Quantity 26.4 linear feet , (9 record cartons, 4 manuscript boxes, 1 flat box, 1 map case file ) Collection Number WCMss.057 Summary The Washington State Penitentiary was established in 1887 in Walla Walla, WA as Washington Territory's first prison. The Washington State Penitentiary records contain publications, reports, photographs, scrapbooks and oral history interviews that document life and administration at the penitentiary. Repository Whitman College and Northwest Archives
Whitman College and Northwest Archives
Penrose Library, Room 130
345 Boyer Avenue
Walla Walla, WA
99362
Telephone: 5095275922
Fax: 5095264785
archives@whitman.edu Access Restrictions
Collection is open for research.
In 1874, the Washington Territory legislature passed a bill which transferred all individuals convicted of felonies into a prison run by private contractors. The prison was built in Bucoda, WA, formerly known as Seatco, and in exchange for housing the men, the contractors were allowed to use them as unpaid laborers. As news of the poor conditions and abuse that occurred in the prison began to circulate, a growing public outcry led the territorial legislature to begin building Washington Territory's first prison. In 1886, lawmakers appropriated 96,000 dollars for the purchase of land and the construction of the buildings in Walla Walla, WA. The first prisoners arrived at the new penitentiary in 1887, and by 1901 it was designated as Washington State's maximum-security institution.
Throughout the first half of the twentieth-century, the Washington State Penitentiary was severely overcrowded, and prisoners were often confined in small steel cells all day. The inhumane conditions were frequently covered in the media, and contributed to several destructive riots. In February, 1957, Bobby J. Rhay became the warden of the Walla Walla Penitentiary. Following a series of reforms mandated by Governor Daniel J. Evans and Director of Institutions, Dr. William Conte between 1969 and 1970, Rhay worked to enact changes that radically transformed life at the penitentiary. Some of the reforms included the end of mail censorship, the right for prisoners to dress in their own clothes, fair hearings for rule infractions, and an elected inmate council that had a voice in the governance of the institution. The Walla Walla Penitentiary received national attention for these radical and experimental reforms. In the early 1980s, increasing violence among prisoners and guards, combined with changing philosophies about the purpose of incarceration, resulted in an end to the reforms.
The Washington State Penitentiary records include publications, administrative records, photographs, scrapbooks and oral history interviews from the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Washington. Publications were produced primarily by people incarcerated at the prison, but were also created by and for corrections officers. The publications are of particular research value in that they document the experiences of people living and working in the Washington State Penitentiary. Administrative records contain reports and evaluations of the penitentiary, theater and variety programs put on by the inmates as well as handbook and employee guides. The collection also includes newspaper clippings and magazine articles that document the Washington State Penitentiary.
All of the publications in this collection have been digitized as a part of Reveal Digital's project, American Prison Newspapers, 1800s-present: Voices from the Inside. Publications available on Reveal Digital's site are gathered from multiple institutions across the United States, and are organized by publication title.
Donated to the Whitman College and Northwest Archives by the Washington State Penitentiary and Bobby J. Rhay. The accession numbers are retro-0056 and retro-0570.
This collection was reprocessed in 2017 to improve the housing of the materials.
Researchers may also be interested in the Robert A. Freeman papers. Freeman worked at the Washington State Penitentiary between 1948 to 1975 as the staff psychologist and Associate Superintendent.
The Jim Blodgett photographs of Washington State Penitentiary collection is a valuable visual resource on the prison. James (Jim) Blodgett was warden at Walla Walla State Penitentiary from 1988 to 1992, but the creator of these photographs is unknown.
This series contains publications written by and for inmates at the Washington State Penitentiary. They often feature news from different departments, updates from sporting events, poetry, fiction and opinion pieces. This series also contains cartoons published by a correctional officer and The Communique, which was the official newsletter for correctional officers.