San Quentin, photo by Julie Vader via ShutterstockOPINION – As both a survivor of violent crime and someone who has had loved ones who are incarcerated, I commend Gov. Gavin Newsom for his bold new vision for California’s most infamous prison, San Quentin. In words and action, his administration is elevating the urgency to make corrective rehabilitation real in California, and creating
Ken Oliver of Checkr.orgCAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: We are joined today by Ken Oliver, Executive Director of Checkr.org, the philanthropic arm of Checkr. Oliver joined us to talk about his journey from prisoner to philanthropist, the flaws in California’s re-entry program and about SB 809, the Fair Chance Expansion and Protection Act of 2023, which would ensure that conviction history does not prevent qualified candidates from finding employment.
A view of San Quentin State Prison in Marin County with Mt. Tamalpais in the background. (Photo: Ameer Muscard-Afcari, via Shutterstock)Scores of California’s condemned prison inmates are being removed from their cells on San Quentin’s death row and sent to eight high-security lockups in the state’s sprawling penal system. The transfers follow an executive order by Gov. Gavin Newsom halting executions in California. The governor also has vowed to remodel San Quentin’s death row, where executions have been conducted for generations.
The watchtower at a California state prison (Photo: Joseph Sohm, via Shutterstock) OPINION: Fifteen years into a 41 years-to-life sentence, I arrived at San Quentin — the home of Death Row. I immediately noticed the difference between the treatment of condemned people and of general population people, like myself. Anytime condemned people left their cell they were shackled at the waist and feet. As they moved through the corridors and walkways, all general population people were told to face the wall.
Chuck Pattillo, former general manager of the California Prison Industry Authority. (Photo: CalPIA)The head of the California Prison Industry Authority, an internationally known agency that trains inmates for such diverse occupations as carpentry, deep-sea diving, computer coding and farming, is retiring after more than a decade on the job.
Federal Judge Thelton Henderson in his chambers shortly before retiring. (Photo: Screen capture, Capitol Weekly)As the judge climbed the watchtower stairs in Pelican Bay prison, he heard muffled gunshots below. When he reached the top, he looked into the prison yard and saw bodies lying in the dirt. One was his law clerk, spreadeagled on the ground in his suit, alongside dozens of inmates. Guards stood over them, guns aimed. “My clerk was thinking he’s gonna die and this is his last day on earth,” Judge Thelton Henderson recalled.
San Quentin prison, as seen from San Francisco Bay. (Photo: San Quentin News, prison newspaper)ANALYSIS: What if, instead of building prisons in remote locations, we put them near cities, accessible to family members and to the resources — educational, vocational, therapeutic, recreational, cultural — that are scarce in most prison towns?