California IN BRIEF : CRESCENT CITY : Inmates Crack Prison Locks

Authorities at remote Pelican Bay State Prison--considered the state’s most secure correctional institution--are altering cell-door locks because two maximum-security inmates managed to manipulate the locks and leave their cells. A prison spokesman said the changes stem from separate incidents in which the locking mechanisms of the heavy steel doors were tampered with and the doors forced open. Neither of the inmates escaped from the prison, near Crescent City, just south of the Oregon border. The 2,100-bed prison was formally dedicated earlier this year.