Fort Stockton Unit Visiting Hours and Weekend Planning (what families need to know)

Regular in-person visits at Fort Stockton happen on weekends: Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. That's a wide window to arrive and still get meaningful time together. Here's what trips people up: TDCJ tracks visits by "visiting cycles," not individual days. Each cycle runs Monday through Sunday. A Saturday visit and a Sunday visit fall in the same cycle - and most people are limited by cycle rules, not by how many days they're in town.

A regular visit is two hours long. The clock starts when both the inmate and the visitor(s) are present for the visit - not when you arrive at the unit or get in line.

Eligible inmates typically get one visit per cycle. Since the cycle runs Monday through Sunday, keep that in mind when planning a weekend trip: if you visit Saturday, don't expect to schedule another regular visit on Sunday - they'd fall in the same cycle.

When you use the scheduling system, you might see several visit types listed - Regular, Contact, Video/Tablet. Not every option shows up for every situation. What's available depends on your relationship to the inmate, how the facility's visitation areas are configured, and the inmate's current privileges. If you don't see the visit type you expected, it's not necessarily a glitch - it may just not be offered for your situation or at that time.

• ✓ You may be eligible to request an Extended Visit if you’re traveling more than 250 miles one way (when time and space allow).
• ✓ If permitted, an Extended Visit may be up to four hours long, but approval depends on the unit’s ability to accommodate it.

TDCJ also offers remote video visits through a kiosk. You can schedule one per month for up to 60 minutes through the vendor's website. These are separate from your regular in-person visits - they don't count against your visiting cycle.

1. Pick the weekend that matches the unit’s schedule - regular visiting is Saturday and Sunday, with hours from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
2. Map your trip to the Monday–Sunday visiting cycle - the cycle begins Monday and ends the following Sunday, so your whole weekend is inside one cycle.
3. Plan around the one-visit-per-cycle limit - normally, eligible inmates get one regular visit per visiting cycle, so don’t book travel expecting to visit both Saturday and Sunday as separate regular visits.

• ✓ Check whether your relationship request is still listed under “Relation Requests Pending Approval.” You can’t schedule until TDCJ staff approves it.
• ✓ Once it moves to “Verified Inmate Relations,” look for a “Schedule Visit” button next to the inmate’s name.
• ✓ If the scheduling option isn’t available (for example, the button is blank or replaced with “Call Unit”), you’ll need to contact the unit to schedule.