History
A MORE COMPLETE HISTORY...
The Progressive Era of American politics, from about 1890 to 1920, produced a variety of reforms, including new ideas on how criminals should be treated.
In 1909, the City of Seattle built a stockade to house prisoners convicted of low-level crimes. They would be guarded, but not chained, and would work to clear land and improve roads.
In 1913, the State of Washington passed a “Family Desertion" law. It was commonly, though informally, called the “Lazy Husbands” Act. Husbands or fathers convicted under this law would be imprisoned and assigned to work on public works projects. In exchange their families would receive $1.50 per day.*
Expecting an influx of prisoners following this law, King County built another stockade north of Ballard, and in 1915, it was replaced with a portable facility near Bothell.
In 1916, the portable stockade building was moved to Redmond. There the stockade was almost immediately closed due to expense issues, but was reopened in 1917.
This Redmond site was located on the County Farm, and stockade prisoners frequently acted as farm laborers.
Scroll through these pages to see excerpts from the 1913 Session Laws of the State of Washington, including the full text for the Family Desertion law. The index shows the informal name "Lazy Husbands Act".
*Adjusted for inflation, a daily wage of $1.50 would be almost $50. Contemporary Washington state prisons offer some of the highest hourly wages in the nation for incarcerated individuals: up to $2.85 per hour for select jobs.
The stockade was in operation at King County Farm, or "The Willows" site in Redmond, until 1932, when it was permanently closed.
The final closure of the stockade coincided with the onset of the Depression.
At a time when cutting costs was a priority for many Americans, those found violating liquor laws often preferred to serve a sentence at the Stockade, rather than pay a $250 fine.
These fines had been a significant source of funding for the Stockade. Then, with the end of Prohibition, they disappeared entirely.
By 1932, all prisoners were transferred to city and county jails in Seattle.
The stockade building burned down on August 2, 1939. Arson was suspected, but the cause was ultimately unknown. It was said that the only thing left after the fire was the iron bars from the cells.
The whole County Farm property was sold in 1942. Over the following years, several suggestions were made to reopen a stockade somewhere, most recently in 1952; but these attempts were never realized.
