San Francisco's jail in San Bruno

To provide supplemental food for the prisoners, a vegetable garden covering many acres was planted and maintained by the prisoners. The food was awful, recreation minimal and the jail became overcrowded, especially at the beginning of the week when all of the party goers (drunks) filled the cells awaiting trial or serving sentences. A number of "breakouts” occurred over the years but the prisoners who broke out tended to head over the hill to the west (not east where people lived) and then hitch-hiked to shelter in San Francisco. These occasional breakouts did not sit well with the citizens and protests were registered with the San Francisco sheriff to no avail. The buses kept rolling every day with new loads of "minimum security” prisoners to San Bruno and then returned with "dried-out” prisoners who usually were on the returning buses come next Monday.

Sheriff Michael Hennessey, a reform-minded public officer and decent fellow who hated to see the jail deteriorating into the state it had become, finally had enough. This was in the mid-1990s. The jail had to be replaced but the bond issue that was voted on in 1994 was defeated. Another bond failed in 1996. Finally, money became available and, in 2000, construction on a new 300,000-square-foot, 368-bed jail began. Opening date was to be November 2003, but the date came and went and the opening of the medium-security facility was delayed. Sixteen semi-circular housing units (pods) each painted different bright colors for identification, radiated out from a central security station where the jailers could view every prisoner that was in the double-occupancy cell (total 768 beds). This facility was to be run electronically with 374 closed-circuit television monitors and electronically controlled doors. No keys. A recreation center was developed inside the walls of the facility as well as dental and medical facilities. For those who wanted to pursue their education, the Five-Keys Charter High School is available to pursue a high school diploma.

Opening deadlines were changed many times but, finally in August 2006, 14 months behind schedule, the new state-of-the-art facility opened with 600 inmates secure in their cells.

The buses continue to roll to the jail in the mornings but the food has improved and less noise is now generated due to the design of the new jail house facility. The vegetable fields are still being planted for the next crop to be served at the jail.

In January 2012 demolition of the uninhabitable 1934 art deco jail began.

Rediscovering the Peninsula by Darold Fredricks appears in the Monday edition of the Daily Journal.