San Quentin Prison Tapestries

Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is the oldest prison in California and the state's only death row for male inmates, the largest in the United States. It has a gas chamber, but since 1996, executions at the prison have been carried out by lethal injection, though the prison has not performed an execution since 2006. The prison has been featured on film, radio drama, video, podcast, and television; is the subject of many books; has hosted concerts; and has housed many notorious inmates. The correctional complex sits on Point San Quentin, which consists of 432 acres on the north side of San Francisco Bay. This souvenir style design features an etching of the earliest iteration of the prison, with Mt. Tamalpais standing in the background.

Johnny Cash wanted to stay "far from Folsom Prison," but his most dedicated fans may want to see the place where he performed the concert that changed the course of his career. Contrary to what some fans may think, Cash never did more than a night in jail, and definitely not at California's Folsom, but he identified with the inmates and "Folsom Prison Blues" cemented him as a kind of bad-boy icon. The prison itself is off limits to anyone who isn't visiting an inmate, but the nearby Folsom Prison Museum tells the prison's gruesome history and includes plenty of Johnny Cash memorabilia.

Visit San Quentin State Prison Retro Tourist Souvenir

All just a little bit of history repeating. In the future.

Plot: Honorably discharged Army Ranger sergeant Cameron Poe returns home to his pregnant wife Tricia after a series of combat deployments. Poe and Tricia are briefly harassed by a drunken bar patron. Poe takes a stand to protect his wife and ends up killing the ringleader. Poe is then sentenced to 7-10 in San Quentin. Free Cameron Poe.

Johnny Cash at San Quentin prison on 1969