Gavin Newsom wants to reform San Quentin State Prison. A Sacramento leader will help him

California Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to convert San Quentin State Prison from a maximum security facility into rehabilitation center that’s a model for the rest of the state — and he wants Sacramento’s leader to play a significant role.

Newsom on Friday announced he is tapping Mayor Darrell Steinberg to lead the San Quentin Transformation Advisory Council, which will help reform the prison with more programming that pushes education and services over the existing punitive model.

The 16-member council will develop a plan to change San Quentin, which houses about 3,900 inmates, into a prison modeled after those in Scandinavian countries known for their more humane systems of incarceration. San Quentin’s 546 death row inmates will be transferred to other state prisons.

Steinberg will be the governor’s lead advisor and act as a liaison between Newsom and the Advisory Council. Newsom wants to see the reforms by 2025, giving the Advisory Council about a year-and-a-half to complete its work.

The governor has allocated $20 million from the 2023-2024 budget to spend on his San Quentin transformation plans, subject to legislative approval.

Newsom announced his plans for San Quentin in March during his California-wide State of the State tour. Instead of giving a speech in Sacramento, the governor traveled around the state to unveil several initiatives, including criminal justice reform.

California has spent the past decade-and-a-half working to improve its prison system and alleviate severe overcrowding at its facilities. Sentencing law changes have resulted in fewer state prison inmates, as those convicted of lower-level crimes are no longer incarcerated or serve time in county jails.

Newsom also has placed a moratorium on death row executions for the past four years.

As California has begun to move away from mass incarceration, the state has started closing prisons and facility yards as a cost-saving measure.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced in December it will shutter its third state prison.