The US state of California has pledged to dismantle the country’s largest death row, San Quentin Prison, by transferring sentenced inmates to other prisons within two years.
The goal is to turn the section of San Quentin State Prison into a “positive and healing environment,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who imposed a moratorium on executions in 2019 and closed the lethal injection chamber.
Although California has not carried out an execution since 2006, it is one of 28 states that maintain death rows, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
“We are beginning the process of closing death row to repurpose and transform the current housing units into something innovative and anchored in rehabilitation,” corrections department spokeswoman Vicky Waters told the AP.
Under the Sentenced Inmate Transfer Pilot Program, which kicked off in January 2020, 116 of the state’s 673 sentenced male inmates have been transferred to one of seven other maximum-security prisons, which house people serving life sentences. no parole.
According to Waters, the government will soon introduce proposed regulations that would make these transfers mandatory and “allow for the reuse of all death row housing units.” Meanwhile, Newsom, in his budget proposal for the fiscal year that begins on July 1, has requested about 1.5 million dollars in funds to carry out this project.
Under the state’s transfer program, sentenced inmates transferred to other prisons may be placed in solitary or disciplinary confinement if officials decide they cannot be safely housed with other inmates for disciplinary reasons, either because they have pending charges or have been convicted of certain disciplinary offenses in the last five years.
The corrections department assured that all inmates who participate in this transfer scheme are “carefully screened” before being transferred, both in terms of security risks, such as medical ailments or psychiatric or behavioral needs, among other considerations. Waters says there have been no “safety concerns” or “major disciplinary issues” to date.
