TDCJ Administrative Headquarters Complex to Brad Livingston Complex

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice Administrative Headquarters in Huntsville is in a complex known as the BOT for its previous owner, Brown Oil Tools, a subsidiary of Baker Hughes Company. The facility was purchased from Brown Oil Tools in 1989 and converted into the executive administration headquarters, along with several other divisions of the agency.

The TDCJ Administrative Headquarters will now be known as the Brad Livingston Complex in recognition of the agency’s former executive director.

Brad Livingston graduated with honors from Metropolitan State University in Denver where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. He then graduated from the University of Texas at Austin where he earned a Master of Public Affairs degree.

Brad’s TDCJ career began in October 1997 ad Deputy Chief Financial Officer. In 2001 he was named the Chief Financial Officer and on November 1, 2004 he was appointed the agency’s Executive Director. But for nine months he was the interim Executive Director while continuing his duties as the CFO! He was formally appointed Executive Director in July 2005. For almost 12 years, he was responsible for all TDCJ operations and approximately 38,000 employees statewide.

Brad Livingston demonstrated exemplary commitment to developing leadership skills in others by substantially improving training throughout the agency. He established a Sergeant’s Academy, a Lieutenant Command School, a Parole Unit Supervisor Academy and the Building a Bridge to the Future training program. He also personally developed and led the Executive Director’s Focused Leadership training conferences. And he worked closely with Sam Houston State University in creating the High Potential Employee Leadership Academy.

Brad Livingston has displayed extraordinary vision through his contributions to the implementation of substantial agency treatment and diversion programs that have helped lower recidivism and prison populations. This has allowed TDCJ to permanently close three correctional units during his tenure.

His numerous other accomplishments include an instrumental role in the agency receiving the Golden Eagle Awardfor obtaining accreditation for all TDCJ facilities and operational areas from the American Correctional Association. He also helped the agency receive funding to substantially increase the salaries of correctional and parole officers.

Brad Livingston was recognized for his notable dedication and commendable service to TDCJ with many awards during his tenure including being named Administrator of the Year by the Texas Public Employees Association not once, but FOUR times. In 2015, the American Correctional Association honored him with the E.R. Cass award for his outstanding contributions and the Association of State Correctional Administrators presented him the Michael Franckeaward for excellence in the field of corrections.

In recognition of his loyal service to the State of Texas, the TDCJ Administrative Headquarters Complex in Huntsville will now be known as the Brad Livingston Complex.

Lockhart Correctional Facility to Gregory S. Coleman Unit

Lockhart, Texas is a town of about 14-thousand people in Caldwell County and it is where the Lockhart Correctional Facility can be found. Lockhart is named for surveyor Byrd Lockhart who was reportedly the first Anglo to set foot in the area. In 1840, a battle between settlers and the Comanche Indians took place there, known as the Battle of Plum Creek, the town’s original name.

In the late 19th century, the arrival of the railroad turned Lockhart into a regional shipping center for cotton and immigrants from all over the world began arriving and opening their businesses.

Lockhart was named the “Barbecue Capital of Texas” by the Legislature in 1999 and it’s also the site of the oldest operating public library in the state, the Dr. Eugene Clark Library.

In 1993, the Lockhart Correctional Facility opened. It houses general population and substance abuse female inmates, with a maximum population of 1,000. It provides a Driving While Intoxicated Recovery Program, as well as educational and faith-based programs.

The Lockhart Correctional Facility will now be known as the Gregory S. Coleman Unit in honor of the late former member of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice and former trustee of the Windham School District.

Gregory Coleman received his juris doctor with high honors from the University of Texas Law School in 1992. He was also the managing editor of the Texas Law Review and a member of the Chancellors Honor Society. He clerked for Chief Judge Edith Jones on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and for Justice Clarence Thomas of the United States Supreme Court.

Gregory Coleman was the first Solicitor General of Texas and was a member of the Attorney General of Texas’ team for criminal justice reform. He was the lead counsel in the state’s motion to terminate the Ruiz Final Judgment case. He successfully spearheaded the case’s appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals where, in June 1992, Judge William Wayne Justice entered an order terminating the court’s jurisdiction of the Texas prison system.

Mr. Coleman was appointed to the Texas Board of Criminal Justice in August 2003 by Governor Rick Perry. He was elected the TBCJ secretary in December 2007 and vice-chairman in April 2008. At the same time, he was a Trustee on the board of the Windham School District from August 2003 to April 2009.

While on the Board, he served as chairman of the Legal Committee and was a member of the Audit and Review, Correctional Institutions, Rehabilitation and Reentry Programs and the Victim Services committees.

He was posthumously inducted into the Texas Appellate Hall of Fame by the State Bar of Texas in 2015.

Gregory Coleman was unbiased and exceedingly accurate with his advice and counsel which led to successful outcomes for the agency in presentations before the United States Supreme Court. He also exhibited a fundamental graciousness and overall respect for others that inspired genuine affection, respect and loyalty in everyone he encountered.

In recognition of his loyal service to the State of Texas, the Lockhart Correctional Facility will now be known as the Gregory S. Coleman Unit.

Darrington Unit to the Memorial Unit

The land where the Darrington Unit now sits had several owners beginning as far back as 1824 when David Tally received a league of land from the Mexican government. Then in 1835, John Darrington of Alabama bought it for $3028. Ironically, he never actually lived at the plantation that produced cotton and sugar cane with slave labor. He was an absentee landlord. In the late 1840s, Nathaniel Wilkinson of New Orleans bought the land with all its holdings and it retained the Darrington Plantation name. In the following years, more owners came and went but the Darrington name held, even when the land was sold to the state of Texas.

In 1917, the Darrington Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections was established on the land in Rosharon. Housing a general population, security detention, outside trusty and transient inmates, it has provided many career and educational opportunities for its population of over 19-hundred inmates. It is also the home of faith-based programs including a Seminary Program that allows inmates to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Biblical Studies and work as field ministers in other prisons throughout the state.

We are now changing the name of the Darrington Unit to the Memorial Unit in recognition of the agency’s staff and employees who are dedicated to fulfilling the agency’s mission and who are critical to managing the challenges of maintaining safe and orderly operations.

TDCJ employees are among the finest in the world. They display courage and commitment daily. They also face physical and emotional demands with dedication and devotion.

TDCJ employees are recognized and deeply appreciated for their service and their positive impact on the agency. And we somberly remember those whom we have lost over the years.

Some employees have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty while others have lost battles with illnesses and others have succumbed tragically to the difficulties of this world.

While no one can fully grasp the broad spectrum of pain and sorrow their survivors feel nor fathom the void in the lives of their loved ones, we pay tribute with honor, respect and dignity to the memories of those gone but not forgotten.

In memoriam of our fallen brothers and sisters of the past and the future, it is resolved that the Darrington Unit will now be known as the Memorial Unit.