Connell, Washington — Railroad Junction Became a Prison Town

Connell began as Palouse Junction, a name so practical it barely qualifies as branding.

Rail lines met there and moved agricultural traffic into larger networks across dry Franklin County. Farming remained the durable economy even after the transportation system changed.

Coyote Ridge Corrections Center later altered both employment and population arithmetic. The state prison became a major institution, bringing corrections workers, contractors and government infrastructure into an agricultural city. It also means incarcerated people can represent a substantial share of the humans physically present nearby.

Connell still ships crops. It also contains a large population whose relationship with the town is unlike anyone else's: they cannot leave.