Hard Labor on the Hill
As the Seattle county jail hits capacity, the sheriff puts inmates to work clearing brush on the city's hills.
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.
The county jail is filling up so rapidly that the authorities have concluded to set the inmates of that establishment to work clearing the brush from the Court House block, on the hill. It is thought that when it becomes known that the inmates of the county jail are compelled to perform hard labor, there will be fewer persons there.
“It is thought that when it becomes known that the inmates of the county jail are compelled to perform hard labor, there will be fewer persons there.”
Today, Seattle's relationship with public spaces and unhoused residents remains fraught with similar debates over the 'visibility' of poverty. The 1885 logic of using incarceration as both a punishment and a labor resource for public works prefigures modern tensions regarding work programs and the carceral state in Seattle.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.