J. Dale Wainwright Unit
| Location | 2665 Jovian Motley Boulevard Lovelady, Texas 75851 |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 30°58′39″N 95°37′57″W / 30.97750°N 95.63250°W |
| Status | Operational |
| Security class | G1-G4, Administrative Segregation, Outside Trusty, Transient |
| Capacity | Unit: 2,153 Trusty Camp: 321 |
| Opened | April 1917 |
| Former name | Eastham Unit |
| Managed by | TDCJ Correctional Institutions Division |
| Warden | Donald Muniz |
| County | Houston County |
| Country | US |
| Website | www |
The J. Dale Wainwright Unit is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) prison for men, located in unincorporated Houston County, Texas. Formerly called the Eastham Unit or "The Ham," the prison was renamed the J. Dale Wainwright Unit after a former chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice. The 12,789 acres (5,176 ha) prison is located on Farm to Market Road 230, near Lovelady and 13 miles (21 km) west of Trinity.
Robert Perkinson, author of Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire, said that while the TDCJ and other agencies operate many types of prisons and jails in Texas, "if any unit stands for the rest," it would be Eastham.