It has featured in the Harrison Ford action flick Air Force One, Tango and Cash starring James Caan and most famously, The Shawshank Redemption which earned seven Oscar nominations. 

But long before it became a world-famous movie set, it was considered on of America's most brutal prisons. Of the thousands of inmates to pass through its gates between 1886 and 1990, when it was shut down, more than 200 died there.

Its decaying halls and run-down rooms are empty now but tourists claim they hear whispers of ghosts from its barren cells.

In an old graveyard just outside the prison walls are rows of 215 numbered markers - one for each of the prisoners who died inside Ohio State Reformatory. Most of them were victims of diseases like influenza and tuberculosis but some faced more violent ends. 

Prison guards would take the worst-behaved inmates deep beneath the prison grounds, in a place notoriously referred to as 'the hole', to punish them. It was there, in solitary confinement, that so many men went insane, the prison's website claims.

Some inmates committed suicide by setting themselves on fire, others hanged themselves after enduring windowless solitary confinement. Some died in 'accidents' or attempted prison escapes, some were murdered in fights and some were supposedly killed by prison staff after being 'tortured for their bad behavior'.

The Union Army used the site in Mansfield to train over 4,000 soldiers during the American Civil War but in 1876, state officials decided to transform it into an institution where young, first-time offenders could be reformed. 

The violence began when the juvenile detention centre turned into a federal prison which began to house dangerous criminals from all over the country.

According to Forgotten Ohio, the darkest day in the prison's history came on July 21, 1948. Two inmates broke out and abducted the superintendent John Niebel, his wife and 20-year-old daughter from the farm they lived on just outside the prison grounds and murdered them in a cornfield.

The killers - Robert Daniels and John West - were caught two days later. West was killed in the shoot-out that ensued and Daniels was put to death in the electric chair at the very prison he escaped from. 

Two prison guards have also been murdered at the notorious prison. In November 1926, an inmate who was on parole returned and shot a 72-year-old guard just outside the gates in an unsuccessful ploy to help a friend escape. The shooter Philip Orleck was arrested two months and also died in Ohio State's electric chair.

And during an attempted prison break in October 1932, 48-year-old Frank Hanger was beaten to death with an iron bar. Prisoners Merrill Chandler and Chester Probaski were found guilty of his murder and executed in 1935.

Ohio State drew condemnation for being overcrowded in 1933. A research group of educators and prison experts described its conditions as a 'disgrace'.

In the 1970s, a nine-member team studying recommended shutting the reformatory down and replacing it with many smaller institutions  which housed no more than 500 inmates each.

The anger towards Ohio State peaked in 1978 when the Counsel for Human Dignity - a combination of civic and church groups - sued the prison on behalf of the 2,200 inmates still housed there. 

They claimed that the prisoner's rights were being violated because they were forced to live in 'brutalising and inhumane conditions'.

The lawsuit was resolved in 1983 and prison officials agreed to improve conditions while preparing to close the cell blocks by December 31, 1986, which was extended by four years.

In Ohio State's last years, its stunning architecture lured Hollywood directors to film portions of two movies. 'Harry and Walter Go to New York' was shot there in 1975 and 'Tango and Cash' in 1989.

Both films eventually were panned by most critics, but they brought major stars to Mansfield--James Caan, Elliot Gould, Diane Keaton and Michael Caine for 'Harry and Walter,' and Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell for 'Tango and Cash.' 

These haunting images were captured by urban photographer Cindy Vasko who was 'in awe with the impressive, beautiful castle-like architecture' of the prison's exterior after passing through its gates. 

She told MailOnline: 'Upon entering the prison, I was quite taken with the massiveness of the facility... Multi-level floors of cell blocks greet a visitor. The two large cell blocks are the largest I have ever seen - six tiers. 

She was confronted by darkness in almost every corner of the prison but for safety reasons, a few lights were scattered around what she described a 'cold structure'.

She added: 'The one cell block has cells a bit larger than the other so I assume one group of prisoners felt a little luckier than the other due to the added living space.

'Since the movie, Shawshank Redemption, was filmed here, there are markings along the way noting movie significance... Like other abandoned prisons, Mansfield does not have a shortage of abundant peeling paint and rust.'  

(dailymail.co.uk)