CJCJ's Executive Director Daniel Macallair, is a practitioner-in-residence at San Francisco State University (SFSU)'s Department of Criminal Justice Studies. These slides are from his California Corrections System course materials.

1. The Penitentiary Comes to California
The Gold Rush and the evolution
of the State’s Prison system
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2. San Francisco 1851
From small village to
large city
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3. California’s Gold Rush (1848–1855)
The growth of
lawlessness
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4. San Francisco: The lawless city 1848- 1852
• Street gangs such as the “Hounds” and “Sydney Ducks”
roamed with impunity
• San Francisco’s “Barbary Coast” gains notoriety as
haven for vice and villainy
• City averages 250 murders a year with population of
30,000
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5. The struggle for order (1848-1852)
• Committee of Vigilance formed (100 day reign)
• Inadequacy of the legal system revealed
• Creation of San Francisco County Jail
• An Act calling for the creation of a state prison
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6. San Francisco Jail Ship
Euphemia c 1851
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7. Governor John McDougal (1851-1852)
Advocated the
creation of a
state prison and
new penal code
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8. California and “Western Penology”
• Did not initially embrace Eastern prison ideologies of
reformation and community integration
• Reflected primarily custodial concerns and fear of
“unassimilable aliens”
• Auburn system of one man per cell reserved for white
prisoners
• Convict care placed in hands of lessee
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9. Convict lease system
A system under
which inmates are
leased to
contractors who
provide them with
food clothing and
housing in exchange
for their labor.
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10. Evolution of the American Convict
Lease System
• Kentucky 1825
• Louisiana 1844
• California 1852
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11. California’s Convict Lease System
Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo James Madison Estell
1807 -1890 1811-1859
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12. Building of San Quentin
Construction begins with inmate
labor
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13. Building San Quentin
Inmates initially housed on
prison ship Waban
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14. The San Francisco Manufacturing Company
Former Governor
James Madison Estell John McDougal
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15. Building San Quentin
“The Stones” first bulding completed in 1854
The bottom floor designed for congregate labor and dining.
Represents first steps towards adopting the Auburn model
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16. San Quentin Congregate dining hall (1880s)
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17. 40 Boardman Place www.cjcj.org
San Francisco, CA 94103 © Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013

18. Failure of the Lease system (1855)
• Mismanagement and abuse of inmates
• Poor profitability due to isolation
• Pressure by merchants and labor groups to limit inmate
labor competition
• Severe overcrowding
• Mass escapes
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San Francisco, CA 94103 © Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013

19. Resumption of the Lease System (1856)
• Financial mismanagement by state-appointed board of
directors
• Estell’s contract reluctantly reinstated
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San Francisco, CA 94103 © Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013

20. Convict Lease System abolished
(1858)
Crowding, inmate abuse and deteriorating
conditions forced the state to take permanent
control
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San Francisco, CA 94103 © Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013

21. State Takes Control
• Expansion of San Quentin with Auburn style 6 tier cell
block design
• Mass escapes lead to adoption of Auburn style regimen
• New workshop building erected with modern machinery
• Staff housing expanded
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22. Expansion of San Quentin
Throughout the 19th
century San Quentin
gradually expanded
to accommodate a
growing inmate
population
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23. San Quentin Inmates
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24. Expansion of San Quentin
Original Hospital building
(circa 1880s)
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25. Town of San Quentin
Where many staff resided
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