California's director of corrections is expected to declare a state of emergency today at the Chino prison where an officer was stabbed to death, a move that would allow officials to suspend normal operating rules in order to focus on the investigation.

In a memo Tuesday, Warden Lori DiCarlo said she was asking for the emergency declaration because the Monday attack - the first killing of an officer in 20 years - was resulting in extraordinary demands on her staff. A prison spokesman said Director Jeanne S. Woodford of the state Department of Corrections probably would approve the request.

Meanwhile, Corrections Secretary Roderick Q. Hickman has asked counties not to send new convicts to the California Institution for Men in Chino while investigators sort out what led to the stabbing of Officer Manuel Gonzalez.

"At this point, we're asking the counties to divert them to other prisons or hold on to them," said Todd Slosek, director of communications for the department.

"We're trying to maximize resources and focus on the investigation," he said.

Gonzalez was stabbed three times shortly before 11 a.m. in the prison's Sycamore Hall housing unit.

A 16-year veteran of the department, Gonzalez is survived by his wife and six children, ages 3 to 22.

Officials suspect Jon Christopher Blaylock, 35, who was out of his cell at the time. He has been transferred to another prison, along with two inmates who were nearby when the attack occurred.

Blaylock began serving a 75-year sentence in June for attempted murder of a peace officer and had served two previous terms in state prison.

Although his offense should have landed him in a high-security prison, officials said, he had remained at Chino - a reception center for incoming inmates awaiting transfer - because a mental condition made him difficult to place.

Neither Gonzalez nor a second officer in the unit was wearing a stab-proof vest, and some officials with the prison officers union have criticized the department for being slow to distribute that gear.

Slosek said officials had been trying to obtain vests for all officers but that "there are 30,000 of them, and it takes time. We have purchased vests for officers at several institutions and are trying to deploy them quickly."

Officials said that a state of emergency permits a warden to suspend numerous regulations, particularly those that set deadlines for inmate transfers and hearings on disciplinary citations and appeals. They did not say how long the special status might last.

On Tuesday, investigators continued their inquiry into the killing, as trauma specialists provided counseling to Gonzalez's co-workers.

A lockdown at the prison remained in effect, meaning that inmates were fed in their cells and denied all privileges.

A lockdown imposed Monday at the state's other 32 prisons will be lifted today, officials said.