Folsom Prison

Jill's Journal: We left Sacramento this past weekend, but we didn’t go far, probably around 40 miles east to a small town called Shingle Springs. It’s a nice spot in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

It was also the perfect spot from which to visit Folsom Prison today, made famous by the legendary Johnny Cash.

Here’s Cash in front of the East Gate. The top picture is what the same spot looks like today. The trees are a little bigger, but not much else has changed.

Contrary to popular belief (and his hit song “Folsom Prison Blues”), Cash was never an inmate at the historic prison in spite of these in-jest mug shots. He did, however, perform at Folsom Prison in 1966 and 1968. His live album “At Folsom Prison” went number one. “The train keeps a-rollin’” as shades of Johnny Cash and the impact from his performances there are all over the little Folsom Prison Museum we visited.

Folsom Prison is still a fully-functioning California State Prison and the girls were a little worried about being near “bad guys.” This was one of the nation’s first maximum-security prisons (where no fewer than 93 inmates were hanged for their crimes), but these days, although it still looks imposing, it’s primarily medium-security.

For all their anxiety about being close to bad guys, the girls were then disappointed to learn we weren’t going to walk the halls and meet prisoners. Funny kids. We didn’t even see any inmates other than a group coming back from work detail. Folsom carefully keeps visitors outside the heavily-guarded main prison walls.

Our main destination was the tiny Folsom Prison Museum, on the prison grounds but just outside the main gate. It’s in this area that inmate visitors are cleared and processed and several little houses used to be home to the guards and wardens and their families.

Folsom Prison officially opened in 1880 and was built out of the exceptional granite found at the local quarry. The granite here also provided the foundation for the California State Capitol building. The prison walls and the 4’ by 8’ cells are supposedly all made out of this rock, which has helped limit successful escapes. Folsom has five housing units within the secure perimeter, with Unit 1 being the most populous in the United States.

Interesting facts:
--California’s license plates have all been manufactured at Folsom Prison since the 1930s.
--In the old days, prisoners were recorded in this master “countbook.”
--Some of the more famous inmates have included Charles Manson, Erik Menendez, and Rick James.
--Much of the prison’s museum showcases many of the illegal weapons prisoners have fashioned. It’s amazing how inventive they can be.

Any prison is fascinating, but Johnny Cash, shown here at his 1968 performance at Folsom, gives this one pop culture status. I think we need to watch “Walk the Line” again…