Unlocking History
Using extensive research culled from historical records, Inside CDCR explores the rich history of the people, places and programs that helped shape the modern state correctional system.
In our third installment of this month’s Cemetery Tales, we look at a drifter with a long criminal record dating...
Read More About Cemetery Tales: Meet JE McKim, thieving drifter
The second installment of this month’s Cemetery Tales looks at two incarcerated people at different stages in their lives when...
Read More About Cemetery Tales: Raymond Blade and Henry Hunt
The first Cemetery Tales story for 2025 looks at the lives of career criminal John Beebe and Joseph “Jose” Balado,...
Read More About Cemetery Tales: John Beebe and Joseph Balado
After California became a state in September 1850, the Legislature passed a law establishing all county jails would serve as...
A letter penned by a man serving time at San Quentin (SQ) in 1915 describes how the institution observed Fourth...
Read More About 1915 letter describes San Quentin Fourth of July
Thanks to early prison road construction camps, incarcerated crews connected communities with parks across the state. Much like CALFIRE/CDCR conservation...
Read More About Prison camps connected communities with parks
Pine Grove Youth Conservation Camp (YCC) is celebrating 80 years of rehabilitation. Founded in 1945, the camp has continued serving...
California Medical Facility (CMF) in Vacaville held a celebration to honor the institution’s 70 years of public safety. The CMF...
Women serving sentences in state prison began with Agnes Read who was sent to the prison ship, the Waban, in...
Only three years after California introduced the wild turkey to the state, a swindler found himself behind bars. (Editor’s note:...