Behind the Folklore - Folsom Prison Blues

by Dee

For Folklore Main Page Click Here

Unfortunately there is not a lot of folklore to this episode. We have already covered vengeful spirits in most of the other folklores so to save repeating myself I have included the links to vengeful spirits at the bottom of the page. However here is all the information and facts I can find on Folsom Prison, with the assistance of wikepedia of course to whom I am eternally grateful. This still makes for some interesting reading. It is interesting to see that the directors kept closely to the facts with regard to cell design.

In Joke: When Sam says "Innocent?" and Dean replies "Are you from Texas all of a sudden?" it is in reference to the fact that although their characters are from Kansas, both Jared Padalecki (Sam Winchester), Jensen Ackles (Dean Winchester) are from Texas. This is also a reference to the fact that the state of Texas permits the death penalty and has the largest amount of executions than any other state. (Dean was commenting that just because the prisoners were inmates they did not deserve to die).

Quotes: Randall: She did this Charles Bronson thing with a hypodermic. Referencing the 1974 movie Death Wish starring Charles Bronson as an architect who avenges the murder of his wife by street punks. The movie spawned four sequels with Bronson.

Dean: Great, another guy who’s seen Taxi Driver one too many times. Referencing the 1976 movie starring Robert DeNiro and Jodie Foster. The best known line from the movie is the "Are you looking at me?" quote (although it was in turn taken from the movie Shane) that Lucas gives, and the fact that John Hinckley Jr. decided to shoot Ronald Reagan to prove his love to the movie's star, Jodie Foster, after he became obsessed with her after repeated viewings of the movie.

Dean: I call this one the Blue Steel. Referencing the 2001 film, Zoolander, starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson as male models. Blue Steel was one of Stiller's trademark faces

Dean: Wait, who looks better, me or Nick Nolte? Referencing the incident where actor Nick Nolte was arrested on September 11, 2002, for drunk driving in California. Nolte's mug shot, showing him in a Hawaiian t-shirt with wildly disheveled hair, was widely distributed in the aftermath

Dean: I wish I had a baseball. Referring to the 1963 film, The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen as a POW planning to escape from a German POW camp. In the film Steve's character used a baseball to pass time when locked up in solitary confinement.

Dean: You’re like Clint Eastwood in Escape from Alcatraz. Referencing the 1979 movie starring Eastwood and Patrick McGoohan as a sadistic warden. The movie dramatizes the one successful escape (of a sort) from the prison by Frank Morris and John & Clarence Anglin. Although the men escaped the prison, they have never been seen again and their bodies were never found, leaving their "success" in doubt.

Dean: It's a good thing I'm like James Garner from The Great Escape. In the The Great Escape James Garner played the role of 'The Scrounger' who's job consisted of finding items the other inmates needed for the escape.


Trivia: In the beginning of the episode, Dean is seen without his amulet and ring. This is the first episode in which he does not have these two belongings. This is because of the fact that all belongings are taken away from an individual as soon as he or she steps into the prison, and Dean planned ahead.

In the scene after Dean plays poker for smokes, he gets up and says "hey fellas, who wants to make a deal?" If you look closely, you can see that as the camera pulls away from Sam, he grins and says the line along with Dean.

The title of this episode is from the song of the same title by Johnny Cash. The song is about being in Folsom Prison, and wanting to get out and catch the near-by train to somewhere far away.

In the scene where the guard tells the prisoner to turn off his light is not even close to being a real situation. Not even in your local jail, state prison, or federal penitentiary are prisoners even allowed to near anything that could be used as a weapon, like electricity.

Folsom State Prison, sometimes known as Folsom State Prison, Represa, is one of 33 prisons operated by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). Folsom Prison is located in Folsom, California (with a postal address in Represa) in Sacramento County, 20 miles (30 km) from the state capital of Sacramento, California, USA.

As of the United States 2000 Census, Folsom Prison and the California State Prison - Sacramento (the two prisons with addresses in Represa) had a combined inmate population of 7,246 housed at level 1 and 2 security, the two lowest levels of security for prisons operated by the CDC. Level 1 prisoners are housed in open dormitories without a secure perimeter, and Level 2 prisoners may be housed in open dormitories with secure perimeter fences and armed guard coverage. However, there are no dormitories within the Folsom Prison secure perimeter, and prisoners are housed in two-man cells. In 2004, the majority of level 2 prisoners were moved to other prisons and level 3 prisoners took their place. Folsom Prison's population in early 2005 was approximately 3,400.

There are five housing units within the secure perimeter, including the original two-tiered structure. Unit 1 is the most populous cellblock in the United States, with a capacity of nearly 1,200 inmates on four five-tiered sections.

All cells include toilet, sink, bunks and storage space for inmate possessions. There are two dining halls, a large central prison exercise yard, and two smaller exercise yards. The visiting room includes an attached patio as well as space for non-contact visits.

Folsom Prison is California's second-oldest prison, long known for its harsh conditions in the decades following the California Gold Rush. Construction of the facility began in 1878 on the site of the Stony Bar mining camp along the American River. The prison officially opened in 1880. Inmates spent most of their time in the dark behind solid boiler plate doors in stone cells measuring 4 feet by 8 feet (1.2 by 2.4 m) with 6 inch (150 mm) eye slots. Air holes were drilled into the cell doors in the 1940s, and the cell doors are still in use today.

Folsom was the first prison in the world to have electric power, which was provided by the first hydroelectric powerhouse in California. The quarry at Folsom Prison provided granite for the foundation of the state capitol and much of the gravel used in the early construction of California's roads.

Although Folsom Prison now houses primarily medium security prisoners, Folsom was one of America's first maximum-security prisons; a total of 93 prisoners were hanged at Folsom Prison between December 13, 1895, and December 3, 1937. After that time executions were carried out in the gas chamber at California's San Quentin Prison.

California's vehicle license plates have been manufactured at Folsom Prison since the 1930s. Other prison industries include metal fabrication and a print shop.

A museum is located on the prison grounds, which is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There was also a shop with inmate-made handicrafts for sale to the public, but it closed in 2005.


Special Historical Notes

The California Legislature authorized the construction of Folsom State Prison in 1858. Twenty years later, in 1878, construction began on one of the nations first maximum-security prisons. On July 26, 1880, Folsom received its first 44 inmates. The inmates were transferred by boat from San Quentin State Prison to Sacramento and then by train from Sacramento to the prison.

Folsom State Prison's location was selected due to an unlimited amount of native granite stone for building the prison. Also, the American River offered ample water and formed a natural boundary. Inmate labourers built the first dam and canal on the American River, which led to the first hydroelectric power generation for the Sacramento area.

Originally designed to hold inmates serving long sentences, habitual criminals, and incorrigibles, Folsom State Prison quickly gained the reputation of being the end of the line. Prior to the completion of the granite wall in the 1920's, the prison witnessed numerous escape attempts; the first one occurring shortly after the first inmates arrived in 1880. Throughout Folsom's violent and bloody history, numerous riots and escape attempts have resulted in both inmate and staff deaths.

The Folsom Museum is located near the entrance of Folsom Prison. Run solely through the support of volunteers, the museum contains an abundance of documents and artifacts from throughout Folsom's long and colourful history.


Comments

With this type of history its easy to see why Supernatural Inc. used this prison as the theme for this episode.


Music and Film

Folsom Prison was made known to the outside world by country rock music singer Johnny Cash, who narrated a fictional account of an outlaw's incarceration in his song "Folsom Prison Blues" (1956), and who performed a live concert at Folsom Prison in 1968, simultaneously recording the album Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison. Contrary to popular belief, Cash was never himself incarcerated in this or any state or federal prison, although he did spend an occasional night in county jails, including on one occasion for possession of illegal drugs and on another in Starkville Mississippi for picking wild flowers. >

Folsom Prison is also referred to in the song Walla Walla on their 1998 album Americana by American punk rock band The Offspring, "Folsom prison is the destination".

Folsom Prison has been the location of a number of feature films, including Riot in Cell Block 11, American Me, The Jericho Mile, Another 48 Hours, Diggstown, parts of Walk the Line (a biopic of Johnny Cash), and Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison, which was the inspiration for Cash's song. The television drama 21 Jump Street also featured Folsom Prison when Johnny Depp's character Tom Hanson was imprisoned for murder. And a few shots for the movie Pros and Cons. The prison was central to the documentary film, "Code of Silence" by Amy Happ [1]

Supernatural can now be added to the filmed about list with Episode 19 Folsom Prison Blues.


Incidents

A warden of Folsom Prison, Clarence Larkin, was stabbed during an escape attempt in 1937 and he died from his wounds, becoming the only California warden to be killed in the line of duty. Violence at the prison peaked during the 1970s and 1980s when the Aryan Brotherhood and other prison gangs made prisons increasingly dangerous. The establishment of Secure Housing Units, first at the California State Prison, Sacramento, and later at Pelican Bay State Prison and California State Prison, Corcoran, did much to control gang-related violence.


Famous Prisoners

Famous men who were incarcerated at Folsom Prison include Charles Manson, Timothy Leary, musician Rick James and Death Row Records owner Suge Knight. Also Joseph Gamsky Billionaire Boys Club aka: Joe Hunt, Cameron Hooker, William Mothershed (Book: The Mothershed Case, by Stephen J. Rivele), and Bobby Purify (Original singer of: I'm Your Puppet).


External Links about the prison:

• Folsom Prison (MyFolsom.com)
• Code of Silence ("Code of Silence" documentary film)


Other vengeful spirits featured in Supernatural Season 2:

Usual Suspects
Roadkill
Hollywood Babylon