Foley's Folly

"It meant being led back to my cell in

my wrinkled prison blues by a gargantuan guard

who fingered the baton which dangled from his

waist. Later I came to have some regard for this

guard. Perhaps it was because he,too, had a rib

bon of gray brushed carelessly back from his

temples. I think it was envy more than anything

else. I had always had a yearning to be able to

throw people across the room or grind their skulls

together between my hands, crumbling them...
More Description

"It meant being led back to my cell in

my wrinkled prison blues by a gargantuan guard

who fingered the baton which dangled from his

waist. Later I came to have some regard for this

guard. Perhaps it was because he,too, had a rib

bon of gray brushed carelessly back from his

temples. I think it was envy more than anything

else. I had always had a yearning to be able to

throw people across the room or grind their skulls

together between my hands, crumbling them like

potato chips.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not looking for sympathy.

I'm beyond that. I must pay for my misdeeds.

Because, you see, I had been the warden of a prison."

In the mid-seventies , Edgar Allan Foley stood trial for a number of

felonies committed while the warden of Solmer State Prison in California.

As he watched the parade of witnesses against him, he could not understand

why his actions had been considered crimes against the State. Apparently

• tremulous bureaucracy was out to get him.

Ed Foley had sought the easy way most of his life and it was only by

• twist of fate that he found himself the warden of a prison. He misread

the trends in the criminal justice system and instituted a number of "innovations"

in his prison. He found that the "system", from the Governor to the lowest

echelons of his staff gave him more trouble than he could handle. He was beset

by apathy, jealousy, confusion and intrigue. He had to spend more time dealing

with the problems of staff than inmates.

Foley was an enigma. He believed himself to be an an imposter and psych

path. His staff saw him as a fool, a misfit, a soft touch and a political hack.

These perceived flaws did not prevent a constant pursuit by some beautiful women

and some very disturbed women. He was a veteran of the Korean war, a former

parole officer and a graduate of the University of Texas. He was different

in that he was not bearded or long-haired when these embellishments were in

vogue. He once described himself as "looking more like Peter Falk than Walter

Mathau." Foley may have had the hang-dog face of a Falk but he was nearly six

feet tall, wore tailored suits and bought Miro prints.

The events over nearly twenty years are a combination of drive, circumstance

and luck (mostly bad). lie follow him as he negotiates with one of the most

bizarre casts of characters ever assembled within prison walls and they are

not the inmates.

Ed Foley is an anti-hero and the only real winners in this volume are the

readers who will learn that the correctional system may be the heaviest bureau

cracy ever devised. As Saul Bellow put it; "he tried to do good for the (staff)

but they wouldn't stand still for it." They caused his downfall.