It was a dreary, rainy day when I finally had time to visit the infamous Folsom State Prison. I was a little disappointed at first that there was not more for me to see (just the outer walls and a tower or two), but the small 2.5-room museum of artifacts satisfied my curiosity about its past and present.
The prison was founded in 1880 to relieve overcrowding at San Quentin. The Folsom location was ideal because the American River borders the prison on the west side, providing a natural barrier, water, and, later, electricity (installed in 1893); granite could be quarried nearby. Early prisoners, brought from San Quentin by boat and then train, quarried the stone and constructed the walls and 8-
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The prison was founded in 1880 to relieve overcrowding at San Quentin. The Folsom location was ideal because the American River borders the prison on the west side, providing a natural barrier, water, and, later, electricity (installed in 1893); granite could be quarried nearby. Early prisoners, brought from San Quentin by boat and then train, quarried the stone and constructed the walls and 8-foot-by-4-foot cells. There are 1,700 cells in the facility, but more were added to Folsom State Prison with the opening of a new facility in 1986, bringing total inmate capacity to 5,500. The prison was originally supposed to be self-sustaining, so inmates kept busy with construction, farming on China Hill next door, and other crafts like tombstone engraving for each other. The first inmate was a Cantonese man named Chong Hing, #1 on July 26, 1880. Only six women have ever been incarcerated in Folsom. Morbid fact: The prison cemetery for unclaimed/unwanted dead inmates had to be moved several times, due to flooding that caused body parts to wash up downstream in the American River--imagine coming across that!
Today, FSP is a granite-wall-and-barbed-wire-enclosed city; it includes schools, workshops, U.S. post office, chapel, medical facility, exercise facilities, etc. The tiny "museum" ($1 entrance fee) holds artifacts from the prison, such as confiscated weapons, handcuffs, newspaper clippings, and pictures. A short, 8-minute video presentation of the facility (from a decade or two earlier) attempts to sell the prison as a great cruise-ship package, offering residents an exciting and productive lifestyle you might like to be a part of (not!) with upbeat, peppy music playing in the background. In the back of the museum is a replica of an old cell, complete with a talking inmate (complete with black-and-white-striped regalia) who can speak about prison life; kind of creepy to me, but perhaps more amusing to kids. Quite an interesting learning experience to visit a place none of us really want to go!
Museum telephone: 916/985-2561, ext. 4589
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