Cambria County Prison

The Cambria County Prison in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania is the county jail owned and operated by Cambria County, according to ICE’s Office of Detention Oversight; Kurt Wolford is the warden. ICE’s fiscal year 2026 detention statistics list it as holding ICE detainees, but ICE has no facility page for it on ice.gov, so the details below come from the county’s prison page, the county’s Prison Board and Commissioners’ minutes, and ICE’s published inspection report and 287(g) records.

What is specific to this prison: the county’s own minutes record ICE housing resuming in fall 2025 after it was discontinued during COVID; ICE’s June 2026 report says it holds ICE detainees for more than 72 hours; the prison has allowed no contact visits since October 2018; and personal mail goes to an out-of-state mail service (TextBehind) that photocopies letters, not to the prison.

Facility quick reference

How to find someone held here

1. ICE’s locator. The ICE Online Detainee Locator System at locator.ice.gov searches by the person’s A-number and country of birth, or by their full name, country of birth and date of birth.
2. No online roster. As of September 26, 2026, the county’s prison page has no online inmate search or roster. The contact it gives is the main number, (814) 472-7330; the prison lobby is open 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
3. ICE officers visit weekly. ICE’s June 2026 inspection report says ERO deportation officers “are not assigned full-time to the facility but conduct weekly unscheduled visits.” For ICE contact channels, see the Philadelphia Field Office hub, which carries the field-office directory contact.

Visiting

The rules below come from the county’s posted visitation policy and visiting schedule for all inmates; none of the county’s documents sets separate visiting rules for people held for ICE.

In person (no contact). The policy states: “As of October 2018, contact visitation will not be considered or approved at Cambria County Prison.” The phones in the visiting room are monitored and recorded.

• Appointment only. All personal visits must be scheduled 24 hours in advance, and the visitor is responsible for scheduling.
• Two visits a week. The schedule says “PERMITTED 2 in-person visits per week” (the policy text reads “No more than three (2) visits,” and elsewhere refers to “your two visits for the week”). The week runs Monday through Sunday. A visit the visitor misses still counts.
• The visiting list. The inmate must list the visitor’s full name on a Visitors Request Form and must tell the visitor they have been added.
• Schedule. The posted personal visiting schedule, effective March 7, 2024, lists 40-minute slots Monday through Friday, between 1:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., plus 9:00–9:40 a.m. slots on Tuesday and Thursday marked “Juveniles.” No weekend slots are listed. Each slot carries a code (HA, HB, HC and so on) and some are marked for specific groups, such as “PC ONLY” or “AC ONLY”; the schedule does not explain the codes or say which slots apply to people held for ICE.
• ID and timing. Visitors must show a valid state photo ID, driver’s license or federal photo ID, are subject to search, and should arrive 10 minutes before the visit; anyone more than 10 minutes late is denied a visit.
• Who can come. One adult and a maximum of two children per visit. Visitors under 18 must come with a parent or legal guardian and bring a birth certificate.
• Dress code: no halter tops, half shirts, short shorts, see-through blouses or mini-skirts.
• Other rules: visitors who seem to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol are denied; violating the cellphone policy brings at least a 30-day visiting suspension; anyone who leaves the visitors’ room may not return. Former inmates of the prison need an approved request, submitted by the inmate, before they can visit; the policy says the relationship must be of a legal nature (such as parent and child, or spouse) or otherwise verifiable, and that former inmates who do not meet the relationship criteria must wait six months before being permitted to visit (checked October 19, 2026).
• Missed and shared visits: the policy says an inmate who signs the visiting list and has no visits appear for two consecutive visits is not permitted visits the next week, and that inmates are not permitted to share visits with other inmates (checked October 19, 2026).

Video visits on tablets. The prison’s phone-and-tablet sheet says each inmate is issued a tablet after classification. To video call, a family member creates an account at www.gettingout.com or in the GettingOut app (Android or Apple); an existing ConnectNetwork username and password also works. Tablet video calls are available 8:00–11:00 a.m., 1:00–1:45 p.m., 2:15–4:00 p.m. and 6:15–9:00 p.m. The prison has a zero-tolerance policy for nudity on video visits and photos, and all tablet activity is subject to monitoring.

Money, phone calls and mail

Deposits. The prison’s phone-and-tablet sheet lists four ways to deposit money:

• Online, with Visa, MasterCard, Discover or American Express (the prison page links “Add Money to an Inmate’s Account Electronically”);
• By phone at 1 (866) 516-0115, where the sheet says bilingual operators are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week;
• At the kiosk in the prison lobby — the visitation policy says cash or cards are accepted only through the kiosk;
• Through the free mobile app for Apple and Android.

The prison page also links a “Securepack” package purchase for inmates, and ICE’s June 2026 report names Keefe Commissary Network as the commissary provider. For how deposits for people in ICE custody work in general, see how to send money to someone in ICE detention.

Phone calls. To receive calls, the inmate must submit the caller’s number for approval; each inmate can have 10 approved numbers, changeable every 6 months. Calls can be collect, charged to the inmate’s trust account, or paid by adding money to the caller’s phone number at web.connectnetwork.com/communications/pin-debit/ (the address the prison’s sheet gives). All calls are subject to recording and monitoring, and 3-way calling is prohibited.

Messages. The prison’s tablets handle text messages, photos and video messages. The prison page’s GTL Message Link instructions (addressed to inmates, undated) say family and friends pay $.30 to send a message, can prepay up to 10 replies, and that messages are reviewed by staff and are not confidential. The same instructions say messages can be up to 2000 characters, that messages denied for delivery are not refunded, and that inmates can message only contacts who first added them on www.connectnetwork.com, since an inmate cannot enter an email address to start a conversation (checked October 19, 2026).

Personal mail goes to TextBehind, not the prison. A notice effective December 2, 2019 (posted in English and Spanish) says standard mail is no longer delivered to the prison’s physical address. Letters are sent to TextBehind, photocopied, and delivered to the inmate; the original is destroyed after 30 days. The notice gives this address format, with the inmate’s full name and inmate ID number (the facility name is Cambria County Prison):

Inmate Full Name and Inmate ID Number
Correctional Facility Name
P.O. Box # 247
Phoenix, MD 21131

Mail with illegible, partial or missing address information is returned to the sender. The notice says: “Do NOT send any checks, money orders, legal mail, or cash as it will NOT be accepted by TextBehind.” Electronic letters sent through textbehind.com or its free app and approved by 10:00 a.m. are delivered the same day.

Lawyers and immigration court

Attorney visits. The visitation policy says: “Legal or professional visitors may visit between 8am and 8pm. These visits do not have to be pre-scheduled.” The prison page gives professional-visit hours as 8:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Inmates may take only legal documents to visits.

Video for attorneys (in progress). The Prison Board’s July 8, 2026 minutes say administration met with ViaPath Technologies about the “final implementation” of secure video-visitation in the prison’s attorney-client visiting rooms, intended to give inmates access to their attorneys at the Cambria County Public Defender’s Office. The minutes do not say whether private immigration attorneys can use it.

Legal mail. TextBehind does not accept legal mail, and its notice refers senders to the facility policy; as of September 26, 2026, the prison page’s list of posted documents includes no separate legal-mail policy.

Civil immigration detainees. The prison’s 2025 PREA audit report states: “The agency does house inmates solely for civil immigration purposes and does provide information for immigrant services agencies.”

Immigration court. We found no EOIR page stating which immigration court hears the cases of people held here; the court depends on the case. For courts and procedures, see immigration courts in Pennsylvania; for nonprofit legal help, see BIA-recognized legal-aid organizations in Pennsylvania.

Oversight and inspections

ICE Office of Detention Oversight (ODO) inspection 2026-006-140, June 3–July 2, 2026 (report, ERO Philadelphia), with one day on site on June 30, 2026. ODO assessed 21 standards under the U.S. Marshals Service Federal Performance Based Detention Standards (May 2025) and found the prison in compliance with all 21, with no deficiencies and a rating of Superior. ODO interviewed six detainees; none alleged discrimination, mistreatment or abuse, and all reported satisfaction with facility services. ODO wrote that it could not compare with its earlier inspection because the standards changed, and that it never received a corrective action plan for its March 2021 inspection. The report’s ICE bed-capacity and population figures are blank in the published copy.

• Why the five-year gap: the report says ODO had not inspected the prison since fiscal year 2021 “due to the facility previously not meeting ODO’s inspection criteria of an average detainee population of 1 or more.”
• The previous inspection (fiscal year 2021) found 6 deficiencies: Admission and Release (2), Detainee Classification System (1), Detainee Grievance Procedures (1), Funds and Personal Property (1), and Environmental Health and Safety (1).
• The September 2020 inspection: ODO’s report on its September 21–24, 2020 inspection says it assessed 18 standards under ICE’s National Detention Standards 2019 (NDS 2019), found the facility in compliance with 11, and found 24 deficiencies in the remaining seven. The same report notes one best practice: the facility published its detainee handbook in seven languages (English, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, German, Chinese and Arabic).
• November 2019 contractor inspection: an annual inspection for ICE by The Nakamoto Group, Inc. (November 5–7, 2019, under NDS 2000) reported that the facility does not charge co-pays for medical, mental health or dental care.
• All ODO inspections listed: ICE’s ODO inspections page lists “Cambria County Jail” for August 14–16, 2018; September 21–24, 2020; March 8–12, 2021; and June 3–July 2, 2026.
• Contractors and accreditation. Per the 2026 report, PrimeCare Medical provides medical care, Cambria County provides food service, Keefe Commissary Network provides commissary, and the facility holds no accreditations from outside entities.

The county’s account. The Prison Board’s June 10, 2026 minutes report an unannounced inspection by the ICE Detention Manager. The July 8, 2026 minutes describe ICE’s approximately 30-day compliance review of policies, procedures, records and documentation “related to the housing and management of ICE detainees,” ending with the June 30 on-site visit, and say the inspectors advised at the exit interview that no findings had been identified at that time.

Other reviews.

• PREA audit, 2025: on site July 14–16, 2025; final report submitted August 13, 2025: 5 standards exceeded, 40 met, 0 not met.
• U.S. Marshals Service: the Prison Board’s September 10, 2025 minutes say a Marshals inspection “reported no issues” and noted minimal complaints from federal detainees.
• Pennsylvania state inspection: the Department of Corrections inspects county prisons under Title 37, Chapter 95 of the Pennsylvania Code and says requests for a county’s inspection report go to the county. The June 10, 2026 minutes mention a state inspection scheduled for August 2026; as of September 26, 2026, the latest posted Prison Board minutes (July 8, 2026) predate it, and we found no published result.

As of September 26, 2026, we found no death at this prison on ICE’s detainee death reporting page and no DHS Office of Inspector General report naming it.

• In its September 21–24, 2020 inspection, ODO found that two out of 12 detention files showed initial classifications had not been completed within 12 hours of admission.
• In the same September 2020 inspection, ODO found that three out of 12 detention files showed no supervisory review of detainee classifications.
• In the same September 2020 inspection, ODO found that seven out of 12 medical records showed physical examinations had not been conducted within 14 days of arrival.

ICE at Cambria County Prison: back since fall 2025

• A long history. ICE’s June 2026 report says ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations began housing detainees here in 1997, under ERO Philadelphia, and describes the prison as a U.S. Marshals Service contracted detention facility “where ICE is an authorized user.”
• October 8, 2025 — the agreement returns. The warden’s report in the Prison Board minutes says: “The Prison received an Agreement from ICE regarding the housing of immigration detainees at the Cambria County Prison. This Agreement was in place at the Facility several years ago. However, it was discontinued during COVID.”
• November 12, 2025 — steady intake. The warden’s report says the prison “continues to receive a consistent intake of immigration detainees, all classified as minimum-security,” that “their average length of stay remains relatively short,” and that housing is managed under existing federal housing agreements.
• How long people stay. ICE’s June 2026 report says the facility holds male and female detainees of all security levels “for periods greater than 72 hours.” ICE’s own fiscal year 2026 averages are in the statistics box above.
• As of September 26, 2026, we found no published text of the ICE housing agreement, and no ICE bed capacity, daily rate or start date, in the county’s Prison Board and Commissioners’ minutes.

287(g) is a separate program. On April 10, 2025, the Cambria County Board of Commissioners’ minutes record a motion to approve a Memorandum of Agreement between ICE and the Cambria County Prison “to allow for the identification and processing of removable aliens who have been arrested and booked at the Prison”; the motion was seconded and passed unanimously. ICE’s 287(g) participating-agencies list (downloaded September 26, 2026) shows the Cambria County Prison under the Warrant Service Officer model, signed July 31, 2025. The agreement states its purpose as “facilitating the custodial transfer of specific aliens in LEA jail/correctional facilities to ICE for removal purposes at the time of the alien’s scheduled release from criminal custody.” The Prison Board’s May 13, 2026 minutes say two senior staff completed the program’s accreditation, which permits them to serve active immigration warrants on detainees already in the prison and “does not grant authority for off-site enforcement activities.”

287(g) agreements in Cambria County

This facility is in Cambria County, Pennsylvania (per the U.S. Census Bureau geocoder for the address ICE publishes). ICE's 287(g) participating-agencies workbook, dated October 9, 2026, records 4 agreements with agencies in that county:

Source: ICE, 287(g) program (participating-agencies workbook). A 287(g) agreement is between ICE and the law-enforcement agency; on its own it says nothing about this facility. What each model means · all agreements by state.

Related resources

• Know your rights
• How to send money to someone in ICE detention
• Immigration courts in Pennsylvania
• BIA-recognized legal-aid organizations in Pennsylvania
• Other ICE detention facilities in Pennsylvania
• All facilities under the Philadelphia Field Office
• ICE detention movement data
• All ICE detention facilities

General information, not legal advice. Visiting, deposit, phone and mail rules are set by Cambria County and its vendors and can change at any time; details above were checked against the county’s own pages and minutes and ICE’s published documents on September 26, 2026. The prison’s own current instructions take precedence over this page. For a specific case, contact a licensed immigration attorney or a BIA-accredited representative.