If you\u2019re serving hard time inside a California prison, you\u2019ll often find yourself stuck in a cramped cell with a stranger. You hang a bedsheet to manufacture the semblance of privacy between bed and toilet. Any little thing can erupt into a source of tension and angst \u2014 body odor, snoring, lights.<\/p>\n
Each moment becomes a test to avoid confrontation or brawling. With no immediate help from officers, the fear and anxiety festers inside you. And day by day, your mental health deteriorates.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t necessarily know what the capacity of this person is, or like what their crime is,\u201d said Steven Warren, a resident inside San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. \u201cYou\u2019re not told any of that when you\u2019re put in a cell with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if this person has the propensity to murder me in my sleep or commit a violent act against me just because they\u2019re feeling some type of way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some California policymakers and prison officials<\/a> believe it\u2019s time to rethink these potentially harmful housing situations. They contend that offering more single-occupancy cells might serve the best interests of prison residents and public safety.<\/p>\n That\u2019s possible because California\u2019s incarcerated population continues to decline<\/a> \u2014 from its peak of over 173,000 people in 2006 to fewer than 90,000 today. A handful of prisons have closed<\/a>, while changes in resentencing and parole eligibility have helped release thousands of individuals.<\/p>\n Under former Gov. Jerry Brown<\/a> and now Gov. Gavin Newsom<\/a>, rehabilitation and reentry opportunities<\/a> remain a growing focal point, too. San Quentin Rehabilitation Center stands at the forefront of the discussion, with an \u201cearned living\u201d housing unit comprised exclusively of single-person cells and plans to similarly repurpose the vacated Death Row<\/a> buildings. A spokesperson for the prison said it is \u201cworking toward\u201d making single-person cells available to all incarcerated people by spring 2026.<\/p>\n A bill advanced in the California Legislature this year that aims to establish single-cell units<\/a> at more prisons. The measure did not make it to Newsom, but it\u2019s expected to return in 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want people to have the opportunity to return back to our community, and we want them to do that in the healthiest manner,\u201d said San Francisco Dist. Atty. Brooke Jenkins, who helped draft the legislation.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t do that if you\u2019re in an environment that causes chaos and stress \u2014 or you can\u2019t sleep, you\u2019re having confrontations, you\u2019re irritable because you\u2019re sleeping with one eye open.\u201d<\/p>\n Conversations spark change<\/p>\n Jenkins visited San Quentin numerous times over the last two years and spoke with Warren and others. More importantly, she listened.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the conversations that we had inside with a number of the residents was the cellmate on cellmate violence and all of the issues that come with sharing a cell,\u201d said Jenkins.<\/p>\n She reached out to Assemblymember Damon Connolly<\/a>, the Democrat representing San Rafael. Together, they wrote the Assembly bill that proposes establishing single-occupancy cell pilot programs at four California prisons.<\/p>\n \u201cTo properly be able to engage in rehabilitative programming,\u201d states the bill\u2019s text. \u201cIncarcerated persons must be able to sleep without fear of physical harm.\u201d<\/p>\n Connolly said that single-cell housing units additionally promote safer work environments for corrections officers and staff. \u201cIt fits in, in my view, with the larger objectives that the governor and many of us have pursued.\u201d<\/p>\n The state\u2019s prison union agrees with Connolly and Jenkins.<\/p>\n The California Correctional Peace Officers Assn.<\/a> in general has supported Newsom\u2019s emphasis on rehabilitation for prisoners, and it has begun lobbying in public against further prison closures<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 24,500-member union is a player in the Capitol, where it has given $7 million to state lawmakers since 2015, according to the CalMatters Digital Democracy database<\/a>. It also kicked in $1.75 million to help Newsom defeat the 2021 recall campaign against him, and another $1 million to back Newsom\u2019s 2024 mental health ballot measure.<\/p>\n \u201cThe threat of violence and tension in shared cells\u2026 fosters conflicts amongst cellmates, necessitating intervention from correctional officers, who place themselves in jeopardy, thereby escalating the overall risk within the facility for all parties involved,\u201d the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. said in a support letter to Connolly.<\/p>\n Warren recalled a 2021 situation<\/a> of cellmate violence that he can\u2019t forget.<\/p>\n \u201cA young man beat an older gentleman to death in a cell maybe four or five cells down from me,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was crazy. After everything was all said and done, there were so many conversations about how these two people shouldn\u2019t be together \u2014 about how one person was having an issue with the other person, but (officers) not giving it full regard of the mental health issues.\u201d<\/p>\n A new era of decarceration<\/p>\n Old prisons, such as San Quentin and Folsom, were originally designed to house one person per cell. In response to mass incarceration and overcrowding in the 1990s and early 2000s, the corrections department threw beds into spaces never intended for housing. They had people sleeping in gyms, hallways, and even stairwells.<\/p>\n And they welded and bolted extra bunk beds into almost every single-person cell.<\/p>\n Decades of prison rights litigation eventually forced the system to address the issue of housing people at 200% design capacity. Two class-action lawsuits, Coleman vs. Newsom<\/a> and Plata vs. Newsom<\/a>, led to federal oversight and a mandated decrease to 137% capacity.<\/p>\n Current housing rates stand at about 120% design capacity, averaged across all 31 state prisons<\/a>.<\/p>\n