California Gov. Gavin Newsom is planning to spend $360 million demolishing a sprawling former furniture factory at San Quentin State Prison and replacing it with something reminiscent of a college campus
. Many inmates said they’re excited for more programming spaces, but others remained skeptical.
The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation started soliciting contractors to design the new campus before lawmakers approved the budget, and a firm has been hired with plans to start construction next year. Lawmakers waived the historic preservation requirement and an environmental impact review to speed up the project.
In exchange for approval, they added a provision to the budget giving them access to key data on the operational capacities of prisons across the state, which they say will help determine which to shut down. California has roughly 15,000 empty prison beds, a number that’s expected to grow. “We’re the oversight, supposedly,” Lackey said. “So how can you oversee something that has such minimal amount of communication?”
Newsom told reporters in August that there would be “formal” and “informal” engagement about the San Quentin project with the Legislature throughout the process, but the state needs to act with urgency.
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