On July 1, 1909, Seattle retires the chain gang and opens the Municipal Workhouse and Stockade on Beacon Hill. Prisoners serving jail sentences of 15 to 63 days are sent to the wooden enclosure to work at clearing some 200 acres of dense woods for Jefferson Park. "Physical and moral hygiene at the stockade consists of eight hours of hard work in the open air with three substantial meals a day and frequent baths" (Seattle Post-Intelligencer).
Lazy Husband Ranch
Until this time, city prisoners were shackled together and employed on public works projects such as bridge and street repair. The new stockade consisted of a portable fence that enclosed five acres. Inside were three zinc-lined bunkhouses for 72 men, which were nearly as secure as the city jail. Three meals a day were provided at a cost of 45 cents per prisoner per day, a savings over the cost of feeding the men at the jail. Four guards watched over the inmates. Prisoners could be thoroughly cleaned every day. The enclosure could be moved as the land was cleared.
Because some of the prisoners were men serving sentences for failure to support their families, it earned the nickname "Lazy Husband Ranch."
Jefferson Park was developed as a golf course in 1915 and the prisoners worked on the landscaping. The stockade closed in 1918.
