Jester IV Unit

The Beauford H. Jester IV Unit (J4) is a psychiatric facility of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice located in unincorporated Fort Bend County, Texas, 4mi east of Richmond. It is a part of the Jester State Prison Farm property and it is located in U.S. Highway 90A.The unit was established in November 1993. The facility has wide hallways and have skylights and floor to ceiling windows. The cement walls have murals made by prisoners that depict wildlife. Jester IV is located in the middle of a cornfield. After the closure of the nearby Central Unit in 2011, John Whitmire, the chairperson of the criminal justice committee of the Texas Senate, said that the decision to open Jester IV was a decision that "I think we'll regret." In 2011 a middle school, James Bowie Middle School, and a strip commercial center opened across the street from Jester IV and Jester III Unit.As of March 2013 Jester IV houses 550 prisoners. They are among the most mentally ill and violent prisoners in the TDCJ. While male death row prisoners are normally housed in the Polunsky Unit near Livingston, Texas, eight are instead housed in Jester IV as of March 2013. Marc Bookman of Mother Jones said in 2013 that "by all accounts Jester IV is a quieter place" compared to Polunsky.