Residents of Hunstville, Texas, say there's more to life than death row

"The Walls" in Huntsville, TX 

Every execution in Texas since 1924 has been carried out in the Huntsville Unit, which has been aptly dubbed "the Walls." The Rev. Jesse Jackson has marched here; Katie Couric has reported live from here. Residents say they can tell when there's a controversial execution — they notice the strangers in town.

"Inside Huntsville, people don't even know when there's an execution," unless it's high profile, said Bill Williamson, a state police officer whose father worked at the Walls. "They know it's a part of life, and that's what happens."

But Huntsville's residents have a precarious relationship with its prisons. In addition to the Walls, there are four more prisons within Huntsville's city limits and five more nearby.

The prison system is one of the biggest employers in Huntsville (note to the unemployed: they're hiring), and practically everyone in town falls within a couple degrees of separation from someone who makes a living at a prison.

Still, many bristle at how death row has shaped the identity of Huntsville to outsiders. They point to Sam Houston State University, which has about 17,000 students, and the school's namesake, who was governor when Texas became a state and president when it was a republic.

"We don't talk about the prison," said Kathryn Nickell, a retired schoolteacher who first came to Huntsville in 1965 to attend Sam, as the locals call the university. "They talk about Huntsville being the death capital. But we've got more than that."

Jim Willett, the retired warden of the Walls, said there's no denying how much Huntsville has relied on the jobs the prisons have provided. About half of Huntsville's 35,000 residents are state employees.

"You take away the prison system and the college," Willett said, "we probably wouldn't have a red light in this town."

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Source: Los Angeles Times, December 24, 2010

Related article: 'Huntsville, Texas: the execution capital of the free world', Texas Observer, November 30, 2008

Related material: Texas' Death Row is a disgrace to the state of Texas. Click here to view 50 recent, annotated pictures of the 'living' conditions on Texas' Death Row. These photos were provided by the State of Texas in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by attorney Yolanda Torres, and have been posted on Thomas Whitaker's blog, "Minutes Before Six".Thomas Whitaker is currently on Death Row in the state of Texas.