San Quentin State Prison Archives

San Quentin State Prison

This commentary is the latest in “The Word from Solitary Watch,” our series of dispatches by Solitary Watch staff and contributors. • After nearly 30 years in prison, 2025 brings me a different kind of Juneteenth than the average American. While San Quentin celebrates what formerly enslaved Texans learned in 1865—that they are free from […]

News & Features

San Quentin State Prison

Juneteenth to an Incarcerated American

Black History Month Is World History Always

Man With Schizophrenia Starves to Death in Solitary…and Other News on Solitary Confinement This Week

Seven Days in Solitary [11/2/2022]

Seven Days in Solitary [9/22/22]

In San Quentin, Getting the Flu Can Land You in Solitary Confinement

Voices from Solitary: Fighting the Coronavirus in Prison with Transfers, Isolation, Threats, and Game Boys

The View from Badger Yard: Surviving in San Quentin with COVID-19

Seven Days in Solitary [2/11/18]

Seven Days in Solitary [6/24/18]

Fourteen Days in Solitary [7/6/20]

Fourteen Days in Solitary [7/20/20]

Seven Days in Solitary [9/7/20]

Seven Days in Solitary [10/5/20]

Seven Days in Solitary [11/24/21]

“Man Down:” Left in the Hole at San Quentin During a Coronavirus Crisis

At San Quentin, a Desperate Man Goes on Hunger Strike to Protest Conditions in a COVID-19 Isolation Unit

At San Quentin, the Response to COVID-19 Brings More Isolation and Suffering to People with Mental Illness

How Not to Fight a Prison Pandemic [Update]

How Not to Fight a Prison Pandemic

Struggling to Survive at San Quentin: “We Are Dying in Here”