Pender Correctional Center
Pender Correctional Center is a medium-security prison for male inmates that is located in Burgaw, North Carolina. The facility is managed by the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and can house approximately 768 inmates.
Pender Correctional Institution has six dormitories, education buildings, recreation building, medical building, dining hall, operations center, administration building, programs building, gatehouse, and chapel.
Correction Enterprises converted the old dormitory and old recreation building on the original Pender Correctional Center to a sewing plant that manufactures uniforms for offenders, ferry workers and correctional officers. Many offenders are assigned to work on facility food service, facility maintenance, janitor services, or assist staff.
Pender Correctional Institution was one of the first prisons to have teleconferencing capability used for management meetings, staff training, and inmate education.
Ground was broken on November 30, 1990 to build the 756-bed medium security prison for adult males, adjacent to the 112-bed medium security Pender Correctional Center. The old medium security prison was established as a one-dormitory unit in 1935 as one of 61 field unit prisons renovated or built during the late 1930's to house offenders who worked building roads.
Prison Insights
Pender Correctional Center
Thank you for visiting us to better understand how inmates are treated while incarcerated at this institution. Please be sure to share this website with others so that we can spread the word and help to maintain rights for current and former inmates.
Please note that by checking the box below, you understand we will be contacting you via email to better understand how we can help you and where our data will be used.
After confirming by checking the box below and inputting your email address, please press "submit" and then click on "View Insights" for the area you'd like to reveal.
What Do Inmate Families Think?
What Do Former Inmates Think?
What Do Employees Think?
Visiting Hours and Rules
VISITATION TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED
To prevent the potential spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), prison visitation was suspended as of Monday, March 16, 2020. Visitation will resume when conditions are deemed safe.
Regular Visiting Hours
When regular visiting hours resume, the visiting sessions are conducted Sunday through Thursday by appointment only. Appointments may only be scheduled Monday through Thursday between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. by calling 910-259-8740.
Calls for appointments must be made at least 24 hours in advance of the requested visitation session and can be made up to two weeks in advance of the requested visitation session.
The visiting sessions will be as follows:
Sundays -- 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.; 10 to 11 a.m.; 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.; 2 to 3 p.m.; 3:15 to 4:15 p.m.
Monday - Thursday -- 8:30 to 10:30 a.m.; 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.; 2:15 to 4:15 p.m.
Visitors should arrive 15 minutes prior to their scheduled visitation time.
Visiting Application
You must complete an application and have it approved before visiting an inmate. Your inmate must send you a blank application for each adult and minor who wishes to visit. After the applications are completed, you must return them to Pender Correctional Center.
Click here for more detailed information about visiting an inmate at Pender Correctional Center.
Dress Code
All visitors must follow the dress code or they will be denied entrance into the facility. Before you are allowed to visit, you must pass through a metal detector search.
- Shirts and shoes are mandatory.
- Halter tops, bare midriffs, strapless tops, tube tops, bodysuits, underwear-type T-shirts, tank tops, or sleeveless shirts or dresses that are inappropriately revealing (a sleeveless shirt or dress is considered inappropriately revealing when the female breast or lingerie can be seen), fishnet shirts, or any type of shirt or pants made with see-through fabric are NOT allowed to be worn by any visitor (male or female).
- Visitors may wear Bermuda-length shorts provided they are not more than three inches above the kneecap.
- Females may wear dresses or skirts. Dresses or skirts may not be more than three inches above the kneecap. Slits in skirts and dresses may not be more than three inches above the kneecap. Dresses and skirts for pre-teens may be shorter than three inches above the kneecap.
- Any shirt or other articles of clothing with a picture or language that may be considered profane or offensive by current public standards or Adult Correction standards, or considered STG (gang) related will not be allowed.
- Wave caps, doo rags, and bandanas are not allowed.
- Slacks and pants are to be worn at or above the waist.
- Spandex clothing is prohibited.
Physical Address
Pender Correctional Center
906 Penderlea Highway
Burgaw, NC 28425
Driving Directions: https://goo.gl/maps/Anii5wSEisXuXymt5
General Phone Number
(910) 259-8735
Inmate Mailing Address(es)
Inmate Name, OPUS Number
Pender Correctional Center
Box 1058
Burgaw, NC 28425
All inmate mail should be addressed so that the full name and OPUS number of the inmate appears on the envelope. The person sending mail should be identified in the return address.
For information about sending packages to an inmate, click here.How to Call an Inmate
Inmates at the Pender Correctional Center can’t receive incoming calls, but they do have access to phones during daytime hours to make outgoing calls. For complete details on how to call an inmate in North Carolina, please click here.
How to Send Money
The North Carolina Department of Public Safety has partnered with JPay to offer several options for sending money to inmates at Pender Correctional Center. All North Carolina state prisons require that you be on the inmate’s approved visitor list to send funds using JPay.
Online
Send money online with your credit or debit card at JPay.com. It's the quickest and easiest way to get your loved one the funds they need.
JPay Mobile App
Download the JPay mobile app from the Apple App Store (for iPhones) or Google Play (for Android phones) and send money wherever you happen to be!
Toll-Free Phone
You can send money by phone using your credit or debit card. Call (800) 574-5729 to speak with a live JPay call center agent 24/7.
Money Orders
Money orders must be made payable to JPay and sent with a deposit slip to:
JPay
P.O. Box 173070
Hialeah, FL 33017
Money order deposit slip available in English here.
Hoja de Depósito para Giros Bancarios disponible en Español aquí.
Walk-In
To make a cash deposit, visit any MoneyGram agent location (including all Walmarts and CVS Pharmacies), and use code 1224. Visit JPay.com to get a list of nearby MoneyGram locations.
Programs For Inmates
Cape Fear Community College works with the prison to provide vocational classes in light construction and diesel mechanics. Classes for adult education and preparation for the GED are available.
Offenders who have developmental disabilities are assigned to the horticultural therapy program that trains them for landscaping and gardening jobs.
Offenders may also be assigned to the Drug Alcohol Chemical Dependency Program (ACDP/Pender-AND90) unit. ACDP is a 12-week term of intensive treatment for alcohol and drug addiction in a residential facility at prisons.
Other self-development, treatment, and education programs are offered during evening hours and on weekends.
Day Treatment Program for Offenders with Developmental Disabilities
The Pender Day Training Program provides services to 66 developmentally disabled adult inmates.The clients served in the Day Training Program (DTP) – also called the Work Adjustment Program – are convicted felons who are referred from intake processing centers and general prison units throughout the state.
Referrals are based on a provisional diagnosis of mental retardation and a physical capacity to participate in vocational activities available in the Program for six hours per day. Although housed as a group in two wings of one dormitory, DTP inmates are not generally separated from the general inmate population.
The Day Training Program is designed to make operational the goal of teaching progressively more responsible behavior to developmentally disabled inmates. The focus is on the development and strengthening of old fashioned work ethics and civil interpersonal behavior.
It meets both management and treatment needs by using a variety of vocational training activities to teach mentally retarded offenders the basic social skills necessary for productive employment. It is a primary contention of the DTP that the participants' histories of employment failures and criminal conduct are a matter of willingness and motivation rather than intellectual capacity or disability, more a matter of work ethics and social values than specific skills or social skills.
Pictures of Pender Correctional Center
Careers at Pender Correctional Center
If you are interested in a career with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and would like to work at the Pender Correctional Center, you can find out more information by clicking here.
