Folsom Prison Museum

Open daily 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Closed New Years Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas)
Admission is $2.00 USD (No credit cards). Children under 12 free. Cameras are welcome; however, please no pictures of staff or inmates. (For GPS purpuses - please use the address of 300 Prison Road. Follow the main road until you see the Vistor Parking lot on your left. Park there and proceed to the Gate House where the officer on duty will direct you to the museum.)

The Folsom Prison Museum, is operated by the Retired Correctional Peace Officer Association. The museum is a non-profit charitable organization not an entity of the state. The museum is dedicated to the prison staff who have died from cancer. The museum donates to the American Cancer Society, Fisher House and Make-A-Wish programs.

The museum chronicles the prison's blood history. Discover the reason for Johnny Cash's "Blues" at Folsom State Prison. Learn how the prison was fashioned from gray granite from the surrounding rock quarries. The museum features a wealth of photographs, old hemp ropes used to hang prisoners, memorabilia from Johnny Cash's famed concert shows, a hand-cranked Gatling gun, many inmate manufactured weapons and an eight-foot motorized Ferris Wheel created by a prisoner in the 1930s, which is made of a quarter million toothpicks.

In 1975, the Folsom Prison Museum was opened as part of the original Folsom Prison Gift Shop which was run by inmate workers. Some of the prison artifacts on display were removed by the Gift Shop inmate workers. In 1994, a decision was made by John Fratis (a retired correctional staff member) with the assistance of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), to sponsor the Retired Correctional Peace Officers Museum at Folsom State Prison.