where is pelican bay prison located in california
Pelican Bay State Prison Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) is the only supermax state prison in California. The 275 acre prison is located in Del Norte County, California. The prison takes its name from a shallow bay on the Pacific coast, about 2 miles (3Â km) to the west. The prison lies in a detached section of Crescent City, several miles north of the main urban area and just south of the Oregon border. PBSP's primary purpose is to house the "worst of the worst" violent male prisoners from the California state prison system; 40% of Pelican State's inmates are serving life sentences and nearly all have histories of violence at other California prisons which resulted in their transfer to Pelican Bay. The sole exception are the institution's minimum security inmates who work as part of the prison's outside maintenance and firefighter programs.
History of United States prison systems Prisoners and prisons appeared in North America simultaneous to the arrival of European settlers. Among the ninety or so men who sailed with the explorer known as Christopher Columbus were a young black man abducted from the Canary Islands and at least four convicts.[27] By 1570, Spanish soldiers in St. Augustine, Florida, had built the first substantial prison in North America.[28] As other European nations began to compete with Spain for land and wealth in the New World, they too turned to convicts to fill out the crews on their ships.[28]