List of Prisons in Indiana

Prisons can be state or federal facilities. They are not county facilities, which are jails. A prison is defined as a facility to which an offender is sentenced to incarceration for over a year and a day. State facilities are run by the Indiana Department of Correction (DOC). Federal facilities are run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), a division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Indiana state prisons are divided into adult facilities and juvenile facilities. Offices under DOC also include parole district offices.

The adult facilities are:

• Branchville Correctional Facility.
• Chain O’Lakes Correctional Facility.
• Correctional Industrial Facility.
• Edinburgh Correctional Facility.
• Heritage Trail Correctional Facility.
• Indiana State Prison.
• Indiana Women’s Prison.
• Madison Correctional Facility.
• Miami Correctional Facility.
• New Castle Correctional Facility.
• Pendleton Correctional Facility.
• Plainfield Correctional Facility.
• Putnamville Correctional Facility.
• Reception Diagnostic Center.
• Rockville Correctional Facility.
• South Bend Community Re-Entry Center.
• Wabash Valley Correctional Facility.
• Westville Correctional Facility.

Indiana employs a ratings system of 1 to 4 to signify the security level of a prison. 1 is the lowest level of security for a minimum security prison, while 4 is the highest level of security for a maximum security prison.

The maximum security adult facilities are:

• Indiana State Prison
• Indiana Women’s Prison (female)
• Miami Correctional Facility
• New Castle Correctional Facility
• Pendleton Correctional Facility
• Rockville Correctional Facility (female)
• Wabash Valley Correctional Facility
• Westville Correctional Facility

The medium security adult facilities are:

• Branchville Correctional Facility
• Correctional Industrial Facility
• Madison Correctional Facility
• Plainfield Correctional Facility
• Putnamville Correctional Facility

The minimum security adult facilities are:

• Chain O’Lakes Correctional Facility
• Edinburgh Correctional Facility
• Heritage Trail Correctional Facility
• South Bend Correctional Facility

The juvenile facilities are:

• LaPorte Juvenile Correctional Facility
• Logansport Intake Unit
• Logansport Juvenile Correctional Facility
• Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility

Some facilities, such as Madison Correctional Facility, have more than one type of unit. Madison Correctional Facility has medium security units and minimum security units. When a facility has more than one type of security, it is listed under the category of the higher level of security.

A survey of several facilities reveals a bit more about how Indiana prisons function:

Edinburgh Correctional Facility is a minimum security prison with approximately 344 inmates. The housing at the prison consists of dormitories.

Indiana State Prison (ISP) is a medium to maximum security prison for male inmates with a minimum security facility outside. The prison has approximately 1,988 inmates. The housing consists of dormitories and cells.

ISP is the oldest facility in operation by DOC. It is located on 100 acres of land on the west side of Michigan City. The facility includes 51 buildings, with 13 being offender housing units and five being staff housing units. The main walled compound contains 24 acres of land. Outside the wall sits a unit to house minimum security offenders.

Indiana Women’s Prison is a maximum security facility with approximately 727 inmates. It is the oldest and first adult facility for women in the U.S.It has cell housing. The facility houses all of the special populations of female offenders in the state, including pregnant, sick, mentally ill, youthful, elderly and high-profile offenders.

New Castle Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison with about 3,100 inmates. The housing consists of dormitories and cells. The building is next to DOC’s Correctional Training Institute. This facility serves inmates with special needs, including those with serious mental or physical health issues, such as lack of mobility and schizophrenia.

Pendleton Correctional Facility is a medium to maximum security prison with a population of about 1,800 inmates. The housing at the prison consists of dormitories and cells.

A person can look up an inmate in Indiana’s state prison system with an online search. DOC allows a search by last name, first name or last name and offender number. If an inmate is set to appear before a court for a civil or criminal matter, they may temporarily be held in a county jail rather than a state prison.

An inmate may also not be present in a prison if they are at a hospital receiving care or have escaped. The result of a name search will provide the inmate’s DOC number, date of birth, race, sex, and facility or location.

A visitor should look at a facility’s visitation page to learn the procedures and rules they must follow. The rules differ according to the facility. For example, Pendleton Correctional Facility’s rules explain a visitor can bring only an identification card, money not to exceed $30 and car keys when visiting an outside dormitory or administration building. Most facilities have a dress code.

The department’s Division of Parole Services provides community-based supervision and services for adult offenders. The purpose of parole services is to help offenders transition from a correctional facility to community supervision, or supervised probation. This division has 10 district offices:

• Bloomington.
• Evansville.
• Fort Wayne.
• Gary.
• Indianapolis.
• Madison.
• New Castle.
• Re-Entry.
• South Bend.
• Terre Haute.

Re-entry services help inmates gain skills and develop attitudes and behaviors necessary to re-enter society. Programs include case management, education, vocational training and religious services. Work release is accomplished through work-release centers managed by counties. The 13 DOC work-release centers are:

• Bartholomew County Work Release.
• Cass County Work Release.
• Clark County Work Release.
• Craine House.
• Duvall Center.
• Elkhart County Work Release.
• Hendricks County Work Release.
• Hope Hall.
• Lake County Work Release.
• Tippecanoe County Work Release.
• Vanderburgh County Work Release.
• Vigo County Work Release.
• Whitley County Work Release.

Indiana is home to one federal prison, Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Terre Haute. This medium security federal prison for male offenders has approximately 1,333 inmates. FCI Terre Haute has an adjacent minimum security satellite camp.

A medium security prison is designed to house medium security inmates and usually have strengthened perimeters, consisting of double fences with electronic detection systems, mostly cells as housing and a wide range of work and treatment programs. There is a higher staff-to-inmate ratio than at low security FCIs and greater internal controls.