy Dorsett of the San Antonio Express-News said that the facility has
"gleaming white walls, sun-filled cells and a decorative recreation room".
Notable inmates = Death row=
Executed Karla Faye Tucker—Executed on February
3, 1998 Betty Lou Beets—Executed on February 24,
2000. Frances Newton—Executed on September 14,
2005 Kimberly McCarthy—Executed on June 26,
2013 Suzanne Basso—Executed on February 5,
2014 Lisa Coleman—Executed on September 17,
2014 Awaiting execution
Linda Carty Brittany Holberg
Darlie Lynn Routier Kimberly Cargill
Melissa Elizabeth Lucio Erica Yvonne Sheppard
= Non-death row= Yolanda Saldívar
Kimberly Trenor Diane Zamora
Marcia Kelly Celeste Beard Johnson
Christine Paolilla Clara Harris
See also Capital punishment in Texas
References External links
Mountain View Unit - Texas Department of Criminal Justice
List of prisoners at the Mountain View Unit - The Texas Tribune