Junction City Prison was located at the intersection of S Adcock Road and Pen Road NW near

Junction City, Ohio Junction City is a village in Perry County, Ohio, United States. The population was 819 at the 2010 census. History Junction City was laid out in 1872 at the site of a railroad junction. A post office has been in operation at Junction City since ...

History

Originally the site of a brick plant, the State of Ohio purchased the property in 1913 to be used as a satellite prison for the

Ohio Penitentiary The Ohio Penitentiary, also known as the Ohio State Penitentiary, was a prison operated from 1834 to 1984 in downtown Columbus, Ohio, in what is now known as the Arena District. The state had built a small prison in Columbus in 1813, but as the ...

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

, for the care of aged and disabled prisoners. But on September 2, 1927 guard Grant Weakly was shot and killed during an escape attempt while escorting prisoners to the dentist office. The escapees Patrick Riley and Fred Kellogg were apprehended in nearby

New Lexington, Ohio New Lexington is a village in and the county seat of Perry County, Ohio, United States, southwest of Zanesville and miles southeast of Columbus. The population was 4,731 at the 2010 census. In 2020, New Lexington’s historical Main Street un ...

. In 1928, prisoners rebuilt the main wing in brick after the original building burned down. Between 1935 and 1938 the prison was closed while a third floor was added to the main cellblock. An educational wing was added in 1970. On January 7, 1974, two prisoners took three women hostage at knife-point. After several hours, the stand-off was ended when 28 Ohio State Highway officers rushed the room. One inmate was killed and the other was injured. Ohio State authorities closed the prison permanently in 1977.

After closure

The prison was purchased by Nepco for use as a

gasohol Several common ethanol fuel mixtures are in use around the world. The use of pure hydrous or anhydrous ethanol in internal combustion engines (ICEs) is only possible if the engines are designed or modified for that purpose, and used only in autom ...

refinery A refinery is a production facility composed of a group of chemical engineering unit processes and unit operations refining certain materials or converting raw material into products of value. Types of refineries Different types of refineries ...

. The prison drama ''

Brubaker ''Brubaker'' is a 1980 American prison drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg. It stars Robert Redford as a newly arrived prison warden, Henry Brubaker, who attempts to clean up a corrupt and violent penal system. The screenplay by W. D. Richte ...

'' (1980) starring

Robert Redford Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the List of awards and nominations received by Robert Redford, recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Awards, Academy Award from four nomi ...

was filmed within the former prison buildings. In the early 1990s, Perry County Pizza took over the educational wing of the old prison to make frozen pizza kits for school fundraisers. The entire Junction City Prison was demolished in the spring of 2005.

External links

Ohio Exploration Society - Junction City Prison

{{DEFAULTSORT:Junction City Prison Defunct prisons in Ohio Buildings and structures in Perry County, Ohio 1913 establishments in Ohio 1977 disestablishments in Ohio Buildings and structures demolished in 2005