Tales of Torture at McNeil Island Penitentiary
A newly released prisoner brings harrowing allegations of medical neglect, forced labor, and death to the attention of Seattle officials.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
H. Moore, a gray-headed old man released from the government penitentiary on McNeil's Island last Monday after serving an eight-month term upon a charge of selling liquor to Indians, arrived in the city Saturday and tells a harrowing tale of brutal treatment. He charges Superintendent Arthur Perry with all manner of villainy, and says that within the past six months two men have died from cruelty, while a third man has gone crazy. Moore claims he was subjected to torture, confined in a cramped cell previously used as a closet without medical attention, and forced to labor in the dead of winter despite illness. He further alleges that a Chinese prisoner died after being denied medicine, and that another inmate was driven insane by nine days in solitary confinement. Aside from the treatment of prisoners, Moore claims that Superintendent Perry forces inmates to perform work for his own private interest, including an engraver tasked with making fancy items for Mrs. Perry.
“The air in the cell was bad, and the place very cold. Sometimes a trusty would shove a hot brick into the cell, and this would warm our feet and hands.”
The allegations of abuse and medical neglect at McNeil Island evoke modern critiques of carceral conditions in the Pacific Northwest. While the P-I at the time urged readers to take these claims with a 'grain of salt,' the visceral detail provides a rare glimpse into the early history of the federal prison system in Washington.
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