September 24, 1964 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
©
Shelton Mason County Journal. All rights reserved. Upgrade to access Premium Tools
PAGE 33 (33 of 38 available) PREVIOUS NEXT Jumbo Image Save To Scrapbook Set Notifiers PDF JPG
September 24, 1964 |
|
Website © 2025. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader ![]() |
! •
"1%
24, 1964
WASHINGTON CORRECTIONS CENTER SUPPLEMENT TO SHELTON--MASON COUNTY JOURNAIJI
I
state of
:hone Imrtions
and Monta-
Continental
from Ore-
as the ~Arash-
population
was small
Soon af-
was achieved,
ravaged
east and
Mountains.
of the Pa-
deepened by
the eastern
War, anct
corn-
Proprietors en-
life and
lm'e the rails
rail-
embraced
area, fronl the
Canada and
Ocean to the
Transpor-
solitudes
Indian pony
primeval green
Seaboard by
iwash buggy"
dugout ca-
The
were peo-
pion-
to where
by dint of
such
parties,
unseasonal
Their in-
to ban-
of frontier
man-
inclinations,
and distance
'appeals to the
at
prcven-
crimc, the
Were frequent-
as the con-
the pioneers
~arly Seat-
to foun-
names have
in streets,
Uildings, tak-
against petty
of whisky tc
the whipping-
lers, if appre-
Were gen-
forthwith by
to the sur-
and Were not
agg, evatcd
be ex-
modern lit-
West," a
cnt tree were
supporters of
mty govern-
hedin Wash-
)linty seats
so that they
Within a day's
by most of
it' jurisdic-
being
the more pop-
them-
located in
~ree, Thurston
When
a cri-
felony, he
county jail
reed.
~ase m popu-
lation of the territory, and con-
sequent increase in the numbm
of criminal convictions had made
this sysl.em inadequate. It was
necessary to confine some of the
sm'plus prisoners in the old Hud-
son's Bay Company jail at Steil-
acoom, in the custody of John D.
McAllister. (The McAllister fan>
ily were members of the "Sim-
mons Party," of 1946, the first
white settlers to locate in the
Puget Sound region).
The legislature of that year rec-
ognized the necessity of provid.
ing a central prison for the cus-
tody of convicted felons. Consider-
ation was given to an offer by
the Federal government to turn
over to the Territory the Feder-
al Penitentiary on McNeil Island,
for a total cost of $36,000, payable
over a number of years. Two in-
dependent counter-proposals were
made by William Billings, sheriff
of Thurston County, and Jerry
Smith, sheriff of Pierce Connty.
Both men offered to construct
prison and take custody of all
prisoners, in return for a subsis-
tance allowance from the terri-
tory and the right to the labor
of the convicts.
AI,THOU6R slavery had been
abolished a decade earlier, there
were many who remembered its
profitable aspects. The contract
labor proposals of Billings and
Smith wcre potentially cven more
lucrative, for they not only pro-
vided a sizeable labor force of un-
paid convicts, but regular pay-
ments for the territorial treasmw
to provide for their maintenance.
Soon the legislature was beset by
a horde of public-spirited citizens,
all anxious to relieve the territory
of its custodial problems. Alarmed,
Billings and Smith combined their
proposals and political influence,
and the contract was eventually
given to them.
The contract, made out on Bil-
ling's name, was of six years du-
ration and provided for the keep-
ing of all' territorial prisoners,
giving the contractors 70 cents
per day for each prisoner, all pro-
ceeds from their labor, and pro-
viding for transportation of con-
victed felons to the prison at pub-
lic expense.
Lacking capital, they formed a
three-way partnership with Oli-
ver Shead, who had land in tim
Skookumchuck Valley, 17 miles
south of Olympia. Shead provided
$4,000 with which was built a
two story wooden prison, painted
yellow.
Accounts vary considerably as
to the exact size of this structure.
C. T. Conover, Northwest historian
writing in the Seattle Times, gave
the dimensions as 30 x 80 feet.
Frank C. Ward, who was a guard
for three ycars at the prison, in
an article appearing on May 10,
1935, in the Tenino Thurston Cmm-
ty Independent, recalled the size
of the bnilding as 60 x 120 fcet.
Gcorge W. France, and inmate of
the prison for seven years, and
the author of a book published in
1890, "Struggles For Life and
Home in the Northwest", largely
devoted to an account of his pri-
son life and denunciation of the.
alleged conspiracy which had re-
suited in his ten-year sentence for
manslaughter, gave the dimensions
as 40 x 150 feet. France, certain-
ly, had the most prolonged oppor-
tmfity to pace off the distances
accurately.
It wa,'; built of heavy fir planks,
either 3 x 12 or 4 x 12, laid llor-
izontally, and bolted togelher with
iron bolts. The lower floor of the
structure contained 32 eells, faced
with iron bars, and partiti,med
by 3 x 6 planks laid and bolted
in the same manner as the outer
walls. Although designed to pro-
vide minimum space for two in-
mates, the original inmate popu.
lation of 38 had reached 93 by
1887, so it was api)arcnt t~at most
of these cells housed three men.
The only entrance to the prison
was by means of an outside stair-
way to the second, floor, and a
second stairway leading to the
cell area. The room for storing oil,
paint and kerosene, and the tahle
used for filling lamps was located
just inside the single, second-fh)or
door. Surprisingly, 'this potential
fire-trap lasted many years after
its abandonment as a prison, part
of it being used as a social hall by
the residents of the area.
Tlti'] UPI'EI~ FLOOR was des-
cribed as containing "a hall, 22 x
90 feet, dining-room, kitchen, tai-
lor and shoe shop, and guard's
quarters." France wrote that "For
the last several years the big hall
in the prison, when all were in it,
resembled a western saloon ex-
cept the bar; card playing, with
Faro and other gambling games,
checkers, chess, etc.: reading and
talking, chewing and smoking, and
sometimes singing and dancing,
with an occasional fight."
One unfortunate female prison-
er, an Indian woman, with her
three children, occupied a shanty
outside the prison proper fro' two-
and-a-half years, the contractors
realizing only 60 cents per day for
the children:s "board", and pre-
sumably trimming their rations
accordingly.
Of the prison fare, France wrote
"They did their own butchering
at Seatco, and so grasping were
these charitable brethren that they~
(lid this on Sunday, and they fre-
qnently used stock that had been
killed by the raih'oad or was suf-
fering from disease. They would
kill beef and salt it down a year
ahead, using too much saltpetre;
and then it would often bc spoiled.
It was like hog feed, and old po-
tatoes were sometimes uscd two
or three months after their sea-
son."
In writing of his first day at
the terrilorial prison,. France said,
"When the pris,mers came in from
work, the sight and clatter of
chains x~:'~s deafening and damna-
ble, nearly all being m heavy dou-
ble irons, riveted to then" legs,
wearing them day and night, sick
or well--all the time." Even Guard
Ward, who did not have to wear
them, in after years recalled "the
terrible chains riveted to the an-
kles of the prisoners;" the per-
manent irons which "broke down
many a good man and caused more
to jump away than they kept from
it."
FOLLOVVING a startling expose
by the "Seattle Chronicle" of pen-
ology as practiced at Seat.co, the
governor recomnmnded to the leg-
islature that "removable irons"
be provided for the inmates. Af-
tel' a delay of tluee or four years
these were provi(lcd, but in the
meantime the use of the notorious
"Rinquist boots" continued.
The invention of a Steilacoom
blacksn]ith named Rinquist, they
were first used to restrain patients
entmmted to the tender care of
the terrilorial "Hospital for the
lnsane" at Stcilaeoom. These e,m-
sisted ,)f iron cliffs riveted to
each ankle and fastened together
by a long chain. Each weighed
from 10 to 18 pmmds, but it: was
pointed out that, as a concession
to the humauities, the iron cuffs
were "padded about the ankles."
The nse of permanent irons was
regarded by the contractors as an
economy measure, their use lnak-
ing it possible to limit the nighl
guard force to a single man, who
pmldently remained upstairs near
the exit.
In addition to working at log-
ging and coal mining, inmates
were employed in a sawmill and
cooperage factory established neat
the ln-ison site. As some of the
machinery in these pioneer indust-
rial plants was controlled by foot-
pedals, the heavy irons made it
difficult for the operators to con-
trol their machines, and accidents
wm~ frequent.
France writes of one man whose
fingers were badly mangled in the
machinery and later amputat-
ed by the prison "doctor," the
son of the current territorial gov-
ernor, who used a common car-
penter's saw for the operation,
There was no provision for a pris-
on hospital, the institution's sick
and injured being ministered to
in the shoe shop.
PUNISHMENT was only slight-
ly less painful than medical treat-
ment at Seatco. Solitary confine-
men* was little used, for it de-
prived the contractors of the pris-
oner's wages. Bread and water, on
the other hand, was freqimntly
prescribed for minor infractions,
its use added to the profit de-
rived from the 70 cents-per-day
territorial subsistance allowance.
Blows and kicks administered
informally by the guards were .~
popular correctional procedure,
and the whipping post was fre-
quently in use. More imaginative
procedures were ,apparently re-
sorted to at times, France writ-
ing in considerable detail of an
articulate inmate named Strong,
who upon the occasion of a visit
to the prison of a legislative in-
vestigating committee "Addressed
them a.t length, showing up the
cruelties and corruptions in an
able and interesting manner."
Following the withdrawal of the
legislators, according to Franc.e,
prison officials pointed out to
Strong the error of his ways by
removing nine of his teeth with
a pair of pliers.
I)IIRING THE FIRST years of
the Seatco pri.ion, Contractor
Shead acted as warden, but as the
enterprise prospered financially, a
hired superintendent was placed
in charge. As evil reports of pri-
son abuses continued to circulate,
denmnds were made that a quali-
fied prison warden be appointed
and paid by the territory. An ap-
propriation of $600 per year was
made for the salary x)f such an of-
ficial. The territorial governor
then appointed the former em-
ployee of the contractors to con-
tinue in charge, the net result be-
ing .an additional profit of $600
pet' year to those enterprising cit-
izens.
The territory's experiment in a
"free enterprisc" prison system
ended after 13 years, but not with-
out determined opposition from
those who had profited from it,
and their political allies. Legisla-
lion entitled "An Act to provide
for the permanent location and
construction of a Territorial Pen-
itentiary at Walls VCalla." was
passed on Jan. 2, 1886.
Gov. Watson C. Squire appointed
three building commissioners, Gen-
eral M. M. Bane of Spokane Falls,
O. C. White of Dayton m~d H. E.
Johnson of Walla Walla. The com-
n dssioners visited the Oregon Pen-
itentiary and the state prisons of
California, after which they ad-
opted plans and let contracts for
construction of the new institu-
tion, on a tract of 160 acres, do-
nated to the territory for peni-
tentiary purposes by Walls Walla
city and cotmty.
In its report to Gov. Eugene
Semple, who had in the meantime
replaced Squire, the commission-
ers, on Sept. 17, 1887, reported
that constructipn had been com-
p!eted in Febm|ary of that yea,"
of "A stockade of stone, laid in l
cement, enclosing the acres of
ground, in a parallelogram. The
wail is laid in a trench three feel.
deep and six feet wide, it is six
feet wide at the base, and tapers
to a width of 16 inches at the top,
which is 15 feet above the ground
and is covered with cement.
i It is perpendicular on the inside,
and is provided with numerous
~heavy buttresses on the outside.
A plank walk,, protected by an
i iron railing, runs the entire length
:of the wall on the outside. Two
brick girard houses are erected at
opposite corners of the st.ockade,
and wooden sentry boxes at the
other conmrs.
; The stockade wall is provided
with two sets of gates set in
stone walls, of the same dimen-
sions as the stockade ~alls, the
outer gates being made of heavy
iron bars, the inner gates of boiler,
iron and fitted with patent locks.
The gateway is covered by a one-
story wooden building, 22 x 32 feel
in size, used as au office and
.sleeping room by the Warden.
Inside the stockade are the pri-
son building and a small building
used as a laundry, etc., both of
brick. The main or.cell building
is 34 x 100 feet inside, with walls
22 inches thick and 26 ,feet high.
It has numerous barred windows,
a corrugated iron ceiling, cement
floor and two entrances provided!
with double iron doors having pat-
ent locks. In this building are 84
iron (..ells place(t 1lack to back, in
lhrec liera, 14 in a, row, 28 in a~
lier, having a corridor fenced off
by an iron grating. The cells are
each five feet, six inches wide,
nine feet long, and seven feel: high.
Each cell has a ventilating shaft,
and is designed for two prisoners
who sleep on. hanll,]oeks, Four of
the cells are dark, the others hay-
ling grated doors."
: Tim cells were. erected by the
Pauly Jail Building and Ma.,lufac-
turing Company of St. Louis, (the
same firm that installed prison
equipment in the ultra-modegn
V~