Op-Ed: Here in San Quentin, I see why solitary confinement must end
The prison here in San Quentin has something about it that is distinctly different from any other prison I’ve seen. It is so vast and so far removed from the daily life of a typical prisoner that it feels more like a ghost town than a prison.
In an era of budget cuts, the need for prison buildings has been greatly reduced over the past few decades. However, San Quentin still retains a large and aging infrastructure that is costly to maintain. With the help of a few friends in the industry, I have been able to save the prison some money by sharing my vision of how I wanted to make the place more livable while also changing the culture of solitary confinement in the process.
Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, and the Washington Monument.
By the way, the Washington Monument was designed by Thomas Jefferson – not Thomas Lincoln.
The first thing I did when I arrived here was sit down with the warden and look over the facility that he had been assigned to. When he walked into my office I looked over his shoulder at the layout of the prison – the building and everything in it.
Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, and the Washington Monument.
I was very concerned about this prison. The layout was very different from all the others that I had previously seen. The prison was very old, as was its design and construction. The cells were small with no amenities whatsoever. Because the prisoners were in solitary confinement for the vast majority of their time, they were on a diet of bread and water.
For a number of years, I was the warden of the Los Angeles County Jail in the City of Los Angeles. I found this facility to be a wonderful example of using technology to make life in a jail better. However, there were some things that I had to do to make this prison viable.
During my time as warden, I realized that the inmates were often not treated well. They were given very little in the way of recreation and entertainment.
I found that these conditions were the perfect example of where technology could do something to solve a problem.
It was clear that I could make the prison more comfortable for the prisoners in solitary confinement.
It was a lot more difficult with a different structure to build. Building a prison out here in the middle of nowhere would be an enormous challenge. However, the concept was great