The Fight for a State Prison
Senator Watson C. Squire pushes for federal funds to build a Washington penitentiary, arguing the state has been left behind while Dakota and Montana received their due.
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.
Senator Squire today introduced an amendment to the deficiency appropriation bill, providing that $30,000 be appropriated for the purpose of carrying out the enabling act admitting Washington and granting $30,000 for a penitentiary. The reason this grant was made was because the government had expended $30,000 in Dakota and the same amount in Montana upon a penitentiary which was turned over to these states, and the same amounts were appropriated for Washington and North Dakota. An appropriation has already been made and work begun on the North Dakota penitentiary, and Senator Squire sees no reason why Washington could not have her $30,000 for a penitentiary. He has presented a statement of the penitentiary situation in Washington, containing the facts about Judge Hanford sending to the state penitentiary at Walla Walla two prisoners, and their being turned away again. It had been inferred by the department of justice that the United States penitentiary at McNeil Island was sufficient for the $30,000 grant, but this was not believed by those informed, and Senator Squire has no doubt but his amendment will be adopted.
“Senator Squire sees no reason why Washington could not have her $30,000 for a penitentiary.”
State-level infrastructure funding battles have been a fixture of Washington politics since statehood. Squire’s attempt to leverage federal debt to build the prison system highlights the long-standing friction between Washington's rapid growth and the federal government's slow-moving bureaucracy.
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