Episode 23- Not-So-Fantasy Island!

On The Edge with Mike Peacock

The research into the last episode of the now infamos Horizon Air theft and subsequent crash on Ketron Island led me down another path that resulted into me wanting to tell the story of another famous island in Washington State: McNeil Island. Located in very close proximity to Ketron Island, McNeil was once a federal penitentiary that housed Mafia era gangsters, an infamous ornithologist, a presidential candidate, and a future cult leader! After relinquishing federal control of the island to Washington State, it finally ceased to be a prison and subject of the department of corrections, and now houses a highly controverial "rehabilitation" center for the states highest level sex offenders. Faced with lawsuits, maintenence challenges, and an astronimical budgetary requirement, we ae faced with several qustions. Do we continue to allocate resources to it? Do we open a new facility in a more budget friendly, mainland location? Do we cease the entire program alltogether and release the most abhorrent of offenders back into the population? And is the Now-DSHS run program operating according to its mandate and actually running a successful program, or is it violating basic human rights laws, misapropriating funds, and "warehousing" residents as opposed to working toward actual solutions. You be the judge!