San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (formerly San Quentin State Prison) hosted its first “Pride” celebration at the end of June to honor the notorious penitentiary’s LGBTQIA+ community. Prisoners danced around the courtyard with Pride flags, rainbow-colored bracelets, and homemade signs; San Quentin’s warden said that the event was part of a continuing effort to heal and rehabilitate inmates so they are able to easily rejoin the outside world.

The prison is ground zero for progressive reform. San Quentin has been transformed from a maximum-security prison into an aspiring Nordic rehabilitation center — the facility is undergoing a $239 million makeover right now to become a “restorative justice facility” that will “develop a human-centered culture of healing, positive staff-resident communication, and improved living and working conditions.”

In the summer of 2024, the state transferred all death row inmates from San Quentin to other prisons in California. The transfer was the last hurdle before San Quentin could begin its rehabilitation-center renovation, which is now fully underway.