In 2023, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that the facility would be transformed to focus on training and rehabilitation, and that San Quentin State Prison in California is looking to Scandinavia for inspiration.
Following a 2023 announcement from the California Governor, the maximum-security prison was to be converted into a “one-of-a-kind facility” renamed the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. Danish architecture studio Schmidt Hammer Lassen and American studio DLR Group were selected to redesign the facility, utilizing influences from the Scandinavian incarceration system.
San Quentin State Prison in California is Looking to Scandinavia for Inspiration, the article continues below the image.
Three forthcoming education and vocational training buildings by SHL and DLR Group stand to add new amenities at San Quentin, as part of Governor Newsom’s transformation plan with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The proposed 2023-2024 budget was $20 million, aiming to transform San Quentin into “the preeminent restorative justice facility in the world.”
Schmidt Hammer Lassen (SHL) stated that it intended to apply principles derived from those used by Scandinavian countries in the architecture, design, and management of their carceral facilities, including enhanced daylighting and access to education and landscaping.
Norway has a much stronger social welfare state than California, and the U.S. more broadly. The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world, imprisoning 1 in 100 adults. California’s incarcerated population makes less than $1 per hour and was heavily relied upon to fight the recent waves of Los Angeles wildfires, sparking criticism from human rights groups. California voters recently shot down Proposition 6, which was meant to “bar slavery in any form and repeal a current provision allowing involuntary servitude.”
San Quentin State Prison in California is Looking to Scandinavia for Inspiration, the article continues below the image.
The decision to revamp San Quentin was not met without criticism. “To overhaul how we define public safety in California, it requires an honest reckoning with the violence and racism inherent to U.S. policing and prison systems. Put another way, we can’t turn a light switch and adopt a care-first Nordic model without taking full stock of why prisons were built to function the way they do in America,” said some.
However, DLR and SHL have worked on similar projects such as the New Correctional Facility Nuuk, using a system introduced in the 1990s that “prioritizes rehabilitation through education”, according to the studio.
“Bringing our expertise with the Nordic model of rehabilitation and education, we are combining the best of both worlds,” said SHL senior project manager Jette Birkeskov Mogensen. “Having DLR Group and SHL working from day one as an integrated design team has ensured an unprecedented level of speed and quality in design informing clients.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration has learned from Norway how to transform San Quentin State Prison into San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. Norwegians never enacted sweeping criminal penalties that unabashedly targeted specific groups, the way the United States did with the black codes, Jim Crow laws, and the war on drugs. Norwegians didn’t abolish slavery only to retain it for people in prison, the way the U.S. did with the penal servitude clause of the 13th Amendment, and in 2022, the California Legislature voted against ending prison slavery.
The California Model was partially informed by an “independent report” submitted to the Governor in early 2024 that details recommendations for expanding rehabilitation efforts including improving housing for inmates and correctional staff, as well as improving officer training.
Three forthcoming education and vocational training buildings by SHL and DLR Group stand to add new amenities at San Quentin, as part of Newsom’s transformation plan with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). The goal, the state said, is to reduce recidivism through education, job training, and substance treatment. Is the “Nordic model,” sometimes used interchangeably with the “California model,” transferable in a state where prison labor is a multi-billion-dollar industry? When, if ever, is it ethical to design carceral spaces?
The culture of America’s prisons is fundamentally punitive. In Norwegian jails, there is no physical abuse, forced labor, or solitary confinement. There are no restrictions on family visits. People in Norway’s prisons never lose the right to vote. Norwegian correctional officers don’t carry any weapons. There is tremendous emphasis on reintegration, and prison workers are trained in psychology and social work far more than they are in self-defense.
San Quentin State Prison in California is Looking to Scandinavia for Inspiration, the article continues below the image.
“San Quentin carries a well-earned reputation central to US history and culture based in large part on its notorious punitive and degrading environment,” says project design lead Kasper Heiberg Frandsen.
Lori Coppenrath is DLR Group’s Justice + Civic Planning Leader. She emphasizes that the design for San Quentin “departs from conventional prison architecture through an open, flexible campus layout, emulating a community college environment, and increased connections between the built environment and nature.” Coppenrath added that the design incorporates “trauma-informed and learning environment best practices” to create “physical spaces that promote safety, well-being, and healing for all, including those who work and volunteer at the center.”
While Newsom’s pilot of the Norwegian model at San Quentin is laudable on paper, the realization of the Norwegian approach to prisons in California will require nothing less than a total transformation of the cultural and philosophical lens through which public safety is defined, as well as the societal roles of police and prisons.
Can the culture of prison be changed with new architecture? What difference will a few new Scandinavian buildings make when economic justice still hasn’t been won for those who inhabit them? Perhaps one day, CDCR will realize that going out of business is the only true sign of success.
San Quentin State Prison in California is Looking to Scandinavia for Inspiration, reported by Tor Kjolberg.
All images (except Gov. Newsom) © SHL and DLR Group/ CDCR