November 23, 1979 – After a four-month suspension for “slanting the news,” the SQ News was officially back in business. On Aug. 31, Michael Satris of the Prison Law Office filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus in the Marin County Superior Court on behalf of the San Quentin News reporters. Subsequent negotiations with prison officials allowed the newspaper to continue publication.
June 13, 1980 – A U.S. District Court judge ruled that “brutality, overcrowding, idleness, poor physical facilities” and last summer’s long lockdown at the Washington state penitentiary at Walla Walla constitute cruel and unusual punishment. “There is just no question,” that overcrowding constitutes such punishment, he said.
August 29, 1980 – Five shots were fired by the gunrail officer in East Block in order to break up an assault on a correctional officer. The incident was sparked when a cell search turned up illegal tools and a tattoo gun. The two inmates in the cell attacked the officer.
September 5, 1980 – Ten shots were fired on the C Section yard to stop an altercation between prisoners. Seven inmates were treated at the prison hospital for birdshot wounds.
September 19, 1980 – Gov. Edmund Brown Jr. has vetoed the so-called habitual criminal bill which would have permitted a 20-year-to-life sentence for anyone convicted the third time of a serious felony. It was the first measure intended to increase sentences that Brown has ever vetoed.
November 14, 1980 – An inmate out of Santa Clara County was stabbed and killed on the lower yard. James Dance, 32, was stabbed once in the neck at approximately 9:40 a.m. and pronounced dead at the prison hospital.
