San Quentin State Prison

For the album by Johnny Cash, see At San Quentin.

San Quentin State Prison (SP)
Location:	San Quentin, California
Status:	Operational
Capacity:	5,222 as of FY 2006/2007.
Opened:	1852
Managed by:	California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
Director:	Robert L. Ayers, Jr., Warden

San Quentin State Prison is a California State Prison located near the city of San Rafael, California, though the prison has its own zip code. Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is the oldest prison in the state, and the location of California's only gas chamber and death row for male inmates, although recent executions have been carried out by lethal injection. The correctional complex sits on Point San Quentin, which comprises 432 acres (1.7 km²) of waterfront along the north side of San Francisco Bay. Its position on otherwise desirable real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area has resulted in the net worth of the prison to be estimated at nearly $100 million, making it the most valuable prison in the world.

Current facility

The prison occupies 275 acres (1.11 km²) of waterfront land overlooking the bay and is estimated to be worth $250 million, making it the most valuable prison in the world. In addition, the annual operating budget of $210 million makes the prison the most expensive to operate on earth.

The prison complex has its own ZIP Code, 94974; the surrounding area is 94964. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay to the south and west and by Interstate 580 to the north and east, near the northern terminus of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.

San Quentin has the only on-site college degree-granting program in California's entire prison system, run by the Prison University Project.^[1][2]

History

The sprawling San Quentin prison complex.

Although numerous towns and localities in the area (and in California generally) are named for Roman Catholic saints, and "San Quintín" is Spanish for "Saint Quentin", the prison is not in fact 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.^[3][4]

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."^[5][6] Subsequently, inmates who were housed on the Waban constructed San Quentin which "opened in 1852 with 68 inmates."^[7] The prison held both male and female inmates until 1932 when the original California Institution for Women prison at Tehachapi was built.

In 1941 the first prison meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous took place at San Quentin; in commemoration of this, the 25-millionth copy of the A.A. "Big Book" was presented to Jill Brown, of San Quentin, at the International Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The use of torture as "an approved method of interrogation" at San Quentin was banned in 1944.^[7]

Alfredo Santos, one-time convicted heroin dealer and successful artist, painted six remarkable, 20-foot (6.1 m) sepia toned murals during his incarceration that have hung in the dining hall of the prison since 1955.^[8]

On February 24, 1969, Johnny Cash played a live concert, At San Quentin, for the prison inmates. The concert was released as an album and was filmed by Granada Television.^[9]

In 2003, Metallica filmed the video for the song St. Anger inside San Quentin, playing to enthusiastic inmates. In 2007, as part of their World-wide tour, Michael Franti and Spearhead played a show for almost the entire prison population.

In November 2006 the hip-hop group Flipsyde had a concert in the prison, which was not open for the public.

Notable current inmates

The San Quentin gas chamber originally employed lethal cyanide gas for the purpose of carrying out capital punishment. The chamber has since been converted to an execution chamber where lethal injection is used. Two chairs once sat where the restraining table is now located.

• Alejandro Avila - Rapist & murderer of five-year-old Samantha Runnion
• Lawrence Bittaker - serial killer convicted of torturing and murdering 5 young women
• Vincent Brothers - convicted and sentenced to death in the shooting and stabbing of 5 members of his family, including 3 children.
• Kevin Cooper - convicted and sentenced to death for the hatchet and knife massacre of the Ryen family.
• Tiequon Aundray Cox - sentenced to death in 1986 for the 1984 murders of four relatives of the former defensive back NFL player Kermit Alexander.
• Richard Allen Davis - convicted of kidnapping and murdering Polly Klaas.
• Scott Erskine - convicted of killing Jonathan Sellers, 10, and Charlie Keever, 13.
• Richard Farley - convicted of killing seven of his co-workers and nearly killing another, a female co-worker whom he stalked after she rejected him.
• Ryan Hoyt - Associate of Jesse James Hollywood, convicted of the murder of Nicholas Markowitz
• Randy Kraft - serial killer who was convicted of 16 murders and suspected of 51 others.
• Jarvis Jay Masters - convicted and sentenced to death for participating in the murder of prison guard Hal Burchfield.
• Michael Morales - convicted for the brutal murder of Terri Winchell
• Charles Ng - serial killer who tortured and murdered 11 people.
• Scott Peterson - convicted murderer of his pregnant wife, Laci and their unborn child, Conner.
• Richard Ramirez - serial killer known as "The Night Stalker"; convicted of killing 13 people.
• Hans Reiser - developer of the ReiserFS filesystem and convicted murderer of his wife.
• Morris Solomon Jr. - serial killer convicted of murdering 6 prostitutes in Sacramento.
• Cary Stayner - convicted murderer who killed 4 women in Yosemite, California.
• William Suff - serial killer convicted of murdering 12 prostitutes in Riverside County
• Marcus Wesson - convicted of killing nine of his family members.
• David Westerfield - convicted of kidnapping and killing 7 year old Danielle Van Dam
• Brandon Wilson - convicted in the 1998 slashing death of 9 year old Matthew Cecchi.

Notable former inmates

San Quentin up close.

• Clarence Ray Allen - Convicted for ordering the strangulation of Mary Sue Kitts and the shotgun killing of Bryon Schletewitz and wounding of seven others. Executed on January 17, 2006.
• Charles Bolles, alias Black Bart, an American Old West outlaw.^[7]
• William Richard Bradford - convicted of two murders in the 1980s, the Los Angeles Police Department revealed in July 2006 that there is cause to believe he was a serial killer responsible for several murders in the 1970s and 1980s. He died of natural causes while awaiting execution on March 10, 2008.
• Edward Bunker - FBI most wanted fugitive who reformed and became an author and actor. Was sentenced at age 17, the youngest inmate at the time.
• Caryl Chessman - Convicted rape offender, was given the death penalty in 1948 and executed in 1960; the last man executed in California for a sexual offense that did not result in murder.
• Billy Cook - Murderer of Carl Mosser, his wife Thelma, their three small children and motorist Robert Dewey; he died in the gas chamber on December 12, 1952.
• Juan Corona - Convicted of killing 25 people and sentenced to life without parole. He is currently at Corcoran State Prison.
• Joseph Cosey - convicted of various crimes; known for document forgery from 1913-1940 from historical United States figures.
• Henry Cowell - American composer convicted on a "morals" charge in 1936.
• Mack Ray Edwards - convicted child killer who committed suicide while on death row.
• Barbara Graham - Convicted murderess, executed in the gas chamber on June 3, 1955. Subject of the film I Want to Live! starring Susan Hayward.
• Leo Gordon - American character actor (TV and film) and screenplay writer. Sentenced to 4 years for armed robbery. Later part of a movie cast which filmed scenes inside San Quentin.
• Merle Haggard - The noted country singer, sentenced to 15 years time (he served 3 years) starting at age 19 for grand theft auto and armed robbery.
• Robert Alton Harris - The first person executed in San Quentin's gas chamber after the reinstitution of California's death penalty.
• Michael Wayne Hunter - Sentenced to death after the murders of his father and stepmother in 1981. Retried in 2002, sentenced to Life. Transferred to Salinas Valley State Prison.
• George Jackson - Member of the Black Panther Party, killed in San Quentin in 1971.
• Jang In-hwan - Korean independence activist who assassinated former American diplomat Durham Stevens in 1908^[10]
• Charles Manson - Leader of the Manson family. Transferred to Corcoran State Prison in 1989.^[11]
• S. S. Millard - Exploitation filmmaker
• James Mitose - Japanese American martial artist who brought the art of Kenpo to the United States starting in the late 1930s.
• Wallace Fard Muhammad - Founder of the Nation of Islam.
• Louise Peete - Convicted murderess, executed in the gas chamber on 11 April 1947.
• Abe Ruef - San Francisco political boss, for bribery
• Sirhan Sirhan - Assassin of Robert F. Kennedy. Was sent to Death Row at San Quentin in May 1969.^[12] After the California Supreme Court struck down the death penalty as cruel and unusual punishment, Sirhan was transferred to Correctional Training Facility.^[13] He is currently at Corcoran State Prison.
• Danny Trejo - Actor.
• Stanley Tookie Williams - Convicted murderer & early leader of the Crips street gang. Author and cause celebre. Executed by lethal injection on December 13, 2005.

San Quentin in media

• Underaged girls have sometimes been referred to as "San Quentin Quail", on the assumption that violators of California's minor protection laws could end up there. In the 1940 Marx Brothers film Go West, Groucho Marx plays a character named "S. Quentin Quale". There was also a 1946 Warner Brothers cartoon featuring a quail named and titled Quentin Quail.
• Two films were made with the title of San Quentin. The first, made in 1937, was directed by Lloyd Bacon. It starred Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, and Ann Sheridan. It was filmed at the prison.^[14] The second, made in 1946, starred Lawrence Tierney.^[15]
• House of Numbers, a 1957 film noir, depicts two brothers (both played by Jack Palance) in a plot to break out of San Quentin.^[16] One of Alfredo Santos' murals is shown during the scenes in the cafeteria.
• 1958's I Want To Live! depicted the story of Barbara Graham, who was executed in San Quentin's gas chamber. It was directed by Robert Wise and starred Susan Hayward.^[17]
• In 1993, a movie titled Blood In Blood Out, which was based on Mexican / Prison gang warfare in Southern California, was filmed in parts at the prison.
• MythBusters visited San Quentin in a 2005 episode to conduct research about a paper crossbow.
• Through the summer, groups of local, amateur baseball players gain access to the prison yard and play against the inmates in weekly games. Appropriately, the team of prisoners is called the "Giants" in honor of the San Francisco Giants, who donated old uniforms to the team. The team of outside players is called the "Willing". The only non-prisoners on the field are the opposing team - even the umpires are inmates and the only guards nearby are in the adjacent tower. These games were detailed in a Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel episode on June 20, 2006.
• Music legend Johnny Cash performed a concert for inmates at San Quentin in 1969. The performance was recorded and released later that year as an album entitled At San Quentin. The concert was also filmed by Granada Television. During the concert, the song "San Quentin", about an inmate's loathing of his incarceration, received such an enthusiastic response that it was immediately encored.

References

External links

• Official page at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's Web site. Accessed 06 Jan 2008.
• Clark, Richard. The gas chamber. Accessed 06 Jan 2008.
• California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Death Row Pictures. Accessed 06 Jan 2008.

• San Quentin State Prison is at coordinates