The Ohio prison in the hit movie Shawshank Redemption has been an unofficial tourist site, but a preservation society wants to renovate the partly demolished building and open it as a year-round tourist attraction, according to The Independent.

The building previously operated as the Ohio State Reformatory but was shut down in 1990 because of overcrowding. Officials intended to demolish the building which had been in operation for 94 years, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"You can imagine how much dynamite would be needed," local Baptist minister Ron Puff told the Gazette.

Since then it has been partly demolished and has deteriorated, becoming an attraction for ghost hunters, murder mystery dinners and Halloween festivals, The Independent reported.

Last year, the site saw 80,000 visitors which brought in more than $10 million.

So the Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society is planning to make the site cleaner, shinier and install heating to make it a weatherproof attraction year-round for Shawshank fans within six months, The Independent reported.

For now, visitors are allowed to sit in the dark and damp solitary confines of the cells at the prison, but they could be stuck if they shut the door.

"To be honest, we don't have keys for some of these," Puff said. "We have 'get out of jail free' cards that we hand out, but they know if they get stuck and we have to call someone in here to free them, they're paying for it. And if it's on a weekend, they might be there until the next day."

Paul Smith, director of the reformatory, told the Gazette about the renovation plans. "It's a 100-year project. We set everything up to create a foundation for years to come," he said.

The society purchased the site for $1 in 1994, the Gazette reported.

This past weekend, to mark the 20-year anniversary release of the movie which starred Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, a party was held in the building.

Although the movie, at the time, was nominated for seven Oscars, it was a box office flop and unable to make enough money to balance the $25 million budget, according to ITV.