The Associated Press

As many as 3,000 students once attended, but finding alumni for an upcoming school reunion has been difficult.

"I've been working on this for about a month and I've only been able to get hold of 14," said Donnell Haynes of Mansfield, an alumnus of the school at the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield.

Haynes has been helping plan Saturday's reunion for students who took high school or college courses at the maximum-security prison, and their teachers.

At the reunion, former students can revisit their cells or walk the dirt yard.

The idea of the reunion came from Dr. Jon Flood, now of Fond Du Lac, Wis., who launched classes taught by Ashland University and Field High School at the prison in the early 1970s.

It was the first certified high school in an Ohio prison.

He organized a small reunion for former Mansfield Reformatory teachers in 2000, but something was missing.

"I was sitting around and thinking: Wouldn't it be pleasant to see some of these fellows again?" he said, referring to the students.

Many of them didn't stay in the Richland County prison long enough to earn the associate degree that was offered, but many pursued school when they got out, Flood said.