Blood Prison returns to the Ohio State Reformatory for the fall haunted-attraction season

MANSFIELD — Blood Prison is back inside the Ohio State Reformatory for another scare season, opening Friday, September 25 and running Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings through Sunday, November 1 at 100 Reformatory Road.

The 2026 season carries a new theme, "Apocalypse," with new sets, lighting, and audio, an updated costume for the Warden's Widow character, and more than 100 characters working the haunt. Entry is by timed 30-minute slots beginning at 7 p.m., with gates opening at 6:45 p.m. Closing times run as late as midnight on Fridays and Saturdays from October 9 onward and 10 p.m. on Sundays.

General admission tickets start at $35, with an Ultra Lightning Pass at $55 and an Instant Access Pass at $80, plus a $7 Touch Pass add-on. Opening weekend, September 25–27, is advertised as fee-free for ticket purchases, with a $10 discount for entries at 10 p.m. or later on those nights. For those who want to see the sets without the scares, the 2026 season also offers a daytime "Beyond the Scare" tour giving a lights-on look at the haunt's prison sets.

The building those sets fill has been standing since 1896. The Ohio State Reformatory closed as a working prison in 1990 and is best known as the filming location for the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption; it contains the world's largest free-standing steel cell block.

A landmark that needs year-round care

Keeping that building standing is the year-round work of the Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society, the nonprofit that owns and operates the reformatory. Led by President Shari Robertson and Executive Director Paul Smith, the society describes itself as a self-sustaining organization funded by daytime historical tours, paranormal programs, donations, and special events, with all revenue going back into maintenance and restoration of the building.

The scale of that undertaking shows in the numbers. The society reported about $5.3 million in revenue and an operating budget of about $5.1 million in its 2024 profile. In February 2024, the society launched a $1 million fundraising campaign to fully restore the West Cell Block over three to five years, offering cell sponsorships starting at $1,500 for individuals and $10,000 for corporate sponsors. The society's revenue has come mainly from program services and net fundraising, with smaller amounts from contributions, investment income, rental property income, and inventory sales.

Blood Prison is run as a fundraiser for the Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society, with proceeds going toward preservation and restoration of the reformatory. That means the ticket line is also a payroll for local people.

The ticket line as payroll

In 2024, Blood Prison's cast stood at 123 actors, with capacity near 175 if fully staffed. "As of today, we have 123," founder and manager Vic Amesquita said. "If I hired everybody that we've had applications for, we'd probably be about at 175 actors".

A crew of about 25 people prepares the Blood Prison site before opening each season. The hiring runs well beyond the fall. "So we hire pretty much, I would say, eight months of the year," Amesquita said. During the Blood Prison season, the attraction changes the prison's tour route from late August through mid-November to accommodate the haunt.

The money those workers help generate flows directly back into the landmark. In its 2023 Form 990 filing, the society reported program service revenue of $2,193,662, net fundraising of $1,446,946, contributions of $267,930, and net inventory sales of $354,864.

Blood Prison's reach extends beyond the fall. The haunt also operates a daytime attraction during the Inkcarceration Music & Tattoo Festival held at the reformatory each July, with festival-goers able to access the haunt for $15.

The payoff for Richland County

The Ohio State Reformatory drew about 80,000 visitors per year, according to Smithsonian Magazine, and the preservation society reported welcoming more than 120,000 visitors per year as of 2018. Blood Prison has been recognized as a USA Today 10Best "Haunted Destination," and the independent haunt-review site The Scare Factor gave it a 9.12 final score in its 2023 review.

A 2017 study cited the reformatory as generating more than $7 million in tourism-based revenue for the Richland County area.