Transfers & Finding Someone in Pennsylvania (PADOC)

State prison or county jail

Whether someone is in a PADOC state prison or a county jail depends on the sentence. A person sentenced to state time — generally two years or more — is held in a PADOC State Correctional Institution (SCI). Pretrial detention and shorter sentences are served in a county jail or prison run by the county — not PADOC, and not in the state locator. Each county facility sets its own visiting, mail, phone, and money rules; this guide and the Pennsylvania guides cover the PADOC state system.

Diagnostic and classification

After sentencing, a newly committed person goes to a diagnostic and classification center for evaluation — medical, mental health, security level, and programming — over a period that can take weeks to months, then transfers to a permanent SCI. Which center depends on sex:

• Men: SCI Camp Hill.
• Women: SCI Muncy.

Finding someone

People in an SCI or on PADOC parole appear in the state’s “Locate an Inmate or Parolee” search, which searches by name or DOC number. Pennsylvania has no statewide county-jail locator — a person in a county jail is found through that specific county’s roster, or by calling that county jail. Federal prisoners are in the Bureau of Prisons locator.

Transfers and current location

PADOC may transfer a person between SCIs, so the current location can change after the initial classification move. Re-check the locator for the current institution. This also matters because the visiting application and the visit reservation are tied to the specific facility, so the current SCI determines where the application goes and where the reservation is made.

Verify Before Acting

For the general, nationwide overview of this topic, see the national guide: Know Your Rights.