California State Prison At Folsom

Seven female prison guards, all currently or formerly employed at Folsom State Prison, filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court Tuesday claiming sexual harassment and discrimination at the predominantly male facility.

Folsom prison remained locked down but peaceful Sunday following a 10-hour hostage standoff a day earlier that ended with the release of a female guard, authorities said. Officer Sheila Mitchell, a nine-year veteran, was taken at knifepoint in the dining room of California State Prison, Sacramento by inmate Michael David Watson. He surrendered after lengthy talks with trained negotiators and members of his family. No one was injured. J.P.

While authorities continued to search Monday for a convicted murderer who escaped from Folsom Prison, a suspected accomplice was arrested in San Bernardino County. Lorenz Karlic, 30, a former inmate who once escaped from prison, was arrested at his home in Hesperia by San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies, according to Lt. Mike Yarborough, a prison spokesman. Investigators also continued searching for the wife of escaped convict Glen S.

Joaquin Phoenix, whose portrayal of Johnny Cash in "Walk the Line" has made him an early Oscar front-runner, returned this week to the scene of one of the musician's most famous concerts: Folsom State Prison. Cash's Jan. 13, 1968, performance in a prison yard cemented his image as working-class hero and became a popular album.

Six inmates were injured at Folsom State Prison over the weekend during the most violent riot there in more than two years, officials said. The fight broke out among 40 inmates Saturday night in a dining hall when a Latino gang member who was being taken away by officers after a fight shouted a command in Spanish, a prison spokesman said. No weapons were used, but six inmates suffered head wounds from punches and kicks, and two were hospitalized, officials said.

Allegations of waste and lax security at Folsom State Prison leveled by correctional officers working at the Sacramento-area facility will be investigated, state Sen. Robert Presley (R-Riverside) said. He said the staff of his Joint Committee on Prison Construction and Operations will review Folsom's operations. Guards have complained that inmates are allowed access to ingredients to make an alcoholic home brew.

State prison officials Thursday cited attacks on two Folsom Prison guards this week as examples of increasingly sophisticated inmate gang activity at the violence-torn prison. The attempted shooting of an off-duty Folsom guard in West Sacramento on Wednesday was the fifth attempt statewide within the last five years to attack a guard off prison grounds, according to Bob Gore, state Corrections Department spokesman. It was the first, however, in which a guard was actually injured, he said.

Guards who witness abuse and other misconduct in California prisons rarely report it for fear of isolation by fellow officers and reprisals from superiors, three current and former Department of Corrections workers testified Tuesday, their voices shaking with emotion. The testimony came at a daylong Senate hearing on the state's troubled prison system.

A tuberculosis outbreak at Folsom Prison has forced state health officials to isolate at least eight inmates and two employees and order TB tests for all staff and prisoners, authorities said. A spokeswoman for the state Department of Health Services said the first case was diagnosed in June, and prison-wide screening tests started in early December.

Inmates at Folsom Prison take out their frustrations by stopping up prison toilets with bed sheets or anything else they can get their hands on, state water officials said Friday. As a result, raw sewage from the prison overflows into the nearby American River. The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board issued a cleanup and abatement order at its meeting Friday, telling prison authorities to do something about the problem.

Counterterrorism officials investigating an alleged plot to attack National Guard recruitment centers, synagogues and other sites in Southern California said Tuesday they are investigating the possibility that the plot was hatched by Islamic extremists and gang members at a state prison in Folsom.

A guard at the state prison in Folsom fatally shot a 35-year-old inmate who was stabbing another inmate Tuesday, authorities said. The guard fired a warning shot, then shot the inmate once in the back when he continued the attack, said Department of Corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton. The stabbed inmate, age 32, was in critical condition at a hospital with at least three wounds to the neck and chest.

FOLSOM An inmate at Folsom State Prison died Monday of stab wounds to the neck, the victim of an apparent homicide, prison officials said. The name of the victim, a 27-year-old convicted murderer from Los Angeles, was withheld because his family had not been notified. Prison officials suspect he was attacked with a sharpened metal rod by cellmate Robert Rodriguez, a Los Angeles man convicted of robbery with a firearm.

Six inmates were injured at Folsom State Prison over the weekend during the most violent riot there in more than two years, officials said. The fight broke out among 40 inmates Saturday night in a dining hall when a Latino gang member who was being taken away by officers after a fight shouted a command in Spanish, a prison spokesman said. No weapons were used, but six inmates suffered head wounds from punches and kicks, and two were hospitalized, officials said.

For 20 months, scores of Latino gang members at Folsom State Prison were locked in their cells around the clock and deprived of regular exercise, visitors, religious services, hot meals, telephone calls and frequent showers, internal documents show. At least one top Department of Corrections official has concluded that the extended harsh restrictions -- known in prison parlance as a lockdown -- amounted to violations of state policy and the inmates' constitutional rights.

Guards who witness abuse and other misconduct in California prisons rarely report it for fear of isolation by fellow officers and reprisals from superiors, three current and former Department of Corrections workers testified Tuesday, their voices shaking with emotion. The testimony came at a daylong Senate hearing on the state's troubled prison system.

FOLSOM An inmate at Folsom State Prison died Monday of stab wounds to the neck, the victim of an apparent homicide, prison officials said. The name of the victim, a 27-year-old convicted murderer from Los Angeles, was withheld because his family had not been notified. Prison officials suspect he was attacked with a sharpened metal rod by cellmate Robert Rodriguez, a Los Angeles man convicted of robbery with a firearm.

Inspired by the MTV prank show "Jackass," two Loomis teenagers recently pulled a stunt that prompted authorities to launch a manhunt and lock down Folsom Prison. On April 27, one of the teenagers put on an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs and ran along a rural road while his friend videotaped him. But the prank backfired when citizens chased the boy and law enforcement agencies sent out patrol cars, tracking dogs and a helicopter to look for him.

A race-related riot involving more than 100 inmates at Folsom State Prison on Thursday left two convicts with serious wounds -- one inflicted by a guard's gunshot -- and dozens with minor injuries. It was the first time in almost two years that an inmate has been shot in a California prison. No staff members were injured in the riot, described as the worst in a decade at the medium-security prison housing about 3,600 inmates east of Sacramento.