"I've often said the most interesting thing about me is where I grew up," says Colleen Frakes. "As soon as I tell people that I lived on a prison island, they have a million questions."
A million questions that all boil down to one: what was it like?
In her new graphic memoir, Prison Island, Frakes takes us back to 1992, the year her parents -- both corrections officers--first brought up the idea of moving to McNeil Island.
"First they asked ' How would you girls like to live on your very own island?' and my sister and I were like 'No. We're not interested.'"
But for ten years, they did live on McNeil, an island they shared with more than a thousand prisoners.
"We saw prisoners all the time but interaction with them was prohibited to frowned upon, " says Frakes. "And breaking the rules on the island meant your parents could lose their job. Your family could lose their house. You could get kicked off, so you tried to stay within those lines."
In 2011, the prison was shut down and residents had to move off the island.
"Everyone misses it and wants to go back and is very sad with the current state of affairs," says Frakes.
But with pen and paper, Frakes has found a way to go back to her childhood home and take the rest of us with her.
