San Quentin begins prison reform – but not for those on death row – By Madeline Halpert (BBC News) / March 16, 2024
California is transferring everyone on death row at San Quentin prison to other places, as it tries to reinvent the state’s most notorious facility as a rehabilitation centre.
Many in this group will now have new freedoms. But they are also asking why they’ve been excluded from the reform – and whether they’ll be safe in new prisons.
Keith Doolin still remembers the day in 2019 when workers came to dismantle one of the United States’ most infamous death chambers.
He was in his cell at San Quentin prison on the north side of San Francisco Bay, watching live footage on television showing an execution chair – where 194 people had been put to death – carried away after more than 80 years of use. The green gas chamber being taken apart was just several hundred feet from where he sat.
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