There is quite a battle going on in California over the future of the San Quentin State Prison. The prison at San Quentin houses the state's death row inmates. It is crowded and run down...and placed on what some developers see as prime real estate. For now, the governor has approved the building of a new prison facility. Its difficult to say whether it will go through, however. Opponents of the project feel that the real estate is too valuable and that there is no reason that the state's death row population cannot be housed throughout the state's other prisons.

California currently has the largest population of condemned inmates. That said, it rarely holds an execution. I have mixed feelings about the new prison but 90% of them favor it. The 10% that doesn't is concerned that a bigger prison with more cells and more security will just encourage more death row prosecutions. There probably is no connection, but that's my mind set. The other 90% is gung ho for the new facility (whether at San Quentin or elsewhere in California).

First and foremost, the conditions at San Quentin can use improving (incidentally, from what I understand, conditions there are already better than say Florida and Texas but that doesn't mean they are adequate). Second, I vehemently disagree with the idea of dispersing the death row inmates throughout the California prison system. Such a move would cause these inmates to be lost in the shuffle. I fear that any executions that do occur would be less likely to be subject to media scrutiny. As one source was quoted saying "It's very important that executions not become a total abstraction in the minds of the public. We're talking about living, breathing people with nerve endings and families." My fear is greatly heightened when I consider the fact that rural state prisons make access to the state's court systems and its public defenders much more difficult.

So, do I want them to expand death row? No. Do my feelings about the need for improved conditions override that? For now, Yes.

Death row real estate / Tug of war over San Quentin's future creates unusual alliances