Country’s Largest Prison Cemetery Is ‘Quiet Green Oasis’ in Texas

A 22-acre spread in Huntsville, Texas, is the burial ground for thousands of inmates whose bodies were never claimed by their families.

The Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery is the country’s largest prison graveyard, the New York Times reports. It first opened in the mid-1800s, but its current name honors an assistant warden who helped restore the cemetery in the 1960s. The Times says the cemetery is a “quiet green oasis” that brings to mind Arlington National Cemetery.

“In a state known for being tough on criminals, where officials recently eliminated last-meal requests on death row, the Byrd cemetery has been a little-known counterpoint to the mythology of the Texas penal system,” the Times says. Inmates dig the graves and mourn the dead, even those they never knew. The state’s cost for each burial is about $2,000.