The prison is built of light colored sandstone, approximately 130 feet in length by 56 feet wide, and a tower in front. The building is surrounded by a substantial stone wall standing 22 feet high.

The celling department, which is 100 by 56 feet, contains a lower and upper tier - 14 cells on each level. The cells are 15 by 8, and 9 feet high in the center. They are arranged with a warm air register and one ventilating register, and are sufficiently lighted. The floors are underlaid with iron plates and covered with concrete, with several cells having a wooden floor laid on top. There are two doors on each cell, with the inside door of wrought iron bars and the outside of heavy oak, both with heavy bolts and locks.

A total of 11 men were executed by hanging in this early prison. One man, Michael Smith, known as "Old Smitty" to the guards, was scheduled to hang but vanished the night before his execution. He is known in folklore as "The Man They Could Not Hang". He was never recaptured and is the subject of ghost stories. The last hanging in this prison was in 1909, after which the electric chair was introduced at Rockview State Prison.

Hygiene at the prison in the early 1900's left much to be desired. One of the rules back then: "Every ten days, or thereabouts, every prisioner in the jail is made to take a bath". The prison was often overcrowded. 123 men would be confined in only 27 cells. There were as many as 16 hoboes confined in one cell at a time. In 1911, the new annex with 52 additional cells was constructed. In 1997, the prison was abandoned and replaced by a new facility several miles away..