Folsom Standoff Ends After 10 Hours

A Folsom prison inmate with a homemade knife took a female guard hostage Saturday, releasing her unharmed 10 hours later after lengthy talks with trained negotiators and members of his family.

Corrections authorities ordered a daylong lockdown of the state’s 33 prisons while a team of crisis negotiators worked to free Officer Sheila Mitchell, 45, a nine-year veteran.

Inmate Michael David Watson, 41, wielding a 6-inch knife, took Mitchell from her dining room post about 7 a.m. as she was supervising the cleanup after breakfast. He then forced her into a nearby office at California State Prison, Sacramento, said Lt. Joyce McClendon, a prison spokeswoman.

Crisis response team negotiators talked with Watson throughout the day. Shortly after 5 p.m., he gave himself up and was taken into custody. Mitchell was taken to a hospital but had no visible injuries.

Officials declined to comment on what prompted Watson’s actions.

Watson worked in the dining room where Mitchell patrolled.

The inmate made numerous demands, most of which were not disclosed. He also wanted cigarettes, which are banned. He was allowed to talk by phone to family members, who helped bring a peaceful end to the situation, McClendon said.

Officials said Watson would be transferred to another institution pending his prosecution for the hostage-taking. But that move is customary any time a convict is implicated in an alleged crime, and unrelated to his demands, said spokeswoman Elaine Jennings of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger praised the prison staff in a statement issued by his office.

“I applaud the courage of Officer Sheila Mitchell as well as the professionalism and skill of the negotiators and department staff who brought this dangerous situation to a swift and safe conclusion,” he said. “I am proud of the work these brave men and women did to end this situation safely.”

Folsom prison remained locked down Saturday night, McClendon said. But she did not know the status of the other prisons.

Watson is serving his 12th year of a 26-year sentence for false imprisonment and robbery, according to authorities.

The standoff comes as correctional officers and prison managers have been warning that severely crowded conditions are increasing the dangers for staff and inmates in California’s sprawling correctional system. Most of the prisons are operating at nearly twice their intended capacity, and wardens have been packing convicts into triple-decker bunks wedged into gyms, hallways, recreation rooms and other spaces not intended for housing.

The state’s adult prison population is now 170,700, an all-time high. Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger’s proposals to contract with private companies for bed space and to issue bonds to build prisons have stalled in the Legislature.

The department also is suffering from a large number of staff vacancies, meaning that officers are working mandatory overtime around the state.

A top official with the prison officers’ union said Saturday’s incident was “a scenario we’ve been worrying about for a while now.”

“With the crowding and the high vacancy rate, we’ve been fearing something like this,” said Chuck Alexander, executive vice president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn.

The prison is one of two state lockups in Folsom, about 25 miles east of Sacramento. It houses about 2,970 inmates, the majority of them -- 1,802 -- classified as maximum security. About 840 officers work at the prison, which opened in 1986.

Alexander said the dining room, where the hostage was seized, is one of the more isolated areas of the prison, so there are typically few staff around to serve as backup if trouble arises.

The last hostage situation in California prisons occurred in 2000 at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, officials said. It was resolved peacefully, as were three similar incidents that have been handled by the department’s crisis response teams since 1995.