Lethal Injection Chamber, San Quentin State Prison, California, United States

In 1851, California's first prison opened; it was a 268-ton wooden ship named The Waban, anchored in San Francisco Bay and outfitted to hold 30 inmates. After a series of speculative land transactions and a legislative scandal, inmates who were housed on the Waban constructed San Quentin which "opened in 1852 with 68 inmates." A dungeon built at San Quentin in 1854 is thought to be California's oldest surviving public work.
The prison held both male and female inmates until 1932 when the original California Institution for Women prison at Tehachapi was built. In 1941 the first prison meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous took place at San Quentin; in commemoration of this, the 25-millionth copy of the A.A. "Big Book" was presented to Jill Brown, of San Quentin, at the International Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The use of torture as an approved method of interrogation at San Quentin was banned in 1944.
Alfredo Santos, one-time convicted heroin dealer and successful artist, painted six remarkable, 20 ft (6.1 m) sepia toned murals during his 1953-1955 incarceration that have hung in the dining hall of the prison.