Randy Introduces Mansfield Reformatory

Randy Wood's Tour of Mansfield

In 1999, on the site I had then, I had published this "Tour of Mansfield Reformatory." In changing ISPs over the years, I had lost these pages. By a stoke of good fortune, I discovered a website called the "Wayback Machine" that archives websites, and I found these pages again. So, with minimal changes, I am presenting them in the formatting and style they were originally published in, rather than bring them up to "Web 2.0 standards." Enjoy!

As you can see from my "mug shot," I entered Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield on March 17, 1972. I had been sentenced thirty days earlier, but was held in the Cuyahoga County Jail (Cleveland, Ohio) until they had a whole busload ready to make the 75 mile journey.

SIGH! As you can also see from my mug shot, I was only 27, 6' tall, and weighed only 236 pounds! Oh well, I'm still six foot tall!!!

I have included some photos of the place that I found on the reformatory web site and I invite you to view their Website (This originally was a link to their virtual tour which has been lost over the years.)

The Reformatory has been dismantled, except for the Main Building, and that is being turned into a museum. The place is now owned by the Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society.

The Main Building taken in the 1970s

Below is an arial photo of the whole reformatory taken in the 1990s, just before they tore everything down (except the Main Building). The new Mansfield Correctional Facility was built behind the walls, and then the men were transferred and the prison dismantled.

Airial view from the 1950s
Original Picture that appeared here was lost.
There IS a 1990 picture on page 4
but it's not the one that was here originally.

A careful examination of the photo shows the wall that surrounded the prison. It was thirty feet high, six foot thick at the top. It also went thirty feet below ground level. At ground level, the wall was about twenty-five feet thick. Three sandstone companies went out of business building the wall. The prison was constructed in 1876, and, after the walls were erected and the Main Building built by a Swiss architect, the rest of the prison was built by inmate labor. The Main Building was patterned after a Swiss castle.

I have discovered a new picture showing a closeup of the West Wall which shows a lot more detail.

I have recently located a picture of an East Cell Block Cell (as it looks now, not then). All inmates arriving at OSR were housed in the East Cell Block at least until they got their job assignments. Then, depending on their job, they would be moved to whatever area they would be living in. East Cell Block Cells were about 6'x12', all steel, and housed two men to a cell.

On to Page Two . . .