San Quentin getting another transformation to further focus on rehabilitation

Shortly after he took office in 2018, Governor Gavin Newsom set out to change the state's penal system, beginning at San Quentin. He vowed to change the dark legacy of California's oldest prison, and now, the work has begun in earnest.

It looks the same from the outside; its forbidding facade towers overhead like a medieval castle. But a lot of people don't realize that San Quentin isn't what it used to be. It's no longer a maximum-security prison, more like medium-security, and at the beginning of next year, the entire function of the place is going to change.

"The goal really is to have it be the last stop before people go home," said Kevin McCracken, executive director of a vocational training group called Last Mile.  "And so, if you've got about two years before you go home, San Quentin's going to be the place to be." 

It's called the "California Model," and the work has already begun. New buildings are being constructed with cells that will look more like small apartments rather than cages. It's being patterned after the prison system in Norway, and San Quentin will soon be the place for people approaching release from other prisons to get ready for the transition.  

The facility will feature a cafe and food trucks, all operated by inmates. It will have a farmers' market with produce from outside vendors, as well as the facility's gardening program. And there will be lots of vocational training, like the computer coding classes by Last Mile that began years ago in San Quentin and is now offered in institutions across the country.

"So, it's really going to expand the ability for people who are incarcerated in San Quentin to have more access to education as well as they're going to have a very strong re-entry program," said McCracken. "They're partnering with some of the current re-entry programs that are in the facility, and others from outside."

One of those could be CROP, an Oakland-based re-entry program that actually offers housing for those just getting out. The program supports the former inmates as they take their first step back into the world. They opened the brand-new three-story apartment complex in 2023, and in the past two years, they have a record that would be hard to improve upon.

"We have a recidivism rate of 0 percent," said CROP Executive Director Terah Lawyer.  "With almost 200 people going through our program, that is a huge win for the State of California."

In the past, inmates were just thrown back into the community and many of them simply failed.

"Their prison sentence continues well after they are released from prison," said Lawyer.  "And this is not increasing our safety in our communities. It is not setting people up for success to stimulate our local economy. And it is not saving taxpayer dollars."

It costs taxpayers about $160,000 per year for each person incarcerated, and Last Mile's McCracken said the people who will complain that California is coddling its criminals don't understand how much they are paying to keep them behind bars.

"There's a lot of people that are naysayers about this, but the facts are the facts," said McCracken. "And I think if we stick to the numbers, and we look at the decrease in recidivism, the decrease in additional crime that happens when you truly work with people and rehabilitate them, the answer's really clear. You know, I don't think anyone can really argue the numbers."

The new facility will hold around 2,400 inmates, about a thousand less than now, and will cost about $240 million to construct.  

But here's the most important number: 2026.  In January of the new year, San Quentin will officially stop being a prison and become a rehabilitation center. And a new legacy will have begun for what was once the state's most notorious prison.