Legislature to Probe Folsom Knife Attacks

SACRAMENTO — A legislative committee plans to look into why the rate of stabbings has doubled at Folsom Prison this year, and what can be done about it.

“They will apparently have 230 to 250 stabbings this year, based on 115 at the halfway mark. This is just unacceptable,” Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside), chairman of the Joint Legislative Prisons Committee, said Friday.

He announced a special hearing of the committee on June 12 in the state Capitol.

Presley said the committee will look into:

- Whether it works to send the “worst” prisoners to Folsom and San Quentin.

- Whether prison authorities are using gang leaders to help put the lid on violence.

- If metal detectors could spot inmates carrying weapons.

- How to stop drug deals in prisons.

- Stiffer in-prison penalties for cases that are not prosecuted in court. Under present law prison authorities cannot take away more than six months of a prisoner’s “work time” credits for stabbing an inmate, or one year for stabbing a corrections officer.