The State - News from Oct. 17, 1985

Prisoners are starting to be transferred from overcrowded Folsom Prison to a facility dubbed “Southern Max”--the first all-new maximum-security state prison in a century. The Southern Maximum Security Complex, a $90.4-million, 1,000-cell prison, is adjacent to the minimum- and medium-security California Correctional Institution at Tehachapi, Lt. Jim Gamboa said. The first group of 31 inmates arrived Tuesday, and 100 more are expected later this week even though construction has not been finished, Gamboa said. Another 125 inmates are expected in two weeks. Meanwhile, a prisoner was stabbed to death at Folsom, the 172nd stabbing victim there this year and the fourth fatality. The victim was Michael Keith, 30, committed from Solano County for a three-year-four-month term on drug, forgery and escape charges. A prison spokesman said Wayne Richardson, 29, serving 31 years to life for murder in Santa Clara County, was being held as a suspect. The weapon was believed fashioned from a bed frame.