California debates sale of San Quentin prison

Amid warm spring sunshine at San Quentin village just north of San Francisco, several women lay in bikinis along the bayshore beach. A dog fetched a ball in the sea and several kids played in sand.

A few hundred feet away from the relaxed waterfront scene, a din rose from the 5,500 prisoners locked inside California's oldest prison, San Quentin, a death row facility lined by palm trees in a spectacular setting.

Two political opponents visited the prison on Friday and called for its sale and dismantling, saying the 432-acre (175-hectare) facility was too costly and dangerous to keep operating.

"This is a bipartisan effort to basically sell this whole prison off," said state Sen. Jeff Denham, a Republican sponsoring legislation to sell it for what some estimate could be $750 million. "There are better places to utilize taxpayers dollars in this state."


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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8564411&src=rss/topNews

Just think of all of the executions that have taken place there.

:scared:

...millionaires living in ocean front former prison property get haunted by the ghosts of an innocent prisoner put to death

...Ahnold is finally beginning to "clean up his act" and address critical issues at San Quentin. Visitors have to sit in cages, many inmates are innocent and wrongfully convicted (having exculpatory evidence destroyed by LE), no rehabilitation....
In the coming months Ahnold will rename the Dept. of Corrections, "The Dept. of Rehabilitation and Corrections", in efforts to make himself look efficient and "concerned".

That's probably all this is. They can't get a billion dollars for incarcerating people. But San Francisco bay property is worth a mint.

....adds up quickly.

I hate to agree with a Pug, but it's broken down and a waste of valuable property. Sell the land and use some of the proceeds to build a new facility out in some desert rat hell hole like Baker.

"New schools" are operating in public parks, on the grass when it's sunny, and under the picnic area roof when it rains.
Prisons are highly profitable (slave-factories), schools are not.
San Quentin should have been condemned decades ago, but "it rakes in so much money"...

Prime Marin County water-front location. Anything less is going to be a windfall to the developers.

Gyre