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.
Chaplains have long served the state to provide spiritual and moral guidance to those in California prisons and jails. They’ve...
Read More About Having faith: A look back at prison chaplains
Thirty years before Johnny Cash's concerts at Folsom Prison, the "Alton Giant" visited the institution while touring the west coast....
Read More About When the world’s tallest man visited Folsom Prison
This is the story of the choices made by those wearing a badge and the stagecoach robbers fleeing the law....
Read More About Stagecoach bandits crossed paths with California prisons
Since the founding of the state prison system in the early 1850s, the incarcerated population have been allowed special concessions...
Read More About Prisons observed Thanksgiving with meals, sports
In 1911, a California aviator took to the skies for his own record-setting flight, including two flyovers of San Quentin...
Read More About San Quentin was foggy witness to historic 1911 flight
On October 10, 1890, a group of Lake County miners bent on revenge killed a woman and shot her husband....
Read More About 1890 Lake County Whitecap Murder case sends 4 to San Quentin
For the better part of the 1860s, headlines across the country focused on the manhunt for accused murderer William Wells....
Read More About Charitable man killed, three lawmen slain pursuing William Wells in 1860
After decades of working in law enforcement, Charles Aull returned to state service, first at San Quentin and then at...
Read More About Folsom Warden Aull was longtime lawman, part 2
Charles Aull went from a businessman to a lifelong career in law enforcement. This is a two-part story of one...
Read More About Charles Aull hunts down stage robbers, part 1
In 1911, arts as a rehabilitative tool was introduced for the first time at San Quentin State Prison. One widely...
Read More About Take a closer look at 3 SQ inmates and their stories