Before getting into the cell blocks, I wanted to show the Barber Shop
Wing. The inmate-run barber shop is where all my hair went before they
took my picture!
Until the USSR built a new prison somewhere in their nation in the late 1960s, the East Cell Block of Mansfield Reformatory boasted that it was the world's largest all-steel cell block. It was six teirs high with two banks of cells seperated by a central maintenance shaft (Remember in the movie when he escaped by going between the cells?) There were 50 cells per side per teir, for a total of 600 two-man cells in the East Cell Block, which gave it a 1200-man capacity.
The West Cell Block had six teirs of 36 cells per teir per side. One cell on each row was a four-man unit, and the end cell on each row was a single-man cell. This cell block was concrete and steel with a barred window and door. It had a capacity of 876.
Total capacity in the two cell blocks was 2,076. Over the Barber Shop was Dormatory Space, and over the Isolation Cells ("The Hole") was Staff Offices. In 1972, the prison was well over capacity and housing about 2,400 men.
Back of Main Building showing Barber Shop Wing to the right. The center of the Main Building, where it rises a floor over the roof line, was the Chapel.
East Cell Block -- and -- Looking over the teir in West Cell Block
West Cell Block