Our Place in Walla Walla #15: The Penitentiary

This week, the Whitman Wire features a story about a recent tragedy at the Washington State Penitentiary (WSP), one of our state’s four maximum security prisons (“close custody”) and, until the Washington Supreme Court ruled the state’s death penalty statute unconstitutional in 2018, the location of Washington’s Death Row and the facility where the state executed convicted inmates.

The Penitentiary—sometimes referred to as “Concrete Momma”—is a massive and often “invisible” influence on our region (although, covering 540 acres, it can definitely be seen). It houses approximately 2,400 men from all across Washington, making it the largest correctional facility in the state. Opened in 1886, approximately 1,100 people are employed by the prison as corrections officers, contract workers and other roles, making it the fourth largest employer in Walla Walla County. (Lots of helpful general background and history about the WSP is available at Wikipedia.)

In the Wire story, Elena Schenkenberg ’24, who has taken classes at WSP, reflects, “The prison isn’t talked about very often, and it’s visually separated from us. By bringing it to the forefront of the conversation, we can start to get more support and advocates for prisoner rights, both in and out of those walls.”

For many years, the college hosted the Whitman College Prison Research Group (PRG), an interdisciplinary initiative that every month brought Whitman faculty and students together with professionals from local law enforcement and the various corrections institutes (WSP along with the county’s Juvenile Justice Center and the County Jail). Topics of importance would be discussed and often research collaboratives were developed that could benefit community partners and also serve as meaningful academic efforts for students and faculty. (For instance, a 2009 project estimated that WSP accounted for nearly 10% of the local workforce). Former WSP Superintendent Dick Morgan recently told me that he recalls a Whitman student figuring out the early efforts by city leaders to locate the penitentiary in our community rather than another part of the state!

A combination of factors, including COVID-19, the retirement of some of the PRG’s founding faculty members and significant changes in the Washington State Department of Corrections approval timelines for research initiatives that would make most student projects impossible, put the PRG into a state of dormancy.

This absence of attention on the Penitentiary has been noted by people on and off campus. Norrie Gregoire ’89 is the Court Services Director and Juvenile Court Administrator for the Walla Walla County Corrections Department and a frequently-consulted local expert on law enforcement issues.  He recently shared, “I’ve had very little connection to WSP other than participating in the Prison Research Group meetings many years ago that professor Farrington and others hosted on campus. I have toured parts of the facility two or three times and did run into some incarcerated individuals I knew from their local youth justice days. That was disconcerting. They were glad to see me but I was saddened but not surprised based on their conduct and challenges as youth.”

However, even though they may not be as visible as the Prison Research Group, students do have many opportunities to connect with the Penitentiary. Here are a few ways that the two institutions are interacting:

Classes: One of the leaders of the collaboration is Senior Lecturer of Philosophy & General Studies Mitch Clearfield, who for several years has taught a popular class based at WSP comprised of students from Whitman campus as well as incarcerated students, who receive Whitman College course credit.

This semester, two classes at WSP are offered, one of which is Clearfield’s Applied Ethics class (PHIL 219), and the other is Dean of Students Kazi Joshua’s Dialogue, Difference and Social Justice class (IRES 215A).

(Clearfield noted that it takes many partners at WSP and Whitman to make this partnership work and highlighted Sheena Bates, a Classification Counselor at WSP who has been partnering with his classes and reading groups, and “unwavering financial and moral support” from Provost and Dean of Faculty Alzada Tipton.)

Next semester, Clearfield is teaching a Restorative Justice class (PHIL 218) at the prison, and Professor of English Sharon Alker will offer a new class called Being Human, which focuses on studying the way creative work captures the multifaceted dynamic experience of being human (ENGL 200).

Volunteer: Alanna Sherman ’24 notes, “A lot of Whitman students have been volunteering with The STAR Project. At STAR, we are currently working on helping Whitman students fill out the necessary paperwork to volunteer at the WSP to get involved with reentry work, religious programming, community organizing initiatives, etc. Over a year ago, myself and other students organized a book drive on campus and all of the books were distributed to teachers working inside WSP who were in need of more books for their classes. Some members of cultural groups inside the penitentiary (such as the Black Prisoners Caucus, AAPI, etc.) have organized cultural events that are open to the broader Walla Walla community, and some Whitman students have helped fundraise and attend those events.”

In addition, Casey Tait ’24 facilitates a reading group with both folks who are and are not experiencing incarceration, where, on a weekly basis, participants read and discuss fiction books with literary representations of mental health issues, and share and develop personal creative projects, such as poetry.

Interested students can email Tait and/or Sherman for more information.

Research: Whitman College houses the administrative records of the Penitentiary in the Archives at Penrose Library for students who want to research without having to go through the Department’s complex process.

Consistent with Whitman’s Memorandum of Agreement with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), students can also pay attention to how WSP supports indigenous inmates. In the past few years there have been significant ceremonial and cultural initiatives, including a powwow in 2022, that are worth studying.

In conclusion, Whitman community members can gain an understanding of our region by tapping into existing connections with WSP and also exploring possibilities for new ones. Students, I invite you to join Elena and Alanna and Casey in creating new ways to leverage Whitman’s unique location not even two miles from the Penitentiary to develop distinctive and compelling opportunities for future students. Brainstorming with faculty mentioned in here, as well as others, including Assistant Professor of Sociology Chris Wakefield, will bring new ideas to the discussion table and increase Whitman’s involvement with a fascinating and complex local partner.