The State - News from June 9, 1988

A lock-down of 450 black inmates at San Quentin Prison was ordered after crude weapons were found hidden in an exercise yard and will continue until an investigation is completed, prison officials said. The knife-like weapons apparently were stashed for a possible attack by a black inmate gang on another group of black inmates, officials said. The lock-down began Monday. “It appears to be a black-on-black thing,” said prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon, who said 450 black inmates were being kept in their cells during the probe. Members of the Crips gang were suspected of stashing the weapons, he said. He did not identify the alleged intended victims.