California State Prison, Corcoran

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California State Prison, Corcoran is a state penitentiary in California, USA. It is located in the city of Corcoran, in Kings County.

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

It houses almost 5,000 prisoners, although it was designed to hold 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 best known inmates include Charles Manson, Juan Vellejo Corona, who murdered twenty-five people in 1971, Sirhan Sirhan, and actor Robert Downey Jr. who was housed at the Substance Abuse Treatment Facility, a recent addition to the Corcoran layout.

In March 1997, the CBS News newsmagazine 60 Minutes broke the story of a scandal at Corcoran where the guards were accused of playing "gladiator" games with the prisoners. They would put two rival gang members known to hate each other in the same exercise yard at the same time, and supposedly bet on who would win the fight. Illegally obtained videotapes of the fights were broadcast on the show. The officers accused were cleared on all accusations and charges of wrong-doing. Although the story became a nationwide scandal at that point, it had already become a statewide scandal in November 1996 after a story by Mark Arax appeared in the Los Angeles Times.