Folsom Prison

The Department of Corrections announced Friday that Robert Borg, superintendent of the California Rehabilitation Center at Norco, has been named acting warden of Folsom Prison. Warden Joe Campoy is on sick leave and is applying for a disability retirement. Borg, 47, will take over on Monday. Meanwhile, a prisoner was stabbed twice in the exercise yard at Folsom on Friday, a prison spokesman said. He was the 173rd stabbing victim at the strife-ridden 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.

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.

A Folsom prison inmate with a homemade knife took a female guard hostage Saturday, releasing her unharmed 10 hours later after lengthy talks with trained negotiators and members of his family. Corrections authorities ordered a daylong lockdown of the state's 33 prisons while a team of crisis negotiators worked to free Officer Sheila Mitchell, 45, a nine-year veteran. Inmate Michael David Watson, 41, wielding a 6-inch knife, took Mitchell from her dining room post about 7 a.m.

A federal judge today ordered former Black Panther Elmer (Geronimo) Pratt out of Folsom Prison for his own safety and accused state prison officials of retaliatory action in moving him to the facility. Pratt, 41, challenged his hasty transfer out of San Quentin Prison to Folsom Sept. 12, contending he feared for his life from Folsom guards. Pratt made it clear he was even willing to go back to solitary confinement at San Quentin rather than face possible harm at Folsom. U.S.

More than 60 inmates at New Folsom Prison have refused to eat prison food since Nov. 21 to protest a yearlong lock-down of a group of Latino prisoners from Northern California. Two representatives of Department of Corrections Director Cal Terhune met with some of the inmates Thursday. They discussed the protesters' 14 demands, which include a return to normal prison work and educational programs, access to the exercise yard, regular showers and contact visits with their families.

Management problems in operating violence-plagued Folsom Prison, ranging from employees eating food intended for inmates to apparently illegal dispensing of dangerous drugs, are costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, the Legislature was told Tuesday. Concluding an extensive investigation of the 105-year-old maximum security lockup, state Auditor Gen. Thomas W. Hayes found that the administrative problems at Folsom "are wide-ranging but correctable."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked the U.S. attorney here Friday to investigate allegations that officials at Folsom State Prison orchestrated a riot two years ago and then conspired to cover it up. Facing a wave of troubles in all corners of California's far-flung penal system -- the nation's largest -- he moved on several other fronts as well.

"STOP: No visitors beyond this point," warns the sign overlooking the hand-hewn gray granite walls, vaulted gate and peaked Gothic guard tower of Folsom State Prison. It's an intimidating view of the lockup where nearly 100 men were hanged and guards and inmates died in spectacular escape attempts that included a runaway railroad engine and a homemade diving suit.

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.

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.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked the U.S. attorney here Friday to investigate allegations that officials at Folsom State Prison orchestrated a riot two years ago and then conspired to cover it up. Facing a wave of troubles in all corners of California's far-flung penal system -- the nation's largest -- he moved on several other fronts as well.

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.

"STOP: No visitors beyond this point," warns the sign overlooking the hand-hewn gray granite walls, vaulted gate and peaked Gothic guard tower of Folsom State Prison. It's an intimidating view of the lockup where nearly 100 men were hanged and guards and inmates died in spectacular escape attempts that included a runaway railroad engine and a homemade diving suit.

More than 60 inmates at New Folsom Prison have refused to eat prison food since Nov. 21 to protest a yearlong lock-down of a group of Latino prisoners from Northern California. Two representatives of Department of Corrections Director Cal Terhune met with some of the inmates Thursday. They discussed the protesters' 14 demands, which include a return to normal prison work and educational programs, access to the exercise yard, regular showers and contact visits with their families.

Funk singer-songwriter Rick James has made more headlines than music in the 1990s. The troubled musician's problems with drugs and the law culminated three years ago with an assault conviction and a two-year sentence at Folsom State Prison. Since his release about a year ago, the 47-year-old James has tried to resurrect his dormant career, via a new album, "Urban Rhapsody" (Private I/Mercury), and a 23-city U.S. tour that kicked off Thursday night at the Galaxy Concert Theatre.

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.

Police have named a Folsom prison inmate as the suspect in the 1991 fatal shooting of an Orange man who had just withdrawn $20,000 in cash from his bank, authorities said Tuesday. John Clyde Abel was arrested after an anonymous tip led detectives to link him to the killing of Armando Miller, Orange Police Sgt. Mike Pettifer said. Miller, 26, was walking out of a Sunwest Bank branch on 1st Street when he was shot in the forehead, police said.

A fight between 100 black and Latino inmates in an exercise yard at Folsom state prison Friday led to the death of one prisoner and injuries to 13 others, including six shot by prison guards. Prisoners battled one another with hand-fashioned knives and other weapons. Eight of them were treated for stab wounds, and four officers sustained minor injuries.

A Folsom prison inmate who deserted his family before his 13-year-old daughter was born donated one of his kidneys Tuesday to keep her alive. David Patterson, 34, serving a seven-year sentence for burglary, and Renada Daniel-Patterson of Vallejo underwent the transplant surgery at UC San Francisco Medical Center. Patterson, who saw his daughter once, when she was 8, offered a kidney and an apology in a letter he wrote to her in November.