Haunted Prisons

1859 Jail and Marshal's Home

Independence, Missouri

The 1859 Jail and Marshal's Home in Independence, Missouri, is a formidable two-foot-thick limestone fortress that serve...

Alcatraz Island

San Francisco, California

Long before Alcatraz became America's most infamous prison, the Ohlone people of the Bay Area viewed the windswept islan...

Allegheny County Jail

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The Old Allegheny County Jail was completed in 1886 to the designs of Boston architect H.H. Richardson, who is considere...

Andersonville Prison

Andersonville, Georgia

Andersonville Prison, officially known as Camp Sumter, was the most notorious POW camp of the Civil War. In just 14 mont...

Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary

Petros, Tennessee

Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, known as 'the end of the line,' was Tennessee's first and oldest maximum-security pr...

Burlington County Prison Museum

Mount Holly, New Jersey

The Burlington County Prison in Mount Holly was designed by Robert Mills, one of America's first professionally trained...

Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility

Canon City, Colorado

The Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility in Canon City is the oldest prison in the state, opened on January 13, 18...

Crown Point Old Sheriff's House and Jail

Crown Point, Indiana

The Old Lake County Sheriff's House and Jail at 226 South Main Street in Crown Point, Indiana, is a striking complex com...

Eastern State Penitentiary

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Eastern State Penitentiary opened in Philadelphia in 1829 as the world's first true penitentiary, designed by Quakers wh...

Fort Smith National Historic Site

Fort Smith, Arkansas

Fort Smith National Historic Site occupies the ground where the Arkansas and Poteau Rivers converge at Belle Point, the...

Fort Warren

Boston, Massachusetts

Fort Warren rises from Georges Island in Boston Harbor, a massive pentagonal fortress of granite and stone constructed b...

Historic Albemarle County Jail

Charlottesville, Virginia

The Historic Albemarle County Jail stands as a forbidding monument to justice and death in Court Square, its three-foot-...

Historic Licking County Jail

Newark, Ohio

The jail's most dramatic historical event was the lynching of detective Carl Etherington in 1909. Etherington, an Anti-S...

Jailer's Inn Bed and Breakfast

Bardstown, Kentucky

The Jailer's Inn Bed and Breakfast in Bardstown occupies what was once the Nelson County Jail, constructed around 1819 w...

Missouri State Penitentiary

Jefferson City, Missouri

The Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City opened in 1836 and operated for 168 years as the oldest continually op...

Museum of Colorado Prisons

Canon City, Colorado

The Museum of Colorado Prisons is housed in the former women's prison building in Canon City, constructed in 1935 on the...

Ohio State Reformatory

Mansfield, Ohio

More than 200 people died within these walls, including two guards, and their spirits are said to still roam the cellblo...

Old Bexar County Jail

San Antonio, Texas

The Old Bexar County Jail, built in 1879, now operates as a Holiday Inn Express—but the spirits of those who were execut...

Old Charleston Jail

Charleston, South Carolina

The Old Charleston Jail at 21 Magazine Street operated as the city's primary detention facility from 1802 to 1939, housi...

Old Denton Jail

Denton, Maryland

The Old Denton Jail, officially the Caroline County Jail and Sheriff's House, is considered the most haunted site on Mar...

Old Jail

St. Augustine, Florida

The Old Jail in St. Augustine operated from 1891 to 1953, housing some of the era's most dangerous criminals within its...

Old Joliet Prison

Joliet, Illinois

Old Joliet Prison, officially the Illinois State Penitentiary, opened in 1858 to address overcrowding at the Alton priso...

Old Princess Anne Jail

Princess Anne, Maryland

The Grey Eagle, as locals call it, stands as Somerset County's only nineteenth-century structure with three-foot-thick P...

Old Whitley Jail

Columbia City, Indiana

The Old Whitley Jail at 116 East Market Street in Columbia City was built in 1875 by architect J.C. Johnson of Toledo at...

Oregon State Penitentiary

Salem, Oregon

The Oregon State Penitentiary has occupied its site in Salem since 1866, making it the oldest of the fourteen state pris...

Outlaws and Lawmen Jail Museum

Cripple Creek, Colorado

The Outlaws and Lawmen Jail Museum occupies the former Teller County Jail, constructed in 1901 as a state-of-the-art det...

Preston Castle

Ione, California

Preston Castle rises from the Ione hillside as one of America's most imposing relics of juvenile incarceration. Construc...

Sandusky County Historic Jail

Fremont, Ohio

The underground dungeon beneath the Sandusky County Courthouse in Fremont, Ohio, was constructed in the early 1840s afte...

Tennessee State Prison

Nashville, Tennessee

Built in 1898, the Tennessee State Prison's imposing Gothic architecture — with its castle-like turrets and massive ston...

The Old Jail

Chambersburg, Pennsylvania

Built in 1818, the Old Jail is one of the few buildings in Chambersburg that survived the town's burning by Confederate...

Washington State Penitentiary

Walla Walla, Washington

Washington's oldest state prison was built in 1886 on 160 acres donated by Walla Walla businessman Levi Ankeny, using ma...

West Virginia Penitentiary

Moundsville, West Virginia

The West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville operated for 119 years, from 1876 to 1995, and during that time it accumul...