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.

The image shows inmates working in the McNeil Island shipyard on a sixty-five-toot boat, originally intended for use at Alcatraz but likely to be taken over by the army. The shipyard project was one of many activities through which inmates contributed to the war effort.

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 also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.