“I live 200 feet from the ocean, but I can’t stick my feet in it,” said Doolin. Each room has a toilet, sink and a steel-frame bed. It’s hard to see the water or much of anything outside for those imprisoned in East Block, which houses death row, with five floors of roughly 4ft by 10ft cells stacked on one another – “like sardines in a can”, Doolin said. A tall watchtower near the edge of the shore overlooks the walled complex, which has four large cell blocks and a maximum-security facility. San Quentin prison, established in 1852, sits on a peninsula north of San Francisco, with picturesque views of the bay and a long, winding bridge that disappears into the fog in the distance. Many are left pondering: what does it mean to leave death row if you’re still sentenced to execution? And if the governor is serious about reform, will they ever get to experience life outside of prison? In dozens of interviews with men living through the final days of San Quentin’s death row facilities, some described a fresh sense of hope, while others spoke of their deep anxieties and fears about the change. The 546 San Quentin residents on death row will continue to have death sentences, but will be transferred to the general population of prisons across the state – which is likely to give them some basic amenities and small freedoms of movement they’ve been denied for decades. Newsom, who halted executions in 2019, has pledged to close the housing units that make up death row, the largest in the country, to make way for the “pre-eminent restorative justice facility in the world”. In March, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he would be transforming San Quentin, one of the oldest and most notorious prisons in the US, into a “rehabilitation center” modeled after facilities in Norway, which have few restrictions and prioritize comfortable conditions and preparing people to come home. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Imagesīut Doolin may not be living under these conditions much longer. San Quentin state prison, in California’s Bay Area.
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