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    Folsom Prison
    Folsom Prison
    Folsom Prison
    Ebook227 pages56 minutes

    Folsom Prison

    By Jim Brown

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    Folsom Prison is California s second-oldest prison, dating back to 1880. In the decades following the Gold Rush, it housed some of the state s most notorious prisoners in stone, dungeon-like cells behind solid-metal doors; was the first prison with electric power; and for many years provided labor for various state projects, including construction, fabrication, and printing of license plates. Thrust into the public consciousness in the 1960s by high-profile performances from country music s Johnny Cash, the prison remains a notorious and legendary institution. The variety of offenders housed at Folsom are incarcerated for a large gamut of criminal behavior, and the California Department of Corrections has been dedicated to rehabilitation efforts throughout the facility s long history.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 29, 2008
    ISBN9781439620793
    Folsom Prison
    Author

    Jim Brown

    I became interested in the Forex markets in 2002 after attending a stock trading meeting at a private residence. One guy announced that he had made a killing by trading the Yen against the US dollar. Who knew that the individual on the street could even trade currencies? Up until then, it was only the banks or wealthy individuals with access to this type of trading. A whole new industry was born. At first there weren't many reputable brokers around, their platforms were unreliable, spreads were huge and the internet was dial up. Forums popped up and 'trading gurus' appeared.  There was money to be made by those who were were smart at the time, either by straddling the news releases or exploiting the carry trade. But brokers also got smarter and either shut these advantages down or created trading conditions that made it difficult to profit from. My problem was, I listened to too many so called 'gurus' and got caught up in all the hype. Always thinking they were smarter than me as their systems were complex, and therefore must be better than anything I could come up with. So for a few years, I bounced around different systems, blowing accounts and giving back profits I had managed to make. There were good times and bad times, but I never gave up. I soon realized that some of the 'gurus' were the real deal, and started to pay attention to them to see what they had to offer. I became smarter with my money management, got out of the day trading habit and generally simplified my trading methods so they were easy to implement and explain. I have also dabbled with building my own trading robots with mixed success and use them at times to assist me with my trading. I now make a living from trading Forex, mainly off the 4hr or Daily charts. My systems are simple and profitable overall. I love trading Forex and I see it as having a huge potential to make some serious income. It is not as easy as some would make you believe, but if you keep it simple, control your money management, and be consistent, then there is no reason that you too shouldn't succeed in the world of Forex trading. Patience, courage and discipline.....

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      Book preview

      Folsom Prison - Jim Brown

      1970s.

      INTRODUCTION

      The story of Folsom State Prison began on a gray rainy afternoon. As the heavens wept, George C. Perkins, the governor of California, turned the first shovelful of dirt at the ground-breaking ceremony on October 17, 1878, in the area where Building Five is now located.

      On July 26, 1880, the prison was formally opened to receive prisoners from San Quentin State Prison. The true history of Folsom State Prison, however, belongs to the men and women who have spent their careers working inside her gray granite walls, providing protection for the citizens of California by ensuring that inmates remain incarcerated in a manner that is safe for staff and imposed by the courts; providing a service to the State of California in a humane, positive, and economical manner; providing work, academic education, vocational training, and specialized training for the inmate population; and continually exploring ideas that can enhance protection for the public while becoming more effective. For the staff at Folsom State Prison, these have been proud traditions for over 125 years of service.

      Folsom State Prison and her gray walls have known sweat and occasionally blood. She has no time for those whose lives are about pretense or posturing. She regularly tests the depths of the staff’s patience, flexibility, and integrity.

      From 1907 through 1910, the East Gate was constructed and the granite shield, with the letters FSP (with a backward P), was chiseled into the granite stone above the walkthrough gate. The shield is the symbol of the prison for justice, courage, and pride.

      For those staff who gave the greatest sacrifice of all—their lives—there is a huge granite stone in front of Larkin Hall, named after warden C. A. Larkin, who was killed in September 1937. On this stone are brass plaques containing the names of each employee who died in the line of duty at the prison.

      The number one commodity at Folsom State Prison is the staff. Everyone, staff and inmate alike, deserves to be treated with respect and dignity. The mission is not an easy one, and as the old prison (and its recent counterpart just down the road, New Folsom) soldiers into a new age, their work is never truly done.

      One

      BREAKIN’ ROCKS IN THE HOT SUN

      The first state prison in California was the two-mast ship Euphemia, which was anchored on the bay near Vallejo. The ship was towed to a site under the shoulder of Point San Quentin in the San Francisco Bay. The first prisoners were received on December 4, 1851, from surrounding county jails. They were immediately set to work turning the ship into a prison capable of holding 50 men. There is no record of the disposition of the prison ship.

      This cell block at San Quentin was called for many years the Spanish Block or The Stones. It had three tiers of cells, the first two built of stone and the third of brick. On ground level, there was a long dormitory room capable of housing 100 men. The cell block was completed in 1854 and remained in use for over a century until it was demolished in the late 1950s.

      David Smith built the first grain mill in 1851 on the west side of the American River across from the present-day Folsom Prison. In 1854, Edward Stockton from Sacramento purchased half of the mill. He enlarged the mill operation and was prospering until the winter floodwaters of 1861 and 1862 came. The mill was damaged in December and completely destroyed in January by the raging water. Stockton rebuilt the mill, but on January 26, 1867, a fire started. City firefighters tried to put out the blaze, but because of the raging floodwaters, they were forced to retreat back to the city. The mill was completely destroyed; the burned-out rock and wood structure of the Stockton Mill was left to sit abandoned for years.

      There were gray, gray skies and gray granite. According to the history of the day, even the heavens wept on the afternoon of October 17, 1878, as the frock-coated group of dignitaries huddled in a semicircle on a bluff overlooking the American River, undoubtedly drawing their velvet collars high about their wet necks. On that afternoon, George C. Perkins, governor of the sovereign State of California, turned the first shovelful of dirt that began the building of the State Prison at Folsom, one of the nation’s first maximum-security prisons. It is believed the ground-breaking ceremony took place on this small hill overlooking the river.

      History has it that the old Stockton Mill ruins were used to house the prisoners from San Quentin, after they put up a wooden roof across the old rock walls, to serve as a shelter. Early each morning, the prisoners would cross the river, start clearing the forests near the prison site, and begin building the roads and sewers for the new prison. They cleared a road from the city of Folsom to the prison site, and the prisoners worked the grounds off and on for the next five years until 1878.

      The first two cell blocks consisting of 328 cells were built on a bluff overlooking a bend on the American River. B Block was the first finished, with 162 cells, and A Block completed with 166 cells. In those days, it was truly a wilderness—rocky hills and jutting granite formations on every side—but the original board had chosen

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