Escaping Alcatraz: How the California Model Is Closing Prisons and Rethinking Mass Incarceration
President Trump recently remarked that he’d like to reopen Alcatraz Prison as a “symbol of law, order, and justice,” reviving a literal museum of America’s carceral past. While it’s wise not to seize on this administration’s every off-handed remark, and to recognize the many logistical impossibilities here, it is the symbolism we cannot ignore: a return to the failed belief that warehousing people achieves public safety.
California has already tried that model, and it failed. Building more prisons and passing punitive laws didn’t make us safer; it only fueled mass incarceration. That’s why California is charting a new course – one that starts less than twenty miles from Alcatraz.
San Quentin, California’s most notorious prison, and, until recently, the home of death row, is undergoing a historic transformation. California’s oldest and most iconic prison is now called the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (SQRC), the centerpiece of “The California Model,” a bold shift from punishment to rehabilitation that could change the future of accountability.
The gas chamber has been dismantled, and the men once on death row have been integrated into the general population and prison yards across the state. ARC founder Scott Budnick and former Executive Director Sam Lewis serve on the SQRC Advisory Council, helping guide the project alongside other justice reform advocates.
Contrast that with El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, built to detain and isolate suspected gang members in an attempt to curb violence. People like Kilmar Abrego Garcia have been sent there, often without due process. While it’s an extreme example of an authoritarian approach to public safety, the ethos mirrors California’s past.
Decades ago, California embraced harsh policies like the Three Strikes law and extreme sentencing, fueling a prison boom. Prisons became overcrowded, and the conditions worsened. The state went from 12 to 35 prisons in just 20 years.
So, how does California’s new approach differ?
The California Model draws inspiration from Norway’s prisons, where dignity, rehabilitation, and community are foundational. It’s being piloted not just at San Quentin but also at three additional prisons, including a women’s facility where ARC Life Coach Lynn Acosta and peer navigators help incarcerated women heal from trauma and prepare for life after prison.
Today, California isn’t just rethinking prisons, it’s closing them.
California recently announced the closure of its fifth state prison, set for 2026. Thanks to a significant decline in the prison population, the state has already closed three prisons, with two more scheduled to shut down. Today, California’s prison population has dropped below 95,000, down from a peak of over 170,000. Meanwhile, recidivism has fallen from over 54% in 2011 to 41.9% today, signaling progress.
Symbolically, California is saying that people are more than their worst mistakes. Rethinking mass incarceration isn’t only about justice—it’s about who we are and want to be. It’s about mercy, second chances, healing, and treating people with dignity, even those who are incarcerated. Ultimately, it tests our shared humanity and the kind of society we live in.
The federal government is sending the opposite message—one rooted in extreme punishment designed to harm further those who’ve made mistakes, especially poor people from communities of color. There’s no silver lining here—only a return to retribution. Doubling down on the failures of the tough-on-crime era won’t lead us forward; it will only keep us in the past.
Reopening Alcatraz? No thanks. We’ll take the California Model instead.
