Mansfield Reformatory

I've never been to jail...well now I've been....to an abandoned, haunted jail! Mansfield Reformatory (Ohio State Reformatory) in Mansfield Ohio. Many people may be familiar with this location, since it's been in many movies and music videos, such as The Shawshank Redemption, Tango and Cash and Air Force One. If you've seen Shawshank, you've seen the reformatory.

Pappi and I on the bus.....he was so not expecting that sneaky pic.....muah ha ha....

OSR was built between in 1886-1910, and shut down in 1990 now it is a historic site and extremely haunted. To this day it has world's largest free standing cell block at six tiers high. Well we went on a haunted bus trip, overnight might I add, to check it out! The trip was organized by Haunted Hamilton, a Hamilton, Ontario group that runs haunted trips/investigations. We were fortunate to be part of this extremely rare trip. This was the first time that a Canadian tour group was allowed access into OSR.

This is the floor to ceiling wall of steel bars that cover the 6 tiers of cells in the east wing.

And let me tell you, spooky it is! OSR is known as one of the most haunted sites in America, and I believe it. From cell doors opening and closing on their own, to sounds that you should not be hearing in an abandoned building, it is downright creepy. And of course it was snowing, and bloody freezing, they say that inside the building it is about 10 degrees colder than it is outside. Gravy!! No lights, chipping lead paint, that lovely musky borderline sewer smell all added to experience. But it was still pretty damn awesome.

This is the "lesser criminal" housing...mostly for the short stays.

For all those that have seen Shawshank Redemption, this may be an interesting reminder of the movie. Now this is a replica, since somebody broke in and ripped out the original beam. Funny that somebody broke into a prison to steal...

All in all it was an amazing experience....and I wanna do it again!!! However next time.....it will be summer!!! And a very very special Thank You to the in-laws (momma R and poppa R) for a. somehow hearing about this, and b. bringing us to jail!!

More pics to follow some other day!!!