The unit was named after Major
Thomas J. Goree, who, in the late 19th century, served as a prison superintendent. The unit was first established in 1907, In the 1930s Goree included the main building, separate sets of dormitories for black and white prisoners, an orchard, a cannery, a barn, crop fields, a hen house, and a cemetery for prisoners who had not been taken by surviving relatives. The dormitories had bars bolted onto the windows. During that decade, 150 prisoners resided at Goree. The
Goree All Girl String Band, a group of prisoners from the unit, performed in the 1940s. Goree, within a short driving distance from the
Texas Department of Criminal Justice headquarters, had been rebuilt and expanded during the administrations of O. B. Ellis and
George Beto. Robert Perkinson, author of ''
Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire'', said that Goree's main building "showcases a bygone nod to rehabilitation." The main building has dormitories which face gardens. Instead of bars, the residential rooms use decorative latticework. A visitor stated that Goree appeared "more or less like a college dormitory." Texas Department of Corrections (TDC)# 607. Anderson was sentenced to death on October 31, 1978, but her death sentence was reversed in 1982. The sentence was changed to murder and Anderson, who received a 50-year sentence, became TDC#285253. She was paroled on January 14, 1991. In the 1980s the state moved women prisoners to facilities in
Gatesville. In 1982 Goree was converted into a men's prison. The prison authorities placed wire mesh on the dormitory windows. Prisoners are not permitted to be in the gardens. The prison gained a single perimeter fence with
concertina wire; previously the area was unfenced. ==Inmates==