McNeil Island Corrections Center

Prison in Washington state, United States

47°11′48″N 122°39′28″W / 47.19667°N 122.65778°W / 47.19667; -122.65778StatusClosedSecurity classMediumCapacity853Opened1875; 149 years ago (1875)Closed2011Former nameMcNeil Island Federal Penitentiary (1904–1981)Managed byFederal Bureau of Prisons (1904–1981)
Washington State Department of Corrections (1981–2011)CountyPierce CountyState/provinceWashingtonPostal codeP.O. Box 88900CountryUnited 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,^[1] near Steilacoom, Washington.^[2]

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

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]

References

^ "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.

External links

"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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v t e Washington State Department of Corrections prisons
State prisons	Airway Heights Corrections Center Cedar Creek Corrections Center Clallam Bay Corrections Center Coyote Ridge Corrections Center Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women♀ Monroe Correctional Complex Olympic Corrections Center Stafford Creek Corrections Center Washington Corrections Center Washington Corrections Center for Women♀ Washington State Penitentiary
Closed	Ahtanum View Corrections Center Larch Corrections Center McNeil Island Corrections Center Pine Lodge Corrections Center for Women♀
Above facilities are male-only unless noted by ♀(female) or ♂♀ (unisex)