Located on the site of the former Retreat State Hospital, the facility is located about 12 miles south of Wilkes-Barre in the northeastern part of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Opening of SCI-Retreat was the result of the commonwealth's overcrowding issue of the 1980s.

The Retreat State Hospital was declining in patients and was closed in 1981 and planning for SCI-Retreat's conversion began.

Similar conversions were made at Cresson Center (Now SCI-Cresson) and the former Waynesburg Youth Development Center (Was SCI-Waynesburg from 1985-2004).

Retreat was the first correctional facility built since 1960.