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Essay On San Quentin State Prison

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The history of prison and incarceration in the United States have dramatically increased as well as the cost of keeping an inmate incarcerated. Every year, more and more prisons get overcrowded with mostly black and brown people with minor offenses. One of the main prisons is San Quentin State Prison which is the oldest and first prison ever opened in California. The prison first opened 166 years ago, on July 1852, at the northside of San Francisco Bay. It is able to hold 3,802 inmates. The prison is well known for its death row and execution of its inmates. According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, the cost to incarcerate an inmate is $70,812 which is divided by health care ($21,582), the facility operations and records ($7,025), administration …show more content…

Back when the land, where San Quentin currently resides, was part of the Mexican Land Grant called Rancho Punta de Quentin. The grant was given by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to John B.R. Cooper and was later sold in 1850 when the state bought 20 acres of that land for a prison. The state first opened the prison in 1852 on an anchored 268-ton wooden ship, which was named The Waban and held 30 inmates. After having some troubles, inmates who were incarcerated in The Waban were commanded and instructed to construct San Quentin State Prison. The prison then opened in 1852 with 68 inmates. Both male and female prisoners were incarcerated together, until 1932 when an institution was constructed for female prisoners. The state did not spend a dime on the construction of San Quentin, given that it relied on convict labor and was constructed by convicts. There’s been recent renovations, but the budget used to construct the prison was $0. The only thing that the state bought was the 20-acre land. Today, St. Quentin spends about $267,244,488 every year in order to house and maintain every …show more content…

It decided to spend state money on the “correction and rehabilitation” of many people. By making this decision it turned away from many other possibilities that could have positively impacted several communities. The San Quentin State Prison spends approximately $267,244,488 per year. The state money invested into San Quentin could be used in a more beneficial manner for the state of California. There are several institutions that could benefit from the budget used by San Quentin, but an important project, that could immensely help many of California’s residents, is the construction of affordable housing. The construction of this project would not help only those future occupants of the homes, but also the people hired to construct and plan the project. Affordable is a necessity in today’s economy. Many people struggle to pay off their mortgage, or to even pay their rent. Affordable housing would help out many of the people fighting to keep up with hefty bills. It would also help out those who have lost their homes to rent increases due to gentrification. The construction of the homes would also help the area and the surrounding cities thrive economically like many of the places in The Prison in 12 Landscapes did due to the prisons. The affordable housing project would economically substitute the San Quentin

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