Episodes

  • TRAILER: Forgotten Prison, a new podcast about McNeil Island

    TRAILER: Forgotten Prison, a new podcast about McNeil Island
    Jan 15 2019
    KNKX premiers Forgotten Prison on Jan. 22, a new podcast featuring McNeil Island — the Alcatraz you've never heard of.
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    2 mins
  • Episode 1: Forgotten

    Episode 1: Forgotten
    Jan 22 2019
    There are a thousand stories about McNeil Island. And odds are, you haven't heard any of them. In Episode 1 of Forgotten Prison, hosts Simone Alicea and Paula Wissel explain how we came to abandon one of the country's first federal prisons.
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    28 mins
  • Episode 2: Not a Prison

    Episode 2: Not a Prison
    Jan 29 2019
    While the prison on McNeil Island closed in 2011, Washington state still runs the Special Commitment Center there. It's where the state keeps "sexually violent predators" who have served their prison time, but are deemed too dangerous to release into society. Technically, the commitment center is not a prison, but the reality is more complicated.
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    31 mins
  • Episode 3: Designing Incarceration

    Episode 3: Designing Incarceration
    Feb 5 2019
    The abandoned prison on McNeil Island and its 136-year history can tell us a lot about why we lock people up and how it has changed over time. Hosts Simone Alicea and Paula Wissel explore the decaying structures on the island to learn how the modern American prison system came to be.
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    37 mins
  • Episode 4: Island Life

    Episode 4: Island Life
    Feb 12 2019
    One obvious thing that made the prison on McNeil unique was its island location. In Episode 4 of Forgotten Prison, we hear from former guards, inmates and children who grew up there, as well as someone descended from island homesteaders, about life in and around an island prison.
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    31 mins
  • Episode 5: It Happened Here

    Episode 5: It Happened Here
    Feb 19 2019
    Studying the history of an American prison is really just a study in American history. Pick a major event, and odds are good you can find at least one story related to McNeil Island.
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    36 mins
  • Episode 6: Every Prison is an Island

    Episode 6: Every Prison is an Island
    Feb 26 2019
    McNeil Island is an especially forgotten prison. But, in the end, all prisons are forgotten in some way. In the last episode of Forgotten Prison, hosts Simone Alicea and Paula Wissel wrestle with why that is.
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    31 mins
  • UPDATE: Laura McCollum leaves the island

    UPDATE: Laura McCollum leaves the island
    Jun 18 2019
    Laura McCollum, who was profiled in Episode 2 of Forgotten Prison, has been conditionally released from the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island. Hosts Simone Alicea and Paula Wissel spoke with KNKX's Kirsten Kendrick about what that means.
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    9 mins