CDCR says it has moved approximately 222 of the individuals on San Quentin’s death row to 20 prisons throughout the state since February 26, when mandatory transfers began. The process of emptying death row started with a pilot volunteer transfer program in January 2020, during which 104 death-sentenced people were moved.
By the time CDCR has completed the transfers—and the goal is to complete the process in the next month or two—all 640 death-sentenced individuals will be living in prisons located as far north as Pelican Bay in Crescent City to Calipatria Prison in Imperial County. The 20 individuals imprisoned at the Central California Women’s Facility have been moved to different cells in the general population and will remain there.
Once the transfers have been completed, the 528 single-person cells in East Block, which housed all those sentenced to death except women, will be empty. CDCR says it is considering two options for the vacated space to make it possible for the state to “improve living conditions across San Quentin to house people humanely.” Those options include retrofitting East Block and creating a “mix of improved housing units and appropriate day-use common spaces such as kitchens, study, living room, to promote rehabilitation in the space;” or tearing it down and building “cost-effective, modular housing that meets present-day institutional living standards.”
San Quentin State Prison has officially been renamed the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.