Costs soar for new death row at San Quentin
The project is likely to require nearly $400 million, not $220 million. It will have fewer cells than planned, and some prisoners may have to share space.
SACRAMENTO — Ground has not yet been broken on a new death row proposed at San Quentin State Prison, but the projected cost of the project has soared by nearly 80% for a compound that could be full only three years after it opens, according to a critical audit released Tuesday.
If the facility is built as now envisioned, some condemned inmates would have to reside in cells with others rather than be imprisoned separately as they are now, State Auditor Elaine M. Howle reported.
Howle's audit details the delays and changes to the $220-million plan that state lawmakers authorized five years ago to house 656 male inmates facing the death penalty. Those prisoners are now scattered across several antiquated, rundown buildings without modern security features.
The current projected cost is more than $395 million to build 768 cells instead of the 1,024 first planned. The cost per cell, projected at $515,000, has more than doubled. Beyond November, every month of delay will cost an additional $2 million.
"I think this report is a bombshell," said Assemblyman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), who represents the area and requested the audit. "We have known for some time" that the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation "lowballed the numbers on this project.
" . . . They simply want to build a massive monolith to house all our condemned inmates on the most expensive piece of real estate in Northern California," he said.
Huffman, echoing Howle's audit, said the agency had not considered alternatives to the site, on a Marin County bluff overlooking San Francisco Bay. A follow-up audit by Howle next month will explore other options.
In a written response, Matthew Cate, the state corrections secretary recently appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said "a considerable amount of time and money" had already been expended. He wrote that "any alternative site would require a complete redesign of the facility, with a new environmental study and the delay of several more years."
The complex was supposed to have been finished last December. Now, construction cannot start until the beginning of next year, state officials said. Bob Caputi, the project director with the corrections department, said a court challenge by Marin County to the project's environmental impact report was partly to blame for the problems.
"During the period that it was litigated, the costs escalated in the construction industry -- unprecedented cost increases," Caputi said.
- Sell San Quentin Jun 01, 2009
- New Lease on Life for San Quentin Apr 26, 2002
- Pressure Grows to Shut Down San Quentin Mar 19, 2001
