Story at a glance
- California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced Monday he will transition all death row inmates at San Quentin State Prison to live with general population at other prisons.
- San Quentin State Prison is home to the country’s largest death row section.
- Corrections officials have moved 116 male death row inmates to one of seven maximum security prisons under a two-year pilot program .
California will put the country’s largest death row out of commission, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced Monday.
After placing a moratorium on all executions three years ago, Newsom will now move all death row inmates housed at San Quentin State Prison to other maximum-security prisons in the state, according to The Associated Press.
“The prospect of your ending up on death row has more to do with your wealth and race than it does your guilt or innocence,” Newsom said, according to the outlet. “We talk about justice, we preach justice, but as a nation, we don’t practice it on death row.”
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The governor’s goal is to transform the death row block into a “positive, healing environment,” Newsom said.
San Quentin’s death row inmates will be moved to housing normally used by those serving life without parole over the next two years, Vicky Waters, a spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation told Forbes.
California carried out its last execution in 2006, but the state still has hundreds of inmates on death row.
Corrections officials launched a voluntary two-year pilot program in January of 2020 that has moved 116 of the state’s 673 male death row inmates to one of seven other maximum-security prisons. The program has resulted in “no safety concerns, and no major disciplinary issues,” Waters told the outlet.
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