State Correctional Institution – Camp Hill
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| Location | Lower Allen Township, Cumberland County, near Camp Hill, Pennsylvania |
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| Managed by | Pennsylvania Department of Corrections |
The State Correctional Institution (SCI) at Camp Hill, commonly referred to as SCI Camp Hill, is a Pennsylvania Department of Corrections prison in Lower Allen Township, Cumberland County, near Camp Hill in Greater Harrisburg. Its Superintendent is John Murray. It has around 3,400 inmates.
SCI Camp Hill opened in 1941 as the Industrial School at White Hill for Young Offenders and received Huntingdon Reformatory's juvenile population en masse. In 1975 it was ruled that SCI Camp Hill was not an appropriate place to house juvenile offenders, and in 1977 the institution began housing adult male offenders. It now serves as the state's sole diagnostic and classification center for men and houses adult male offenders.
According to a study by the United States Department of Justice released in August 2010, 1.2% of inmates who responded to a survey reported that they had been sexually victimized at the prison.
For three days in late October 1989, inmates rioted at SCI Camp Hill. One hundred thirty-eight correctional staff and 70 inmates were injured in the riots. Seventeen people were held hostage and 14 buildings (of the prison's 31 buildings) were destroyed. Sleeping quarters for 500 inmates were lost in the rioting. A number of prison officials resigned or were let go in its aftermath. Overcrowding was ruled a major factor.
At the time of the riots, SCI Camp Hill was nearly 45 percent over capacity, with 2,600 inmates in a 52-acre (210,000 m2) complex intended for 1,820. Robert Freeman was Superintendent at the time of the riots, and John Palakovich (who later became superintendent) was assistant to the superintendent. Senate and House investigations blamed several factors for the riots, including overcrowding, understaffing, a militant group of prisoners, mixing violent and nonviolent inmates, lack of leadership and poor construction. After the riots, the state of Pennsylvania spent millions to repair and improve the prison. One of the hostages later described the fallout of his experience, including post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism.
A number of guards later alleged that the administration ignored their reports that an inmate rebellion was planned.
The riots began on October 25. Around 3 P.M., as about 1,000 inmates were being moved through a recreation area, one inmate attacked a guard and the inmates then overpowered the other guards. Some guards locked themselves into a secure area, but officials said that inmates tore down the walls, beat the guards, and took eight of them hostage. Within minutes, inmates set at least four major fires, which destroyed a food service area, the prison hospital, a gate house and part of an industrial building where inmates built furniture, roasted coffee beans and put tea into teabags (the smoke cast the smell of brewing coffee for miles around). About 10 PM, several hundred state police officers marched into the prison. Inmates released some hostages and police rescued the others. In the first round of rioting, inmates removed metal covers over the boxes that controlled the locks of their cells.
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