[Vision2020] Kevin Coe Didn't do his time

[Tom Hansen]

Andreas stated:

" . . . if we're going to treat it [civil commitment] as a civil adjunct 
to the criminal justice process, it has to be therapeutic rather than 
punitive."

The McNeil Island Special Treatment Center falls under the purview and 
management of the Washington State Department of Social and Health 
Services, NOT the state correctional system.

The treatment provided to resident patients of the center is detailed on 
their website at:

http://www1.dshs.wa.gov/hrsa/scc/TreatmentProgram.htm

Fukrthermore,

"Each Special Commitment Center (SCC) resident has a right to an annual 
review hearing before the court of commitment to evaluate the resident’s 
progress in treatment.  If the court finds that the resident has made 
progress to the point that the resident can be safely managed in the 
community, the court may order the resident’s conditional release to a 
less restrictive alternative(LRA) community placement."

"Conditional Release" is explained on the center's website at:

http://www1.dshs.wa.gov/hrsa/scc/ConditionalRelease.htm

The "less restrictive alternative" is fukrther explained on the center's 
website at:

http://www1.dshs.wa.gov/hrsa/scc/LRA.htm

It is my impression that the McNeil Island Special Treatment Center is NOT 
the "Devils Island" you portray it to be.

A brief history of McNeil Island is accessible from Wikipedia at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McNeil_Island
 
"It was named in 1841 by Charles Wilkes during the United States Exploring 
Expedition in honor of Captain William Henry McNeill of the Hudson's Bay 
Company. McNeill was at Fort Nisqually in 1841 and greeting Wilkes upon 
arrival in southern Puget Sound.

The Robert A. Inskip expedition of 1846 named the island Duntze, after 
Captain John A. Duntze of the Royal Navy. In 1847, during the British map 
reorganization project, Henry Kellett restored the earlier name McNeil.[2]

The United States government bought land on McNeil Island in 1870 and 
opened a federal penitentiary there in 1875. Its most famous inmate was 
probably Robert Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz," who was held there from 
1909 to 1912. By 1937 the federal government, which had been accumulating 
parcels of land adjacent to the penitentiary, had purchased all the land 
on the island and compelled its last residents to leave. Charles Manson 
was an inmate from 1961 to 1966 for trying to cash a government check.

Washington state took over the penitentiary from the federal government in 
1981. It is now called McNeil Island Corrections Center (MICC). The state 
claims, erroneously, that it has been a territorial, federal, and state 
prison. In fact it was never a territorial institution, the territorial 
penitentiary was first located at Seatco (now Bucoda), then relocated to 
Walla Walla (where it stands to this day as the state penitentiary). It is 
the only prison left in North America that is only accessible by boat or 
air. It is presently the site of the state's primary Special Commitment 
Center (SCC), where sexually violent predators are committed for treatment 
after completing their standard prison sentences."

Granted, it isn't exactly Coronado Island (with its four-star hotel and 
amenities in southern California), but the Special Treatment Center is 
geared toward treatment, not punishment.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho




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