At its peak in 1955, the Pen held 5,235 prisoners. It held some pretty famous ones too, among them William Sidney Porter, also known as O. Henry, who wrote more than a dozen stories inside, including "The Gift of the Magi"; Sam Shephard, the Cleveland doctor who was wrongfully accused of mudering his wife, served ten years thanks to our wonderful criminal justice system, and was eventually released due in large part to the efforts of F. Lee Bailey--the TV show "The Fugitive" was based on the Sam Shephard story; and Charles Makley and Harry Pierpont, associates of John Dillinger, who were eventually gunned down during an escape attempt. The Ohio Pen was also home to a vampire in the late 1800s; a man named James Brown (not to be confused with the big-haired black singer) was sentenced to life imprisonment after he killed one of his shipmates at sea in the Indian Ocean in 1866 and drank his blood. He was dumped off in Ohio for a few years by Massachusetts.
The place was closed down in 1979 but stood empty for nearly twenty years, during which my friend Rookie had the opportunity to infiltrate the place and look around. He described towering cell blocks, a flooded basement, a rack of keys, and paintings and murals done by the prisoners. He also said that it was possible to sit with your back against one wall of a cell and touch your feet to the other, if that gives you any idea of the comfort level of this place. Check out his page on it at Illicit Ohio.
Why is/was it haunted? Many reasons. For one, hundreds of people were executed here, first on the gallows and then in the electric chair. Countless people lived miserable lives and died here. One of the major events occurred in 1930, when an inmate set a fire in an escape attempt and 322 inmates died in the ensuing fire. Rumor has it that the guards deliberately delayed the unlocking of the cells to teach the prisoners a lesson. After that screams and moans were said to emanate from inside the walls.
One of the great regrets of my life is that I never went there. In 1998, in spite of the efforts of the Columbus Landmarks Foundation, city planning assholes had the entire structure demolished to make way for a parking garage for the new Columbus Bluejackets hockey stadium. Now that's progress. Interestingly, there have been reports of ghostly activity at Nationwide Arena, spirits lingering even after the prison was cleared away.
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Smith, Robin. Columbus Ghosts. Worthington, OH: Emuses, Inc., 2002. pp. 67-72.