History
Explore the stories of the people, places and programs that shaped today’s modern CDCR. Unlocking History uses extensive research culled from historical records while CDCR Time Capsule republishes historical documents as they were originally written.
The first female correctional officers were hired to work in California's male prisons in the early 1970s. But, women have...
Revisit this 1987 story originally published in Correction News. -- When Daniel J. McCarthy first became a correctional officer in...
Since establishing the state prison system in the 1850s, good-hearted neighbors have voluntarily stepped inside to help the incarcerated population....
While working to earn his law degree, Walter Gordon Jr. became Berkeley's first African American police officer in 1919. Gordon...
Richard "Dick" Nelson began his career as a Correctional Officer at Folsom State Prison in 1959. He retired in 1998...
As part of an ongoing effort to tell the forgotten stories of early prison staff, Inside CDCR takes a closer...
Connecting through shared experiences, especially holidays, is seen as part of the rehabilitation process. Since the early years at California's...
In 1891, three incarcerated men sat for their photos, later to become permanent records in the San Quentin archives. Each...
A mid-1990s report penned by San Quentin Associate Warden Dick Nelson looks closer at the inmate identification numbering system and...
During the 1980s and '90s, California expanded the prison system. The original 12 prisons were supplemented with new facilities ranging...