I have never thought "the fuck?" so many times in one day. I went to Sacramento State Prison with some other students from my college Criminal Justice club. It was pretty fun and interesting but I thought the general way the prison is run or at least how the tours are done was perhaps a tad odd/made 0 sense (I actually thought the whole experience was pretty LOL). I'm not talking about any of the morality of how prisoners are treated but the general safety of guards, staff, and visitors.
edit: I forgot to mention that a few hours before we arrived a prisoner started a fire in his cell and when a guard or two went into the cell to stop him and put the fire out the prisoner stabbed at least one guard. I think the guard may have died but I forget what they said happened exactly. Because of this we weren't able to go to certain parts of the prison. I went to the prison Friday but I can't find any news articles about it.
The pictures in this are from google. We weren't allowed to take phones or cameras into the prison.
From wiki: California State Prison, Sacramento (SAC) is a male-only state prison located in the city of Folsom, in Sacramento County, California. The facility is also referenced as Sacramento State Prison, CSP-Sacramento, CSP-SAC, and occasionally, New Folsom or New Folsom Prison which was its official name prior to October 1992. It has about 2,800 prisoners. Its facility houses maximum security prisoners who were difficult to manage at other prisons and who have long sentences.
After we checked in we were shown the fenced area that separates the prison from the outside world. Which was like 2 or 3 10 foot fences give or take with barbed wire on the top. Prisoners that are granted more freedom to work and walk around are allowed in this area. The tour guide told us people literally just throw shit over that fence to give it to the inmates that have access to that area.
And that the barbed wire was eventually added to make it a little harder to throw things over but I assume it makes no difference at all for the most part. He also told us that inmates pay $2500 dollars for smuggled cellphones. At this point I had my first "the fuck" moment. Thinking back now I wish I had asked more questions about it. Apparently nothing really stops anyone from hucking guns or whatever else over the fence as long as the guard towers don't notice. Obviously the inmates allowed in this area aren't much of a threat to anyone but I can see how one of them would risk getting into trouble for a few thousand dollars to have sent to their families or whoever. My question is can't they just make one of the fences higher or dig a moat? I've seen those huge fences they use at baseball fields I know the technology exists.
Then we went and walked around one of the yards where prisoners in blue outfits get to exercise, walk around a track, and play sports. These were also non violent inmates I guess because we were right in the yard with them. A lot of them were apparently gang members at some point in their life or still are. I thought to myself if one of the inmates decided to yolo and attack me, whatever I'll just karate chop that bitch. But we also had girls with us and I was like well I hope the snipers in the guard towers are good shots because I'm not sure how well I'd be able to fight off a bunch of guys going ape shit trying to attack one of the girls. I take it these prisoners were in their for doing drugs or stole a car, for the most part regular guys that aren't really a threat to anyone. One group of guys cat called the girls in my group but it wasn't anything offensive. They were just like "what do we have here?" I wanted to talk to them for the lol's but didn't want to interrupt the tour guide. One guy said something like "I'm smiling more than they are and they don't even live here". Which lightened the mood pretty well and everyone laughed. My group had a deer in the headlights kind of vibe going on.
We walked by a few cages with guys in white jumpsuits like you can see in this picture. They were just standing there in the cages in this outside walkway area. I forget what the tour guide said a white jumpsuit means but I think he said white means they are mentally ill or trouble makers or something similiar.
Another thing that surprised me was how they didn't search us. I'm pretty sure I could have smuggled drugs or whatever in if I wanted to. I don't know if we went through metal detectors or not but we must have.
At one point when we were inside we came to a cell with nothing in it where prisoners are taken that will try to hurt themselves with anything they can get their hands on. All it had was four walls and a hole with bars in the ground that was a toilet that is flushed using a button on the outside. I asked our guide if I could flush it and I did. I will cherish the memory forever. On the walls of this room the paint was scuffed up because the last guy they put in it was hitting the walls. He said they have only ever needed put just a couple of people in that room.
Something that has always baffled me is how dangerous violent prisoners will be handcuffed and escorted somewhere but usually don't have any sort of mask on their face to keep them from biting anyone. When we were inside one of the prison hallways we saw a guy in a white jumpsuit handcuffed being escorted by two guards. And I thought to myself hm I wonder what the chances are this guy breaks free and tries to bite someone. There were female staff walking around the halls by themselves which I thought was odd considering prisoners requiring handcuffs and two guards to escort them were in the same hallway at times. The hallways kind of looked like this:
Some of the cell windows were covered in yellow blocker things because the prisoner in the cell would flash people walking by. The tour guide closed one that was partly open and said the guy inside was standing by the window peering through it.
Overall it was a very interesting and enjoyable experience.
I'm going to San Quentin next. When we tour San Quentin we will apparently interact a lot with various prisoners so I may end up having a good story to tell.
