[ music ] >> it is arguably california's toughest prison, reserved for the most dangerous inmates. tonight a legal group that sued pelican bay on behalf of inmates wants the case closed. we will go inside the electrified fence to show you what life is like behind the razor wire and tell you about the legal issues at stake. plus revisit one of the worst riots in pelican he is bay history and the deadly operation led from inside the prison wall. that's all straight ahead on "second look." >> hello everyone i'm frank

somerville. since 1995 california's toughest prison has been under the watchful eye of a federal monitor. that came after inmates won a class action lawsuit alleging two things. excessive force and inadequate treatment of mentally ill patients. now the prison law organization that filed that case, madrid versus gomez says it has achieved its goals. this passed week they asked the judge to dismiss the monitor and close the case. back in 19891 ktvu's george watson dave us -- gave us this look inside pelican bay prison which at the time was only a year old. >> reporter: there are 21 prisons currently online in california. and the jewel in the penal system crown is pelican bay. it is a maximum security prison featuring high tech security housing units or shoe for short. >> pelican bay was the first time california department of corrections built from the

ground up a security housing unit which is -- whose mission is to house the most violent and disruptive inmates that california has. currently we are housing the top 1% of the inmates that have demonstrated that they are the most violent and dedicated to disruption. >> reporter: inmates sent to pelican bay have violent histories both inside and outside prison. james lawless, a prime example, told us why he's here. >> my original commitment was for a murder, second degree, attempted murder, two counts. one on a peace officer, one on my co-defendant, robbery, attempted robbery. and why i've been incarcerated in cdc i picked up another consecutive term for conspiracy to assassinate a person and possession of narcotics in prison. >> reporter: one of the first things you notice about pelican

bay is that in contrast to other prisons, here you never see any inmates. that's because inmates are kept in their cells 22.5 hours a day. they even eat in their cells. isolation creates fewer opportunities for prison violence. but inmates can and do go to great lengths to manufacture homemade weapons. that's one reason why they are at pelican bay. >> i can make anything out of anything, as far as, you know -- that's, you know, that was my thing, weapons. >> reporter: can you describe some of them for me? >> well, let's just say out of the standard issue that cdc gives you, 15 sheets of paper, the elastic out of your underwear, the three pair of underwear that they give you and the string out of the underwear, you know, i could make a cross-bow that will go all the way through a person's

neck. >> reporter: the neck is about all that is exposed. as you can see we are all wearing flack jackets to protect our bodies. and a good example of security can be seen when lawless was taken back to his cell, handcuffed throughout our interview, the cuffs were not removed until he was actually locked in the a cell pod where he is kept. shower time and recreation time fill only an hour and a half of an inmate's day. the rest of the time they are locked in their cells, two to a cell. the recreation yard offers scant respite from the cell. a skylight is the only amenity. >> it's terrible, man, it's something else. i mean, there is nobody to talk to. i am in a section just me and my cell mate we are the only people to talk to day after day, month after month, you know. you run out of conversation after a while, you know. >> they have control over here

to prevent the violence. whereas other units they don't prevent nothing. you can usually do what you want to do there. take knives to the yard, stab somebody, you know, jump on staff or whatever. whereas here you don't -- no, there is no violence, you know, unless you hold your tray and make them come inside your cell. but then, you know, you really ain't going to be able to do nothing then because you ain't got nothing. >> reporter: still to come on "second look" the court case that put pelican bay under federal scrutiny for more than 15 years. and a bit later. >> we investigated for three or four months. when we couldn't clear them i had to get out. >> a former gang member talks about the deadly gang culture being run from inside the walls of pelican bay.

. pelican bay is perhaps california's most notorious prison. it houses more than 3300 inmates, most considered to be among the state's most dangerous and difficult to manage prisoners. back in 1993, a class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of the prisoners alleging that they were victims of brutal

treatment and conditions. ktvu's rita williams covered the opening day of that trial. >> reporter: the department of corrections calls it pelican bay. the detractors call it slammer bay or worse, a torture chamber. >> it was built as a brutal place. it was built with the knowledge that people in it would go crazy if they stayed there too long. and it was built with the intent of putting people in there for years on end. i think it's a disgrace. i think it's unlawful. and under the constitution. >> the population at pelican bay is the most difficult of the prison state population of over 100,000 people. extraordinary measures have been taken at pelican bay on occasion because officials there were met with extraordinary conduct. >> reporter: some of the extraordinary conduct sickin says can land a prisoner in the dreaded shoe or segregated housing is membership in a

prison gang or assaults on sheriffs. the pods prisoners spend 22.5 a day in a windowless cell. there is no mingling with other inmates even in the concrete sky-lit exercise yard. the idea, prison officials say, is that isolation provides few opportunities for violence. >> it absolutely has been a success. >> reporter: but in a civil trial that began today in san francisco's federal building, attorneys representing inmates at pelican bay says that what the state calls a success actual youly -- actually is cruel and unusual punishment. >> they have chained inmates so that their feet and hands are restrained, left them to lay there without being released for meals. without being released to use the toilet. left to lay in their own urine for hours at a time. >> reporter: in testimony today a prison nurse said that about a year ago guards brought into the infirmary for a bath an inmate who had smeared himself with feces. when the bath was over the inmate had burns over a third

of his body. the nurse says she saw flesh hanging off his legs. he is now in a mental institution. attorneys for the prison say the scalding was an accident and a medical technician was fired. >> there have been mishaps at pelican bay. especially when you take into account the nature of the mission that those officials have. they are controlling a very dangerous and difficult group of prisoners. >> 16 months later the judge rule in the -- ruled in the case. he wrote that policies at pelican bay prison inflict. here is rita williams report from january of 1995. >> reporter: today in deciding a class action lawsuit by inmates, a federal judge said conditions here violent the violate the constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. but in this lengthy 345 page

ruling, u.s. district court judge felton henderson in san francisco stopped short of shutting down the prison are its dreaded shoe or security housing unit here. so attorneys both for the state and for the inmates claimed victory. >> i think in different areas i think different parties won. >> responding to the point about this somehow can be construed in any way as a state victory or as a split decision is very much like saying that germany didn't lose world war ii because the country still exists. >> reporter: although the judge did say the state can continue to house inmates in windowless 8x10-foot cells in the shoe, he did order restrictions. he said the state cannot imprison mentally ill inmates here because of the extreme isolation of spending 22.5 hours a day in the cell. he said: "placing them in the shoe is the mental equivalent of putting an asthmatic in a place with little air to

breathe." judge henderson also said prison officials used excessive force against inmates, denied them basic psychiatric and medical care, and called internal investigations and brutal complaints" counterfeit." >> i believe that if the american people saw the pictures that were introduced at this trial of inmates boiled, inmates caged, inmates beaten, inmates having their teeth knocked in that they would be shocked. >> irrespective of the lawsuit, pelican bay was -- you know, things were changing at pelican bay. >> reporter: state officials say they have already implemented many of the changes the judge has ordered. that the conditions the judge found at pelican bay haven't existed for several years. in his ruling the judge said the state does not have a good track record of making court ordered changes so he appointed a retired la county sheriff's officer to make sure conditions improve. >> this passed weekend attorney for the prison inmates who won that civil suit explained why

they asked the judge to end his oversight of conditions at pelican bay state prison and close the case. when we come back on a "second look," how a riot at pelican bay turned dead are you when -- deadly when the authorities moved swiftly to end it. and a deadly campaign carried out from inside the walls of pelican bay.

. back in the year 2000 one of the worst riots in california history broke out at pelican bay. it came only a month after a similar incident. ktvu's rob roth filed this report at the time. >> reporter: these pictures were taken by a pelican bay state prison security camera last month. in a heartbeat, peace turned into war. prison officials say there are more than 900 incidents of violence at pelican bay each year. an average of almost three a day. although not all of this is widespread. as these pictures show, using

teargas, those clouds of smoke don't always quell the violence. >> i noticed an inmate that was sitting up right here. he looked like he was going to jump up. so i went over to him sane i said: you need to lay down on your stomach. two inmates over, this inmate jumped up. and that's when i turned like this. and he hit me twice. and i flew off my feet and landed somewhere back here. i didn't get up right away. i think i was knocked out. and i had -- there was all kinds of inmates moving around at that time. apparently an officer came from over here and she pulled me up and pulled me into the building over here. and i walked in the b8 very stunned. basically it shattered this entire cheekbone right here in one major big fracture and lots of small fractures. that basically they had to do surgery on. but they couldn't do it until after the swelling went down. i looked like an alien for

about two weeks, i think. >> reporter: correctional officers used non lethal weapons to put down this riot. and when all seemed calm again it quickly reunited. as graphic as these pictures are this is minor to what happened two days ago. on wednesday a war broke out here between black and latino prisoners. >> we just hear that there was, you know, very possibly, very probably a disrespect issue where the hispanics felt that they were slighted or disrespected by black inmates. it's not necessarily that the hispanics attack people because they are black. they may have attacked because this is the group that they felt slighted them. >> reporter: using pie powered weapons it took about 100 officers less than half an hour to quell the medical lee. >> they went from commands to teargas and ultimately to the use of the mini 14 rifle. >> california prisons,

including pelican bay, have a history of inappropriately shooting prisoners. >> reporter: one guard fatally shot an inmate. 23-year-old miguel sanchez, a convicted murderer, died here at nearby sutter coast hospital. 15 other inmates were shot, 32 stabbed. nine are still in the hospital guarded around the clock by correctional officers. prison officials spent much of day making and fielding phone calls from worried relatives of inmates. >> moms, dads, sisters and brothers they want to know how is my brother? how is my loved one doing? we want to get that information to them and it is difficult when we are flooded with calls. >> reporter: they found almost 90 weapons on the yard, leaving open the question how could inmates stockpile so many weapons without anyone finding out about it? >> they meltdown their dee owed deoderant canisters which are plastic. inside of ten minutes you can

roll yourself a very nice stabbing weapon that can produce a fate at. they take a raise so blade and melt a toothbrush. even if we are doing random searches, which we did, we were doing random pat searches of inmates when they came out. and inside of, what, like i said, inside of a half hour everybody can make some kind of a weapon to take out there. >> reporter: at least four separate investigations into the riot have already begun at pelican bay. the prison warden told us yesterday in an exclusive interview his offices had no choice but to use deadly force. >> i don't care what we do. we are always open for criticism. and the only thing that i can tell you is that staff are professionals. they did a professional job yesterday. they did what they were trained to do. we've got it well documented. >> prisoners have been speaking out about set-up fights, about brutal, about neglect, about

unrest, frustration,dehuman nigh sayings and no one listens to them. >> when we come back on "second look." >> if you don't do it, word is going to get back that you were there and you didn't do it and you will wind up getting hit. >> how a former gang member says leaders inside pelican bay orchestrate murders on the outside. ktvu.com, complete bay area news coverage.

. pelican bay prison houses some of the states most dangerous inmates. among them the air aerian gang group. they got a look inside pelican bay and inside the arian brotherhood. >> reporter: this is pelican bay state prison where many of california's most vicious inmates are marking time. it is also the base of operations of what corrections officials say is perhaps the most dangerous prison gang in the state, the arian brotherhood. last week ktvu got a rare look

inside what prisoners call the hole, the special security housing unit where gang members live in small cells. we have learned that prison officials are investigating allegations that here from the hole the arian brotherhood is plotting to assassinate some of the very people who run the prisons. >> right now it is cdc administrators, politicians. >> and so you think you are on top of this stuff? >> yes, we are doing okay. >> reporter: corrections department officials say they have taken precautions. but they also say one activity the arian brotherhood is extremely adepartment at is murder. convicted murderer douglas young of san jose used to be a member of the arian brotherhood until he became an informant against the group. so you yourself killed other inmates? >> yeah. yeah. it was a prerequisite.

that was to earn your bones. even before you got in you had to show your bones and your loyalty. >> there was a guy there. i liked him a lot. he was a friend. he was involved in something he shouldn't have been. he was investigated for three to four months. when we couldn't clear him i had to cut his throat. >> reporter: the arian brotherhood's is contract killings, racketeering and drug trafficking. last month federal and state authorities announced the indictments of more than 30 alleged members of the arian brotherhood for 16 murders. >> they have membership and partnerships that reach far beyond the prison walls. there may be a murder in the community and it will be reported as a drug deal gone bad. when, in fact, it could be the direct business of the arian brotherhood. >> we basically get sucked into it. it is just a part of every day life in the system. either you are walking with them or you are walking against them. >> reporter: and walking against them is often deadly.

these are just some of the homemade knives that corrections officers say they have found on inmates at pelican bay. particularly lethal are these skinny metal-tipped spears that fit through the perforations in the cell doors. >> they can decide how high you are, how tall you are, put a marker on the inside of the cell door as you come up to talk to them at the cell door or another inmate to come up to receive something from them they take it and just jam it through that hole and they would hit you with it. >> reporter: in prison almost anything can become a knife. >> combs, plastic combs. i stabbed a guy with them. combs are easiest. they work good. >> reporter: really? >> yeah. i have seen potato chip bags used, wrappers, plastic trash can bags melted down and reshaped and re-moulded. >> reporter: some inmates know

how to make skeleton keys out of plastic toothbrushes. >> they open and shut cuffs while being escorted numerous times just to practice to show that they can do it without the officers looking. the officers are maybe not paying attention or maybe not being observed closely or maybe in a holding cell or don't have a cuff key they can get a hold of it maybe in their underwear stashed or in their mouth or tongue or behind their cheek. they just spit it out in their hand and get out. >> reporter: but prison officials say what makes the arian brotherhood so dangerous is its ability to communicate within and outside these walls. >> they use telephone calls, correspondence, visitors, other inmates who parole from their institution. and they have a communications network that is very good. it is very effective. >> reporter: and hard to decipher. this is part of a letter written to another inmate using an archaic runic alphabet.

>> it is overwhelming the amount of mail they get. for me to review mail and if it is a 20 page letter and maybe one paragraph out of that is saying something important telling them to do something to kill somebody. i've got to read all of that. >> reporter: but investigators also rely on informants. most of the time they are gang members who want out. informing on a fellow inmate can be a life and death decision. those who do often end up here in the special needs unit at the old creek, far away from other inmates who might want to kill them. >> oh, i'm garbage. i'm scum. i'm the bottom of the barrel. i'm the worst of the crop. i'm worse -- i'm worse than just a guy that walked away because i am the guy that's talking. >> reporter: so why inform? the inmates we spoke with say it's because sooner or later the arian brotherhood will ask you to kill someone you don't want to kill. >> if you don't do it, word is going to get back that you were there and didn't do it. you will wind up getting hit. >> reporter: but for prison authorities, breaking the gangs

is an uphill battle. for all of the knives they find how more are hidden away? how many codes and letters go uncracked and killings go unsolved. >> it is really i think about an education process for our communities, for our people of the state. for our politicians to determine if we really have the political will to do what it takes to stop the criminal activity in our communities that is being borne right here in probably the most secure prison in the country. >> reporter: and the recruiting of new gang members is almost non-stop. at pelican bay state prison. >> that's it for this week's "second look." i'm frank somerville. we will see you again next week. . >> we are tweeting. [ music ] >> follow the promotion team on twitter and you are up to with

everything going on at ktvu fox news from contests to special programming to the latest of what's hot on fox. just go to twitter.com/ktvupromo.