San Quentin plan gets locked down
By: Ken Garcia
Examiner Staff Writer
04/01/09 1:01 PM PDT
It's official - San Quentin State Prison will not be held prisoner to speculative development.
This week the Senate Committee on Public Safety put on hold any plans to sell the 157-year-old prison in Marin, a proposal forwarded by Sen. Jeff Denham, a Republican from Merced. Denham has pitched the idea on the premise that the cash-strapped state could gain up to $2 billion by selling the waterfront property - and besides, he argues, why should convicted inmates get such wonderful views?
The only problem is that the state has already committed more than $400 million to rebuild the facility's notorious Death Row, which currently houses 619 men. And moving thousands of prisoners to already-overcrowded facilities, is, well, legally-challenged.
The American Civil Liberties Union said that Denham's bill would complicate appeals by Death Row prisoners, and the city of Folsom, believed to be a logical future home for Death Row's relocation, is not interested in expanding its prison business.
Denham believes Death Row should be moved to a "better, cheaper'' place. It's an old argument - in the past 20 years, at least six bills have been forwarded to the legislature to close San Quentin and they've all been quietly blocked.
Denham's self-styled "out of the box'' solution could come back later this year. We suggest he move on to other prime real estate ventures.
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