Staff
SHERIEFFS AND DEPUTIES
The 1920 census indicates staff members may have lived at the Stockade.
In the excerpt below, the head deputy, and several deputy sheriffs are recorded in the same dwelling, alongside individuals marked as prisoners. You might also notice entries for the wives of Deputy Sheriff David Boyd and Deputy Sheriff Harold Larsen: Mary Boyd and Nora Larsen. The youngest resident appears to be Fred Larsen, Harold and Nora's 10 month old son.
As not much is known about the interior layout of the Stockade, we are only able to guess where employees and their families may have been housed. One possibility is a narrow, rectangular building east of the Stockade, just outside the prison wall. This would have allowed residents to come and go more freely, without disrupting Stockade security or operations.
Click Here to See a Map of the Stockade
PRISON TRUSTEES
As the County Stockade at the Willows was a prison for low-level offenders, prisoners could be designated as "Trustees".
Trustees received responsibilities and privileges, not available to all prisoners, typically in exchange for providing labor. One benefit might include ability to work various jobs within the stockade, or even to work outside the prison with little to no supervision.
For example, trustee jobs mentioned in newspaper coverage include including managing the boiler room, collecting the mail, leading cows in from the pasture, and working in the laundry
From the Collections of Eastside Heritage
L 92.002.008 - Men in field going back to stockade, 1926.
The photo comes from a 1927 article in the Seattle Post Intelligencer, and shows a prison trustee working in the laundry. It mentions that the laundry did daily washes, noting socks and underwear, and showing the prisoner hanging what appear to be shirts.
