Locate SCI Houtzdale Inmates

SCI Houtzdale State Prison

SCI Houtzdale is operated by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. It is a medium-security state correctional institution in Clearfield County, not a local jail and not an ICE detention center. A person from Clearfield County can be sent to SCI Houtzdale after sentencing, but placement depends on PADOC reception, classification, security needs, medical needs, and program needs. A Clearfield County defendant may also be sent to another state correctional institution.

The facility's official page gives operational scale rather than a static rated capacity. It lists 65 acres inside the perimeter, 212 acres outside the perimeter, 35 operational structures, 11 housing units, and an average employee count of 611. The official page also surfaced inconsistent gender wording in research, so the safest description is state-sentenced PADOC custody unless PADOC confirms the current gender mission. Do not use the county jail phone line or county jail mail address for SCI Houtzdale inmates.

The PADOC SCI Houtzdale facility page is the matched source for address, mail format, facility facts, programs, leadership, and history.

Use that facility page for prison-specific rules, then use the PADOC locator for the person-level custody search.

SCI Houtzdale Facility Facts

SCI Houtzdale's captured official page did not expose a static current population number or rated bed capacity, but it does give useful scale. The prison has 11 housing units and 35 operational structures, with 65 acres inside the secure perimeter and 212 acres outside. The page lists 611 average employees. Those numbers help distinguish SCI Houtzdale from Clearfield County Jail, which is a local pretrial and county-sentence facility with a recent average near 160 inmates per day, and from Moshannon Valley Processing Center, which has an ICE detention capacity of 1,876.

For a live custody question, the facility facts are less important than the locator result. PADOC moves people among institutions for reception, classification, discipline, treatment, work, program, and bed-management reasons. A sentencing county does not guarantee placement at SCI Houtzdale. A local arrest in Clearfield County also does not place someone in this state prison unless a state sentence or PADOC authority applies.

Search SCI Houtzdale Inmates

Use the Pennsylvania DOC Inmate and Parolee Locator for SCI Houtzdale. PA.gov says the locator covers state-sentenced inmates and parolees, updates daily, and does not include county jail inmates, inmates held in another state, or private information. It is the correct route for PADOC custody. It is not a court docket, bail lookup, county booking report, or mugshot gallery.

1. Open the PADOC locator and search by last name or inmate number.
2. Add a first name when the last name is common, or use the inmate number if it is known.
3. Review the result for department custody or parole status and confirm whether SCI Houtzdale is listed.
4. If no result appears, try a broader last-name search and disable pop-up blocking as PA.gov advises.
5. For charges, bail history, or court dates from a Clearfield County arrest, search UJS separately by name, OTN, or docket number.

SCI Houtzdale Contact

SCI Houtzdale uses PADOC prison contact channels. The prison address is not the same as the Smart Communications mail-processing address for ordinary inmate mail. People seeking sentence records, movement, or parole details should start with PADOC sources. People seeking the criminal case that led to a Clearfield County sentence should search UJS or contact the court, not the prison records office.

SCI Houtzdale Visitation

State prison visits follow PADOC rules rather than the Clearfield County Jail unit schedule. The county jail's Tuesday through Sunday local rotation does not apply at SCI Houtzdale. PADOC visitation normally requires the visitor to be approved, the visit to be scheduled through the department process, and visitors to comply with identification, dress, property, security, and conduct rules. Facility operations can change visiting availability, so current PADOC instructions should be checked before travel.

State prisons can restrict visits for custody level, discipline, medical status, lockdown, staffing, weather, or security conditions. A locator hit at SCI Houtzdale should be followed by a direct review of PADOC visiting instructions, especially if the person was recently transferred from a county jail.

SCI Houtzdale Mail and Programs

Ordinary PADOC inmate mail goes through Smart Communications/PADOC in St. Petersburg, Florida. Do not send regular inmate letters to the street address unless PADOC rules for a specific mail type say to do so. The inmate name, inmate number, and institution are required in the research file's PADOC mail format. The prison's physical address remains important for official contact, but the mail-processing address is the route for inmate correspondence.

SCI Houtzdale has a large program footprint. PADOC lists PCI commissary distribution for eight state institutions, a Community Work Program for nonprofit projects, reentry service offices, GED and Adult Basic Education, vocational programs, treatment and recovery programming, veterans services, Thinking for a Change, and violence-prevention programs. Program access depends on classification, sentence, behavior, available seats, and department policy.

SCI Houtzdale Classification

A state prison intake is not the same as a street-arrest booking. For a person arrested in Clearfield County, local custody and court steps can begin at Clearfield County Jail and the magisterial district courts. If the person is convicted and sentenced to state custody, PADOC reception and classification decide the institution assignment. Classification can account for security level, medical or mental-health needs, sentence structure, detainers, program needs, separation concerns, work eligibility, and bed availability.

Once PADOC custody begins, the county jail roster or jail phone line may no longer be the best source. Families often need both systems: UJS for the court record that explains the conviction and sentence, and PADOC for the current custody location. If the person is not found in PADOC, check whether the person is still in county jail, released, in another state's custody, in federal BOP custody, or in ICE detention at a facility such as Moshannon.

About SCI Houtzdale

SCI Houtzdale's history is well documented by PADOC. Groundbreaking occurred March 20, 1994. Construction was completed in December 1995, and the institution was dedicated January 5, 1996. Two housing units were added beginning August 8, 1997 and completed in October 1998. A 150-bed modular dormitory-style housing unit opened in August 2011. That growth explains why the facility is a major state-prison presence in Clearfield County even though it is not the county jail.

Clearfield County also has other custody systems nearby. Clearfield County Jail handles local pretrial and county-sentenced custody. Moshannon Valley Processing Center handles ICE immigration detention. The former Quehanna Boot Camp should not be treated as a current facility page because PADOC finalized its closure, and 2026 reporting says the closure occurred.