Below are historical photographs of the now demolished Junction City Prison in Perry County. The prison was a satellite prison of the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus that was used to house good behavior prisoners and for the care of aged and disabled convicts. Prisoners here paid their debt to society by manufacturing bricks to be used for state projects. An escape attempt was made in 1927, resulting in the death of a prison guard. A tragic fire claimed the lives of fifteen convicts about a year later. In the 1970s, a hostage situation occurred when prisoners took three female workers hostage by knifepoint. One inmate was killed during the situation. The building was expanded several times during its tenure as a prison until the doors were permanently closed in the late 1970s. Hollywood came knocking not too long after the prison was closed and the motion picture Brubaker starring Robert Redford was filmed there. A pizza factory that made kits for schools occupied the site in the early 1990s, but the prison was left abandoned for good some time later. The majority of the prison was demolished in 2005. The newer cinderblock section remains and has been renovated as part of a junkyard. For more information on the Junction City Prison and to see the photos of our exploration there, click here.
Photographs
Video
You may purchase Twentieth Century Fox’s film Brubaker on Amazon through this link.