Chillicothe Correctional Institution


Chillicothe Correction Institution, or CCI, is a state-run medium security prison on the west bank of the Scioto River just outside Chillicothe, Ohio. It is located adjacent to Ross Correctional Institution and Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. The prison is a former military camp, named for Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman. It later became a federal penitentiary and has housed several high-profile prisoners including Charles Manson in 1952, bootlegger Junior Johnson, and serial killer Anthony Sowell. Sowell currently resides there and is on death row.
Country music legend Johnny Paycheck also served a 22-month stint in CCI for shooting a man in a Hillsboro Ohio bar. During Paycheck's time there his friend and fellow musician Merle Haggard performed for the inmates.

Death row relocation

On October 3, 2011, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections announced that the majority of Ohio's male death row would be relocated to CCI from the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown and Mansfield Correctional Institution in Mansfield, with some high security death row cells being maintained at OSP and inmates with medical issues being held at the Franklin Medical Center in Columbus. This was done to free up cells at OSP and Mansfield to be used to separate violent inmates from the general population as well as the increased security and reduced costs of transporting condemned inmates from CCI to both the execution chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville and to the Franklin Medical Center for medical treatment. The transfer of death row inmates was completed on January 19, 2012.

Notable inmates