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.
Visiting has been an important part of rehabilitation, allowing offenders to continue family connections while incarcerated. The experience for friends...
Read More About Prison visiting has long played rehabilitative role
Today’s CDCR transportation units rely on buses and cars traveling over paved roadways, but this wasn’t always the case. When...
Read More About Stagecoach driver Charley Parkhurst blazed gender‑nonconforming trails
Artie "Art" Baker, already three years into a 10-year sentence at San Quentin, had a desperate request for the prison...
Read More About Gender‑questioning forger Artie Baker made headlines in 1916
After the Civil War, a grieving nation established Decoration Day to honor the dead, eventually becoming known as Memorial Day....
Read More About Prisons honored fallen soldiers in memorial ceremonies
In 1910, a former inmate wrote words being echoed today regarding the purpose of the state prison system: "The business...
Read More About LA’s Griffith Park, Observatory bear name of early 1900s San Quentin inmate
Rehabilitation has proven a collaborative effort between custody and support staff. The following are just some examples of such cooperation...
A Gold Rush-era doctor became the first prison physician at San Quentin when offenders were still kept on ships. It...
Read More About Meet Alfred Taliaferro, first doctor at San Quentin
Captain of the Yard Archibald McAllister earned the respect of the incarcerated at San Quentin then went on to serve...
Take a closer look at the unsolved murder of Ah Yee, a popular merchant in the late 1800s. More than...
Read More About An unsolved 1890s murder and a likely suspect
While the state created the prison matron position in 1885, job roles didn't expand until the suffrage movement.
Read More About Women’s prison jobs expanded during suffrage