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Estelle unit pilot shifts to team‑based staffing; wardens report higher retention and lower no‑show rates
Summary
Estelle Unit senior warden Anthony Newton described a team‑based staffing pilot that replaced static posts with five focused teams. Newton and executive leadership said the pilot has coincided with higher reported staffing levels and lower call‑in/no‑show rates; TDCJ is expanding the pilot to seven additional facilities.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Estelle Unit in Huntsville has piloted a team‑based staffing model designed to replace static posts with focused teams, senior warden Anthony Newton told the board on Oct. 17. Newton and agency leadership described early operational benefits and said the model is being expanded to other facilities.
Newton said Estelle’s pilot created five teams — a security‑chair team, ingress/egress team, security‑check team, inmate‑management team and sales/search team — each with three to five officers who work together consistently and are led by designated team leaders. The teams “conduct different functions of going through the hallways, basically implementing a community policing type of atmosphere,” Newton said, adding that the structure…
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