Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying
Abandoned Ohio State Reformatory

This was the destination that sealed Ohio’s fate as my post-school year mini excursion. The historic Ohio State Reformatory. Though I wouldn’t have to worry about trespassing or finding a hole to crawl in! It’s open for self-guided tours. And on this steaming hot summer’s day, the parking lot was pretty packed.

The building has many lures. Firstly, The Shawshank Redemption (what I like to call the best bromance movie of all time. I watch it at least 2-3 times a year!) was filmed there after all inmates were transferred to a newly built prison behind it. The building is also frequented by ghost hunters due to its high level of reported paranormal incidents. And finally it is a beautifully dilapidated prison with a rich history and plenty of photographic appeal for people like me… So I reserved a tour weeks ago.

I wish I can show you everything I saw inside the Ohio State Reformatory in the hours I excitedly snapped away. But the memory card I used to take a ton of pictures at this breathtaking space mysteriously glitched and erased the majority and the best of my pictures. 😭 Though I kept forcing myself to shift into a less wallowing mindset about it, I was—I am—pretty bummed about the loss.

Because the Reformatory has lots of documented alleged paranormal activity, I thought perhaps the ghosts messed up my SD card, devoting a portion of time in my hotel room googling the circumstances within my denial. 😂 Maybe I’ll mention that the loss began in the parts of the administration building that a guide explained was the most active with repeated reported incidents. My heedlessness made a stark contrast with the two young ladies touring near me, even after they had me listen to further details of the paranormal accounts on their audio tour headset. In one version of an explanation I thought of how classic tales of poltergeist sometimes involved electricity and, in turn, appliances. Perhaps they’ve gone digital? Or perhaps a very freak occurrence took place by chance in the same space where other inexplicable events occurred. Either way it meant the highlight of my trip could not live on in photographs. In the grand scheme of things, it is a trivial thing. But waaaah.

To follow is just a tiny sample of what the space offered me, the ones that didn’t get away. But I will need to return sooner than later for a redo. That is how fantastic a photographic stop this is. Luckily, I really love Ohio. And this place is one of the many reasons why.

An inmate carved welcome at his doorstep.

The Attic. Remember those two young girls I told you about? They were admitted to the attic by the best guide (Emily!) and told her that “a nice woman with a camera” (me, obvvy) would also really want to see the behind the scenes spaces… then I happened to stroll along! Emily took me to the attic after first taking me into another restricted area, the basement! The basement pictures, along with all the cell block and most of the admin building pictures, all so mind-blowingly impressive, were the ones that disappeared. I’m sorry, I won’t go on about it again. I do have these few shots of the attic, a large open space above all the cells. Due to overcrowding, a group of 100+ inmates that were transferred in the Reformatory were kept in this space. At the far end of the attic was the location of very cruel punishment called 8 and 8.

Within these recesses, punished inmates were shackled–8 hours from the ceiling and 8 hours to the floor.

You can’t really make out what I am taking a picture of here…

… It’s a drawing of a busty woman an inmate drew

Some Shawshank stuff. Though I love the movie a great deal and appreciate the artifacts from the film, it could skew fiction with the facts of the prison’s history. Additionally, the rooms are being cleaned up to align to the era of the movie, which means altering the decayed state. I’m not really on board with that. I also learned that they will be trying to minimize the lead exposure by freezeblasting the rooms within–which would also alter the natural and glorious peeling paint texture of the cells. I have to return before these alterations and restorations take place.

Yes, so I have to get back. Perhaps on a trip to further explore Illinois. But for now, thank you for a great afternoon, Ohio State Reformatory.