Governor Newsom unveiled a new educational complex at San Quentin Friday featuring a media center, cafe, library, classrooms, and a reentry center, in the first of a series of projects transforming the once notorious prison into a leading-edge rehabilitation center.

As KTVU reports, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Friday for San Quentin’s new $239 million learning center, which was completed in 18 months within budget and was funded through a lease revenue bond, according to a press release.

Per the governor’s office, the learning center is the first phase in the larger transformation of San Quentin into the “most innovative rehabilitation facility in the US.” The new San Quentin Learning and Rehabilitation Center will also serve as a prototype for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s “California Model,” which focuses on rehabilitation, education, and reentry with the goal of building safer communities.

“Three years ago, I stood here and promised to turn this symbol of the old system into the crown jewel of a new one,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom, per a press release. “Today, with the opening of this Learning Center, we are proving that rehabilitation and public safety go hand in hand — and that hope is a powerful tool for safer communities.”

The new learning facility will consist of a technology and media center with podcast studios, a cafe, library, indoor and outdoor classrooms, and a reentry center to help inmates with a smoother transition into society upon release. Per the governor’s office press release, the learning center has partnered with Cal State LA, UC Berkeley, and Mt. Tamalpais College and provides inmates support with completing high school and college-level coursework.

Per KTVU, 30,000 inmates across the state are released annually, and Newsom aims to help them become positive citizens in their communities.

"It was about dealing with the fundamental fact that 95% of people in this system are going to go back into your neighborhoods and what kind of neighbors do you want them to be?" Newsom said Friday, per NBC Bay Area. "Are they coming back broken? Are they coming back better?"

As the site LegalClarity reports, California stalled all executions in the state beginning in 2006 when its protocols were found to be unlawful, and Newsom ordered an official moratorium in March 2019. CalMatters reports that Newsom ordered the demolition of the San Quentin building where the death chamber is located in 2022. Per LegalClarity, the state of California still has the largest death row population in the country, consisting of 580 inmates, per CalMatters.

According to the governor’s office press release, Newsom created an advisory council consisting of experts in rehabilitation, public health and safety, victim advocacy, and corrections to help with the design of the new complex, with input by more than 50 stakeholders, including incarcerated residents and staff.

Per the press release, the complex uses “natural light, open sightlines, green-building principles, and campus-style courtyards to create an environment grounded in dignity and accountability.”

CalMatters reports that future construction projects at San Quentin include new housing and expanded recreation areas. Darrell Steinberg, the former state Senate president pro tempore, said the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center “represents an even broader definition of justice,” per CalMatters.

“When people commit a crime, accountability is appropriate,” said Steinberg, per CalMatters. “At the same time, no human being who serves time should ever be forgotten or forsaken. This is not partisan, soft or ideological. What you created here is effective public safety.”

KTVU reports that San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins expressed her support of the project at Friday’s event.

“This is about public safety,” Jenkins said. “So many of the residents here will and should get the opportunity to come back to us outside. And what we want more than anything is for them to come back whole.”

Per KTVU, San Quentin Warden Chance Andes believes the learning center will also have a positive impact on the relationships between inmates and corrections officers.

“When we reduce this 'us vs. them' mentality, that's what causes that, so you see a lot of retaliation. So we've seen our violence drop, we've seen our recidivism drop by offering more programs,” Andes said.

Elizar Guerra, a mentor in San Quentin’s peer support program who’s serving 15 years to life for second-degree murder, said that the new facility gives inmates hope, per KTVU.

“To have a place like this where we can come and feel free and feel like 'OK, maybe I can be a productive member of society,' it means a lot for the people who are maybe marginalized here at the facility,” Guerra said.

Image: California Governor Gavin Newsom