Los Angeles (USA), February 20 (EFE).- California presented this Friday the San Quentin Learning Center, a project to transform the historic prison more than 170 years old, which housed the state’s execution chambers.
Governor Gavin Newsom inaugurated the 7,500-square-meter renovation project, which is part of the first in a series of renovations that promise to make San Quentin the most innovative prisoner rehabilitation center in the United States.
The learning center has been one of the Democratic governor’s goals to modernize the state’s prisons, which has suspended executions.
“With the opening of this learning center, we demonstrate that rehabilitation and public safety go hand in hand, and that hope is a powerful tool to achieve safer communities,” Newsom said when presenting the work.
The construction and renovation, which took 18 months, connects three buildings that house a technology and media center, an education center and a workforce community space.
The center includes a cafeteria, recording studios, reading spaces, as well as classrooms overlooking San Francisco Bay.
“For the first time in years, many will be able to see the water that they have been able to hear for a long time,” highlights a statement from the Governor’s Office about the work that cost $239 million.
San Quentin is the oldest prison in California and has housed some of the most infamous inmates over the years.
Since taking office in 2019, Newsom issued an executive order suspending executions in the state. California has not executed prisoners since 2006.
In 2022, the Democrat began the transfer of inmates who remained on San Quentin’s death row to other prisons so that they would mix with the general prison population.
The governor highlighted that this new approach has caused violent crimes in the state’s large cities to have decreased by approximately 12% in 2025 compared to 2019 data, due to a decrease of approximately 29% in robberies and 12% in homicides.
Additionally, he highlighted that victims and survivors of crime benefit from the increased accountability that results from effective rehabilitation programs. In a ratio of almost 3 to 1, survivor groups prefer sentences that hold people responsible and include programs that prevent recidivism, according to their figures, according to data provided by the Government. EFE
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