Pennsylvania Prisons | DOC | Prison Inmate Search

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Pennsylvania Department of Corrections - Prisons and Inmate Search

Pennsylvania State Prisons and Juvenile Facilities

The modern prison was largely invented in Pennsylvania. Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Jail began holding prisoners in solitary cells in 1790, and in 1829 the state opened Eastern State Penitentiary, whose “Separate System” of keeping each prisoner alone with work and a Bible was copied around the world. Eastern State closed in 1970 and is now a museum. Today’s system is run by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC). It began as the Bureau of Correction in 1953, after riots at the Pittsburgh and Rockview prisons pushed lawmakers to bring every state prison under one agency, and became a cabinet-level department in 1984. State parole supervision was folded into the DOC in 2021.

How many state prisons are there?

The DOC holds about 37,000 people in more than 20 State Correctional Institutions, each known by the letters SCI and its town. It also runs 14 community corrections centers for people moving toward release. Citing a shrinking population, the DOC closed SCI Rockview in Centre County and the Quehanna Boot Camp in early 2026; the last people held at Rockview were moved out on February 13, 2026. In Pennsylvania, people with shorter sentences, generally a maximum under two years, serve their time in county jails instead.

Maximum security: SCI Phoenix (Montgomery County, the largest, opened in 2018 to replace Graterford), Fayette, Forest, Frackville, Greene and Pine Grove
Close security: SCI Huntingdon, in use since 1889, and SCI Smithfield
Women: SCI Muncy in Lycoming County and SCI Cambridge Springs in Crawford County
Medium security: SCI Albion, Benner Township, Chester, Coal Township, Dallas, Houtzdale, Mahanoy, Somerset and Waymart
Minimum security: SCI Laurel Highlands and SCI Mercer
Diagnostic center: SCI Camp Hill near Harrisburg

Where new prisoners go first

Men sentenced to state prison are brought from the county jail to SCI Camp Hill in Cumberland County, the DOC’s diagnostic and classification center. Women go to SCI Muncy. During classification, staff run medical, mental health and educational evaluations, review the sentence and set a custody level before transferring the person to a “home” prison. Because someone may be moved within a few weeks, check their location before mailing anything or planning a visit.

Inmate search

Look up anyone in state prison with the DOC Inmate/Parolee Locator, by name or inmate number. Pennsylvania inmate numbers combine two letters and four digits, such as AB1234. You’ll need that number for letters, which go through the DOC’s central mail processing center, and for deposits.

A death penalty that is rarely carried out

Pennsylvania keeps capital punishment, but it has executed only three people since 1976, and each of them had given up his appeals. The last was Gary Heidnik, in July 1999. Before 1976 the state executed 1,040 people, most recently by electric chair in 1962. Lethal injection replaced electrocution under a 1990 law. From 1915 on, state executions took place at SCI Rockview, which held Pennsylvania’s only execution chamber until the prison closed in 2026.

Gov. Tom Wolf announced a moratorium in February 2015 and issued reprieves whenever a death warrant came due. Gov. Josh Shapiro said in 2023 that he would sign no execution warrants and asked lawmakers to repeal the death penalty, and in January 2026 he issued another reprieve to keep the pause in place. Death row has shrunk from 175 people in 2016 to about 103. Men sentenced to death are held mostly at SCI Phoenix and SCI Somerset, and women at SCI Muncy.

Other things to know

For years Pennsylvania held more people sentenced to life without parole as teenagers than any other state. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 and 2016 that mandatory life sentences for juveniles were unconstitutional, hundreds of those cases were resentenced and many of them have since been released.

Pennsylvania juvenile facilities

Young people committed by a juvenile court can be placed in the care of the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS), whose Bureau of Juvenile Justice Services runs the state’s secure youth facilities, including Loysville Youth Development Center in Perry County and North Central Secure Treatment Unit in Danville. Many youth are also sent to privately run residential programs licensed by DHS; one of the best known, Glen Mills Schools, closed in 2019 after reports of abuse. Detention before a court decision usually happens in county-run juvenile detention centers. Juvenile records are confidential, so parents and guardians should contact the youth’s probation officer or DHS directly.

To search for an inmate or juvenile, or to learn how to visit, call, write or send money to someone in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections or Department of Human Services, choose a facility from the list below.