San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (SQRC)
The walled prison encompasses four (4) large cell blocks (West, South, North, and East Block), along with a restricted housing area Central Health Care Service Building, a medium-security dorm setting, and a minimum-security firehouse.
With a design capacity of 3,084, San Quentin currently houses Level I, II, and III incarcerated population. Population types range from general population to Enhanced Outpatient and CCCMS.
San Quentin offers unique programs such as San Quentin News, podcasts, and community partnerships with organizations like the Giants, Warriors, and others.
Learn about the historic changes happening at San Quentin here!
Main Phone
(415) 454-1460
Physical Address
100 Main Street,
San Quentin, CA 94964
(Directions)
Incarcerated Person Mailing Address
San Quentin Rehabilitation Center,
San Quentin, CA 94974
Address the letter with the incarcerated persons full legal name, CDCR number, and last known housing and bed number.
To view current location of an incarcerated individual, visit the California Incarcerated Records and Information Search (CIRIS)
About the Warden
Chance Andes
Chance Andes assumed the role of Warden at the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (SQRC) in December 2024, following his tenure as Acting Warden since January 2024. Prior to this assignment, Warden Andes served as a Correctional Administrator at California State Prison, Sacramento. He began his career with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) in March 2003 at the Richard A. McGee Correctional Training Center.
Over his more than two decades of service, Warden Andes has held progressively responsible positions across multiple institutions, including Deuel Vocational Institution, California Medical Facility, California Correctional Center, Sierra Conservation Center, Correctional Training Facility, and the Class Action Management Unit. Throughout these assignments, he has served in key leadership roles, including Associate Warden, Correctional Captain, Correctional Lieutenant, Correctional Sergeant, and Correctional Officer.
Warden Andes is committed to fostering a rehabilitative environment within the correctional system. He prioritizes evidence-based rehabilitation programs, staff development, and community engagement to enhance public safety and reduce recidivism. His leadership focuses on progressive correctional strategies that support both incarcerated rehabilitation and community integration, ensuring that SQRC remains a model for correctional reform.
About the Health Care CEO
Rhonda Litt
Rhonda Litt was appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of San Quentin Rehabilitation Center in December 2021. Prior to joining the executive leadership team at San Quentin, Ms. Litt served as the CEO for California Correctional Institution (CCI) in Tehachapi, CA for over seven (7) years and California City Institution in California City, CA for (2.5) years, concurrently.
She received a master’s degree in public administration from Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA, May 2010 and an undergraduate degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from Tulane University in New Orleans, LA in August 1996. Combined, she has 23 years of senior management experience in the following areas: nonprofit management; federally qualified health care (FQHC) policy development and executive leadership; statewide social services Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs; and prison primary care management.
Unique San Quentin Programs
San Quentin News
The San Quentin News is a 24-page newspaper written and produced by a staff of incarcerated people. The newspaper has approximately 35,000 subscribers, including CDCR’s 32 other prisons.
Podcasts
Uncuffed
“Uncuffed” was developed in 2012 after journalists from KALW and the podcast Life of the Law begin teaching radio workshops at SQRC. In 2019, Uncuffed was launched reaching national and international audiences. The Podcast focuses on positive transformation through rehabilitation. Participants learn audio storytelling and the use of audio equipment, software, and computers.
Ear Hustle
“Ear Hustle” launched in 2017 by two former participants in the Uncuffed program with first podcast created and produced in prison. Ear Hustle features stories of the daily realities of life inside California’s San Quentin State Prison, shared by those living it. The Ear Hustle team works in San Quentin’s media lab and in the KQED office in San Francisco.
Partnerships
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants baseball organization provides philanthropic support to the San Quentin Giants, the official baseball team of SQRC. The goal is to support meaningful prison reform initiatives and powerful rehabilitation programs. This program strengthens one of the prison’s longest running and most successful restorative initiatives.
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers visit SQRC yearly as part of their #InspireChange initiative, aimed at promoting social justice and criminal justice reform. Current players, 49ers leadership and alumni meet and speak with incarcerated men and discuss resilience, redemption, and second chances.
Mount Tamalpais College
Mount Tamalpais College is the first community college in the nation that serves only incarcerated people. It provides an Associate of Arts degree program and College Preparatory Program, free of charge, to 300 people.
Golden State Warriors
Members of the Golden State Warriors organization participate in a yearly basketball game with the residents of San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.
The Pollen Initiative
The Pollen Initiative is an organization dedicated to cultivating rehabilitative programs inside prisons across the US by focusing on media centers inside prisons and jails.
The History of San Quentin
San Quentin Rehabilitation Center was California’s first prison, established in 1852.
Originally accommodating both male and female incarcerated people until the opening of the women’s prison at Tehachapi in 1933, San Quentin now rests atop 432 acres, overlooking the bay just 12 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County. In 2023, Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled plans to transform the facility into a rehabilitation center, signaling a significant shift in its mission and approach.
San Quentin was California’s first land-based institution, incarcerating those convicted of breaking laws. After briefly relying on two county jail ships, one in Sacramento and the other in San Francisco, John Coffee “Jack” Hays acquired the Waban. Hays, the sheriff of San Francisco, outfitted the Waban to operate as a prison ship. In December 1851, he sailed to Angel Island with roughly 40 incarcerated people.
In 1852, they moved the Waban to Point San Quentin. While anchored offshore, incarcerated workers were transported to land during the day, quarrying stone and making bricks to construct the first prison cells.