List of Pennsylvania state prisons

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This is a list of state prisons in Pennsylvania. It does not include federal prisons or county jails located in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania Bureau of Correction was created in September 1953 in response to riots at Rockview and Pittsburgh. The prisons were previously administered under the Department of Welfare. At first creation the Bureau was under the Department of Justice while in 1984 the Bureau was elevated to cabinet level status to become the Department of Corrections. As of 2007 there are 26 state correctional institutions, one motivational boot camp, 13 community correction centers, contracts with 50 private community correction centers and 15,000 employees and 45,300 inmates. The DOC is looking to add more than 8,000 new beds in the future to deal with less violent offenders and parole violators. ^[1] There are 63 jails in the state. The training academy is located in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.

Historical (closed)
- Eastern State Penitentiary, Fairmount, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Young Adult Offenders male ages 15-20
- State Correctional Institution - Pine Grove Indiana, Pennsylvania maximum-security

Adult Female Institutions
- State Correctional Institution - Cambridge Springs Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania minimum security[1]
- State Correctional Institution - Muncy Muncy, Pennsylvania close security houses all female capital punishment inmates & diagnostic and classification center for women [2]

Adult Male Institutions
- Minimum-security
  - State Correctional Institution - Laurel Highlands Somerset, Pennsylvania houses geriatric and mentally ill inmates
  - State Regional Correctional Facility - Mercer Mercer, Pennsylvania
  - State Correctional Institution - Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania minimum to lower-medium security male inmates needing drug rehabilitation. Opened 1882 and originally called Western Penitentiary.
  - Motivational Bootcamp - Quehanna Karthaus Township, Pennsylvania Co-Ed and six month duration
  - State Correctional Institution - Waymart Waymart, Pennsylvania originally part Fairview State Hospital. Has Forensic Treatment Unit & houses inmates with mental disorders who require inpatient psychiatric care and treatment. The 1989 riot at the State Correctional Institution - Camp Hill expedited the opening.

- Medium-security
  - State Correctional Institution - Albion Albion, Pennsylvania Also close-security
  - State Correctional Institution - Coal Township Coal Township, Pennsylvania
  - State Correctional Institution - Chester Chester, Pennsylvania Opened 1998 first facility to treat inmates with substance abuse and be tobacco free
  - State Correctional Institution - Dallas Dallas, Pennsylvania Was originally designed for "defective delinquents"
  - State Correctional Institution - Greensburg Greensburg, Pennsylvania
  - State Correctional Institution - Houtzdale Houtzdale, Pennsylvania
  - State Correctional Institution - Mahanoy Frackville, Pennsylvania
  - State Correctional Institution - Retreat Hunlock Creek, Pennsylvania Converted from a psychiatric hospital in 1981
  - State Correctional Institution - Rockview Bellefonte, Pennsylvania Begun in 1912 and opened in 1915 was originally planned to replace Eastern and Western Penitentiaries
  - State Correctional Institution - Somerset Somerset, Pennsylvania

- Close-security
  - State Correctional Institution - Camp Hill Camp Hill, Pennsylvania diagnostic and classification center, riots occurred here in 1989
  - State Correctional Institution - Cresson Cresson, Pennsylvania Converted from a psychiatric hospital
  - State Correctional Institution - Huntingdon Huntingdon, Pennsylvania Opened 1889 first for young offenders and then "defective delinquents" modeled after the Elmira Correctional Facility
  - State Correctional Institution - Smithfield Huntingdon, Pennsylvania

- Maximum-security
  - State Correctional Institution - Fayette LaBelle,Pennsylvania
  - State Correctional Institution - Forest Marienville, Pennsylvania
  - State Correctional Institution - Frackville Frackville, Pennsylvania
  - State Correctional Institution - Graterford Graterford, Pennsylvania Opened 1929 Pennsylvania's largest prison and worked with Eastern State Penitentiary until its closing in 1970
  - State Correctional Institution - Greene Waynesburg, Pennsylvania houses most of state's capital punishment inmates