Folsom Prison Blues

[odannyboy]

Just watched the fantastic series on MSNBC called Lock-Up, and in it they profile various prisons, but none of them are anything like Folsom Prison in California.

A storied history, the prison is well over a 100 years old and built out of solid granite. No electric doors here, it is all lock and key on prison doors, some of which they proudly proclaim were hung at the turn of the 19th century.

It was also obvious the guards know the tradition of the prison and are proud of their legion of service, but the violence in that prison is shocking. Stabbings occur regularly, and many guards have been stabbed repeatedly. The warden of the prison was stabbed to death in the 1930's. While the prison has a long past of violence, it has actually gotten better since the 1970's and 1980's.

What really struck me is, while interviewing these guys doing hard time, almost all of them seemed entirely rational and very intelligent. Some (more than one) were facing life sentences for first time offenses in their teens. Others were mixed in with murderers for drug offenses. They were realistic and practical in their outlook, and they rightly described the place as a horror movie come to life.

Here are some pictures of the prison.

http://www.myfolsom.com/photos-folsomprison.shtml

hear the train a comin' it's rollin' 'round the bend
And I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when
I'm stuck at Folsom prison and time keeps draggin' on
But that train keeps rollin' on down to San Antone

When I was just a baby my mama told me son
Always be a good boy don't ever play with guns
But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die
When I hear that whistle blow I hang my head and cry

[JohnRN]

What really struck me is, while interviewing these guys doing hard time, almost all of them seemed entirely rational and very intelligent.

Which is what a lot of those who oppose the death penalty do not understand. Most murderers operate on the principle that they wouldn't let anything stand in their way - be it at the cost of innocent human life. Many people argue on the basis of conscience and compassion - somethings which were apparently absent when the victim was killed :roll:

But those multiple stabbings are scary. Makes me fear for our Forum Hero Tom (of the Green Puma fame!)

[Hoss68]

There are so many safety and security issues with Folsom Prison. For both the prisoners and the staff.

The locks, the lack of electronic locks and control of the facility... That place is a nightmare. They need to tear it down after making a new, and logistically smarter, facility.

BTW Dan~ I could hear him singing that as I read the words~ Pretty Cool!

[odannyboy]

Forgot to mention that every license plate in California is made in Folsom prison.

[Hoss68]

Originally Posted by odannyboy

Forgot to mention that every license plate in California is made in Folsom prison.

Since the state is making such a profit off of this prison, wouldn't it make sense to build a better, more security and safety conscious facility with all or some of the profits from that???

I look at the same way I did at the sex offender program... They have plenty of time (all the time in their world) to watch routines, figure out keys, ways to get by with things like making or passing contraband... This is the kind of prison that makes for an ideal hostage/riot situation. If I recall they have had several in the past.

I was surprised to see that the site you posted also has a BB to post on, so I dug some more and found it in quite a few other places online... That was bizarre. Not surprisingly~ Geocities supported a few. They were also the site for the friends/families/significant others for the SO program I worked for also... Something like "Citizensforreform"~ I'll dig for it, its' quite funny actually.

[cato2]

I recall reading somewhere that the percentage of people in prison for murder who had a criminal background was lower then what one would suspect. That in fact for many it was their first real crime. A crime of passion.


I do know that we lock up more people in this country then any other country in the world. And with the get tough sentencing guidelines people are staying in longer. And the cost of incarceration continues to grow. In the case of Folsom they will of course not release them because of the severity of the crime. California is inovative with the Forrest camps they run. It helps the state to fight the deadly forrest fires they have.

Not sure of what is a good solution. So many things have been tried. Seems that by the time a new prison is built, it is full already.

[odannyboy]

Good points from both of you cato and Hoss.


The fact is, we are warehousing criminals. We all know many of them belong in there, and for many of the lifers, they admitted they were where they belong and deserve to be, and the others, in for more minor offenses, also said they should be punished.

The problem is that they are all being lumped into one God-awful environment with little or no difference in conditions for any of them, and a drug offense might likely lead to a more hardened criminal after ebing around these murderers and other gang members. Recidivism is terrible, and all the convicts agree that there is NO rehabilitation available. Looking at those extremely close quarters (two to a cell, and once out of your bunk bed the cell was the size of a pice of 4x8 plywood.)

The place looked more like a dungeon, and prisoners described the tension in the yard as being so thick you can feel it on your skin when something is going down.

If you could see this series on MSNBC, you would see that our entire approach to punishing these criminals with little or no regard for their background only means you HAVE to keep them locked up longer with our warehousing approach, and these guys are set up for failure upon their release from prison, soon to be back.