Ohio Reformatory

Ohio Reformatory - History

Built in 1886, the Ohio Reformatory was designed to rehabilitate first-time offenders, and was initially applauded as a positive step toward prison reform. However, conditions rapidly deteriorated. After 94 years of operation, the prison's legacy became one of abuse, torture, and murder. Denounced by civil rights activists for its "brutalizing and inhumane conditions", the prison eventually shut down in 1990. Now, within the decaying walls of this abandoned prison, the restless spirits of its prisoners and workers are said to still remain confined, making it one of Americas most haunted buildings.

The imposing architecture of Ohio Reformatory, built to resemble old world German castles and Victorian Gothic churches, succinctly conveys the atmosphere of a prison. Violence among prisoners was an everyday way of life. There are reports of inmates being attacked by shanks, beaten by soap bars, and thrown from six-story walkways, sometimes over petty grievances.

A Dispatch reporter in 1894 discovered prisoners still being locked in sweat boxes for punishment, leading the newspaper to denounce the prison for a partial return to the dark ages. The ball-and-chain and hummingbird (an early electrical torture device) were still in use; and inmates complained about bad food and about prison politics that resulted in poor inmates being blindfolded and tortured with water hoses, while well connected inmates were given large, larger cells and special privileges.

The electric chair replaced the gallows in the Annex in 1897 and, according to a turn-of-the-century description, "it stands directly under the trap of the old scaffold." In those days, the electric chair was viewed as a humane instrument, death came in seconds, said advocates, as compared to the five to thirty minute death struggle on the end of a rope.

Three hundred fifteen men and women died in the electric chair until the practice was ended, at least temporarily, two decades ago. Ohio has seen no executions since Donald Reinbolt died at the Ohio Reformatory in 1963.

One of the most terrifying prospects for prisoners was "The Hole", an area of solitary confinement. The cells were equipped with nothing than a toilet and a bunk, and where prisoners sometimes had to sleep on the bare concrete floors. On one occasion, following a riot 120 prisoners were confined to "The Hole" for 30 days, with only 20 rooms to hold them. During this time, one inmate was murdered, his body hidden by another inmate under some bedding for several days.

Nothing in the prisons history, prepared it for the carnage of the Easter Monday fire on April 21, 1930. It began as a candle flame in oily rags on the roof of the West Block on the west flank of the prison. Authorities later said that three prisoners were responsible for the fire they had set the blaze to burst forth at 4:30 pm, as a diversionary incident. At that time the prisoners would still be in the dining hall. The oily rag smouldered too long, erupting at 5:30 pm., just after the iron gates had caged hundreds of prisoners into the six-story cell block.