Hilltop Unit

The Hilltop Unit is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison for women located in Gatesville, Texas. Originally opened in September of September 1981 as a Male first offender Unit, it is headed by Warden Jerry Gunnels. Hackberry School was the first opened then in October Sycamore was opened and housed SAT IV Construction inmates who were working on Gatesville Unit and Hilltop repairing and buildings and facilities. Until May 1982, when the Hilltop Unit proper was opened.It is located on Business Texas State Highway 36, 3mi north of Downtown Gatesville. Hilltop sites on an approximately 1317acre plot of land and is co-located with the Crain, Murray, and Woodman units. The Hilltop Unit uses buildings from the former Gatesville State School, making the Hilltop Unit's prison facility the third oldest facility still-used in Texas after the Huntsville Unit and the Jester I Unit.HistoryThe Hilltop Unit was formed from the Hackberry and Hilltop units of the Gatesville State School, a juvenile detention facility that closed in 1979. The Live Oak, Riverside, Sycamore, Riverside, Terrace, and Valley schools of the Gatesville State School became the Gatesville Unit (now the Christina Crain Unit). The unit, which opened in April 1981, originally housed men. The unit was named "Hilltop" because the prison is in the highest point of the surrounding area.