Sorry if this is already in here; I couldn’t find it. Bill Smoot lost his credentials to teach at San Quentin because of using the real San Quentin in the book. I don’t think the book would have been nearly as riveting or truthful if it had been about an imaginary prison.
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San Quentin is very well known, so I think it helps to gain readers. I have no doubt the author and the publisher wanted it in the title for sales and reader recognition.
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I think San Quentin in the title would draw readers.
I think the San Quentin mention in the title set the stage for what would come later.
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San Quentin was the eye candy. It was the ‘catcher’. Use a known establishment - for fiction or nonfiction - and you up your chances of selling books. I think this story would have been just as good if the prison name was not mentioned or a fake prison name was used.
I think that the name San Quentin grounds us that it is in a prison as people know the name, similar to if someone used Sing Sing or Riker’s Island. That being said, I still think it would have been an effective book even if it were not named San Quentin.