Can chess games and toilet paper change prison culture? Inside San Quentin's big experiment

[Zorro]

SAN QUENTIN — To someone living outside these dank walls, the changes might seem small.

A sergeant greets a prisoner with “good morning” rather than barking an order. Guards start calling the prisoners “residents.” They shake hands, exchange jokes.

The toilet paper locker gets replenished when its empty. The men don’t have to ask.

At California’s oldest and most infamous state prison, a monumental shift is underway through an experiment dubbed the California Model, an effort Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in March 2023 to reimagine prison life, starting at San Quentin.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-07-19/inside-san-quentin-experiment-can-california-change-prison-culture

[marble falls]

1. So treating people a little more humanely is an experiment in 2024.

[Elessar Zappa]

4. Better now than never.

Hopefully this spreads to other states. Maybe if we treated prisoners more humanely, they’d come out better suited to adapt to society.

[BWdem4life]

2. non-paywall link

https://archive.ph/MC1oX

[Scruffy1]

3. I had a friend once who was a master class chess player.

I asked him once how he got so good. His answer was "3 years in San Quentin". The he told me how he gave lessons and he learned a lot from teaching others. We have long known the high correlation between prison and substance abuse. I remember some studies showing a 90% correlation. He was also a recovering alcoholic.