Joint Legislative Hearing on Violence at Folsom Prison - Summary of Hearing Held on June 19, 1985, Larkin Hall, Folsom Prison

• NCJ Number: 101342
• Author(s): V Caponpon; G Tagatac
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 47 pages
• Corporate Author: California Legislature; California Assembly
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Legislative Hearing/Committee Report
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Sponsored by the Joint Committee on Prison Construction in Operations in Cooperation with the Assembly Committee on Public Safety and the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Annotation

This summary of testimony at a June 19, 1985, legislative hearing examines the causes of the high rate of violence at California's Folsom Prison as well as ways to reduce it.

Abstract

Testimony was given by inmates, State and prison corrections officials, and corrections analysts. Witnesses identify the following causes of violence: inmate gangs, inmate idleness, prison overcrowding, prison conditions, racial tensions, the high number of violent inmates in prison for long time periods, flawed inmate classification procedures, and poor relations between inmates and staff. Some suggestions for reducing the violence are the dispersion of inmate gang members among the State prisons, improved inmate programs, a more effective inmate grievance system, a revised inmate classification system, and more autonomy for the warden in prison management. Other recommendations are improved control procedures to reduce inmate weapons possession and drug use, use of audit teams to inspect prison conditions regularly, a program of conjugal visits, and inmate self-government. Appendixes contain relevant reports, graphs, and tabular data.