Eastham Prison Farm

This place is on private property. Listing for informational purposes only. Please do not visit without express permission from the land owner. Eastham Unit is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison for men and located in unincorporated Houston County, Texas GPS Coordinates 30.978106, -95.632274. The 12,789 acres (5,176 ha) prison is located at the dead end of Farm to Market Road 230, near Lovelady and 13 miles (21 km) west of Trinity. Eastham, nicknamed "the Ham," is 40 miles (64 km) up the Trinity River from the Polunsky Unit in West Livingston, and it is about one thirds of the distance between Polunsky and the Christina Crain Unit (formerly Gatesville Unit) in Gatesville. 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. In 1972 a prisoner at Eastham sued the Texas Department of Corrections and won in 1979, the court found conditions of imprisonment within the TDC prison system constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the United States Constitution..