Contact
Facility address
1100 Pike Street
Huntingdon, PA 16654-1112
814-643-2400
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: 10
- Acres outside perimeter: 300
- Operational structures: 76
- Housing units: 14
- Average number of employees: 660
- Special features: Special needs unit and modular housing units
More about SCI Huntingdon
PA Correctional Industries (PCI)
SCI Huntingdon features multiple PCI opportunities, including warehouse, print shop, specialty license plate shop, sign shop, garment shop, and soap/detergent shop. Huntingdon PCI employs 212 inmates.
Community Work Program (CWP)
The SCI Huntingdon CWP crew performs grass cutting, painting, cemetery cleanup, litter pickup, and much more for local nonprofit organizations.
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
Vocational programs
- Barbering
- Carpentry
- Custodial Maintenance
- Commercial Driver License
- Building Trades
- Printing
- Flagger
- OSHA Ten-Hour Construction Certification
Inmate programs
- Pathway to Success
- Act 143 Victim Awareness
- Money Smart
- Veteran's Office
- Therapeutic Community (SUD program)
- SUD Co-occurring Outpatient
- SUD Outpatient
- Certified Peer Specialists
- Certified Recovery Specialists
- Superintendent: John Rivello
- Deputy Superintendent for Centralized Services: Jill Spyker
- Deputy Superintendent for Facilities Management: Walter House (acting)
- Business Manager: Elizabeth Stone
- Superintendent's Assistant: Andrea Wakefield
SCI Huntingdon is Pennsylvania’s oldest correctional institution in continuous operation. It was created by an act of the General Assembly on June 12, 1878. The original tract of ground along the Juniata River, containing 39 acres and several springs, cost $22,036.
In 1889, the Industrial Reformatory at Huntingdon received its first inmates. They were deemed too young for a penitentiary and too old for a juvenile facility. In 1945, the institution was renamed the Pennsylvania Institution for Defective Delinquents. Inmates were labeled by the courts as “mentally defective with criminal tendencies.”
Imates learned trades such as:
- Painting
- Plumbing
- Carpentry and cabinet making
- Electrical
- Masonry (stone and brick)
It had a foundry, blacksmith shop, lime kiln, brick ovens, saw mill, lumber kiln, and planing mill. Farm operation supplied meats, dairy, poultry, and vegetables for the kitchen. Electricity from the power plant and water from springs made the institution nearly independent from the outside world.
In 1960, SCI Huntingdon became a maximum-security, adult male state correctional institution.
