VACAVILLE, Sept. 18 – State prison officials have slightly relaxed security for convicted mass murderer Charles Manson, allowing him to mix with other convicts for the first time.

“He has, in the last couple of weeks, been moved from ultra-maximum security to a little less security where he has an opportunity to communicate with a few other inmates,” said Philip Guthrie, assistant director of the State Department of Corrections.

Guthrie added that Manson also is undergoing continuing psychiatric “management” at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville.

Manson was sentenced to death in the Aug. 9, 1969, slayings of actress Sharon Tate and six others.at her Los Angeles area mansion.

But his sentence was commuted to life following a 1972 ruling by the California Supreme Court that the state’s death penalty was unconstitutional.

After the commutation, Manson was transferred from San Quentin’s Death Row to Folsom Prison. He has been at Vacaville for the past seven months, Guthrie said.

Guthrie said of Manson “There’s a hope that ultimately he will be moved into a security setting where there is more programming and not so rigid security. It is just as we do with all the guys.”

Guthrie said Manson is not undergoing any specific tests to deter-mine if he can be placed in a normal prison environment at this time.