San Quentin

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February 21, 2012 | 8:14 AM | By

Occupy San Quentin protest large, peaceful

Nicole Jones

By Nicole Jones

Occupy brought the movement to San Quentin State Prison on Monday afternoon. Over 600 people peacefully assembled in front of the prison’s East gate to protest prison conditions. The San Quentin rally is just one of the 15 that took place as part of National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners.

On a stage outside of the prison gate, people spoke about the impacts of imprisonment for people behind bars and their communities. The protesters called for a number of reforms, including the end to the death penalty in California, the three strikes law, the practice of charging juveniles as adults and solitary confinement.

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FILED UNDER: Community, Occupy, Occupy Oakland, Prisons, San Quentin
February 8, 2011 | 2:06 PM | By

Judge Fogel tours San Quentin

Rina Palta

Protest over a planned death row expansion outside San Quentin State Prison

As part of an ongoing lawsuit over California’s lethal injection procedure, federal district Judge Jeremy Fogel visited San Quentin State Prison today to examine the prison’s lethal injection facility. Fogel has been presiding over a six-year court battle that put executions on hold in 2007. At issue is whether the lethal injection process, as performed in California, leaves too great a risk that an inmate will experience serious pain while dying.

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FILED UNDER: Capital Punishment, Corrections, Capital Punishment, Execution Drugs, Judge Jeremy Fogel, San Quentin
January 3, 2011 | 1:30 PM | By

Prison Dispatch: Beyond “scared straight”

CDCR

Can talking with prisoners help at-risk youth?

By Richard Gilliam

Relations between prisoners and guards can best be described as contentious. No group of people wishes to be subjugated to another–whether they deserve it or not. And those in authority are only human: their treatment of prisoners runs the gamut from compassionate and caring to contemptuous and sadistic. Most of the time there is little common ground between these two groups. But on weekends, inside the walls of San Quentin, some prisoners and guards set their differences aside and come together to serve a higher cause.

On Fridays and Saturdays, prisoners participating in a group called R.E.A.L. (Reaching Expanding Adolescent Lives) Choices and another known as S.Q.U.I.R.E.S. (San Quentin Utilizing Inmate Resources, Experiences, and Studies) along with off-duty officers and outside volunteers host groups of at-risk youth. Kids from continuation schools and group homes tour the prison and inmates give down-to-earth talks about the realities of drug abuse, gangs, and crime. The youth see first hard the unadorned consequences these actions lead to.

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FILED UNDER: Corrections, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Prison Dispatch, Prisons, San Quentin
December 16, 2010 | 9:04 AM | By

Prison dispatch: Warehousing mental illness

California Prison Health Care Services

The new medical facility at San Quentin is considered state of the art. General consensus is mental health care still has a long way to go.

By Richard Gilliam

Upon entering Donner Section, one of four cell blocks used by San Quentin officials for administrative segregation–the others are Alpine, Badger, and Carson–one is overwhelmed by the noise. Inmates call, yell, and scream from behind steel bars to one another, the sound reverberating off the cement inner walls until it becomes a cacophony. There are five tiers, with 50 cells each. All but the first tier cells contain one man each. The bottom tier is used to house reception status inmates who are double celled because like the rest of the system, West Block and the gym are full.

The men here have all been segregated for disciplinary reasons–for fighting or assaulting other inmates, some for possession of drugs or weapons, and other because they are unable to conform to behavior expectations. It is here, behind locked doors, out of view of the public eye, that one realizes the pervasiveness of mental illness within the prison system.

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FILED UNDER: Corrections, Prison Dispatch, Prison Overcrowding, San Quentin
December 1, 2010 | 5:20 AM | By

How did California’s prisons become so overcrowded?

Yesterday, I wrote about a case at the US Supreme Court that will decide whether or not California will be required to release as many as 40,000 prison inmates. Above is a radio piece I did on the same topic. It gets into the background of the court case: how California’s prisons got so over-stuffed and why courts haven’t been able to fix the problem yet.

FILED UNDER: Corrections, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Prison Overcrowding, Prisons, San Quentin, US Supreme Court
November 19, 2010 | 11:24 AM | By

The state could release 40,000 inmates soon. Where will they work?

Green jobs fair at San Quentin State Prison. Courtesy of Kirk Crippens.

Kirk Crippens

Yesterday, our San Quentin columnist, Richard Gilliam wrote about the difficulty of finding work with a felony on your record. Today, the Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice released a report on the topic, with a twist. Over the next couple of years, the state may be required to cut the state prison population by 40,000 inmates: that’s 40,000 more people out and about, likely with no health insurance, and with limited access to welfare and state assistance. Also, the report points out, about 60-80 percent will (still) be unemployed one year after being released from prison.

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FILED UNDER: Corrections, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Reentry, San Quentin
November 10, 2010 | 8:01 PM | By

Marin County sues to stop death row expansion at San Quentin

The current death row is considered old and overcrowded. The new one, if built, would provide space for 1,408 inmates.

CDCR

In 2009, the California legislature approved a $356 million construction project at San Quentin: a new death row to house the state’s condemned male inmates. Now, as bids open for the contract for the job, Marin County is looking to put a stop to the project, at least temporarily. On Tuesday, lawyers for Marin filed papers in Marin Superior Court saying that as things stand, the state doesn’t have the right to begin building. At issue are three conditions the legislature placed on the funds for the project, put into the budget by representatives from Marin, Assemblyman Jared Huffman and Senator Mark Leno. First, they said, the state would have to explore whether it was legal to double-bunk death row inmates, a practice that’s used with lower security inmates. Second, two federal lawsuits regarding prison overcrowding would have to be cleared up. And third, the state would have to conduct an environmental impact report. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, when he signed the bill that included these conditions, used a line-item veto to take them out. Marin’s lawyers say that in doing so, the governor overstepped his legal authority. So they’re seeking a temporary restraining order on the death row expansion. We’ll have responses from the state’s lawyers as they come. Court papers after the jump.

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FILED UNDER: Capital Punishment, Corrections, San Quentin