California Governor Gavin Newsom has unveiled a new plan to transform San Quentin prison into a facility focused on rehabilitation.
Under the plan, the prison will no longer house inmates on death row and will instead be converted into a facility for less-dangerous prisoners to receive education, job training, and rehabilitation.
The governor wants San Quentin to follow a prison model used in Norway, which has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the world.
The plan includes moving current death row inmates to other prisons in the state, and the governor has set aside $20 million in the recent state budget to pay for the transformation.
Other states, such as Oregon and North Dakota, have recently enacted similar reforms.
Governor Newsom announced this change as part of his four-day tour across the state and hopes to prepare prisoners to return to society and reduce the rate of repeat offenders.
