they won't pay attention. if you create an experience it will change people's attitudes. >> reporter: perhaps not just talk about the issues around long-term care, but better prepare for them. >> i will go home now and put my feet up. incarcerated with older inmates who they say brutally assaulted them. >> grabbed me around my neck and he told me he was going to. [ beep ] me. >> what we heard in the videos made us get to a plane to michigan. it was the starting point of our investigation in to the treatment of youth in the adult criminal justice system. >> we are now on the record. this goes the videotape deposition of john doe number one. >> and it began with an inmate that we'll be referring to as john

doe one. >> 10:20 a.m. >> describe the weapon? >> it was about three inches long and it was a bunch of raisers attacked to a stick. yeah, he had me face down on the bed. and he said if i scream that he was going to cut my throat. >> did you believe him? >> yes. >> i need you to describe? step by step detail what happened. so he's pumping on you for seven minutes, he finishes -- >> can we take a break? >> sure. >> i need a break . michigan many of the prisons are located in rural parts of the state.

the one where john doe one is being held is two hours drive from detroit . the michigan department of corrections has a statewide policy that no cameras are allowed inside any of its prisons but we have been told the young man will be calling us shortly from a phone inside that facility where he is currently being held. john doe one was convicted of a series of offenses including home invasion and second degree criminal sexual contact. he's been held here and at the facility across the road for more than three years. in that time, he says, he has been raped so often, he's lost count of how many times it's happened . >> i was attacked in the shower by a man that -- >> the first time, he told the

lawyers he was 17 and it was his cell mate. >> did he regularly assault new. >> yeah. almost every day. >> and then he says, his cell mate sold his key do to other prisoners, who also assaulted him. >> guys would come in and out of my room without authorization and the staff made a comment to me when one of the guys walked out of my room and he laughed at me. >> what was the comment? >> can i say it on camera? >> you can say it. >> he said that's what happens to fags . >> i am so sorry .

[ crying ] >> he's alleging prison guards knew about the abuse but did nothing to stop it. >> hello. >> hello, can you hear me? he's currently locked down for 23 hours a day. he called during his one free hour on the yard. you are currently being held in protective custody, is that right? why are you being held there? can you explain that? >> well >> and do you feel safe there ?

>> what do the guards do when this is happening? >> john doe one's story is not the only one. thank you so much for talking to us . ♪ ♪

>> over the past two years, a team of lawyers here in ann arbor has been collecting testimony from other young inmates who say they were abused too . they filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of more than 200 young inmates. debra is the lead lawyer on the case . >> hey, debrorah, it's sebastian from al jazerra. >> nice to meet you. >> nice to me you too. thank you. >> i started getting letters from youth inside and often they would say things like, really base i believe like bad things are happening to me. i can't write t can you come talk to me? or can you help me, please come talk to me. one youth wrote about, he said

he felt like a reindeer with meat on his head surrounded by lions. >> according to prison officials in michigan, they now send all minors to their own housing unit. and keep them separated from all the inmates. while the threat of rape may not be diminished, many of the youth say they have been harmed in other ways too. the lawyers filed record requests for incidents involving minors. what came back was a rare glimpse of what life is like for teenagers behind bars . one of these dvds seem to have been shot by prison guards with dozens and dozens of them. there is so much material here that the lawyers still haven't everyone got through all of it yet. >> so i am giving you a direct order right now to back up.

you. we will use chemical agent right now. the prisoner is not complying with the last order. >> stop it . coug[ covering covering ] >> take off your clothes. take off your clothes . >> i want to watch it off. >> take off your clothes. >> part of the whole thing about the suit is that -- that ewing, it's very immaterial prop tore try to place youth in adult facilities and treat them according to adult standards. they are subjected to being tasered. and they are tasered. you can be put in on terry confine think. and they are for extended periods of time. and i am talking about being in a solitary cell for 23 hours a day.

seven days a week. you are talking about food restrictions. so you are hungry, you are subject to tasering, solitary confinement, shackling, four-point and five-point restraints, all of the things that you can do to adults. >> stop. can i breathe? [ crying ] >> i can't breath! >> sit back. just relax .

john doe 11, was arrested at 17 for robbery in 2010. he was sentenced to 29 months as an adult. he had been in prison about two months when he claims an older manifold him in to the shower. >> he come in there after me and i started trying to fight him but i was slipping and sliding everywhere. and he got the best of me. >> you couldn't fight him off anymore? >> huh-uh.

welcome to the news hour. coming up in the next 60 minutes, more than 100 people are dead after a fire in indian in a temple. anmeeting of g7 leaders.