Washington State Penitentiary


Washington State Penitentiary is a Washington State Department of Corrections men's prison located in Walla Walla, Washington. With an operating capacity of 2,200, it is the second largest prison in the state and is surrounded by wheat fields. It opened in 1886, three years before statehood.
It was the site of Washington State's death row and where executions were carried out, until the Washington Supreme Court ruled the state's death penalty statute unconstitutional on October 11, 2018, thereby abolishing capital punishment in the state. Methods for execution were lethal injection and hanging.
Located at 1313 N. 13th Avenue, it is commonly known as "the Walls" among inmates and "The Penn" to the locals. The penitentiary is sometimes known as Concrete Mama, from a book with the same title by Ethan Hoffman and John McCoy. Elsewhere within Washington, and also to an extent in the surrounding states, the name Walla Walla is a metonym for the penitentiary. The penitentiary was the subject of the song "Walla Walla" by American punk rock band The Offspring.

Notable incarcerated persons

Washington State Penitentiary opened in 1886, making it the oldest operational prison in Washington state. Over a one-year period, starting in March 2002, more than one hundred inmates and staff at the Washington
State Penitentiary were infected with Campylobacter jejuni. During this period, five clusters of the infection
were identified, and genetic testing indicated that all of the bacteria were indistinguishable from each other.
The source of this outbreak is not known, but contamination via pigeon feces, as well as unsafe food handling
procedures, were examined.

Organization

The penitentiary has five groups: