San Quentin State Prison
San Quentin State Prison is the oldest prison in the US state of California . It began operating in Marin County in July 1852 and covers an area of 1.7 square kilometers. San Quentin housed both male and female inmates until the Tehachapi Women's Prison was built in 1933 .
In particular due to the chronic overcrowding of the prison, which was designed for 3317 inmates, it is considered one of the most brutal prisons in California. The executions carried out here up to the abolition of the death penalty in 2006 caused a worldwide sensation . Since 1996 they have not been carried out by gas , but by injection of poison .
Death penalty in San Quentin
By 1937, 215 people had been hung to death in San Quentin ; 196 people died in the gas chamber until execution by gas was abolished in 1995 as a "cruel and unusual" punishment. The last method of execution used was lethal injection , with which eleven people were executed between 1996 and 2006.
No executions have been carried out since 2006 . In November 2018, two detainees, Andrew Urdiales and Virendra Govin , were found dead; Suicide is believed to be the cause.
Well-known executions
- Gordon Northcott (1906-1930)
- Louise Peete (1880-1947)
- Billy Cook (1928–1952)
- Harvey Murray Glatman (1927-1959)
- Caryl Chessman (1921-1960)
- William Bonin (1947-1996)
- Stanley "Tookie" Williams (1953-2005)
- Clarence Ray Allen (1930-2006)
Column from San Quentin
A San Quentin State Prison inmate named Dean Carter wrote periodically through 2011 about his daily life on death row . The website through which his columns are published with the help of someone he knows is called Deadman Talking .
Aryan Brotherhood
The racist , neo-Nazi American gang Aryan Brotherhood was founded in 1967 in San Quentin State Prison.
Musicians in San Quentin
- The country singer Merle Haggard spent for burglary three years in San Quentin, where he in January 1958 Johnny Cash saw live at a concert for the inmates of the prison on the stage. Deeply impressed by Cash and his music, Haggard started his music career after his prison sentence.
- On February 24, 1969, a concert by Johnny Cash was recorded by the British television station "Granada Television", during which interviews with prisoners and guards are shown. The accompanying album At San Quentin reached number 1 on the US country and pop charts.
- On May 25, 1990, BB King gave a concert for the prisoners, which was recorded and received an award in the 33rd Annual Grammy Awards in the category Best Traditional Blues Recording in 1990 (Live At San Quentin).
- On May 30, 2003, the band Metallica shot a video for their song " St. Anger " in prison. The band can be seen with some prisoners in the prison yard. The band gave an open-air concert for the prisoners.
Hollywood in San Quentin, San Quentin in the movie
Several American films refer to or play in San Quentin. Two films also have the name in the title: San Quentin (1937) by Lloyd Bacon and a film from 1946 by Gordon Douglas with Lawrence Tierney and Barton MacLane .
In 1993 the film Blood In, Blood Out by Taylor Hackford was released , which mainly takes place in the San Quentin prison and deals with the problem of gang wars in San Quentin.
Other former / known inmates
- Eldridge Cleaver
- George Jackson , Black Panther activist († 1971 when attempted to escape)
- Paul Kelly , actor (between 1927 and 1929)
- Charles Manson , cult leader, murderer († 2017 as a prisoner in Bakersfield , California )
- Richard Ramírez , serial killer († 2013 as a prisoner)
- Hans Reiser , former inmate, developer of the ReiserFS file system
- Danny Trejo , American actor
Documentation
- Louis Theroux: Behind Bars. In: BBC Exclusive , 2008, 43 minutes, by Louis Theroux .
Web links
- San Quentin State Prison , California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
- Information in English and picture of the former gas chamber
- Rudolf Olden: Retaliation or Education? The giant prison of San Quentin . In: Der Welt-Spiegel (Berlin) of February 10, 1929, pp. 4-5 (supplement to Berliner Tageblatt and Handels-Zeitung ) .
Individual evidence
- ↑ SF Gate: Inside Death Row, November 20, 2005
- ↑ Teresa A Zimmer, Jonathan Sheldon et al. a .: Lethal Injection for Execution: Chemical Asphyxiation ?. In: PLoS Medicine. 4, 2007, p. E156, doi : 10.1371 / journal.pmed.0040156 .
- ↑ AP : California Prison - Death row inmates found dead. November 6, 2018, accessed November 18, 2018 .
- ↑ site deadmantalking.com
- ↑ 33rd Annual GRAMMY Awards. November 28, 2017, accessed May 8, 2019 .
- ↑ Unlocking History: From Sammy Davis Jr. to Eartha Kitt, artists help rehabilitate inmates | Inside CDCR. Retrieved May 8, 2019 .
- ↑ Live At San Quentin (Remastered) | BB King | The Official Website of the BB King. Retrieved May 9, 2019 .
Coordinates: 37 ° 56 ′ 15 ″ N , 122 ° 29 ′ 20 ″ W.