Prisons Are Coronavirus Hotspots. This Town’s Got Five of Them.
For more than 50 years, Palestine, Texas, has been known as a prison town. Most of the time, that hasn’t been a problem.
True, it was a bit controversial in the 1960s when the Texas corrections department bought up 21,000 acres in this part of East Texas and built the biggest men’s prison in the state. According to Ben Campbell—a local historian and self-described “old geezer”—locals fretted at the time about the danger of escaping prisoners.
The state provided steady jobs with decent benefits, however, and over the years one prison expanded into five, which can hold nearly 14,000 men. Now, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is the largest employer in Anderson County.
“People love it and they hate it—it’s jobs, but it’s low-paying jobs,” Campbell
