Moshannon Valley at a glance
The Bureau of Prisons contract at Moshannon Valley Correctional Center expired on March 31, 2021, when the Bureau passed up renewal options that could have kept GEO Group’s contract alive until 2026. The buildings at Philipsburg went to immigration detention in September 2021, and ICE still listed them, as the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, when we checked on September 18, 2026. Anyone detained there is held for ICE. This page records the federal years and prints no mailing, deposit, visiting or telephone details for the current use.
| Names | Moshannon Valley Correctional Center (the Bureau’s 2016 contract-prison list); Moshannon Valley Correctional Facility (GEO’s later reports); Correctional Institution Moshannon Valley (Inspector General, 2020); Moshannon Valley Processing Center (ICE) |
|---|---|
| Status | Former Bureau contract prison. Contract expired March 31, 2021; absent from the Bureau’s institution roster on September 18, 2026. |
| Operated by | The GEO Group, Inc., which owns the facility |
| Location | Philipsburg, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania; GEO’s report for 2021 places it in Decatur Township |
| Security level | Low, in the Bureau’s contract-prison list as of April 7, 2016. GEO’s filings class the facility as medium security. |
| Held | Men who were not U.S. citizens; in 2020 most were under ICE detainers |
| Bureau relationship | Contract prison from spring 2006; second contract from April 2016; renewal declined (announced January 20, 2021); expired March 31, 2021 |
| Now | Immigration detention for ICE. Listed as the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, Philadelphia Field Office, on ICE’s facility page (updated August 6, 2026; read September 18, 2026) and, in ICE’s fiscal 2026 statistics (data through July 11, 2026), as a dedicated intergovernmental-agreement facility holding women and men. Used under a Clearfield County agreement from September 2021 (GEO). |
| Finding someone | Federal prisoners: the Bureau’s Inmate Locator. Immigration detainees: ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System. |
On this page
What happened to Moshannon Valley?
From GEO Group’s SEC filings and two Inspector General reports:
- Spring 2006. The first Bureau contract began. GEO’s tables say April 2006 in its report for 2014 and March 2006 in its report for 2015.
- December 30, 2014. GEO announced a new ten-year Bureau contract, options included, to keep running the prison from 2016.
- April 7, 2016. On the Bureau’s contract-prison list at low security, with 1,608 people (Audit Report 17-08 at p. 2).
- April 2016. The second contract began; with every option used it would have lasted to March 2026 (Report 20-097 at p. ii n.3).
- January 20, 2021. GEO announced that the Bureau would not exercise the renewal option. Executive Order 14006 on private detention contracts followed on January 26 (86 Fed. Reg. 7483).
- March 31, 2021. The base period expired, the same day as GEO’s Bureau contract at Rivers in North Carolina.
- September 30, 2021. GEO announced a five-year agreement letting Clearfield County, which holds a five-year contract with ICE, use the facility.
On September 18, 2026, ICE’s page for the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, last updated August 6, 2026, was still live. ICE’s detention statistics for fiscal 2026, with data through July 11, 2026, list it as a dedicated intergovernmental service agreement facility, a category ICE says houses “only ICE detainees,” and show it holding both women and men. GEO’s report for 2025 lists the county agreement from September 2021 with a five-year base period and no renewal options. Its quarterly report for the period ended June 30, 2026 and its August 6, 2026 earnings release do not mention the facility, and GEO has filed no current report since. This page claims nothing beyond those dates.
Where did the people held at Moshannon Valley go?
To Bureau institutions, as a group. The Bureau’s statement of December 1, 2022 said every prisoner from its private prisons was “safely transferred to BOP locations without incident”; it named no receiving prisons, and neither do we.
The Inspector General found in 2020 that most men at Moshannon Valley were under immigration detainers, “meaning that subsequent to the completion of their criminal sentence they will be transferred to ICE custody” (Report 20-097 at p. iii). Finding one of them can take two searches: the Bureau’s Inmate Locator, then ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System. Our inmate locator guide shows what a released record looks like. Removal cases could begin before release: under the Institutional Hearing and Removal Program, the Inspector General explains, ICE “initiates removal proceedings before an immigration judge while the inmate is still serving his or her criminal sentence” (Report 20-097 at p. 11 n.34). The Bureau’s part in that program is set out on our Institution Hearing Program page.
What was Moshannon Valley?
A GEO-owned prison at Philipsburg, built in 2005 and 2006 on GEO’s property schedule, that was a Bureau contract prison for about fifteen years; the 2016 and 2020 records show it holding non-citizen men. In June 2020 it held about 1,601, all low security, with 271 contract staff (Report 20-097 at p. iii). The Bureau’s list of 2016 has it at low security; GEO’s filings call the facility medium. An earlier version of this page described a working “low-security federal prison.” It was privately owned and run throughout, and never a Bureau institution.
In August 2020 the Inspector General counted 11 Bureau contract prisons, nine of them run by GEO, holding more than 14,500 of about 157,000 federal prisoners, and recorded the Bureau’s figure that 98.5 percent of the men in its private adult male contract facilities were non-citizens or “criminal aliens” subject to possible deportation, as of July 10, 2020 (Report 20-097 at p. i).
What did the Inspector General find in 2020?
The Inspector General examined Moshannon Valley remotely from April 27 to May 20, 2020 (Pandemic Response Report 20-097, August 2020). It found that, “[d]ue to supply issues,” the facility could not follow the CDC’s April 3 advice on cloth face coverings for over two weeks, but otherwise kept to Bureau and CDC guidance, and that empty housing units let it quarantine every new arrival (at pp. ii–iii).
The Bureau’s home confinement memoranda excluded anyone with a detainer, which at Moshannon Valley meant most of the men. After an April 5, 2020 roster, staff reviewed 139 of them; by July 29 one had been approved and had left, a man an immigration judge had found not removable (at p. 11). The facility received 38 compassionate release requests, and as of May 12, its administrator told the Inspector General, none had been granted since the outbreak. Even a granted request, the report added, would leave a man “subject to potential ICE detention and removal proceedings” (at p. 12 and n.36).
Federal prisons still operating in Pennsylvania
Nine, holding 8,900 people in the Bureau’s population report of September 10, 2026: USP Allenwood, FCI Allenwood Medium, FCI Allenwood Low, USP Canaan, FCI Lewisburg, FCI Loretto, FCI McKean, FCI Schuylkill and FDC Philadelphia. Our Pennsylvania federal prisons hub sets out each one’s record. Designation is for the Bureau, and we point to none of them; our explainer on prison closures and deactivations covers the rest.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Moshannon Valley still a federal prison?
No. The Bureau’s contract there expired on March 31, 2021 and was not renewed, and the facility was missing from the Bureau’s institution roster on September 18, 2026. Since September 2021 the buildings have been used for immigration detention, which ICE lists on its own facility page.
What is the Moshannon Valley Processing Center?
ICE’s name for the same facility. ICE’s page, updated August 6, 2026, lists it under the Philadelphia Field Office, and GEO’s annual report for 2025 shows ICE, through an intergovernmental agreement, as its customer since September 2021. Its detainees are found through ICE’s locator.
When did the Bureau contract at Moshannon Valley end?
On March 31, 2021, at the close of its five-year base period. GEO announced on January 20, 2021 that the Bureau would not exercise the renewal option. Had every option been used, the contract could have run to March 2026, according to the Inspector General.
Did the 2021 executive order end the Moshannon Valley contract?
The record does not say so. GEO made the Bureau’s decision public on January 20, 2021, and the order against renewing private detention contracts, No. 14006, was not signed until January 26. We found no Bureau statement of its reasons for Moshannon Valley.
How can I trace someone who was held at Moshannon Valley?
Try the Bureau’s Inmate Locator before anything else, with a register number if you have one or else a first and last name. Most men there in 2020 had immigration detainers, so a record showing release may mean a move to ICE custody; ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System is the next search.
Did COVID-19 reach the prisoners at Moshannon Valley?
Not during the Inspector General’s 2020 review. No prisoner had tested positive during its fieldwork from April 27 to May 20, and by August 4, 2020 there were still no prisoner cases, though two staff members had tested positive (Report 20-097).
Where we can help
For someone who served federal time at Moshannon Valley and still has a question about that sentence, we can talk it through.
Call 843-620-1100 or contact us to arrange a paid one-hour consultation about a specific situation. Calls are answered 24 hours a day.
Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. is a federal criminal defense and post-conviction firm based in Columbia, South Carolina, practicing nationwide. Mentions of Pennsylvania places on this page do not imply an office or a lawyer there.
Sources and currency
GEO Group annual reports
- The GEO Group, Inc., Form 10-K for 2014, 2015, 2017, 2020, 2021 and 2025, SEC EDGAR; the 2018 and 2019 reports were also checked.
- The GEO Group, Inc., Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 and earnings release (both August 6, 2026); EDGAR filing index checked September 18, 2026 for later current reports.
Inspector General, ICE and Bureau records
- DOJ Office of the Inspector General, Pandemic Response Report 20-097 (August 2020), at pp. i–iii and 11–12, and Audit Report 17-08 (December 2016), at p. 2.
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Moshannon Valley Processing Center (updated August 6, 2026) and fiscal 2026 detention statistics (data through July 11, 2026).
- Executive Order 14006, 86 Fed. Reg. 7483 (January 29, 2021).
- Federal Bureau of Prisons, BOP Ends Use of Privately Owned Prisons (December 1, 2022) and institution roster.
Sources reviewed September 18, 2026. If ICE stops listing the facility or GEO reports a new use, this page will be updated.
Reviewed for legal accuracy by Elizabeth Franklin-Best, Esq., Principal Attorney·September 2026