SACRAMENTO, Calif. — San Quentin State Prison was once known as “The Bastille by The Bay,” an enormous facility overlooking San Francisco Bay that housed the nation’s largest death row and was built in 1852, making it California’s oldest prison.
“Basically, when officers went in they thought they were working for the toughest prison in the system,” said Don Novey, the former head of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the state’s prison guard union. “I remember, all the cells had open bars.
“You go to Pelican Bay or another maximum custody prison, those are basically cells that are sealed off with a little window in the cell door. But these open-bar settings, all a guy has to do is reach through the bars and stab you.
