McNeil Island Corrections Center

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McNeil Island Corrections Center (MICC)
McNeil Island Penitentiary - NARA - 299566.tif
McNeil Island in 1937
McNeil Island Corrections Center is located in Washington (state)
McNeil Island Corrections Center
Location in Washington
LocationMcNeil Island
Coordinates47°11′48″N 122°39′28″W / 47.19667°N 122.65778°W / 47.19667; -122.65778Coordinates: 47°11′48″N 122°39′28″W / 47.19667°N 122.65778°W / 47.19667; -122.65778
StatusClosed
Security classMedium
Capacity853
Opened1875; 146 years ago (1875)
Closed2011
Former nameMcNeil Island Federal Penitentiary (1904–1981)
Managed byFederal Bureau of Prisons (1904–1981)
Washington State Department of Corrections (1981–2011)
CountyPierce County
State/provinceWashington
Postal codeP.O. Box 88900
CountryUnited States

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, near Steilacoom, Washington.[1]

Opened 146 years ago in 1875, it had previously served as a territorial correctional facility and then a federal penitentiary.[2] 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.[3] 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.[4] Career criminal and novelist James Fogle was sent to McNeil at the age of 17 in the 1950s.[5]

The state of Washington began to lease the facility from the federal government in 1981,[6] 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.[7]

In November 2010, the department announced its plans to close the penitentiary by 2011, saving $14 million in the process.[8]

Notable inmates[]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Mailing Requirements". Washington State Department of Corrections. Retrieved on April 1, 2011. "McNeil Island Corrections Center P.O. Box 88100 Steilacoom, WA 98388-0900"
  2. ^ "McNeil Island". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). (Los Angeles Times). October 13, 1979. p. 2A.
  3. ^ Peters, E.W. (2011). Shanghai Policeman. Earnshaw Books: Hong Kong. p. 118. ISBN 9789881998385.
  4. ^ "McNeil Island Penitentiary (detention facility)". Densho Encyclopedia. Retrieved August 6, 2014.
  5. ^ Jean, Sara. "'Drugstore Cowboy' sentenced to what may be his last ride". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2015-10-16.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b c "McNeil Island". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). (Los Angeles Times). October 13, 1979. p. 2A.
  7. ^ "McNeil Island Corrections Center History". Washington State Department of Corrections. Archived from the original on 2010-07-02. Retrieved April 2, 2011.
  8. ^ Sullivan, Jennifer; Clarridge, Christine "McNeil Island prison to close next year". The Seattle Times (November 20, 2010). Retrieved November 20, 2010.
  9. ^ ‘Ex-Sheriff Rainey: He’s Haunted by the Past’; The Boston Globe, September 22, 1974, p. 280
  10. ^ Robinson, Sean (March 28, 2011). "Who's who of McNeil Island prisoners". Bellingham Herald.
  11. ^ Puter, Stephen A. Douglas; Stevens, Horace (1908). Looters of the Public Domain. Portland, Oregon: Portland Printing House. pp. 452.

External links[]


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