- CA Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday the state will dismantle the death row at San Quentin State Prison.
- Inmates in the country's largest death row will be moved to the general population in other prisons.
- Newsom said "wealth and race" are bigger factors to being on death row than "guilt or innocence."
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California announced the state will dismantle San Quentin State Prison's death row and turn it into a "positive, healing environment," the Associated Press reported Monday.
The inmates on death row in San Quentin — the country's largest death row — will be transferred to general populations in other prisons over the span of two years, officials said.
The vacant space at San Quentin will be transformed into a "positive, healing environment to provide increased rehabilitative, educational, and health care opportunities," according to a proposed budget.
"The prospect of your ending up on death row has more to do with your wealth and race than it does your guilt or innocence," Newsom said Monday. "We talk about justice, we preach justice, but as a nation, we don't practice it on death row."
While Newsom put a moratorium on state executions in 2019, the state hasn't executed any inmates since 2006.
California has the highest number of death row prisoners in the country with 695 inmates, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
"We are starting the process of closing death row to repurpose and transform the current housing units into something innovative and anchored in rehabilitation," Vicky Waters, a spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told the AP.
Representatives for Newsom and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.