Shawshank State Prison is a fictional

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

state prison State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

in the state of

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

. It serves as the primary location in the novella ''

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption ''Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption'' is a Literary realism, realist novella by Stephen King. It was first published in 1982 by Viking Press in his collection ''Different Seasons''. It was later included in the 2009 collection ''Stephen King ...

'' by

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...

, as well as the

film adaptation A film adaptation transfers the details or story of an existing source text, such as a novel, into a feature film. This transfer can involve adapting most details of the source text closely, including characters or plot points, or the original sou ...

. The prison has also been mentioned in several other works by King.

Overview

Shawshank State Prison first appeared in Stephen King's

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) ...

entitled ''

''. The story was originally published in the 1982 short story collection ''

Different Seasons ''Different Seasons'' (1982) is a collection of four Stephen King novellas with a more dramatic bent, rather than the horror fiction for which King is famous. The four novellas are tied together via subtitles that relate to each of the four seas ...

'' alongside three other novellas, two of which also referenced the prison. ''

The Shawshank Redemption ''The Shawshank Redemption'' is a 1994 American Prison film, prison Drama (film and television), drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont, based on the 1982 Stephen King novella ''Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption''. The film t ...

'', a motion picture based on the novella, was released in 1994. The actual building used for filming was the

Ohio State Reformatory The Ohio State Reformatory (OSR), also known as the Mansfield Reformatory, is a historic prison located in Mansfield, Ohio in the United States. It was built between 1886 and 1910 and remained in operation until 1990, when a United States Federal ...

Mansfield, Ohio Mansfield is a city in Richland County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. The population was 47,534 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located approximately from Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, Columbus via Interstate 71, it i ...

. Shawshank State Prison also appears in several episodes of the

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

original series '' Castle Rock''. For the series, the showrunners used the West Virginia Penitentiary as the prison. “Part of the reason we chose the prison that we chose to shoot at was we loved the idea that there are houses literally in the shadow of the prison," said showrunner Sam Shaw. "It’s pretty different from the amazing prison in Ohio that they shot for the movie, which stands alone."

Works that reference Shawshank State Prison

In other media

Apart from appearing in the '' Castle Rock'' TV series, Shawshank State Prison is also mentioned in two episodes of '' Haven,'' and an episode of ''

Murder, She Wrote ''Murder, She Wrote'' is an American crime drama television series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, starring Angela Lansbury, and produced and distributed by Universal Television for the CBS network. The series f ...

'' (“Race to Death,” season 12, episode 21). References to the prison can also be found in works of King's son Joe Hill, including the novel '' NOS4A2'' and the 2019 comic ''Basket Full of Heads''. The name "Shawshank" is often used in popular culture as a noun to reference a successful prison break. An example of this can be found in the twelfth episode of ''

The Flash The Flash is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert, the original Flash first appeared in ''Flash Comics'' #1 (cover date, cover-dated Jan ...

s first season. The series features cast members from ''The Shawshank Redemption'', including

Clancy Brown Clarence James Brown III (born January 5, 1959) is an American actor. Prolific in film and television since the 1980s, Brown is often cast in villainous and authoritative roles. His film roles include Rawhide in ''The Adventures of Buckaroo Ban ...

and William Sadler.

References

{{Stephen King Castle Rock (franchise) Fictional elements introduced in 1982 Fictional populated places created by Stephen King Fictional prisons Maine in fiction

Overview

Works that reference Shawshank State Prison

In other media

See also

References