A prisoner was shot and wounded and 12 others were sent to the hospital with “stab and slash wounds and head trauma” after a riot involving 60 inmates broke out Wednesday at a prison in Folsom, California, officials said.

Officers at California State Prison-Sacramento – which houses mostly maximum-security inmates – fired six bullets from a rifle during their efforts to stop the fighting, according to a statement on the prison’s website.

California's state prisons have been plagued by hunger strikes, occasional violence and overcrowding and remain at more than 50 percent above capacity, despite a massive shifting of low-level offenders to county jails that began last year, Reuters reported.

The effort to shift the prison population followed a U.S. Supreme Court directive to cut the state inmate population to 110,000 after the nation's top court ruled that overcrowding in the 33-prison system was causing "needless suffering and death."

'Blast dispersion rounds'
The prison statement said the riot began at 11:17 a.m. local time Wednesday (2:17 p.m. ET).

“Correctional peace officers used less-than-lethal force options including blast dispersion rounds to stop the riot. Officers also discharged six rounds from the Mini 14 rifle. One inmate suffered a gunshot wound and was taken to an area hospital for treatment,” the statement said.