How San Quentin prisoners reached around the world to create ‘a piece of freedom’
August 5th, 2025
California, United States
Joe Garcia
California committed more than $200 million toward refashioning San Quentin as a hub for rehabilitation. Prisoners followed suit with their own plans to beautify the place with world-class murals.
Cal Matters
Posted byCherry Ng
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Gov. Gavin Newsom committed $240 million toward renovating the state’s oldest prison and rebranding it as San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. His plan includes a new multi-building educational complex, as well as repurposing the former Death Row condemned housing unit into living quarters for the general population.
But it doesn’t include changing the drab beige and brown exteriors that surround residents whenever they leave their tiny dark cells, which were built in the late 1800s. The physical environment still signifies oppression, confinement, punishment.
With so much attention focused on the new buildings set to open in early 2026, Kai Bannon began to envision San Quentin SkunkWorks — a nonprofit social innovation lab focused on introducing and testing moonshot reform ideas — as a platform that might aesthetically elevate the older, less glamorous parts of the facility.
But it doesn’t include changing the drab beige and brown exteriors that surround residents whenever they leave their tiny dark cells, which were built in the late 1800s. The physical environment still signifies oppression, confinement, punishment.
With so much attention focused on the new buildings set to open in early 2026, Kai Bannon began to envision San Quentin SkunkWorks — a nonprofit social innovation lab focused on introducing and testing moonshot reform ideas — as a platform that might aesthetically elevate the older, less glamorous parts of the facility.
