[citation needed] On January 26, 2017, Governor of Pennsylvania Tom Wolf announced the closing of this facility.

[2] Western Penitentiary was designed by John Haviland and built in 1826 two miles south-east from the current facility by the architect Strickland.

The original location housed 118 Confederate soldiers after their capture in Morgan's Raid a dozen miles to the west.

[6] Until it was closed in 2017, it housed low and medium security inmates who required substance abuse treatment.

[8] [9][10][11] The 1978 film The Brink's Job the character Stanley Gusciora is sentenced to 20 years at the "Western Penitentiary at Pittsburgh".