The McNeil Island Corrections Center (MICC) was a prison in the northwest United States, operated by the Washington State Department of Corrections. It was on McNeil Island in Puget Sound in unincorporated Pierce County,[1] near Steilacoom, Washington.[2]
 McNeil Island in 1937 | |
  Location in Washington  Location in the United States | |
| Location | McNeil Island |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 47°11′48″N 122°39′28″W / 47.19667°N 122.65778°W |
| Status | Closed |
| Security class | Medium |
| Capacity | 853 |
| Opened | 1875 |
| Closed | 2011 |
| Former name | McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary (1904–1981) |
| Managed by | Federal Bureau of Prisons (1904–1981) Washington State Department of Corrections (1981–2011) |
| County | Pierce County |
| State/province | Washington |
| Postal code | P.O. Box 88900 |
| Country | United States |
Opened in 1875, it had previously served as a territorial correctional facility and then a federal penitentiary.[3] Americans sentenced to terms of imprisonment by the United States courts that operated in China in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries served their terms at McNeil Island.[4] In the 1910s, inmates included Robert Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz", who fatally stabbed a prison guard in March 1916.
During World War II, eighty-five Japanese Americans who had resisted the draft to protest their wartime confinement, including civil rights activist Gordon Hirabayashi, were sentenced to prison terms at McNeil; all were pardoned by President Harry S. Truman in 1947.[5] Career criminal and novelist James Fogle was sent to McNeil at the age of 17 in the 1950s.[6]
The State of Washington began to lease the facility from the federal government in 1981,[7] and later that year the state department of corrections began moving prisoners into the facility, renamed "McNeil Island Corrections Center." The island was deeded to the state government in 1984.[8]
In November 2010, the department announced its plans to close the penitentiary by 2011, saving $14 million in the process.[9]
Notable inmates
edit- Alvin Karpis, Depression-era gangster[7]
- Tomoya Kawakita, war criminal and collaborator with Imperial Japan
- Gordon Hirabayashi, resister against Japanese American internment during World War II
- Mickey Cohen, 1930s Los Angeles gang leader
- Robert Franklin Stroud, "The Birdman of Alcatraz" convicted murderer and cause célèbre[7]
- Alton Wayne Roberts,[10] convicted by United States v. Price of the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner
- Vincent Hallinan, 1952 presidential candidate[11]
- Charles Manson of the Manson Family
- John David Norman, pedophile, sex offender and sex trafficker[12]
- Anselmo L. Figueroa, Mexican anarchist
See also
edit
References
edit- ^ "2020 CENSUS - CENSUS BLOCK MAP: Pierce County, WA" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. pp. 11, 19 (PDF p. 12, 20/114). Retrieved 2022-08-15.
McNeil Island Corrections Ctr
- ^ "Mailing Requirements Archived 2011-05-05 at the Wayback Machine". Washington State Department of Corrections. Retrieved on April 1, 2011. "McNeil Island Corrections Center P.O. Box 88100 Steilacoom, WA 98388-0900"
- ^ "McNeil Island". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). (Los Angeles Times). October 13, 1979. p. 2A.
- ^ Peters, E.W. (2011). Shanghai Policeman. Earnshaw Books: Hong Kong. p. 118. ISBN 9789881998385.
- ^ "McNeil Island Penitentiary (detention facility)". Densho Encyclopedia. Retrieved August 6, 2014.
- ^ Jean, Sara. "'Drugstore Cowboy' sentenced to what may be his last ride". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2015-10-16.
- ^ a b c "McNeil Island". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). (Los Angeles Times). October 13, 1979. p. 2A.
- ^ "McNeil Island Corrections Center History". Washington State Department of Corrections. Archived from the original on 2010-07-02. Retrieved April 2, 2011.
- ^ Sullivan, Jennifer; Clarridge, Christine "McNeil Island prison to close next year". The Seattle Times (November 20, 2010). Retrieved November 20, 2010.
- ^ ‘Ex-Sheriff Rainey: He’s Haunted by the Past’; The Boston Globe, September 22, 1974, p. 280
- ^ Robinson, Sean (March 28, 2011). "Who's who of McNeil Island prisoners". Bellingham Herald.
- ^ Homewood Police Department (2019-01-11). John Norman records from Homewood PD.
- McClary, Daryl C. (April 24, 2003). "McNeil Island Corrections Center, 1981-present". HistoryLink.org Essay 5239. Retrieved June 3, 2018.
Further reading
edit- Young, Elliott (March 2021). "Dawn of Immigrant Incarceration: Chinese and Other Aliens at McNeil Island Prison". Forever Prisoners: How the United States Made the World's Largest Immigrant Detention System. doi:10.1093/oso/9780190085957.003.0002.
External links
edit- "McNeil Island Corrections Center". Washington State Department of Corrections. Archived from the original on August 27, 2010. Retrieved April 2, 2011.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)* "". Washington State Department of Corrections. - Oppman, Patrick. "Last island prison in U.S. closes". CNN. April 1, 2011.
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