California State Prison, Solano (SOL) is a male-only
state prison located in the city of
Vacaville
Vacaville is a city located in Solano County in Northern California. Sitting approximately from Sacramento and from San Francisco, it is within the Sacramento Valley. As of the 2020 census, Vacaville had a population of 102,386, making it th ...
,
Solano County, California, adjacent to the
California Medical Facility. The facility is also referenced as Solano State Prison, CSP-Solano, and CSP-SOL.
[California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation]
California's Correctional Facilities.
6 March 2011.
Facilities
SOL's include the following facilities, among others:
[
* Level II housing: Open dormitories with secure perimeter fences and armed coverage
* Level III housing: Individual cells, fenced perimeters and armed coverage
]
Population and staff
As of fiscal year 2006/2007, SOL had a total of 1,308 staff and an annual operating budget of $158.4 million. As of February 2011, it had a design capacity of 2,610 but a total institution population of 5,050, for an occupancy rate of 193.5 percent.[California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation]
Monthly Report of Population as of Midnight February 23, 2011.
/ref>
As of July 31, 2022, SOL was incarcerating people at 124.7% of its design capacity, with 3,255 occupants.
History
The California State Prison at Solano opened in August 1984.[Furillo, Andy. "Prison boom fades. As the building grinds to a stop, officials grapple less with housing criminals and more with figuring out how to return them to society." ''Sacramento Bee'', July 12, 2004.] SOL was overseen by the warden of the California Medical Facility until January 1992, when a separate warden was assigned. By 1998, SOL was so crowded that "emergency triple bunks" were added. In 2008/2009 triple bunking was removed and the gyms by August 2009 were not holding inmates.
A 2001 U.S. District Court
The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...
ruling and a 2002 U.S. Court of Appeals
The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal judiciary. The courts of appeals are divided into 11 numbered circuits that cover geographic areas of the United States and hear appeals fro ...
decision supported the "right of Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
inmates" at SOL "to attend regular weekly religious services and wear beards in accordance with their faith".
Notable inmates
*William Ray Bonner
William Ray Bonner (born March 28, 1948) is a former service station attendant who went on a shooting spree through the South Side area of Los Angeles, California on April 22, 1973, killing six people and wounding nine others. The rampage ended w ...
(born 1948), spree killer
*Anthony Jacques Broussard (born c.1965), murderer of Marcy Renee Conrad
*Larry Green (born 1953), one of the Death Angels
The "Zebra" murders were a string of racially motivated murders and related attacks committed by a group of four black serial killers in San Francisco, California, United States, from October 1973 to April 1974; they killed at least 15 people a ...
*Spoon Jackson
Stanley Russell "Spoon" Jackson (born August 22, 1957 in Barstow, California) is an American poet serving a life without the possibility of parole sentence.
Currently incarcerated at California State Prison, Solano. Jackson was convicted of the st ...
(born 1957), murderer and poet
* Sanyika Shakur (1963-2021), gang member; was interviewed at SOL; paroled
*Johnny Spain (born 1949), member of the San Quentin Six
The San Quentin Six were six inmates at San Quentin State Prison in the U.S. state of California who were charged with actions related to an August 21, 1971 escape attempt that resulted in six deaths and at least two persons seriously wounded. They ...
; paroled in 1988
*James Tramel James Tramel (born c. 1967) was an Episcopal priest who was ordained while serving prison time for murder, and the first convict ever ordained in the Episcopal Church while still in prison. Soon after being paroled from prison in 2006, he became re ...
(c.1967), Episcopal priest convicted of murder; was paroled by Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, film producer, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. ''Time'' ...
in 2006
*Anthony Wimberly
Anthony Rene Wimberly (né Lee; born October 26, 1962) is an American criminal and serial killer. Between December 1984 and January 1985, he murdered three women in Oakland, California, Oakland for the purpose of robbery, as well as raping a 12-ye ...
(born 1962), serial killer; sentenced to three years for burglary and robbery; paroled in 1983
*Loi Nguyen, the only serving perpetrator of the 1991 Sacramento hostage crisis
On April 4, 1991, 41 employees and customers were taken hostage and held at a Good Guys! electronics store at the corner of 65th Street and Stockton Boulevard in Sacramento, California, near the Florin Mall (now Florin Towne Centre) for approx ...
[https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article250315984.html]
References
External links
*
Solano State Prison Information from Ex-Inmates
{{State prisons in California
1984 establishments in California
Prisons in California
Buildings and structures in Vacaville, California
Law enforcement in the San Francisco Bay Area