Rockville Correctional Facility

The Rockville Correctional Facility is a maximum-security adult female facility located on approximately 52 acres, one mile northwest of Rockville, Indiana. The facility began its existence as a radar base for the U.S. Air Force in the early 1950’s, was deserted approximately 10 years later when its mission ended, and was resurrected by the Department of Correction as a juvenile male facility In 1970. 

In 1992, after moving through stages from young juveniles, to older juveniles, to co-ed with adolescent males and adult female offenders on the same grounds, to adult females alone, the facility became the largest female facility in the Indiana Department of Correction.

The 1995 Indiana General Assembly approved the Department’s plan to rebuild the Rockville Training Center, as it was called then, to fit its new mission as a 600-bed facility for females. Following a master plan completed in 1990, the State Office Building Commission began the design and construction process in 1995. Over the course of the next three years, 23 structures were demolished, five were converted to stand alone heating systems and upgraded in other ways, 13 new buildings were constructed, and the whole of the facility’s infrastructure was replaced.

There are a total of 22 buildings within the facility proper and two residences. Dorm 1 houses 128 offenders participating in the PLUS Program. Dorms 2, 3, 4 and 5 are virtually identical in configuration with Dorm 2 being the prototype for the other three. 

Dorm 2 houses 272 offenders and serves as the intake unit for the Department of Correction female population. Dorm 3 houses Recovery While Incarcerated (RWI) participants. Dorms 4, and 5 have a capacity of 272 each and house general population. 

The facility segregation unit, Secure Quarters, houses 24. The building contains two ranges, each with 12 single cells. Dorm 2 was constructed in 1993 and the rest of the offender housing was completed in 1997. 

This facility’s current population is 1,000 inmates. The average age at the prison is 35, and nearly one-third of the inmates are locked up for substance abuse. The majority of women are serving sentences between two and ten years, and only five percent are incarcerated for murder.

One of the most famous inmates at Rockville was Paula Cooper, who was convicted in 1985 of killing a Sunday school teacher, Ruth Pelke, when she was only fifteen years old. When she received the death penalty, she was the youngest person ever to be put on Indiana's Death Row.

However, in 1986 a campaign started to persuade the Governor to commute her sentence to life in prison, and it included a petition signed by more than two million people and an appeal from Pope John Paul II. Eventually, the Indiana Supreme Court overturned the death sentence and gave her the maximum sentence allowed by law, 60 years. Paula Cooper was released from Rockville Correctional Facility on June 17, 2013, after she served 28 years. The State of Indiana provided Cooper, who was 43 years old at the time, $75.00.

Teen Mom star Amber Portwood served 17 months of a five-year sentence at Rockville for failing to complete court ordered drug testing while on probation for domestic violence. 

Prison Insights

Visiting Hours and Rules

The Visiting Center at Rockville Correctional Facility is open from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., six days a week. The Visiting Center is closed on Wednesdays.

GTL also provides a service for video visitation.  Visitors may register online, and the inmate will need to communicate with his visitors the best and available times to receive video visits via GTL depending on his unit’s operation.  All visitation rules apply. GTL video visits are monitored.

Visitors List

If you wish to visit an inmate at Rockville Correctional Facility, you must be on their visitors’ list. If you are unsure about your status, please contact the inmate via mail. Do not call the facility for this information. It cannot be given over the phone. 

Searches

Visitors are searched by staff using the walk-thru metal detector and hand-held wand.  If the visitor does not pass either search successfully, both searches are conducted a second time. If the visitor does not pass the second set of searches, then the visitor will be allowed a non-contact visit, only. 

Permanent or epidermal piercings are not considered to be a medical condition and visitors unable to pass the detectors successfully will be permitted non-contact visits, only.

The facility is also utilizing non-aggressive canines as part of the entrance shakedown procedures.

Registration

Visitors must register with staff prior to entering the visiting area. You will be required to sign the entry log and be approved for the visit before you are allowed to enter the visiting area. 

Everyone 16 years old or older is required to show a picture identification. All visitors must present valid identification each time they visit. The only forms of identification accepted by the DOC are: valid driver’s license from the state of residence, valid state photo identification card from the state of residence, valid photo military identification card (active duty only), or a valid passport. 

Children

Visitors under the age of 18 years of age must be accompanied by their parent or legal guardian at all times while on facility grounds. 

Dress Code

Visitors must wear clothing that poses no threat to the security, custody, or maintenance of order at the facility. The following standards are to be met: 

• Undergarments must be worn at all times
• Shoes must be worn, except for infants who are carried
• Tight fitting pants, such as stirrup, lycra pants, or leggings, aren’t allowed 
• Dresses, skirts, or shorts must be no shorter than two inches above the knee and not have deep slits
• Halter or tank tops, tube tops, sheer, see-through, or low-cut clothing is not permitted 
• All visitors must wear a shirt/blouse with sleeves 
• No jewelry, except a wedding band or set, may be worn in the visitation area 
• Hats or other head coverings are not permitted, except as required by religious beliefs 
• No heavy coats, hooded sweatshirts, or sweaters will be permitted in the visiting area

What you can and can’t bring to a visit

Visitors are not permitted to possess or carry the following items into the visiting area: 

Firearms, weapons, knives, ammunition, narcotics, medication (unless the medication is life-saving or life-sustaining), controlled substances, alcoholic beverages, marijuana, tobacco and tobacco related items, cameras, video, and audio recording equipment and electronic devices, including, but not limited to: cameras, cellular telephones, pagers, blackberries, radios, tape recorders, etc. 

Each adult visitor is allowed to bring up to $20.00 (coins only) into the visiting area to be used to purchase items from the vending machines. You are not allowed to give any money to an offender. This is considered trafficking and will cause the visit to be stopped, and you will be restricted from visiting the offender in the future. 

Visitors with an infant may bring one clear, plastic baby bottle and/or pacifier and one diaper.

To write to an offender at Rockville Correctional Facility, you need the offender's name and DOC number. You can look up an offender's DOC number on the IDOC website by clicking here. 

All incoming and outgoing mail is opened, examined, and read by designated facility staff.

Inmates may receive correspondence, legal mail, and publications from publishers only, which are reviewed to determine whether they are obscene or constitute a danger to safety and security.

The Indiana Department of Corrections also offers Debit Link and Messaging services through GTL. This allows you to email your inmate, and you can also buy them tablet-related features like music, games, and ebooks.

How to Call an Inmate

How to Send Money

The only way to send money to an inmate at Rockville Correctional Facility is by using JPAY money orders.

Money orders must be sent with the lockbox deposit slip and must be complete with the inmate name, IDOC inmate number, sender’s name, and address.

You can find deposit slips by clicking here and selecting the JPay option. The money orders should be sent with a deposit slip, be made payable to JPay, and sent to the following address:

JPay
PO Box 531399
Miami Shores, FL 33153

​Programs For ​Inmates

Upon arrival at one of Indiana's correctional facilities, an offender meets with Case Management staff to begin building their Case Plan. The Case Plan is developed from the results of the Indiana Risk Assessment System (IRAS), which is based on the following criminogenic risk domains:

• Criminal History
• School and Employment
• Family and Social Support
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health
• Criminal Lifestyle

By focusing on these risk domains, Case Management staff can identify solution-based programming that helps break down barriers to successful Re-Entry.

The Indiana Department of Correction offers a wide selection of programming, courses, and activities based on both facility and offender need, as well as available resources.

• Purposeful Living Units Serve (PLUS)

Vocations:

• Inmate to Workmate
• Culinary Arts
• Building Maintenance
• Business Technology
• Cosmetology

U.S. Department of Labor:

• Aramark IN2Work
• PEN Products
• ADOPT (Animals Depending On Prison Time)

Substance Abuse

• Outpatient Phases
• NA/AA
• Clean Lifestyle is Freedom Forever (CLIFF)

Education:

• GED
• Literacy Skills
• OCU College Certificate Program/WorkIN
• OCU Correspondence Programs

Miscellaneous

• Parenting
• SOMM (Sex Offender Management and Monitoring)
• Thinking for a Change
• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
• Anger Management
• SPOP/MPOP
• Domestic Violence
• Various Bible Studies and Worship Services
• Celebrate Recovery
• Healing for Damaged Emotions/Walking the 12 Steps with Jesus Christ
• Dealing with Grief/Loss
• Kairos Women Taking Charge (A Pre-Release Program)
• Re-Entry Programming for pre-release

Rockville's on-site school, Parkview School, has a GED program as well as courses in culinary arts, building trades, computer literacy, horticulture, home maintenance, and business technology. Oakland City University, Indiana State University, and Ivy Tech all offer university courses for degrees. 

Rockville has several noteworthy programs for inmates. The Hope Center offers parenting classes and allows inmates to practice their skills and establish a positive relationship with their children. The ICAAN Assistance Dog program allows inmates to train puppies until they are fifteen months old. 

Pictures of Rockville Correctional Facility

Careers at Rockville Correctional Facility

If you are interested in a career with the Indiana Department of Corrections at the Rockville Correctional Facility, click here.