California touts new educational center at San Quentin

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. (CN) — Crime victims typically don’t get the chance to help shape what accountability looks like for prison inmates.

Tinisch Hollins was one of the few who did.

Speaking Friday at the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, Hollins said the facility’s new educational complex — formally revealed that day — will affect future generations. Its classrooms and lessons will offer job certifications and the hope of employment once inmates serve their time and leave.

“They shouldn’t have to come to prison to get it, but I’m glad it’s here,” said the executive director of Californians for Safety and Justice.

Hollins served on an advisory council that created a report in early 2024 calling for massive change to the 19th-century prison that still houses more than 3,000 inmates. It included expanding rehabilitation plans, heightening education and job training, and changing correctional officer training to reflect a rehabilitative culture.

Governor Gavin Newsom announced that council seven months before the report. The council brought together many people of different backgrounds to recreate the prison that houses men on death row.

Speakers at Friday’s ribbon cutting pointed to public safety as the driving cause behind the new complex.

“It was always about public safety,” Newsom said. “It was always about community safety.”

According to Newsom, around 95% of people in prisons will return to their old neighborhoods once released. He indicated that the new educational center will help them become good neighbors.

It’s also expected to break a cycle of recidivism, he added.

“It’s about changing the bar,” Newsom said. "It’s about changing minds."

“We needed to do something bold and big,” he added.

The governor said plans could have called for spreading project money throughout the state. But that would have created little change or tangible results. Instead, they put $240 million into the San Quentin project.

A budget act initially called for $360 million for the project with a ribbon cutting set for next month. Officials noted they beat their construction deadline and came in under budget.

Government officials, advisory council members and corrections staff praised the project.

Warden Chance Andes noted that corrections has undergone massive change since the facility’s construction in 1852.

“What we open today is how the mission has evolved,” Andes said.

Its purpose is to prepare inmates for reentry into society, armed with job skills and a plan. With those attributes, communities will be safer, Andes said.

Jason Johnson, undersecretary of operations for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, called the educational center a pivotal step. It will build community safety and break the cycle of crime while providing institution staff a better workplace.

“We have not just rebuilt walls, but we are reconstructing pathways,” he added.

Darrell Steinberg, lead advisor on the council and a former Sacramento mayor, said the facility proves that compassion and smart policy go together.

People who commit crimes must be held accountable, Steinberg said. However, those same people should never be forgotten, as they’ll one day return to their own communities.

“The answer will lie right here,” he added, saying the facility will serve as a model for the state and nation. “Do we want concrete or do we want this?”

Newsom said the warden could have delayed the project. He could have given the governor empty promises and pushed against the plan behind his back. The warden also could have waited for Newsom to term out at year’s end.

Instead, he supported the project, as did the California Peace Officers' Association, Newsom said.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about people,” the governor added.