A 400-FOOT-LONG CHUNK of a 20-foot-high wall inside San Quentin Rehabilitation Center was demolished recently to make way for a new rehabilitation building proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The more than 100-year-old wall, known as the South Wall, is a relic of history made of bricks laid by captive labor. Over the years, the red bricks have been covered in thick coats of beige paint. Correctional staff and the incarcerated population were allowed to vandalize the wall with graffiti before it was demolished.
“The wall will be accessible for two days,” Warden Chance Andes informed the San Quentin population on their tablets. “Staff will be able to write on one side and the incarcerated population on the other.”
Orange construction cones and yellow tape cordoned off a makeshift entryway through a chain-link fence securing the demolition site. Correctional officers carrying green spray paint cans and incarcerated people with black Sharpie markers sprinkled past a posted guard to say goodbye to the wall.
Reminiscent of the Berlin Wall coming down to mark the end of the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, an inscription was written that said: “Mr. Newsom Please Tear down this Wall” — a message echoing then-President Ronald Reagan’s request to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
For more than 100 years, guards have stood atop this wall with rifles in hand, peering down at the lower yard, and walking back and forth between guard towers. They have stood on its perch witnessing an infamous history of untold violence and bodies lying dead from the harsh realities of prison life.
The demolition is supposed to pave the way for a new culture in California prison — a culture where officers feel safe and the incarcerated are treated more humanely, according to Newsom. It’s also supposed to set the stage for training, reentry skills and other tools to help prisoners become better neighbors when they return to society.
Demolishing the past
The idea for writing graffiti on the wall was born out of the mind of incarcerated person Jessie Milo, a cartoonist and activist, who convinced Andes, the San Quentin warden, to legalize graffiti for a day.
“The original idea was to have a place where people could get rid of past trauma and resentments and have them demolished with the wall,” said Milo.
Besides the inscription calling on Newsom to tear down the wall, there were a lot of people asking to be freed.
One message said, “live and love.” Officers wrote their names in big bold letters. Milo drew his cartoon on the wall. He and others also wrote calls to action like “end the death penalty,” “end involuntary servitude” and “end solitary confinement.”
Some of these wishes seem to have already come true. Condemned row is cleared out and the death chamber is being dismantled. Solitary confinement is being used a lot less often in California.
It now takes an act of violence to be placed in an Administrative Segregation Unit, referred to as “the hole,” according to an October 2023 memorandum from California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Jeff Macomber.
Also this November, involuntary servitude may come to an end as Proposition 6 heads to the ballot. If Prop 6 is approved by voters, it will amend California’s Constitution so incarcerated people cannot be disciplined for refusing to work. Slowly but surely, some trauma is being relegated to the past.
For more than 100 years, guards have stood atop this wall with rifles in hand witnessing an infamous history of untold violence and bodies lying dead from the harsh realities of prison life.
But not everyone was enthused with Milo’s idea to write graffiti on the wall. Most prison staff and incarcerated people did not choose to graffiti the wall.
“It’s all just propaganda,” said incarcerated person Deandre Brumfield as he watched people sign the wall.
“People just want to be able to say they were here,” he said. “All this writing on the wall is just delaying the demolition.”
Building the future
For more than a month, construction crews drew chalk lines, dug deep holes in the asphalt road next to the wall, and planted poles to install a 12-foot-high fence to cover for this missing wall. A green artificial turf tarp hung like a shower curtain on the fence, blocking a pedestrian’s view. Atop the chain-link fence were loops of barbed razor wire slinkying along the length of the fence to prevent escape. Over the next year, three two-story buildings will be built to become the premiere education and vocational training center inside the prison.
Programs like The Last Mile’s Code.7370, San Quentin News, Ear Hustle and Uncuffed podcasts and Forward This Productions will be located in these new buildings. They will also include space for Mount Tamalpais College and Robert E. Burton Adult School.
Architects have also shared designs that include a stage and auditorium, an outside lounge area, coffee and snack shop, and a rooftop balcony with a clear view of the ocean. Lots of trees, plants and forestry and some wildlife will have access to the grounds to give the new center a university campus appeal.
This new rehabilitation center will likely become Newsom’s lasting legacy on prison reform in California. Macomber, the CDCR secretary, has made plans to help by bringing about a new era, known as the California model, where four pillars will be the foundation for corrections moving forward — dynamic security, normalization, trauma-informed care, and peer support.
By doing this, the governor and CDCR secretary hope to end a violent toxic culture they say leads to the shortening of the lives of those who live and work in the prisons.
The new rehabilitation center campus is expected to be completed and open by January 2026.
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