Location of Soledad in Monterey County, and Monterey County in California
The institution is divided into three facilities: North Facility, Central Facility, and South Facility. All offer their own programs to the inmate/prisoner population. In March 2012, the facility's total population was 5,684, or more than 171.6 percent of its design capacity of 3,312.[3]
As of July 31, 2022, Soledad was incarcerating people at 123.0% of its design capacity, with 4,761 occupants.[4]
The South Facility dates back to 1946, when it was used as "Camp Center" and administered by San Quentin State Prison. In 1951, the Central Facility opened, and in 1958 the Northern Facility opened. By 1984, an additional dormitory was added to the Central Facility. Three more dormitories were added in 1996, two more to the Northern Facility and one to the Southern Facility. The Correctional Training Facility covers 680 acres (280 hectares). As of 2006–2007, there was total number of 1,643 staff and an annual budget of US$150 million.[citation needed]
On April 13, 2021, CDCR announced that the Southern Facility would close by July 2022 due to a decreased minimum security inmate population.[5]
Programming
The facility offers educational, vocational, volunteer, mental health, and self-help programming.[6] Incarcerated individuals at Correctional Training Facility help train service dogs[7] and have organized fundraising efforts to give back to their communities.[8] Correctional Training Facility was the primary filming location for the CNN documentary, "The Feminist on Cellblock Y," which highlighted some of the rehabilitative and advocacy efforts of people incarcerated in CDCR.
Correctional Training Facility offers a dedicated Veterans housing and rehabilitation program for centralizing services for incarcerated Veterans.[9] The Veterans hub is the first of its kind in the United States and has the capacity to house and treat up to 1200 Veterans.[10]
Officer deaths
Four correctional staff from the Correctional Training Facility have been killed while on duty: Officer John V. Mills, Officer William Shull, Officer Robert McCarthy and Program Administrator Kenneth Conant.
Most prominently, Officer Mills, a correctional officer on a maximum security unit, was beaten to death on January 16, 1970, in Y-Wing in retaliation of the killing of three inmates by another correctional officer during a riot in the Adjustment Center (O-Wing)[11] a few days prior. A group of three prisoners, known as the Soledad Brothers, were later indicted for Mills's death and acquitted.
Six months later, on July 23, 1970, Officer Shull was stabbed to death with a shank fashioned from a sharpened steel file.[12] on the North Facility recreation yard. He was discovered in an equipment shack with a multitude of stab wounds.
Officer McCarthy was murdered on March 4, 1971, while working in X-Wing, collecting mail from inmate Hugo Pinell at cell 104. As he opened the food port to collect the out going mail, Pinell stabbed McCarthy in the neck with a shank. The incident occurred on March 3, 1971; however Officer McCarthy succumbed to his injuries the following morning at a hospital located at Fort Ord in Seaside, California.
Program Administrator Conant was murdered on May 19, 1971, the last of the four killed in the line of duty.
Notable inmates
Bunchy Carter (1942–1969), activist; served four years in CTF for armed robbery
Eldridge Cleaver (1935–1998), writer and political activist; served time for various crimes
Fleeta Drumgo (1945–1979), one of the San Quentin Six; sentenced to CTF for burglary; was one of the "Soledad Brothers" convicted of murder; was released in 1976[18]
Danny Trejo (born 1944), actor and businessman; served time in several prisons, including CTF, for various crimes[28]
Dan White (1946–1985), politician and assassin; served five years of a seven-year sentence
Randy Williams, father of social activist Mary L. Williams; served 7 years for assault with intent to murder
Jaime Brugada Valdez (2000–2023), rapper known as MoneySign Suede; murdered in a shower at CTF while serving two years and eight months on two charges of being a convicted felon in possession of a gun[29]
↑ "Monthly Report of Population"(PDF). California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Offender Information Services Branch. January 3, 2013. p.2. Archived from the original(PDF) on May 16, 2013. Retrieved January 15, 2013.
↑ "Serial Killers Fast Facts". CNN Library. Cable News Network. December 24, 2018. Retrieved December 25, 2018. During a 2011 parole hearing, he confessed to killing the men. Corona, who was 77 and suffering from dementia at the time of the hearing...
↑ Curtis, Kim. Even in prison Jackson would be 'star'. Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA), June 13, 2005.
↑ Grossi, Mark. Corcoran Prison Home to Who's-Who of Killers. The List of Infamous Murderers at the State Facility has Grown This Week to Include Sirhan Sirhan and Juan Corona. The Fresno Bee, June 5, 1992
Above facilities are male-only unless noted by ♀(female) or ♂♀ (co-gender)
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