Corcoran State Prison - Definition and Overview

California State Prison, Corcoran is a state penitentiary in Corcoran, Kings County, California.

The 942 acre (3.8 km²) facility opened in 1988 and was built on what was once Tulare Lake, home to the Tachi Native American people.

It houses almost 5,000 prisoners, although it was designed to bed 3,000. The 1700 person staff uses a budget of $115 million (not including another $30 million allocated for the hospital) to fund the prison.

The prison's most famous inmate is Charles Manson.

In March 1997, the CBS News newsmagazine 60 Minutes broke the story of a scandal at Corcoran where the guards were playing "gladiator" with the prisoners. They would put two prisoners known to really hate each other in the same exercise yard at the same time, and bet on who survived. One of the fights had been videotaped and was broadcast on the show. Although the story became a nationwide scandal at that point, it had already become a statewide scandal in November 1996 after an investigation by the Los Angeles Times.

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