Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction

                                               NEWS RELEASE                                                     

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                        October 17, 2002

Ohio Prisons Director Replica Electric Chair to Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society

(Columbus) – Reginald A. Wilkinson, Director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC), donated a replica of the Ohio electric chair to the Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society today at a ceremony held at the old Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield.  The Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society will display the replica chair as part of the Society’s preservation and restoration efforts.  The Society has a dedicated mission of educating and maintaining the history of corrections in Ohio.

“The electric chair is a dynamic piece of Ohio’s corrections history,” explained Director Wilkinson.  “The Preservation Society will display the chair in a dignified manner that will honor its historical significance.”

The carpentry staff at the Richland Correctional Institution constructed the replica chair.

For more information, please contact the DRC Public Information Office at (614) 752-1150.