California to Close San Quentin’s Death Row as Part of a Broader Prison Reform

Death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers in California will be moved out of San Quentin State Prison (pic­tured) and placed in oth­er max­i­mum secu­ri­ty facil­i­ties, as part of a broad plan announced by Governor Gavin Newsom on March 17, 2023. The gov­er­nor seeks to ​“trans­form” the state’s old­est prison into ​“a one-of-a-kind facil­i­ty focused on improv­ing pub­lic safe­ty through reha­bil­i­ta­tion and edu­ca­tion.” The state launched a pilot pro­gram in 2020 allow­ing some death-row pris­on­ers to vol­un­tar­i­ly move to oth­er state pris­ons. Under that pro­gram, more than 100 death-row pris­on­ers have already been trans­ferred out of San Quentin. The move does not reduce the pris­on­ers’ sentences. 

Under the exist­ing pro­gram, death-row pris­on­ers are ​“care­ful­ly screened to deter­mine whether they can safe­ly par­tic­i­pate” in the trans­fer, accord­ing to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. That has includ­ed a review of pris­on­ers’ behav­ioral records, med­ical and psy­chi­atric needs, and oth­er safe­ty con­cerns. Their con­di­tions of incar­cer­a­tion would then be sim­i­lar to that of pris­on­ers serv­ing life with­out parole, which include the oppor­tu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate in prison employ­ment and oth­er reha­bil­i­ta­tion activ­i­ties. Nevertheless, advo­cates have empha­sized the need to guar­an­tee trans­ferred pris­on­ers’ acces­si­bil­i­ty to coun­sel, the courts, and appro­pri­ate health care.

Governor Newsom imposed a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in 2019. Although the state has the nation’s largest death-row pop­u­la­tion, it has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion since 2006.