Reply To: Evict San Quentin Prison (from original forum archive)
No. Developing the land will make a few people rich and destroy the land's history. If you must close the prison, turn it into a museum and ban any developing of the land.
I read a few years ago that the prison industry is the number one industry in California. I met a contractor that worked in that building on the HVAC systems. He told me horror stories about what ends up in the ducts, the whole system is a sack of dung. No doubt if they demolish all the old prison they will have a lot of toxic waste to dispose of. The idea of a transit center is very good, sans trains. If the developers could come up with some tasteful single family detatched HOUSES and not another high density shared wall community, that would be great. A nice little communtiy called Tamal where everyone would have a yard, a garage, trees and privacy and quiet like most other southern Marin communities, not another jam packed Hamilton style business park and communal condos. The Politicians could subsidize some of the HOUSES for low income singles, familys, and seniors if need be. Why force people to live in noisy shared wall communities ? The recreation idea is also excellent, a pristine water access for windsurfers, kayakers, swimmers and just a nice place for people to relax by the bay.
Dear Cat, thank you for your comments in the Michael Woodson blog below. My book is still a work in progress and one of the many chapters is about my doing Time in the Shade.
On June 4, 1990, Judge Peter Allen Smith revoked my probation just 16 days short of completing my five year county jail sentence. The revocation was caused because Smith found me guilty of violating the $2,700.00 a month maximum living allowance that he placed on my four motherless children and the live-in caretaker, 40 months prior. My wife had died of breast cancer in August 1984.
During those 40 months Judge Smith never once allowed any adjustments to that monthly living allowance even though my 10-year old son was suffering from daily grand mal epileptic seizures and had large medical bills.
This bogus revocation was driven by multiple stories in the IJ and it cost the taxpayers of Marin over $300,000.00 in trial/incarceration costs and included over $156,600.00 to place my son in a foster home in Novato, for the next 9 years.
The revocation also removed 3-years from the imposed 15-year, $15+Million dollar restitution judgment that I signed under total duress so that I could simply apply for parole, that seized 25% of all future income over $24,000.00 a year.
On June 6th I was driven in full shackles, from the Marin Jail and through the sinister and imposing gates of San Quentin State Prison and where for the next 32 months this pernicious world would become the most bizarre period of my life.
In May 2007, I spoke to the Mill Valley Rotary Club about a special situation that affects all the people of Marin regardless of our varied backgrounds. That is our own despicable Abu Ghraib prison that we all look at.
In early July 2007 and just two weeks before his shocking death, Pete Wilson of KGO radio and TV was in my store for he had been a customer for many years. In the parking lot, we talked about my possible appearance on his radio talk show to discuss San Quentin and the possibility of the prisons future eviction. What a terrible loss to the entire bay area his death was.
I would have stated that it is beyond stupid that the California Department of Corrections (CDC) would attempt to expand the death chamber when earlier they lied to the legislature and were caught when the costs exceeded $800,000.00.
San Quentin sits on 480+ acres of super prime real estate and the relocation and construction of a State of the Art prison to another county is the only course of action that makes any sense. We must remove this 150 year old decrepit facility.
Every male that is sentenced to prison, from the seven Bay Area counties is processed through West Block at San Quentin they are then shipped out to one of the 39 other prisons. West Block that faces Highway 101 was designed for approximately 450 inmates in single cells. It now houses over 900.
The building is in terrible condition and you are locked up in a 4x8 foot cell for 22 hours a day with nothing to do but yell back and forth to your home boys as you wait out your 8 to 10 weeks until you are processed out.
The land could be used as a new transit center, with Sir Francis Drake Boulevard being widened to four lanes from the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to Highway 101. There is enough space for new low cost housing and a huge recreational beach area for all the wind surfers. It is inconceivable that this prime property with those spectacular views is being used for a worn out facility that nobody wants but no politician has the guts to get rid of it.
The prison houses over 6000+ nasty inmates, uses millions of gallons of our water every month. The outrageous amount of garbage goes into our landfill in Novato. Because Marin housing is so expensive, the CDC officers are paid over $10 million a year in bonuses just to drive in from as far away as Sacramento.
Therefore none of the money from the 2000+ CDC officers paychecks is spent here. We receive no economic benefit from this monstrosity in our backyard.
The Marin Courts are being flooded with lawsuits from inmates suing over the despicable medical and housing conditions and filing Writs of Habeas Corpus over their convictions. This is the main reason why it takes years for civil cases to be heard in the Marin County Courts.
At 10 a clock everyday, a busload of low life inmates, that no one will even bother to pick up at the main gate, is driven to the downtown San Rafael transit center and dropped off. These inmates who have been in prison for a minimum of one year, has a set of new shoes and clothes and $200 in their pocket. Guess who is waiting for these inmates? The drug dealers who love to take all of their cash for a package on the bus.
These brand new ex-cons are instructed to return within 24 hours to their county of commitment and to report immediately to their parole officer. Almost half of these inmates never report in and simply take off.
The San Francisco Chronicle wrote a story about two years ago that there are almost 1.5 million California parolees that are unaccounted for in California.
In my book, I will extensively detail the medical problems that are caused by such close confinement and the rampant spread of HIV infections due to unprotected sex. Since to possess a condom in prison is a felony and also the sharing of needles for heroin use and the proliferation of inmates tattooing each other.
Even though all incoming inmates have their blood taken upon arrival at San Quentin, the ACLU sued the State and won in our PC Courts, over the issue that no infected HIV positive incoming inmate, can be isolated from the general population unless a fight ensues and blood is drawn.
I will discuss the fact that many of the food handlers are also thought to be infected with Hepatitis A, B & C and that many of the inmates refuse to eat any meal served by those inmates suspected of being infected from prior heroin use.
Furthermore, I will discuss that many of the illegal immigrants that are 29% of the inmate population, carried with them infectious tuberculosis when they cross the border. The problem is so prevalent that all of the inmates and correctional officers have to be tested for TB every 3 months and CDC has threatened to strike over the issue. This transmission is accomplished when the 900+ inmates routinely spit on the officers from one of the six tiers in West Block.
The solution is very simple indeed. The State could lease the land to a group of developers and with that rent money pay off a special bond to build a new prison and death row some where else. It could be near the Federal prison in Livermore or in another county that wants its share of the $10 Billion a year gravy train that we waste on confining 160,000 inmates.
We spend more on the prisons than we spend on all higher education in California. I wonder if this out of control expenditure is because of the huge campaign contributions by CDC to our politicians who all want to be tough on crime.
San Quentin Prison is a living nightmare and it needs to be closed before CDC can rebuild and expand death row or it will never be removed from Marin.
