SCI Laurel Highlands

Learn more about State Correctional Institution (SCI) Laurel Highlands, a minimum-security institution for males in Pennsylvania.

SCI Laurel Highlands

Contact

Facility Address

5706 Glades Pike
Somerset, PA  15501
814-445-6501

Facility Mail Address

5706 Glades Pike 
P.O. Box 631 
Somerset, PA  15501

Inmate Mail Address

Smart Communications/PADOC 
Inmate Name/Inmate Number 
Institution 
PO Box 33028 
St Petersburg, FL 33733

Facility information

  • Current inmate population
  • Acres inside perimeter: 52
  • Acres outside perimeter: 81
  • Operational structures: 35
  • Housing units: 9 (cells and dormitory style)
  • Average number of employees: 598
  • Special features: Medical facilities to include skilled care, personal care, and dialysis

 

More about SCI Laurel Highlands

Community Work Program (CWP)

The SCI Laurel Highlands CWP crew works around the community for government agencies and nonprofit organizations. The crew paints, cleans, landscapes, clears brush, pours concrete, cleans and details fire trucks, and picks up litter.

Reentry Service Office

In order to ease a reentrant’s transition after release and improve community reintegration, the Reentry Service Offices (RSOs) are designed to provide information and services to inmates who are within 18 months to their minimum and/or release date. Reentry Parole Agents (RPAs) oversee the RSOs and work with other DOC staff members to facilitate various workshops including Life Skills, Budgeting, Digital Literacy — among many others. The RSO utilizes its computer lab to assist reentrants with resume writing, job searches, as well as providing community connections for services they may need upon release.

Academic education

  • GED
  • Commonwealth Secondary School Diploma

Vocational programs

  • Business Education
  • Custodial Maintenance
  • Flaggers
  • OSHA
  • NCCER
  • Your Role in the Green Environment
  • Cosmetology

Inmate programs

  • Therapeutic Community
  • Outpatient Alcohol Other Drug
  • Violence Prevention
  • Cognitive Behavioral Intervention – Interpersonal Violence
  • Thinking for a Change
  • Parole Violator Specific Programming
  • Programming Specific to the State Drug Treatment Program
  • Long Term Offender
  • SAFE
  • Impact of Crimes
  • Seeking Safety
  • Parenting
  • Senior Life Enhancement Program (SLEP)
  • Certified Peer Specialist (CPS)
  • Canine Partners for Life (CPL)
  • Hospice and Palliative Care

  • Superintendent: Melissa Hainsworth
  • Deputy Superintendent for Centralized Services: Melanie Pyle
  • Deputy Superintendent for Facilities Management: Brian Swank
  • Business Manager: Gina Hinebaugh
  • Superintendent's Assistant: Donna Platt

SCI Laurel Highlands is located in Somerset Township of Somerset County along Route 31. It is approximately one mile from the Borough of Somerset. 

The facility opened on July 1, 1996, as a security level 2 facility for adult male inmates. The facility occupies the former Somerset State Hospital property, which was owned by the Department of Public Welfare and which officially closed June 1996. The property was transferred from the Department of Public Welfare to the Department of Corrections on July 1, 1996. 

In addition to housing general population inmates, SCI Laurel Highlands serves as the Commonwealth’s provider to inmates with medical special needs, including long-term care, personal care, wheelchair, dialysis, and geriatric inmates. Additionally, SCI Laurel Highlands is a programming institution for inmates who are placed into the State Drug Treatment Program and short sentence parole.