The Pendleton Facility was established in 2000 with the purpose of "preparing young men for re-entry into society with the necessary skills to avoid further criminal behavior."
Due to the increase in male juveniles being sentenced to prison, and consequent overcrowding at the Boys School, the Indiana Department of Corrections built a new facility.
In addition, last year, a gang-intervention unit for gang leaders and participants was created at Pendleton.
[citation needed] The campus-style facility contains individual one-story buildings surrounded by fencing and barbed-wire.
The Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility offers treatment-based programs that attempt to identify an inmate's needs and goals in life.
The programs include: STEP, (Sex Offender Treatment and Education), Plus (Purposeful Living Units Serve), and GROW (Gang Realities in Our World).
Many inmates have chosen to volunteer at Falls Park, Pendleton, cleaning and planting trees.
Other programs include: supporting a paper recycling program on grounds, participating in the Indiana Reading & Information Services 3 times a week, collecting and delivering newspapers to the Madison County Humane Society, and working in the warehouse of Teachers' Treasures.