Governor Arnold has made some decisions on the abysmal California prison situation:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked the U.S. attorney here Friday to investigate allegations that officials at Folsom State Prison orchestrated a riot two years ago and then conspired to cover it up. Facing a wave of troubles in all corners of California's far-flung penal system — the nation's largest — he moved on several other fronts as well.

The governor said he was reversing an earlier decision to greatly reduce the state's lone correctional watchdog agency and would instead restore its funding and give it new law enforcement powers, including the authority to issue subpoenas and seek search warrants.

In a third move, administration officials announced plans to phase out the use of steel-mesh cages to confine unruly juveniles in the California Youth Authority. The cages, used only in California, were singled out recently as dehumanizing by experts who studied the juvenile system.