State Correctional Institution – Huntingdon is a close-security
correctional facility
In criminal justice, particularly in North America, correction, corrections, and correctional, are umbrella terms describing a variety of functions typically carried out by government agencies, and involving the punishment, treatment, and s ...
, located near
Huntingdon
Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver Cromwell was born there ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...
, in the Allegheny Mountains. SCI Huntingdon was, until the reopening of
SCI-Pittsburgh, the oldest-operating state correctional facility in the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...
.
History
The facility was opened in 1889 and was modeled after the
Elmira Reformatory
Elmira Correctional Facility, also known as "The Hill," is a maximum security state prison located in Chemung County, New York, in the City of Elmira. It is operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. T ...
in New York and was called the Huntingdon Reformatory for Young Offenders. SCI Huntingdon was used for "
defective delinquents
Institutions for Defective Delinquents (IDDs) were created in the United States as a result of the eugenic criminology movement. The practices in these IDDs contain many traces of the eugenics that were first proposed by Sir Francis Galton in t ...
" until 1960, after that it became a maximum-security prison, housing Capital Case inmates until 1995. SCI Huntingdon is now a close-security institution.
Notable inmates
*
George Feigley, sex cult leader, served part of his sentence at SCI- Huntingdon, from 1983 to 1998.
*
Kermit Gosnell
Kermit Barron Gosnell (born February 9, 1941) is an American former physician and serial killer. He provided abortions at his clinic in West Philadelphia. Gosnell was convicted of the murders of three infants who were born alive after usin ...
, abortion provider and convicted child murderer
*
Joseph Kallinger, who had initially been held at the state prison at Huntingdon until he attacked another inmate with a razor-studded belt.
*
William Dean Christensen, serial killer known as "America's Jack the Ripper".
* Norman Johnston Escaped from SCI-Huntingdon August 2, 1999 and was captured 3 weeks later. He was convicted for the 1978 murders of 4 four teenagers to cover up a family burglary ring which were portrayed in the film "At Close Range" starring Sean Penn.
*
Cosmo Dinardo, 20-year-old serial killer that murdered 4 young men on his family's 90 acre Solebury Township farm in 2017
See also
*
List of Pennsylvania state prisons
*
State Correctional Institution - Smithfield
References
External links
PA Department of Corrections - SCI Huntingdon
Prisons in Pennsylvania
Buildings and structures in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania
1889 establishments in Pennsylvania
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