A Prison with Million Dollar Views? How San Quentin Came to Be

Bay Curious

Terese O'Malley commuted across the Richmond-San Rafael bridge for years, and always wondered about a landmark visible from the bridge: San Quentin State Prison. The maximum-security prison sits on a primo piece of waterfront property in Marin County that would likely sell for an unfathomable sum in today's market. "How did Marin end up with San Quentin prison?" she asked Bay Curious. And why hasn't it moved?

Editor's Note: We finished production on this week’s story about San Quentin prison in February 2020, just before Coronavirus took hold. In the months that followed, a few cases at the prison grew to more than 2,200. Ultimately two-thirds of people at San Quentin got infected, and 29 people died. It was one of the deadliest outbreaks in the nation’s prison system. Things have mostly turned the corner now that the majority inside are vaccinated, but questions remain about how things were handled. Long term effects from the outbreak are still being felt. In addition to our episode, we encourage you to listen to The Bay's episode from April about life at San Quentin today.

Additional Resources:

• The Lasting Impact of COVID-19 in San Quentin State Prison (The Bay podcast episode)
• Court Hearing Examines Whether San Quentin’s Deadly COVID-19 Outbreak Could Have Been Prevented

Reported by Kelly O'Mara. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz, Sebastian Miño-Bucheli and Brendan Willard. Additional support from Erika Aguilar, Jessica Placzek, Kyana Moghadam, Isabeth Mendoza, Paul Lancour, Suzie Racho, Carly Severn, Lina Blanco, Christopher Cox, Ethan Lindsey, Vinnee Tong and Jenny Pritchett.