San Quentin Rehabilitation Center


San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, formerly known as San Quentin State Prison, is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County.
Established in 1852, and opening in 1854, San Quentin is the oldest prison in California. The state's only death row for male inmates, the largest in the United States, was located at the prison. Its gas chamber has not been used since 1993, and its lethal injection chamber was last used in 2006. The prison has been featured on film, radio drama, video, podcast, and television; is the subject of many books; has hosted concerts; and has housed many notorious inmates.

Facilities

The correctional complex sits on Point San Quentin, which consists of on the north side of San Francisco Bay. The prison complex itself occupies, valued in a 2001 study at between $129 million and $664 million.
As of July 31, 2022, San Quentin was incarcerating people at 105% of its design capacity, with 3,239 occupants.

Death row

Men condemned to death in California were, in general, formerly held at San Quentin. Most of the former death row population, with some exceptions, have been moved to general population in other California institutions as of May 28, 2024. These transfers have been arranged to comply with Proposition 66 and are being managed by the Condemned Inmate Transfer Program of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Of the 598 condemned inmates in California as of February 5, 2025, only 9 remained at San Quentin, with the last 9 inmates expected to also be transferred after completing needed medical or psychiatric care. Despite the transfers, the condemned inmates remain under sentence of death at their new institutions.
Condemned women are held at Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla. As of December 2015, San Quentin held almost 700 male inmates in its Condemned Unit, or "death row". As of 2001, San Quentin's death row was described as "the largest in the Western Hemisphere"; as of 2005, it was called "the most populous execution antechamber in the United States." The states of Florida and Texas had fewer death row inmates in 2008 than San Quentin.
The death row at San Quentin was divided into three sections: the quiet "North-Segregation" or "North-Seg", built in 1934, for prisoners who "don't cause trouble"; the "East Block", a "crumbling, leaky maze of a place built in 1927"; and the "Adjustment Center" for the "worst of the worst". Most of the prison's death row inmates resided in the East Block. The fourth floor of the North Block was the prison's first death row facility, but additional death row space opened after executions resumed in the U.S. in 1978. The adjustment center received solid doors, preventing "gunning-down" or attacking persons with bodily waste. it housed 81 death row inmates and four non-death row inmates. A dedicated psychiatric facility serves the prisoners. A converted shower bay in the East Block hosted religious services. Many prison programs available for most inmates were unavailable for death row inmates.
Although $395 million was allocated in the 20082009 state budget for new death row facilities at San Quentin, in December 2008 two legislators introduced bills to eliminate the funding. The state had planned to build a new death row facility, but Governor Jerry Brown canceled those plans in 2011. In 2015 Brown asked the Legislature for funds for a new death row as the current death row facilities were becoming filled. At the time the non-death row prison population was decreasing, opening room for death row inmates. the San Quentin death row had a capacity of 715 prisoners.

Executions

All executions in California take place at San Quentin. The execution chamber is located in a one-story addition close to the East Block. Women executed in California are transported to San Quentin by bus before being executed.
The methods for execution at San Quentin have changed over time. Prior to 1893, the counties executed convicts. Between 1893 and 1937, 215 people were executed at San Quentin by hanging, after which 196 prisoners died in the gas chamber. The gas chamber was constructed by inmates in 1937. In 1995, the use of gas for execution was ruled "cruel and unusual punishment", which led to executions inside the gas chamber by lethal injection. Between 1996 and 2006, eleven people were executed at San Quentin by lethal injection.
In April 2007, staff of the California Legislative Analyst's Office discovered that a new execution chamber was being built at San Quentin; legislators subsequently "accuse the governor of hiding the project from the Legislature and the public." The old lethal injection facility had included an injection room of and a single viewing area; the facility that was being built included an injection chamber of and three viewing areas for family, victim, and press. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger stopped construction of the facility the next week. The legislature later approved $180,000 to finish the project, and the facility was completed.
In addition to state executions, three federal executions have been carried out at San Quentin. Samuel Richard Shockley and Miran Edgar Thompson had been incarcerated at Alcatraz Island federal penitentiary and were executed on December 3, 1948, for the murder of two prison guards during the Battle of Alcatraz. Carlos Romero Ochoa had murdered a federal immigration officer after he was caught smuggling illegal immigrants across the border near El Centro, California. He was executed at San Quentin's gas chamber on December 10, 1948.
On March 13, 2019, after Governor Gavin Newsom ordered a moratorium on the state's death penalty, the state withdrew its current lethal injection protocol, and San Quentin dismantled and indefinitely closed its gas and lethal injection execution chambers.

Programs

  • Prison to Employment Connection, A Better Way Out - Prison to Employment Connection is offered to inmates at San Quentin State Prison who are close to their release dates or have a scheduled Parole Board Hearing. After successfully completing a rigorous 14-week employment readiness program, inmates are invited to an Employer Day. Potential employers come to the prison to interview inmates, review their resumes, and offer guidance and support for potential employment upon release.
  • VVGSQ – Vietnam Veterans Group San Quentin – Although the group had been meeting for some time, the name officially began on April 7, 1987. In 1988 they started the annual Christmas Toy giveaway, giving toys to visiting children. In 1989 they began the annual scholarship fund for high school seniors. They spend their time raising money and since 1987 have given over $80,000 to the community.
  • The Last Mile started in 2011 under Chris Redlitz initiative. The program aims to give resources and mentorship to inmates to help them find their way into tech startup entrepreneurship and reduce the rate of recidivism.
  • The San Quentin Drama Workshop began at the prison in 1958 after a performance of Waiting for Godot the previous year.
  • The San Quentin SQUIRES program, which began in 1964, is reported to be the "oldest juvenile awareness program in the United States." It involves inmates at the prison interacting with troubled youths for the purpose of deterring them from crime, and was the subject of a 1978 documentary film Squires of San Quentin. In 1983, a randomized controlled study was published that found that the program produced no overall reduction in delinquency. The program was still functional as of 2008.
  • Since the 1920s, San Quentin inmates have been allowed to play baseball. Starting in 1994 inmates have played against players from outside the prison. The games occur twice a week through the summer. Originally the Pirates, the team of prisoners is called the "Giants" in honor of the San Francisco Giants, who donated uniforms to the team. A second team called the Athletics was later started, named after the Oakland Athletics. The team of outside players is called the "Willing". The umpires and fans are inmates, but the coaches on the field are volunteers. Although some people question the appropriateness of baseball games being held at the prison, officials believe "organized sports is a way to keep inmates occupied and perhaps teach a few lessons on getting along with others." These games were detailed in a Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel episode on June 20, 2006, and in several other documentaries.
  • San Quentin has the only on-site college degree-granting program in California's entire prison system, which began in 1996 and which is currently run by the Mount Tamalpais College.
  • No More Tears Program, co-founded by incarcerated men at San Quentin. This program is committed to stopping the violence in the community and changing the mindset. This program stays alive through donations, volunteers, and CDCR who come into the prison and become involved in the workshops with the incarcerated men: Changing the mindset, Response to Violence, Employability, Fixin' da Hood. All inmates and volunteers are working toward achieving the program's mission: stopping the tears of loved ones and family by being committed to stopping the youth from committing acts of violence.
  • The California Reentry Program at San Quentin, begun in 2003, "helps inmates re-enter society after they serve their sentences."
  • The San Quentin News is the only inmate-produced newspaper in California and one of the few in the world.

    History

Though numerous towns and localities in the area are named after Roman Catholic saints, and "San Quintín" is Spanish for "Saint Quentin", the prison was not named after the saint. The land on which it is situated, Point Quentin, is named after a Coast Miwok warrior named Quentín, fighting under Chief Marin, who was taken prisoner at that place.
In 1851, California's first prison opened; it was a 268-ton wooden ship named the Waban, anchored in San Francisco Bay and outfitted to hold 30 inmates. Some of the Waban's timber remains a part of the new hospital structure inside the prison. After a series of speculative land transactions and a legislative scandal, inmates who were housed on the Waban constructed San Quentin which opened its first cell block, nicknamed "the Stones", in 1854. Before being retired altogether, this initial unit would come to be used as a dungeon after newer additions were constructed atop it. The Stones, however, survive to this day and is thought to be California's oldest surviving public work.
According to the San Quentin Prison Museum, from the first day in 1852 until 1927, women were housed the same as men.
From 1913 to 1951, Leo Stanley performed numerous medical experiments on San Quentin's inmates.
Clinton Duffy was the warden from 1940 to 1952. He had fresh insights informing the reorganization of the prison structure and reformation of prison management. Prior to Duffy, San Quentin had gone through years of violence, inhumane punishments and civil rights abuses against prisoners. The previous warden was forced to resign. Duffy had the offending prison guards fired and added a librarian, psychiatrists, and several surgeons at San Quentin. Duffy's press agent publicized sweeping reforms. San Quentin remained a brutal prison where prisoners continued to be beaten to death. The use of torture as an approved method of interrogation at San Quentin was banned in 1944.
In 1941, the first prison meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous took place at San Quentin; in commemoration of this, the 25-millionth copy of the AA Big Book was presented to Jill Brown, of San Quentin, at the International Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
In 1947, Warden Duffy recruited Herman Spector to work as assistant warden at San Quentin. Spector turned down the invitation to be assistant warden and chose instead to become senior librarian if he could institute his theories on reading as a program to encourage pro-social behavior. By 1955, Spector was being interviewed in library journals and suggesting the prison library could contribute significantly to rehabilitation.
The dining hall of the prison is adorned by six sepia-toned murals depicting California history. They were painted by Alfredo Santos, one-time convicted heroin dealer and successful artist, during his 1953–1955 incarceration. The murals were painted with a thinned, raw sienna oil paint directly to plaster as he was denied use of other colors to paint with.
Between 1992 and 1997, a "boot camp" was held at the prison that was intended to "rehabilitat first-time, nonviolent offenders"; the program was discontinued because it did not reduce recidivism or save money.
A corrections officer was fatally stabbed on June 8, 1985 when inmates stabbed him through the bars of their locked cell. The weapon they used was a spear that the inmates had made in their cell. In response officials tightened their contraband screening and later the same year discovered stashed bullets and gunpowder. Coroner's have reported finding shivs inside inmates bodies, hidden in the rectum to avoid detection.
A 2005 court-ordered report found that the prison was "old, antiquated, dirty, poorly staffed, poorly maintained with inadequate medical space and equipment and overcrowded." Later that year, the warden was fired for "threaten disciplinary action against a doctor who spoke with attorneys about problems with health care delivery at the prison." By 2007, a new trauma center had opened at the prison and a new $175 million medical complex was planned.
In 2020, the prison became the center of a COVID-19 outbreak, after a group of prisoners were transferred to San Quentin from the California Institution for Men in Chino, California. Initial reports suggested that San Quentin officials were told that the new inmates had all tested negative; however, few had been tested at all. By June 22, at least 350 inmates and staff had tested positive, in what a federal judge called a "significant failure" of policy.
In March 2023, California governor Gavin Newsom announced a "historic transformation" of the then-called San Quentin State Prison as part of a project to improve public safety through a greater focus on rehabilitation and education. As part of the project, the prison was renamed San Quentin Rehabilitation Center and an advisory group of rehabilitation and public safety experts was formed to advise the efforts.