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Health & Fitness

Toolin @ Julin on McNeil Island

Utilizing McNeil Island makes dollars and sense! Existing facilities and resources can revive the economy and convicts, through sustainable repurposing, and Julin House could be the start!

The grating sound of metal scraping concrete rhythmically repeats as a Corrections Industries (CI) inmate edges a road on McNeil Island. Witnessing the Cedar Creek con clearing debris made me recall my childhood on McNeil and my interactions with the Federal trustee prisoners. Thinking of the community of families who lived there over the decades, engaging with the many cons who crewed the McNeil fleet for the fortunate, or not so fortunate, going ashore, I felt blessed to be part of the exclusive family that inhabited the restricted prison island.(See McNeil History map): http://www.historypin.com/channels/view/id/36133/#|map/index/#!/geo:47.204454,-122.684787/zoom:14/:

So while touring McNeil a few weeks ago in an advisory capacity, the silence and solemnity at Still Harbor unnerved me, as it was always alight with activity. It was home to our general store, gas station and wharf warehouse; with the magnificent Julin House overlooking it all from its harborside vantage point, as it has since 1893, when Charles and Ida Julin and their nine children, outgrew the small shack he’d bought on McNeil in 1884. Always bustling with activity, throughout all the various community occupations, nothing on McNeil happened without some involvement from the Julin home. Generations of islanders, whether pioneer, federal or state, traipsed under its all seeing elegant eaves, either while shopping or working at the store, buying gas or socializing up at the big house or one of its out buildings, or just while walking the dock to a boat ride across “Julin Bay,” as Still Harbor once was caused owing to the industrious family who started the store, post office and gas station. The Julin’s sold some of their orchard’s produce at the store but the bulk of it went to the prison, as all of it would after 1936.

As a lucky member of the un-incarcerated, I loved when the launch departed out of Still Harbor because it meant rough weather and that we might aid the inmates helping the Captain avoid drifting logs. Aiding the cons was fun and it felt good helping them in our common quest for safety. The camaraderie of the situation brought their capabilities to the fore as well all our humanity. Most McNeil kids, aka “Island brats,” enjoyed roaming around Still Harbor, watching the inmates stack pilings or coil mooring lines, while the wharf bounced back on its springs, protecting the warehouse contents. I felt safe when the inmates were nearby because the cons who worked among us were trustees, rewarded for good behavior and trained for handling on the job emergencies. Therefore a unique trust existed between us since we thought of them as mainly regular guys, so we never locked our doors because we knew it was in the trustees’ best interest to do well and that if a prisoner ever escaped he was sure to go off the island and not on! The nodding acquaintances we shared engendered growth in their socialization as they always treated us well, probably because most had loved ones they missed, and seeing us surely strengthened their resolve to finish their sentence and go home a free man.

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So watching the con scraping the road made me think of better days in CI, when McNeil was a model of sustainability and the land was put to good use with cons constructively serving their time learning skills and keeping McNeil mainly undeveloped. I hope the state will utilize the vast potential that McNeil holds, instead of letting it all rot, as Julin house is slowly doing, although thankfully it is so well made, like all McNeil structures, that it can easily be renovated and made useful again…

Fixing up Julin house could be the beginning of repurposing McNeil and also of salvaging people, as CI cons could learn carpentry skills, a good work ethic and a sense of purpose while restoring Julin to it’s former grandeur. They could also restore the island orchards, farms and prison industries, such as furniture making, which keeps the island self-sustaining while keeping costs down without competing against private industry; surely a win-win for all. This would ultimately help the state by improving the cons chances for successfully re-entering society and from losing all the multi-billions of taxpayer dollars invested in McNeil’s infrastructure since 1871, by keeping the Federal government from taking the island back.  

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Having cons restore Julin makes perfect sense, as well as dollars and cents. It’s been at Still for 120 years, it’s usefulness is proven as its hosted church services and been a guest house for people such as Oregon Trail pioneer Ezra Meeker, McNeil’s first inhabitant, and the land and animals are very suited to Julin and it’s limited habitation, as it affords a better windbreak than any stand of trees might. Restoring and using Julin might even bring back some deer and raccoon, whose numbers are down on McNeil because animals are opportunistic feeders and they’ve left McNeil for populated areas with easy pickings.  

Repurposing McNeil fits well with the Department of Justice Directive http://www.justice.gov/ag/smaexacrt-on-crime.pdf recently announced by Eric Holder, which intends lessening mass incarceration and its negative impact on society and the economy by creating diversion programs for non-violent first time offenders. Rehabilitation is exactly what McNeill was created for and it’s resources constantly improved for. So instead of grand structures sitting dormant while 300 sex offenders hold sway over the island at $258,000 a head, lovely homes and buildings that held lots of life, still could, and McNeil could again constructively serve the people of Washington state. Even the land seems willing, as I plucked and ate a well named Golden Delicious apple fresh off the tree at the old prison orchard, despite its not being cared for in thirty years. One can only imagine how sweet it would be for cons to sustainably use McNeil’s abundant resources again, while growing in self-determination, as they did under the Bureau of Prisons.

Here’s hoping Julin house is still standing strong at Still Harbor for a reason: better days ahead on McNeil Island!


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