Lackawanna County Prison

Lackawanna County Prison is the main jail for Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, at 1371 North Washington Avenue in Scranton, in the northeastern PA coal-region metro area. Operated by the county Prison Board rather than a sheriff, Lackawanna County Prison holds people awaiting court on state and county charges, people serving Pennsylvania county sentences (which by statute can be up to two years less one day), and various state and federal holds. Family-contact infrastructure at the prison runs primarily through Securus Technologies for phone service, tablet media, and eMessaging, GTL/ViaPath for video visitation through a dedicated county portal at lackawannacountypa.gtlvisitme.com/app, and ConnectNetwork/OffenderConnect (Site ID 18) for commissary deposits. This guide covers current visitation scheduling, mail routing, deposits, and the Pennsylvania county-prison context.

About Lackawanna County Prison and PA county corrections

Lackawanna County Prison serves as the main detention facility for Lackawanna County, which encompasses Scranton and the surrounding metropolitan area in northeastern Pennsylvania. The facility is operated by the county Prison Board — a governance structure common across Pennsylvania in which the county's judges, elected officials, and appointed board members oversee prison operations rather than an elected sheriff. Because Pennsylvania is unusual in that state DOC sentences kick in only at more than two years, most people sentenced in Lackawanna County to less than two years serve their time in the county prison rather than transferring to a state prison — giving the facility a mixed pretrial and county-sentenced population.

Every inmate at Lackawanna County Prison has a booking or PID number assigned at intake, and that number, plus the full legal name used at booking, is required on every letter, deposit, video-visit registration, and Securus phone-account setup. Confirm current custody status through the county's inmate lookup or on AllRecentArrests.us before mailing or planning a visit.

Video visitation through the county GTL/ViaPath portal

Lackawanna County Prison offers video visitation through a dedicated GTL/ViaPath portal at lackawannacountypa.gtlvisitme.com/app. Both on-site (at kiosks in the prison lobby) and remote (from a computer or the ViaPath mobile app) video visits are typically available. Register on the portal with your name, valid photo ID, and your loved one's name and booking number, complete visitor approval (which includes a background review), and schedule visits during your loved one's housing-unit availability windows. Standard per-minute charges apply for remote video visits; on-site visits are typically free or lower-cost. Follow the platform's on-screen rules for dress, background, and behavior during the visit.

How to send money to a Lackawanna County Prison inmate

Deposits for Lackawanna County Prison inmates go through ConnectNetwork / OffenderConnect (Access Corrections' family-facing brand). You have three practical options: deposit online at connectnetwork.com, deposit by phone through ConnectNetwork's toll-free line, or deposit at a lobby kiosk at the prison. When prompted for the facility, use Site ID 18 to route the deposit to Lackawanna County Prison. Standard per-transaction fees apply and scale with the deposit amount. Deposits fund the trust and commissary balance. Our overview of how to send money to an inmate compares options.

Mail to a Lackawanna County Prison inmate

Personal mail for Lackawanna County Prison inmates goes to Inmate Full Name and Booking Number, Lackawanna County Prison, 1371 North Washington Avenue, Scranton, PA 18509. Include your full return address; envelopes without one are typically rejected. Confirm the current mail policy on the county prison's official page before sending, particularly if any move to a scanning-vendor model has been announced — many Pennsylvania county prisons have shifted to Smart Communications, TextBehind, or Securus Digital Mail Center in recent years.

Follow standard prohibited-items rules: no cash, personal checks, stamps, stickers, glitter, glue, tape, staples, paperclips, Polaroids, hardcover books, musical or embellished cards, or anything with electronics. Legal mail from an attorney or court, clearly marked as legal correspondence, is opened only in the inmate's presence and should be sent separately from personal letters. Our how to send mail to an inmate covers the format and common rejection triggers.

Securus: phone, eMessaging, and tablet media

Securus Technologies is the contracted phone, tablet, and messaging vendor at Lackawanna County Prison. Family members set up prepaid AdvanceConnect accounts at securustech.net and register the phone numbers the inmate will call. Securus also offers eMessaging (secure text-only messages delivered to the inmate on a tablet or kiosk) and tablet media services for per-item fees. Pennsylvania county call rates through Securus have historically been on the higher end but have come down under recent state-level negotiations. Our guide to calling an inmate covers account setup and cost-management tips.

Court dates, bond, and release in Lackawanna County

Pennsylvania criminal cases in Lackawanna County are handled through the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas (felonies and misdemeanors) with case records searchable through the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania's UJS Portal at ujsportal.pacourts.us. Bond decisions in Pennsylvania can be handled through cash bail, unsecured or nominal bail, or on release-on-recognizance conditions; Pennsylvania has moved away from commercial surety bail in many cases in favor of a public-safety-focused risk-assessment model. If your loved one has been booked, look them up on the Lackawanna County inmate search and use the UJS Portal to check case status.

Emergencies and safety concerns

For urgent family emergencies such as a death, serious illness, or birth, call Lackawanna County Prison at (570) 963-6639 with the inmate's name and booking number and ask that a chaplain or unit staff relay the message. If you are worried about a loved one's medical care, mental health, or safety inside, contact the Warden's office directly, keep a written record of who you spoke with and when, and follow up in writing if the initial response is inadequate.

The county also runs a separate work release centre

Alongside the prison on North Washington Avenue, Lackawanna County operates a Work Release Center in Scranton, counted separately in the federal census at 51 beds. It is run by the same county prison administration but is a different placement with a different regime — people there leave the site to work. A transfer from the prison to the work release centre is normally a step towards release, and the rules on visiting, movement and property are not the same, so ask about them rather than assuming the prison's rules carry across.

How much room Lackawanna County Prison has

The federal jail census gives three different capacity figures for Lackawanna County Prison, and the gaps between them are the useful part. In its 2019 count the facility had a design capacity of 1,185 and a rated capacity of 1,185. Its highest population during that reporting year was 877. The design figure is what the building was drawn for, the rated figure is what the jurisdiction says it can hold, and the peak is what actually happened.

That peak sits within the design figure, which suggests the jail was not routinely operating beyond the population it was built for during that year. Short-term pressure still happens — a single busy weekend can strain intake and medical screening without moving an annual number.

The same count recorded 732 adult men and 112 adult women held at the facility. A jail holding both means separate housing, and often separate visiting and program schedules, inside one building — which is a common reason two people booked the same day end up on different routines.

These are census figures for 2019, so they describe that year rather than today. Treat them as the scale of the facility and confirm anything current with the sheriff's office.

Who was held at Lackawanna County Prison

On the day of the 2019 federal jail census, Lackawanna County Prison held 844 adults: 732 men and 112 women.

Women were 13% of that count. Jails typically run separate housing for men and women, and the smaller side of the population often means fewer program places, fewer visiting slots and less movement — a practical disadvantage that rarely gets stated anywhere.

The census also recorded this as a facility that holds people beyond 72 hours, rather than a short-term lockup that transfers everyone onward almost immediately. That matters for planning: it means someone can serve a full short sentence here, and that mail, deposits and visiting are worth setting up rather than waiting out.

These are census figures for a single reporting year and are now several years old. Treat the split as the shape of the population rather than a current count.

How Lackawanna County Prison compares with other jails in Pennsylvania

The 2019 federal jail census counted 72 jails in Pennsylvania. Ranked by rated capacity, Lackawanna County Prison was the 8th largest of them, at 1,185 beds.

That puts it among the largest jails in the state, and size changes the experience in ways worth anticipating. Big jails run more formalised systems — scheduled visiting slots that fill, classification that moves people between units, and phone and deposit vendors handling enough volume that the process is automated rather than personal. You will generally get further by following the published procedure exactly than by asking staff to make an exception.

This ranking covers only the jails the census counted, and reflects that one reporting year. It is a guide to scale, not a current league table.

What Lackawanna County Prison is set up to do

The federal jail census records each facility's designated functions — the roles it is set up and authorised to perform. In its 2019 count, Lackawanna County Prison was recorded as holding adults awaiting trial or serving a sentence, holding people awaiting return to probation or parole custody, acting as a reception or intake centre for other facilities and holding juveniles.

Equally useful is what it is not designated as: running a work release program, operating as a dedicated medical facility, operating as a dedicated mental health facility and holding people in protective custody. That is a statement about the facility's formal role, not about the services inside it — a jail without a dedicated medical or treatment designation can still provide on-site care, but specialised needs are more likely to be met by transporting someone out to a hospital or a specialist facility. If that applies to your family member, ask early who provides the care and where.

These designations come from the 2019 census, so treat them as the facility's established role rather than a current service list.

How Lackawanna County Prison is inspected

Every county correctional institution in Pennsylvania is inspected by the Department of Corrections' Office of County Inspections and Services, which runs an independent statewide field inspection programme. Inspections review the county's own written policies and procedures, the supporting documentation behind them, and the physical plant itself. The requirement comes from 37 Pa. Code Chapter 95.

• A facility is inspected at least every 12 months, and at most every 24 months.
• The minimum operational regulations run to 48 essential standards and 94 non-essential standards.
• A violation of an essential standard produces a citation. A violation of a non-essential standard produces a deficiency — a citation is the more serious finding.

There is an incentive built into the system. If the final inspection report finds a county prison in full compliance with every minimum requirement, the next annual inspection is waived and the facility moves to a two-yearly cycle. A jail inspected only every other year is therefore one that passed cleanly — which makes the inspection interval itself worth asking about.

This matters more than most oversight machinery, because an inspection report is a document you can ask for. If you have a concern about conditions that the jail itself will not address — sanitation, medical access, overcrowding, safety — asking whether the facility's most recent inspection raised it, and requesting that report, is a concrete step that carries more weight than a phone complaint. Reports are generally public records.

Avoiding scams and your first steps

Third-party sites sometimes claim to offer inmate locate services, cheaper phone calls, or expedited deposits for a fee. The county prison's inmate lookup, ConnectNetwork (Site ID 18) for deposits, Securus for phone and tablet services, and the county GTL/ViaPath video-visit portal are the authoritative and only fully reliable channels. Paying an unfamiliar site for something the county or its contracted vendors provide directly is a common way families lose money.

If someone you love has just been booked into Lackawanna County Prison, focus first on the essentials: confirm booking through the county inmate lookup and note the booking number, register on lackawannacountypa.gtlvisitme.com/app for video visits, fund an initial deposit through ConnectNetwork with Site ID 18, register your phone number with Securus for calls and eMessaging, and mail to 1371 North Washington Avenue with legal mail clearly marked (or use the current scanning vendor's PO Box if the county has switched). Look up the case number on the UJS Portal and, if bail is set, work with a defense attorney or the Lackawanna County Public Defender. If your loved one is transferred to PA DOC state prison after sentencing on a felony over two years, the state system's rules and vendors will apply. Our overviews of life after prison, finding work after prison, and applying for SNAP, Medicaid, and TANF after release cover what comes next.

Understanding Pennsylvania county prison governance

Pennsylvania county prisons like Lackawanna are governed by county Prison Boards rather than by elected sheriffs, which is unusual by national standards. The Lackawanna County Prison Board typically comprises the county's judges (Common Pleas), the District Attorney, county commissioners, and appointed lay members. The Board sets policy, hires the Warden, and oversees operations. That governance model means reform pressure and accountability run through the county commissioners and the courts rather than through a sheriff's electoral cycle, and it means the Warden is a professional administrator rather than an elected official.

Bridging Lackawanna County Prison to PA DOC state prison

If your loved one is convicted in Lackawanna County of a felony and sentenced to more than the county cap (two years less one day), he moves from Lackawanna County Prison to a Pennsylvania Department of Corrections state prison. The state system operates on completely different infrastructure than the county: mail is now handled through Smart Communications' Tampa scanning center for many PA DOC facilities, deposits go through JPay, phone service is provided through ViaPath, and inmate IDs follow the PA DOC's own numbering rather than the county booking system. Understanding that transition ahead of time helps families avoid mail and deposit routing errors during the handoff.

Practical tips for scheduling and maintaining video visits

Because Lackawanna County's video-visitation system runs on GTL/ViaPath's shared platform used by many county jails nationwide, families who have used GettingOut at another facility already have a Lackawanna-compatible profile; you can log in with the same credentials and add Lackawanna County Prison as a new facility rather than starting fresh. Remote-visit slots at popular weekend windows book up faster than weekday-evening slots — if a weekday evening works for your schedule, that is often the easier reservation to secure. Test your device (webcam, microphone, internet connection) at least an hour before your scheduled visit; technical failures on your end count against your loved one's allotted visit points and can be difficult to reschedule immediately.