San Quentin is California’s oldest prison. It was opened in 1852 and is in Marin County, near San Francisco. The prison has a normal capacity of about 3,000 prisoners but has held more than 5,000. Its official name is the California State Prison at San Quentin.
San Quentin is a maximum security prison. Such institutions hold prisoners convicted of violent crimes, and offenders who have been imprisoned repeatedly. Overcrowded living conditions and racial tensions have resulted in many killings, riots, and suicides at the prison. In 1983, a Marin County court found that due to conditions at the prison, most prisoners at San Quentin had suffered “cruel and unusual punishment.” Such punishment is forbidden by the U.S. Constitution. Some prison experts have urged that the prison be closed.
The prison administration works to provide counseling, education, and other programs for the prisoners. But conditions at San Quentin have made any reform of prisoners extremely difficult.
