McNeil Island is a 6.6 square mile island located in south Puget Sound, lying 2.8 miles across the water from the nearest town. The site was utilized for 142 continuous years as an island-based penal institution, beginning in 1869 with a jail built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In 1909 the facility became a federal prison, the McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary, which was transferred to the State of Washington in 1981 and renamed the McNeil Island Corrections Center. In 2011 the state closed the prison, and as of 2019 the facility is run by the Department of Social and Health Services as the state's primary Special Commitment Center.

This image shows nine inmates wearing caps and gowns standing on stairs outside the prison, holding diplomas from Clover Park High School (CPHS). At least through the 1950s, local students from Anderson Island and McNeil island attended secondary school at CPHS, so it is possible that incarcerated youth also completed their educations through the school. CPHS was established in 1938 in Lakewood, Washington.

Caption information sources: "McNeil Island and the Federal Penitentiary, 1841-1981," by Daryl C. McClary, HistoryLink.org Essay 5238; and "McNeil Island Corrections Center, 1981-present," by Daryl C. McClary, HistoryLink.org Essay 5239.
Caption information source: "Anderson Island: Named for Hudson's Bay Co. Trader by Lieut. Wilkes," The Seattle Sunday Times, September 21, 1958, p. 103.