As notorious death row closes, inmates fear what awaits in new prisons

California is transferring everyone on death row at San Quentin prison to other places. California is trying to reinvent the state#39;s most notorious facility as a rehabilitation centre. Many in this group will now have new freedoms. But they are also asking why they’ve been excluded from the process.

Governor Gavin Newsom is seeking more changes at San Quentin. He announced last year that he planned to transform the state#39;s oldest prison. Doolin and his neighbours will still have death sentences - meaning they will spend the rest of their lives in prison. Built in 1852, San Quentin is California#39;s oldest prison.

Since 1893, 422 people have been executed there, including by gas, hanging or lethal injection. Some were elated by the opportunity to live closer to family and step outside their cells without handcuffs. The execution chamber would emit a green light that turned red as a person was being executed. Family members walk by the entrance to the prison#39;s execution chamber every time they visit their loved ones.

Doolin’s mother drives a nine-hour round trip once a month to visit her son. The 51-year-old was sentenced to death in 1996 for killing two sex workers and shooting four others. An outbreak of Covid-19 during the height of the pandemic killed at least 12 death row inmates. People housed in San Quentin#39;s death row are kept alone for most of the day in a roughly four foot by nine foot cell.

Doolin and others living on death row are required to wear handcuffs at all times when outside their cells. Officers have to unlock with metal keys after strip-searching them. Death row inmates are offered little access to rehabilitative programmes except for some college courses and jobs such as cleaning showers. Mr Newsom argued the death penalty system had been a failure.

He said it unfairly applied to people of colour and people with mental illness. The state had not actually performed an execution since 2006. Mr Newsom did not alter any incarcerated individuals’ sentences, though he said that he might later consider commuting death row sentences. Around 100 volunteers will be transferred from San Quentin to other prisons.

The first move in a bigger plan to eventually move all the inmates out. Correll Thomas left San Quentin with the pilot programme in 2021. He said other prisoners and staff appeared frightened of his death row status. But with time some at the prison grew to accept him.

Advocates say not enough support is being offered as these inmates make a drastic transition. Rogers, 64, has been able to enrol not just in rehabilitation programmes but also college. The greatest relief, he said, came from not having to wear handcuffs around the clock. Advocates worry about those being moved far away from their lawyers and family members.

The oldest person in San Quentin#39;s death row is 93. Doolin is anxious about avoiding conflict as he interacts with more people than ever before. The death row population includes many who are sick and elderly. Doolin’s mother said she and others suggested programmes to offer support to their incarcerated loved ones as they made the transition.

But the prison turned them down. For others, the departure from San Quentin before its estimated $360m (£282m) upgrade has only served as a reminder of their inferior status as condemned people. Mr Newsom has said the goal is to transform the prison into a college campus-like setting, modelled on Scandinavian correctional facilities that focus on rehabilitation. His office did not elaborate on why people on death row could not participate in the San Quentin project, but touted the closure of death row and his moratorium on the death penalty.

Darrell Lomax, one of the men in San Quentin, said: “Why are we being moved so they can make room for a rehabilitation program that doesn#39;t even serve us? He believes some in California are not ready to reckon with the status - and future - of those sentenced to death.