California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has ear­marked $136 mil­lion in addi­tion­al funds to build a new death row at San Quentin State Prison. In 2003, the California State Legislature had autho­rized $220 mil­lion for the same project, but the plans were put aside when cost esti­mates increased. The cur­rent esti­mate is $356 mil­lion to com­plete the con­struc­tion of the 768 new cells need­ed to reduce San Quentin’s sig­nif­i­cant over­crowd­ing. California already has the largest death row in the coun­try, with approx­i­mate­ly 660 inmates. In 30 years, the state has car­ried out 13 exe­cu­tions.

Many mem­bers of the leg­is­la­ture oppose spend­ing such a large amount of mon­ey on death row facil­i­ties. Assemblyman Jared Huffman said he was ​“extreme­ly dis­ap­point­ed” by the bud­get allo­ca­tion, espe­cial­ly giv­en that Gov. Schwarzenegger has also pro­posed bud­get cuts to social programs. 

Steve Kinsey, Supervisor of Marin County, California, also not­ed, ​“At a time when the gov­er­nor’s bud­get is going to put chil­dren on the street, it is absurd to be spend­ing $400,000 a bed for con­demned pris­on­ers.”
(“$136 mil­lion request­ed for new death row at San Quentin,” by Richard Halstead, Marin Independent Journal, January 10, 2008). See Costs.

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