America's prison system has a long and brutal history, and scattered across the country you'll find the concrete-and-iron skeletons that prove it. From colonial-era penitentiaries to 20th-century supermax facilities, dozens of correctional institutions now sit empty, their cellblocks echoing with nothing but dripping water and the rustle of pigeons. Some have been converted into museums or tourist attractions. Others are crumbling behind razor wire, waiting for a wrecking ball that never comes. What they all share is an atmosphere that gets under your skin the moment you step through the gate. These five abandoned prisons span two centuries of American incarceration, each one a monument to the country's evolving, often cruel, approach to punishment. Explore them if you dare.
The most iconic abandoned prisons in America include Eastern State Penitentiary in Pennsylvania (the 1829 fortress that pioneered solitary confinement and once held Al Capone), the Ohio State Reformatory in Ohio (the filming location of The Shawshank Redemption with the world's largest freestanding steel cellblock), and Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Tennessee (a remote Appalachian prison where James Earl Ray once escaped). Urbex Maps documents 100+ abandoned prisons across the United States with free GPS coordinates.
| # | Site | State | Type | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eastern State Penitentiary | Pennsylvania | Gothic Revival prison, 1829 | Museum since 1994 |
| 2 | Ohio State Reformatory | Ohio | Romanesque Revival, 1896 | Museum and event venue |
| 3 | Old Idaho Penitentiary | Idaho | Sandstone frontier prison, 1872 | Museum since 1973 |
| 4 | Missouri State Penitentiary | Missouri | Limestone prison, 1836 | Tourist site, ghost tours |
| 5 | Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary | Tennessee | Mountain prison, 1896 | Tours and distillery |
1. Eastern State Penitentiary, Pennsylvania
When Eastern State Penitentiary opened in 1829, it was the most expensive building in America and the most ambitious social experiment the young republic had ever attempted. Designed by architect John Haviland in a dramatic Gothic Revival style, the Philadelphia prison pioneered the "Pennsylvania system" of solitary confinement. Every inmate lived alone in a vaulted cell with a private exercise yard, a skylight nicknamed "The Eye of God," and absolutely zero contact with other human beings. The theory was that total isolation would inspire penitence, the root word of "penitentiary." In practice, it drove people insane.
The prison's radial floorplan, with seven cellblocks fanning out from a central hub like the spokes of a wheel, became the most copied architectural blueprint in penal history. Over 300 prisons worldwide replicated the design. Yet Eastern State itself couldn't keep up with demand. By the early 1900s, overcrowding forced officials to abandon solitary confinement entirely. Cells built for one prisoner held two or three. A second floor was bolted on top of the original cellblocks. The facility that was supposed to reform criminals through quiet reflection became just another warehouse for bodies.
Its most famous resident was Al Capone, who occupied a relatively lavish cell during an eight-month stretch in 1929-1930, complete with fine furniture, oil paintings, and a cabinet radio. Other notable inmates included bank robber Willie Sutton, who tunneled out in 1945 only to be spotted by a cop on the street outside.
Eastern State closed in 1970 and sat abandoned for over two decades. Nature reclaimed the cellblocks with startling speed: trees pushed through the roofs, vines strangled the guard towers, and cats colonized the yards. In 1994, a nonprofit reopened it as a museum and historic site. Today you can walk the crumbling corridors on a daytime tour, but many of the cellblocks remain in a state of "preserved ruin," left exactly as time found them.
Sources: [Wikipedia - Eastern State Penitentiary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_State_Penitentiary)
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2. Ohio State Reformatory, Ohio
If the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield looks familiar, there's a good reason. The Shawshank Redemption was filmed here in 1993, just three years after the last inmates walked out. But the real story of this place makes the movie look tame.
Architect Levi Scofield designed the Reformatory in a Romanesque Revival style inspired by medieval German castles. When it opened in 1896, it was meant to house first-time, non-violent offenders between the ages of 16 and 30, the idea being that an imposing but dignified building would instill discipline without crushing hope. The administration wing's front entrance still boasts the largest freestanding steel cellblock in the world, stacking six tiers of cells 12 stories high. The stonework is genuinely impressive, with arched windows, turrets, and carved cornices that belong more to a cathedral than a prison.
That noble vision collapsed under the weight of overcrowding and underfunding. Built for 1,500 inmates, the Reformatory routinely held over 5,000 by the mid-20th century. Two men were jammed into cells barely large enough for one. Tuberculosis, violence, and suicide plagued the facility. A federal court ruled in 1983 that conditions constituted cruel and unusual punishment, and the state was ordered to close the prison.
The last inmates transferred out in 1990. Demolition was planned, but a preservation society fought to save the building, and they won. Today the Ohio State Reformatory operates as a museum, event venue, and one of the most popular haunted attractions in the Midwest. The original cell doors still slam shut, the solitary confinement wing is intact, and visitors report cold spots, shadow figures, and phantom footsteps with enough frequency to keep paranormal TV crews coming back year after year.
Sources: [Wikipedia - Ohio State Reformatory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_State_Reformatory)
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3. Old Idaho Penitentiary, Idaho
For 101 years, from 1872 to 1973, the Old Idaho Penitentiary on the outskirts of Boise was the state's primary lockup. It started as a single sandstone cellhouse built by the inmates themselves, quarrying stone from the surrounding hills and hauling it up by hand. Over the next century, the prison expanded into a sprawling complex of cellblocks, workshops, a women's ward, a death row, and a gallows.
The Old Pen, as locals call it, saw every kind of trouble a frontier prison could produce. There were multiple riots, the worst in 1973 when inmates set fire to large sections of the facility, finally convincing the state to build a new prison. Escape attempts were constant and sometimes creative: inmates tunneled under walls, scaled them with homemade ladders, and in one legendary case, walked out the front gate disguised as a visiting clergyman. The execution chamber, where ten men were hanged between 1901 and 1957, is still intact and open to visitors.
What makes the Old Idaho Penitentiary special for explorers is its setting. Unlike most urban prisons boxed in by city blocks, this one sits against the brown foothills of the Boise Front, surrounded by sagebrush and open sky. The sandstone walls glow golden in the late-afternoon sun, and the guard tower looks out over miles of empty desert. It feels less like a correctional facility and more like a fortress from a Western.
The site became a museum in 1973, managed by the Idaho State Historical Society. You can wander through the solitary confinement cells, known as "the hole," check out the prison's extensive tattoo and contraband collections, and visit the on-site botanical gardens planted by inmates during the prison's final decades. Some cellblocks have been carefully restored; others remain as raw and unfinished as the day the doors locked for the last time.
Sources: [Wikipedia - Old Idaho Penitentiary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Idaho_Penitentiary)
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4. Missouri State Penitentiary, Missouri
Time Magazine once called it "the bloodiest 47 acres in America," and the Missouri State Penitentiary earned that nickname honestly. Located in Jefferson City along the banks of the Missouri River, the prison operated from 1836 to 2004, making it one of the oldest continuously operating penal institutions west of the Mississippi. During those 168 years, it witnessed stabbings, riots, rooftop standoffs, an infamous gas chamber, and conditions so appalling that a federal investigation in the 1950s declared it a "medieval relic."
The prison opened the same year the Alamo fell. In its earliest decades, it relied on a convict-lease system that rented inmates out to private businesses, essentially slavery by another name. During the Civil War, it held Confederate prisoners of war. By the early 1900s, the population had ballooned beyond capacity, and violence became a daily occurrence. Over 40 inmates were executed in the gas chamber between 1937 and 1989, the last state to use that method before lethal injection replaced it.
Walking through the grounds today, the sheer scale hits you first. The massive limestone walls enclose acres of cellblocks, industrial buildings, and guard towers. Housing Unit 4, known as "the hole," is where inmates were sent for solitary confinement in pitch-dark cells barely wider than a coffin. The gas chamber room is still intact, its heavy steel door and airtight windows a chilling reminder of state-sanctioned execution.
The prison closed for good in 2004 when the state opened a new facility nearby. Rather than demolish the complex, Jefferson City turned it into a tourist attraction. Guided history tours run during the day, and overnight ghost hunts draw paranormal enthusiasts from across the country. Large sections remain unrestored, with peeling paint, rusted bars, and decades of graffiti layered over institutional green walls. It feels like everyone just walked away one afternoon and never came back.
Sources: [Wikipedia - Missouri State Penitentiary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_State_Penitentiary)
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5. Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, Tennessee
Deep in the Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee, Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary spent over a century housing the state's most dangerous criminals in one of the most remote locations imaginable. Built in 1896 to exploit the region's coal deposits, the prison put inmates to work in the mines from day one. The labor was grueling and deadly: cave-ins, black lung, and mine explosions killed and maimed prisoners throughout the early 1900s. Mining operations didn't end until the 1960s.
Brushy Mountain is best known as the prison that couldn't hold James Earl Ray. The assassin of Martin Luther King Jr. was serving a 99-year sentence when he and six other inmates scaled the prison wall on June 10, 1977. Ray spent 54 hours hiding in the surrounding mountains before bloodhounds tracked him down less than eight miles from the prison. The rugged terrain that makes Brushy Mountain so scenic also made it a natural barrier against escape: dense forest, steep ridges, and copperhead-infested hollows discouraged even the most determined runners.
The prison sits at the end of a long mountain road in Petros, Tennessee, with nothing but woods and old mining scars for company. The stone walls, watchtowers, and barbed-wire fences are still standing, and you can walk through the cellblocks where inmates were stacked three to a cell in summer heat with no air conditioning. The yard is a cramped rectangle of cracked concrete surrounded by walls on all sides, a claustrophobic space where tensions boiled over regularly.
Brushy Mountain closed in 2009 after the state deemed it too expensive to maintain and too remote to staff. Rather than letting it rot, a private group purchased the property and turned it into a tourist destination with guided tours and, improbably, a craft distillery on the grounds. You can tour the cellblocks, walk death row, and finish with a whiskey tasting. The raw, unpolished state of the prison has been largely preserved: the paint is peeling, the floors are cracked, and the isolation cells are as dark and cramped as they were when the last inmate left.
Sources: [Wikipedia - Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brushy_Mountain_State_Penitentiary)
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Beyond the List
These five prisons barely scratch the surface. From the crumbling fortress of Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia to the flooded ruins of the Old Joliet Prison in Illinois, America is full of abandoned correctional facilities waiting to be explored. Each one tells a different chapter of the country's complicated relationship with incarceration. If the walls could talk, they'd have 200 years of stories to tell, and most of them would keep you up at night. Use our interactive map to find more abandoned places across the United States.
FAQ: Abandoned Prisons in America
What is the most famous abandoned prison in America?
Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia is the most historically significant, having pioneered the solitary confinement system that was copied by over 300 prisons worldwide. The Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield is the most pop-culturally famous, as the primary filming location of The Shawshank Redemption.
Is it legal to explore abandoned prisons?
Several of the most notable abandoned prisons now operate as museums or tourist attractions. Eastern State Penitentiary offers daily tours. The Ohio State Reformatory runs museum tours, haunted attractions, and overnight ghost hunts. Brushy Mountain has guided tours and a distillery. The Missouri State Penitentiary offers daytime history tours and overnight paranormal events. However, many other abandoned prisons remain off-limits and trespassing is strictly enforced.
Where can I find abandoned prisons near me?
Urbex Maps lists over 100 abandoned correctional facilities across the United States with GPS coordinates and access information. Most states have at least one decommissioned prison or jail, ranging from massive state penitentiaries to small county lockups. The interactive map lets you filter by state and building type.
Are abandoned prisons dangerous?
Prisons were built to be inescapable, not comfortable. The combination of heavy steel and concrete construction, narrow cellblock corridors, limited exit routes, and decades of decay creates serious hazards. Cellblock floors and catwalks can rust through. Guard towers are especially unstable. Even prisons that operate as museums maintain large sections in a raw, unrestored state that requires caution.
How do I get GPS coordinates for abandoned prisons?
The Urbex Maps interactive atlas provides free GPS pins for documented abandoned prisons and correctional facilities across the United States. Each listing includes the prison's history, current use (museum, tourist site, or fully abandoned), and visitor information where applicable.
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