Mansfield Reformatory
HISTORY

Mansfield Reformation was constructed between 1886 to 1910. Its architectural design is Old World German castle and classic Romanesque. The facility incorporates nearly 7.5 acres of building and rests on almost 23 acres.

It was built to be a humane facility intended to rehabilitate (reform) first time criminals. As the decades passed, however, conditions rapidly deteriorated.

There are over 200 recorded deaths at the prison. In fact, violence became a part of prison life. Inmates were shanked (knifed), beaten with soap bars and a few thrown off six-story walkways. At least two guards were murdered during attempted prison escapes. Others died from disease, influenza and TB.

One of the sections of the prison most feared by inmates was "The Hole" or solitary confinement. Here prisoners were placed in small, cramped cells containing only a bunk and toilet. Deprived completely of light, they were confined in total darkness for days if not weeks. It is reported that many died in "The Hole" due to neglect, disease and other inmate violence. There is also at least one prison guard who was murdered by an inmate in this section of Reformatory.

Adding to the death toll at Mansfield ... in1950 the warden's wife died when a gun accidentally discharged after she had removed a box from her closet. Three days later she died from pneumonia (a complication of her injury.) Some believed it may not have been an accident but, rather, her husband who "discharged" the gun. It was after than the Warden's state of health began to decline. Years later, the warden suffered a heart attack in his office and died.

Though Mansfield Reformatory was built to be a humane facility, its history became one of abuse, neglect, inmate violence, senseless deaths and vicious murders.

In The Movies

Mansfield Reformatory has been the site of several major Hollywood films, including The Shawshank Redemption and Air Force One. In 2005, SciFi TV Ghost Hunters investigated the site.