California State Prison, Corcoran
California State Prison, Corcoran (COR) is a male-only state prison located in the city of Corcoran, in Kings County, California. It is also known as Corcoran State Prison, CSP-C, CSP-COR, CSP-Corcoran, and Corcoran I. The facility is just north of the newer California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, Corcoran (Corcoran II).[2][3][4]
Location
Operational
Minimum–maximum
3,115
3,445 (115.6% capacity) (as of January 31, 2023[1])
February 1988
Ken Clark
History[edit]
Built on what was once Tulare Lake, home to the Yokuts Native American people, the facility opened in 1988.[8][9] The prison hospital was dedicated in October 1993.[10]
In March 1993, at Corcoran, prisoner Wayne Jerome Robertson raped Eddie Dillard, a prisoner about half his size, after the latter was reassigned to his cell. Robertson, who had the nickname "Booty Bandit", testified in 1999 that prison guards set up the attack.[11] Dillard testified in the same trial.[12] After Robertson was assigned to general population at Pelican Bay State Prison, California state senator Tom Hayden stated "It is almost certain that he would be targeted for death."[13]
A front-page article by Mark Arax in the August 1996 Los Angeles Times claimed that COR was "the most troubled of the 32 state prisons".[14] At the time, COR officers had shot and killed more inmates "than any prison in the country" in COR's eight years of existence. Seven inmates had been killed, and 50 others seriously wounded. Based on interviews and documents, Arax concluded that many shootings of prisoners were "not justified" and that in some cases "the wrong inmate was killed by mistake".[14] Furthermore, the article alleged that "officers ... and their supervisors staged fights between inmates" during "gladiator days".[14] In November 1996, CBS Evening News broadcast "video footage of an inmate fatally shot by guards" at COR in 1994; this death "spawned a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of alleged inmate abuses by guards".[15]
A March 1997 episode of the CBS News 60 Minutes discussed the 1994 death, "the alleged cover-up and the alarming number of shootings at the prison".[16] The California Department of Corrections issued the results of its own investigation in November 1997, which found "isolated incidents of staff misconduct" but no "'widespread staff conspiracy' to abuse prisoners".[17]
A film titled Maximum Security University, which used prison surveillance tapes showing four 1989–1993 fights "end[ing] when a guard fatally shoots a combatant", was released in February 1998.[18] That month, eight California correctional officers and supervisors were indicted "on federal criminal civil rights charges in connection with inmate fights that occurred at Corcoran State Prison in 1994".[19] After a trial, the eight men were "acquitted of all charges" in June 2000.[20]
As of 1999 California had paid out several large prison brutality settlements for incidents at Corcoran, including $2.2 million to inmate Vincent Tulumis, paralyzed for life in a May 1993 shooting, and $825,000 for the killing of Preston Tate in April 1994.[21]
Subsequently, COR has been featured in at least two episodes of MSNBC's Lockup series: "Inside Corcoran" (first aired as early as 2003)[22] and "Return to Corcoran" (first aired in 2005).[23]
In July 2013, many inmates at COR participated in a state-wide hunger strike protesting the use of solitary confinement.[24] Billy Michael Sell, an inmate in COR who had been participating in the hunger strike, committed suicide by hanging himself while in a Security Housing Unit (SHU).[25] He had been protesting from July 8 to July 21. Sell's death caused significant controversy, as inmate advocates reported that fellow prisoners had heard Sell asking for medical attention for several days before his eventual suicide.[26] His suicide triggered reviews of the circumstances behind his death at the local, state, and federal level; with Amnesty International calling for an independent inquiry into his death, one without ties to the government.[27][28]