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

Hannah Wiley | Los Angeles Times (TNS) SAN QUENTIN, Calif. — 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.

The changes are modeled after prison operations in Norway and other Scandinavian countries, where incarceration is considered less a tool for punishment than an opportunity for recovery and rehabilitation. Newsom said he envisions a prison system that doesn’t just confine lawbreakers but better prepares them for reintegrating into communities after their release. That means expanding job training and substance-use treatment, but also replacing a prison culture built on hierarchy and fear with opportunities for connection and normalized social interactions.

It will take years and hundreds of millions of dollars to fully implement the California Model at San Quentin. And whether there’s support for expanding the approach across the state’s 32 prisons hinges on what plays out at this 172-year-old institution over the next few years. In some ways, San.