SAN QUENTIN, Calif. — For as long as anyone here can remember, this quaint waterfront hamlet on the north shore of San Francisco Bay has brandished a pair of infamous calling cards: the state's oldest prison fortress and its storied death row where condemned inmates have met their ends by hanging, poisoned syringe or the dreaded gas chamber.
But high-ranking state officials now say that could change, because of growing legislative pressure, renewed security concerns and the increasing value of San Quentin's prime real estate.
As prison officials prepare to execute convicted killer Robert Lee Massie--strapping him to a gurney and injecting him with a molasses-thick chemical cocktail--momentum is building in Sacramento to relocate state executions and even to impose a death sentence on San Quentin itself.
Critics say the pre-Civil War facility--opened when Millard Fillmore was president and home to criminals such as stagecoach robber C.E. "Black Bart" Bolton and serial rapist Caryl Chessman--is a crumbling relic that is more dungeon than prison, a throwback to a more primitive era in California's colorful corrections history.
Its obsolete design has made San Quentin one of the most expensive facilities to operate in the state's 33-prison system. And the union representing the prison's 800 corrections officers says that security flaws, such as numerous blind spots and eroding walls and observation towers, endanger the lives of prison guards.
Housing 581 inmates, San Quentin's death row is also dangerously overcrowded, forcing the prison to convert housing in less secure cellblocks to handle the overflow of condemned killers. Corrections officials worry that San Quentin's security shortcomings could one day lead to an unprecedented death row breakout.
Though calls to close the prison have been made for years, officials say a new urgency has arisen among an alliance of politicians, and top-ranking prison officials--including Gov. Gray Davis' top corrections appointee.
Some officials say recent lobbying by Adult Corrections Agency Secretary Robert Presley has given the drive to close San Quentin more political clout than ever before--prompting the state to conduct its first study of the issue in nearly 20 years.
Also, an escape from San Quentin last year--the only one in the entire California prison system--has raised new fears about security at the aging facility, which houses some of California's most dangerous criminals.
