Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility

The prison cells were designed to house one person each, however, due to overcrowding, many house two prisoners each. In 1989, RJDCF opened a reception center which accepted newly sentenced inmates from across Southern California. However, in 2012, the institution changed from its previous reception center mission, and completed the conversion of three of its five facilities to sensitive needs yards. Other missions have included housing and providing treatment to inmates with severe mental illnesses, and inmates who have been identified as having medium to high risk medical concerns. Donovan has five interfaith chapels. Each religion represented at Donovan gets a series of lockers to store materials. About 85 prisoners work in the bakery, as of 2010. During that year, the monthly salary of a prisoner working in the bakery was between $90 ($ when adjusted for inflation) and $100 ($ when adjusted for inflation). KPBS said that bakery jobs were "desirable" compared to clerk and custodial jobs, which pay a monthly salary between $24 and $48. ==Operations==

Each week, "Level 4" (maximum security) prisoners may have 15 hours of yard time. Various documented uses of excessive force included tipping over the wheelchairs of disabled prisoners, punching a hard-of-hearing inmate in the face when he asked for written communication from the guard because he couldn't hear what the guard had said and using pepper spray on mentally ill convicts. ==Demographics==

In 2010, Donovan Correctional Facility had about 4,800 prisoners. Between 150 and 200 of the prisoners were Native Americans. During that year prisoners belonged to 15 religious faiths. ==Notable prisoners==

Current • Anand Jon – Former fashion designer convicted of rape and other sexual offenses. • Kenneth Kimes Jr. – Son and accomplice of Sante Kimes. • Charles Ray Merritt - Perpetrator of the 2010 McStay family murders. • James Mitchell – Heir to the San Francisco–based Mitchell Brothers adult film business, one of the porn industry's pioneer dynasties during the 1960s and 1970s. Mitchell is the son of Jim Mitchell, who started the famous adult entertainment empire with his brother, Artie. He is a convicted murderer who was sentenced to 35 years to life in 2011 for killing the mother of his daughter with a softball bat in a Novato backyard and kidnapping their young daughter in 2009. • Billie Dureyea Shell – Convicted of second-degree murder. • Brett Thomas – Teenaged spree killer and rapist. • Tyler Williams – A perpetrator of the murders of Gary Matson and Winfield Mowder. • Tex Watson – Convicted killer and member of the Manson Family. • Joe Son – Mixed martial arts fighter, manager, and actor. Serving 34 years to life for various crimes including rape and manslaughter. Former • Anerae Brown – Rapper and Crips gang member known as "X-Raided" convicted of gang-related homicide; released on parole in 2018. • John Getreu – Convicted serial killer; Getreu died in 2023, aged 79, while serving his sentence. • Roy Norris – One of the two "Tool Box Killers"; was later moved to California Medical Facility, where he died of natural causes a week later on February 24, 2020, at 72 years old. • John Robert Schrieffer – Physicist and Nobel Prize winner convicted of and sentenced to two years for vehicular manslaughter. Schrieffer died in a Florida nursing home in July 2019, at the age of 88. • Antron Singleton – Rapper known as "Big Lurch" convicted of killing and cannibalizing his roommate. ==References==