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Lucy Nicholson / Reuters
Administrative segregation prisoners take part in a group therapy session at San Quentin state prison in San Quentin, California, on June 8, 2012. All photos made available to msnbc.com on July 11, 2012.
Chris Willis, 34, works out in the exercise yard at San Quentin state prison on June 8, 2012.
Reuters photographer Lucy Nicholson secured rare access to San Quentin state prison, California's oldest correctional facility and the location of the state's only gas chamber.
In 2001, The New York Times described San Quentin's death row as "the largest in the Western Hemisphere."
This November Californians will vote on a proposition to repeal the death penalty in the state. KCET reports that California has 725 inmates on death row, all of whom would serve a life term without the possibility of parole should the initiative be passed.
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Albert Ruiz, 50, who is on death row for murder, is led down a corridor at San Quentin state prison on June 8, 2012.
The entrance to death row at San Quentin state prison, June 8, 2012.
Inmates walk through San Quentin state prison on June 8, 2012.
Marvin Caldwell, 63, who said he was imprisoned for 20 years under the three strikes law for possession and sale of methamphetamine, looks out of his cell at San Quentin state prison on June 8, 2012.
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Anyone that is SO violent that they have to be put in a CAGE... why are they still alive? Very aggressive unrepentant murders should just be put to death.
That seems so simple doesn't it? Taking these killers and giving them a taste of their own medicine.
Society will just put another band-aid on a gushing wound. No murderer was born that way. They were shaped that way through the experiences and environments of their upbringing. You might be appalled at the alarming statistics of killers who were brought up abused in every way themselves. Rather than let your tax dollars feed the prison system, it could go toward something useful that would foster less crime, like education or family support.
But impatient girl, most of the population agrees with you. So lets kill them all: rapists, murderers, and thieves and not think twice about why they are like that in the first place.
This "impatient girl" is out for blood... What this idiot does not realize are several things, and she is most likely a right wing christen idiot; Letting violent people off the hook by laying them down, injecting them with a nice little substance so that feel good before putting them to sleep forever, is, 'off the hook'. What ever happened to "thou shall not kill" The cost of killing a person in this system is infinitely more costly than putting them in population and letting them fend for themselves which is a daily challenge and many times fatal in and of itself. Actually this @!$%# girl is a bit of a murderer herself. Lock the bitch up before she kills.
The death penalty obviously is no deterrent and more costly than keeping them locked up. Otherwise, this looks like a mighty fine prison to me: choice of recreation, cosy cells, clean linen, free food and medical care. Why don't they make these people work for their upkeep? Prison should be a punishment not a free ride. As far as GCK-WYO's statement that no murderer is born that way but a product of his/her environment, that notion has been abolished long ago. There are people with perfectly fine parents who end up committing heinous and incomprehensible crimes. There are also people with abusive and otherwise horrible parents who become productive, law-abiding people. I do agree with your notion of having more tax dollars go to education and family support, but tell a Republican that.
Lets use them as stunt men in movies!!
Put to death....you gonna do it? Probably a christian too.
\
Hey JedBoy, take your "thou shall not kill" bullcrap comment somewhere else. They killed, now they're afraid to loose their own life while taxpayers are supposed to be paying the bill for them to "keep fit" and persuing a life of crime. Fry 'em, save taxpayer dollars, and open up the cell for the next looser that blames someone else for his bad decisions.
Those prison cells look really nice compared to what I've seen in other states. The facility I worked at was bare bones and didn't allow inmates to have a lot of what I see in these pictures.
Where is OUR state supplied TV and cable?
Oh I forgot, I have to pay for it.
Ironic that if you try to steal it they'll put you someplace where it's FREE... that is to say those that pay taxes pay for it, and meals, and lawyers, and courts, and, and, and...
How about you WORK in one of those facilities sometime. Those TV's help the staff control the inmates as well.
The state does not pay for Tv's Cabel ect. Inmates pay for it as well as pay for the civilian employees that work for inmate canteen, and money made above that goes to inmate welfare fund to purchase everthing from bath soap to cable tv, so get off it.
Clearly a violation of their civil rights. Give these guys a few therapy sessions, show them a little tough love, and they could be productive members of society once again! I'm sure they would promise to stay out of trouble if they were granted pardons so why not give em a second chance?
The only way they could help is by making our communities more beautiful... You know, by helping daisy grow...
you gotta be @!$%#tin me
Dale - You can't be serious! Do you know what the recidivism rate is for violent offenders? If all it took was a couple of therapy sessions to set these guys straight our prisons would be empty.
"...and they could be productive members of society once again!"
They were never productive members of society in the 1st place and have had 2nd and 3rd chances, and maybe a 4th and 5th. These jerks are hopelessly incorrigible and psychologically institutionalized. They get "respect" on the inside and are labeled as losers on the outside. It's no wonder most of them re-offend and go back where they had "status."
Wow. I sure hope that is sarcasm I am reading...
Clearly some folks do not grasp sarcasm...
Inside Look at nothing more than a Cheap hotel....
dam no wounder people are not scared to go to prison... All these repeat offenders should be DEAD!!! and there should not be TV's or any time of work out equipment... wat happened to the good days when we made prisoners work all day and break up rocks for no reason!!!!
LMAO, great sense of humor!
It's nice to be free ....
And they are there for a reason.
I feel sorry for anyone of them that are in there that aren't guilty.
private owned prisons are big money makers for senators wives and they can raise cattle too! and get large grants and use gmo modified food lets experiment!
some states now have more incarcerated than free, feel sorry for the 3 strikers for drugs as that's a social problem, murder is number one eye for an eye? they let out child abusers but keep in drug addicts? hmmm Im ranting while it is still legal
Ask any of them there if they are guilty?
some states now have more incarcerated than free
I sincerely doubt that, Karen.
They should market some of those cages for secure computer desks. They would sell big!
in the last pic, why the bubble tv? why no flat panel?? the prison needs to get with the times. walls are bare too. how about some nice paintings? this is so bland
Yeah, I bet he gets cable, too. I don't even have television, because where I live, if you don't have cable, you can't get free to air....and I can't afford cable.
Isn't California having a problem paying its bills? Why add more?
I have driven past this prison just north of San Francisco. It looks tough from a distance. Last year I was working in Roseville California and purchased a new nav from Fry's. I had to try it so I typed in Folson Prison and it took me right up to one of the entrances. Folsom looks nice from where I was at but I'm sure it is as tough as Johnny Cash thought it was.
I made loads of friends when I was in the El Paso County Jail. I would commit a crime just so I could go back but I'm not inhuman.
This is just my opinion of course, but I think a lot of problems could be solved by making the prisoners truly work for their food and shelter by making them do the jobs that most people don't want to do. For instance, they could work in the fields, growing food, pulling weeds, picking crops, etc. If every prison had their own fields to grow their own food (making the prisoners deal with it all), the prisons could be at least partially self-supporting. The only food they would get is what they themselves grow.
Most of them wouldn't like it, therefore it could help cut down on crime in the first place. And if they know that they won't eat if they don't do well with the farming, they are sure to work hard at it. The surplus could be given to the homeless or sold to grocers, and the money made could also help support the prison population.
I just feel that they have it WAY too easy and need to not only pay their own way, but learn the meaning of being self-sufficient. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are MANY ways that they could be made to pay their own way, so to speak!
Paying their own way has been tried and works in some cases. But a lot of things that seem simple turn out to have complicated downsides. Anything prisoners can access has real potential for abuse, sometimes deadly abuse. And many are masters at psychological manipulation and deception.
So getting them to pay their way sounds easy but is not so simple. Just the increase in the amount of oversight is costly. With State budgets already cut to a minimum and people unwilling to budge an inch on taxes, good luck trying to get any start-up costs past a local representative.
Well hell, sounds like the idea from the Arizona Sheriff to make them wear pink underwear and let them sleep outside in 110 degree heat and work all day, doesn't sound so bad after all.
Learning --- MANY prisons have just such programs as you suggest. Perhaps not to the extent they should, but they do have such programs and where they exist, they have often been found very effective. However, remember, these and all prisons must keep security in mind. Also, it is not unknown for prisons to set up programs of some kind and then have the outside VOTING citizen pitch a bitch because they themselves, who have never offended, demand those jobs for themselves.
We waste too much money on these fools .. just kill em all ...
I for one do not like paying for food, medical, library, gym, bball courts, weights and everything else for a bunch of UN-human animals ...
On death row ? Give them 5 years Then a 9 between the eyes Costs less than a buck...
Home of the brave
Land of the free
Reading everyone's comments it is clear we are on the favored course of locking them up and throwing away the key.
-except when that knock comes on my door. Oh, wait. It has. Now I'm out and the cop is behind bars. Can't always tell who's who by the clothes they wear.