due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. msnbc takes you behind the walls of america's most notorious prison into a world of chaos and danger. now, the scenes you've never seen, "lock up: raw." when you come to prison you have to join a gang. you have no choice. it's a must. >> once i opened the door with the drugs i got recognition. >> many of them have this

warrior mentality. >> by getting that recognition, i get power. >> pie job was to go in there and kill him and went in with the intention of killing him. >> you're surrounded by, you know, a thousand killers. and every one of them did a stranger. >> once i control the yards i control the drug situation. >> we were actually killing people that didn't deserve to be killed. >> this is california's san quentin state prison, one of the first prisons ever profiled on "lockup." >> for a photographer, san quentin was a really interesting place to shoot because it's the old-style tiers and the big exercise yard and there's a lot of corners and shadows and things to attract your lens.

so it was just as a photographer, it was really an interesting place to shoot. it can be a very dangerous place because it's got incredibly dangerous or infamous history as a dangerous place. >> on our first day of shooting here, we got a stark introduction to the constant security threats posed by gang order. >> we're basically getting ready to feed the level four, which are the maximum security inmates. tonight we're expecting some type of problems possibly. so we have extra coverage tonight to provide security. >> let's go. >> the correctional staff received a tip that a gang-related attack might occur at dinner. >> hispanic inmates, the gang members specifically, are doing what is called cleaning house. anyone that does not want to participate in their gang activity, if they refuse, then

the result is being slashed and it's usually across the face and they're marked for life. >> it doesn't matter how much staff we have, they will erupt if it's going to. >> our cameras rolled as the first group of inmates filed into the chow hall. pepper spray guns at the ready, officers carefully scan the room for any signs of trouble. >> i remember the potential riot at the cafeteria really well because we were right in the middle of it. there was not a whole lot of care taken at the time to keep us out of the line of fire. so we were right in the middle of it. that was kind of a tense thing. >> as the first group of inmates finished their meals and began to exit the cafeteria, an alarm sounds. signaling an assault or other disturbance near the chow hall. >> get out of the way, step back. step back. >> following protocol, inmates on the yard hit the ground and those in the cafeteria take their seats as officers sprint

to the scene. >> it was a tense moment when everybody hit the deck. sure enough, they found a weapon and we were right in the middle of it. >> officers catch a gang member attempting to conceal a shank, a homemade slashing weapon. this time, violence was avoided. but nowhere is gang influence more prevalent than out on the rec yards of california's prisons. >> this is a turf war here. everybody's got their own turf and they're not going to let anybody else take it from them. the inmates segregate themselves out here. and the reason being that the gangs want it that way. so a man has no choice but to go with his own type of people. >> it's all run by gangs or at least the gangs think they run the prison, and the correctional officers think they run the prison. but everybody gangs up by race

and you have to know where you're going. you don't want to go walking in the wrong area of the prison yard because you're on somebody else's turf. >> while inmates can segregate themselves in prison, it's not always that way in county jail. the first stop on the often long road of incarceration for gang members. >> every gang in los angeles county ends up coming here. and we just don't have enough places to segregate everybody and keep them from assaulting each other. and if you get one group that has superior numbers over the other and something sparks off a fight, it's going to be on. >> officials at the los angeles county jail told us racially segregated gangs are responsible for most of the violence including riots, like this one captured on surveillance tape. but we met one inmate who blames the problem on the system.

>> i never wanted to get involved in racial problems. when i went to prison, i didn't hate blacks. i didn't hate mexicans. i didn't hate indians. i didn't hate anybody like that. but when you go to these prisons and by the time you do ten years like me, if you're even halfway sane, it's a miracle. >> this man was awaiting trial for the attempted murder of five police officers while on parole for an earlier conviction of voluntary manslaughter. >> i date i met him it was like meeting hannibal lecter. i saw his feet first and i kind of looked up i saw all the tattoos. this guy was huge, 6'3", probably about 235. i mean he was built like an nfl linebacker. he looked like a stone cold killer. what's even more fascinating is what came out of his mouth. >> the california department of

corrections is solely responsible for the madness that goes on in this prison system. and i'll tell you why, because when a big white boy like me goes to prison, he is expected to do his part for the white cause and it's the same for the blacks, the mexicans, the indians, the orientals, asians, everybody else. they're expected to go to prison and do their part. why? because the inmates who run the prisons are the inmates doing life and life without the possibility of parole and they don't give a damn about my parole date or anybody else's. and these guys doing life and life without, they're hopeless. they're so full of hate just because of the sentences they have that they don't care what kind of chaos they cause in there.

coming up -- >> we'd go for the vital areas, kidney, liver. we try to go for kill shots. >> prison gang attack methods revealed.

pelican bay state prison sits in near pristine wilderness on the coastline of northern california. >> we're located just miles from the oregon border just in from the coast. so we're fairly remote. we're not surrounded by nothing. >> it's no accident that pelican bay is isolated hundreds of miles from the state's major cities. >> we fight an unending battle to keep the communication from our security housing unit inmates, particularly our gangsters, from getting back out

to the streets and out of our 1,100 inmates, over 800 have been validated as gang members or associates. >> pelican bay is the toughest prison in the california prison system. the first time we sent a "lockup" crew was weeks after they suffered their worst gang riot in history. and there was still tension in the air as the crew walked through the gates. >> the riot fought primarily between black and hispanic inmates lasted a little over 30 minutes. one inmate was killed and dozens of others were stabbed or beaten. when we returned five years later, the tension was still palpable. >> one of the interesting things about pelican bay is there really seemed to be two systems of rules, the prison administration and then the rules of the gangs. and there's this constant tension between the two. it's like a modern day sparta. they have trained themselves mentally, physically for a wartime situation. and it feels like a war.

it feels like a wartime prison, pelican bay. >> correctional staff told us that when it comes to battling gang activity, they're fighting a system that starts long before inmates arrive in prison. >> they're convinced that at early ages, at 8, 9, 10, 11 years old that gangs are the way to go. >> such was the case with epi kortina. he joined a street gang at age 11. it led to a 16-year to life sentence for murder. >> i've been pelican-bay raised. been up here going on 14 years. >> he'd been in prison since he was 19. he was 32 at the time i interviewed him. and he'd just been through years and years of just senseless violence. >> after his arrival at pelican bay, kortino, like many other hispanic gang-bangers from northern california, joined a prison gang known as nuestra.

familia. >> i walked into a war atmosphere and i was all for it. let's go, strapped on the boots and let's go. so three months after coming to pelican bay, i was assigned squad leader because squad leader is i'm in charge of educating other people on the bombs, the format, how to make knives, how to stab people, where to stab people, what would be the best times, exercising and making sure everybody's following the guidelines of our gang. right? >> i almost felt like it must have been what it was like 10,000 years ago when you have this almost tribalism. and you have to rely on your clan for protection. >> people would get stabbed because the mentality that we had out here and the way we train people within our own gang is the only time you should be fighting using your fist is to defend yourself. when we're attacking somebody, you're going to come at them with a knife, period. because, you know, it's better to do something right the first

time than having to go back and do it a second time. >> this here is a sampling of the type of weapons that we do find here at pelican bay. some of these are made out of files, nails. here's a ballpoint pen with a sophisticated spear tip at the end of it. like when they don't have access to metal, they'll resort to plastic. here's a good example of what they can make out of plastic. >> plastic weapons are for emergency situations. if we're going to stab someone, we're going to come at you with steel and make sure do the job correctly. >> traditionally what inmates like to do is to come out and stage weapons on the yard to be used later on on the yard. periodically, we search the yard. >> our cameras followed along as officers searched the pelican yard for buried weapons. >> there's something down here. right here. >> let me know if you run into

any problems. >> right here. >> oh, yeah, we've got one. >> right there. >> ooh [ bleep ]. >> what have you got there? >> looks like definitely a can lid. >> number 10 can lid. >> out of a dining hall smuggled out. nice little point. >> that's a metal shank. these are the plastics. >> where there's one, there's sure to be two. >> we go for the vital areas, you know, kidneys, liver. we'd go, you know, for the heart, the neck, the face. we try to go for kill shots because we want to send a message, we're going to come at you strong and try to put you in a box. >> we later learn that gang members are not only taught how to stab but how to be stabbed. >> i've heard inmates tell me about how they will intentionally take a cold shower. what happens when you take a cold shower? you jump in there, you turn it

on and the shock of the body, you recoil, you draw yourself in. but, you see, but when you get stabbed, it's that same feeling. it's that same trauma, that same shock that goes through the body is what the inmates tell me. and as a result of that, if you flinch, if you draw in in that split second, you can be very, very vulnerable. so they train themselves not to flinch but to lean forward into the violence. >> every day, you know, going out to the yard, you always have to look behind your back, who's walking behind you just in case you have to stab somebody or someone attempts to stab you. >> our crews have learned that active members rarely if ever reveal so much information about their gangs. epi was no exception. it's just that when we met him, he'd already quit his gang and was living in protective custody. marked for retribution by his former associates. >> what i would tell a youngster who is headed to pelican bay is

don't believe a lot of the ideology that these so-called gang members have. you know, they're out to use you. i don't care how much work, how much stabbings you put in, how much money you bring to the organization, if you don't meet the creed of that organization, you're going to be used. you're going to get abused. they say, we're trying to uprise our own race, you know, the mexican race, bring pride to it, what have you. but in actuality, these gangs and organizations, they bring a disgrace to our race. coming up on "lockup: raw," ganging up -- >> i moved in with the guy to take him out. >> betrayal, one of a gang-bangers' greatest enemies. custom fit orthotic center recommends the custom-fit orthotic that's best for your tired feet. foot-care scientists are behind it. you'll get all-day relief. for your tired achy feet. for locations, see drscholls.com. thank you...

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california state prison corcoran has many dangerous inmates on the west coast. our crews have visited here several times and correctional staff is always blunt about the danger. >> when talking to the cos at corcoran, they told me, you come in here, you have to join a gang for protection. immediately. >> when you come to the prison,

you have to join a gang. you have no choice. it's a must. >> the prison cannot protect you from the other inmates. it's an incredible admission. >> so you have to have that backup from your other races that are out here, whatever race backs you up, you need to be in their gang because you have no protection. you're on your own and anything could happen to you. >> correctional officers know anything can happen to them as well. >> i'm very well aware that the gangs can reach outside these walls. it may hold them in, but it doesn't hold in their power, the things they can do. i keep my family business to myself. i don't go to areas in the public where i know gangs are known to hang out. i avoid those locations. >> the dangerous time out here for us as officers is when we know there's tension between two races because we don't know if it's going to be large, small. we can never determine what's

going to happen between them. whatever happens, then we come around and pick up the pieces. that's about all we can do. >> we were out there, again, about 12 cos on the yard, 500 prisoners, all of a sudden the siren went off. there was a fight in a part of the yard. i looked up, the guards were hanging out of towers with their rifles. i looked around, 500 inmates sprawled on the dirt. so i just did a huge swan dive, was chewing dirt myself. and then i looked up and my sound man, my camera man and my young assistant woman producer were all standing up still still doing their jobs, still recording everything while i was flat on the ground with all the other inmates. and as i walked around after that, some of the guards were calling me belly flop. >> backing up the officers on the yard are intelligence units that are growing ever more

sophisticated at gang-infested prisons throughout california. >> here at san quentin i work for a unit called the investigative services unit. the inmates call us the goon squad. >> the officers assigned to these units are constantly work to intercept gang communications and prevent illicit activities. another one of their functions is to validate an inmate's gang affiliation. >> you need three identifiers to validate a gang member. tattoos, known association with another gang member, admission and if they are a validated gang member, they are shipped off to one of three prisons throughout the state. >> those three prisons contain california's most restrictive cell blocks. they're known as security housing units or the shu. one is located at pelican bay. >> many of them are in here indeterminately. they'll never leave shu until a

committee decides they are not a part of a gang anybody. >> this officer works at the shu. he told us a simple lapse on his part could result in gang warfare. >> if i were to pop two doors at the same time and they were, the same time and they were, say, a mexican-american from los angeles and a mexican-american from sacramento, the odds are very, very good they would immediately commence to fight because that is expected of them in prison. that's the rules of the game. if word got out that they had an opportunity and didn't go after someone, they would have some explaining to do. that's just life in prison. >> they are restricted to their cell for 23 1/2 hours a day. they only get a half hour outside and then they're right back into their cells. >> despite the restrictive conditions in the shu, gang members still find ways to make weapons, sometimes carving them

right out of their own cells. >> this was made by an arian brotherhood unit in the security housing unit. they're in there with nothing, certainly nothing to cut through metal. this guy, he got ahold of some kind of cutting agent. the cell doors is all mild steel. if you take a spring clip like part of a fingernail clipper and that is spring steel, hardened skill and they'll sharpen that, they'll cut the weapons right out of their cell doors. they'll simply choose a section of the door and scribe on the door the same size as a weapon that they want to cut and they'll just keep scribing it until it cuts all the way through the mild steel. >> when gang members in the pelican bay shu make weapons, they're expected to use them. >> i was involved with the aryan brotherhood back in 198 when i was at folsom prison. you know, we had some work that needed to be tended to.

so i put in some work, stabbed an individual. he needed to be taken out. >> walter "big foot" farmer's involvement in the white supremacist aryan brotherhood eventually landed them in the pelican bay shu. but that didn't end his loyalty to his gang. >> of course, you have to earn your bone, which basically means you have to earn your blood in, blood out. you know, and i got my assignment and went after that. >> and what was the assignment? >> it was to take out an individual that was on the hit list for the aryan brotherhood. >> and who was that person, and what did it involve? was he a rival gang or -- >> no, he was a white gang. he wasn't an asset to us as a gang or he wasn't an asset to his own race. and he was just a headache. >> most shu inmates are single-celled. but due to overcrowding, that's not always possible. a circumstance farmer used to his advantage. >> i moved in with the guy to

take him out. >> and when you say he was taken out, what happened? did you personally -- >> my job was to go in there and kill him. and i went in there with the intention of killing him, but i stabbed him several times and the damn knife bent. we used a knee brace. we have to be real resourceful in the shu, what we can use for weapons. we used an aluminum knee brace. this was a big guy, so i went after this guy and i hit a bone and the knife had bent on the third time. so he got lucky. >> like other inmates who find themselves growing old in the shu, farmer eventually quit his gang. >> i got tired of the impulsive subjective reasoning for people doing things. we were actually killing people that didn't deserve to be killed. coming up on "lockup: raw" -- >> some women are attracted to the bad boys. well, these are the real bad boys. >> i would set up my homegirls from the streets on the visiting

list, and the girls that were coming to visit these guys were coming with drugs secured. >> prison gangs run an illicit drug trade. >> this is actually footage from our visiting area here. we have a suspect attempting to introduce narcotics into the institution. medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare call now to find out how an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company, helps cover some of the medical expenses... not paid by medicare part b. that can save you from paying up to thousands of dollars... out of your own pocket. these are the only medicare supplement insurance plans... exclusively endorsed by aarp. when you call now, you'll get this free information kit... with all you need to enroll. so you can join the millions of people who have already... put their trust in aarp medicare supplement insurance. plus you'll get this free guide

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>> due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. >> you would think that putting

criminals behind bars would stop them from committing crimes but as we found out from talking to cos and inmates, that's usually not the case, especially when it comes to gangs. >> the gangs inside the prison control drug trafficking, extortion, any kind of crime that you can think of that happens on the streets, it happens within the prison system. >> actually gang members, their number one source in making money is through narcotics. out on the street and in the institution, they can make just as much money in the institution as they can on the street. and of course selling narcotics leads to hits with people that have drug debts. >> once i came to state prison, i knew that there was always a demand for drugs. >> miguel perez was convicted of a contract murder and drug trafficking when he was only 15. he says he used family connections with a foreign drug cartel to rise up the ranks of

his prison gang, the mexican mafia. >> once i opened the door with the drugs, i got recognition. by getting that recognition, i get power. with the power, i get control of whatever yard i go to. once i control the yard, i control the drug situation and i control the inmates there, as well. >> miguel under his own admission was one of the big drug distributors in various prisons he had been in. i think the thing that so shocked me is that so much of the drugs coming into prison could never happen unless there's a whole group of people out there willing to assist. >> even though the individual is locked up, they have a lot of access to individuals on the street. they have visitors that see them on a regular basis. they have the mail. they can send mail out, receive mail. they're able to send coded messages out to other street gangs to carry out their deeds. >> i would give people on the mainline who didn't get visits,

right, who didn't have no visitors coming in and i would set up my home girls from the streets on their visiting list and the girls that were coming to visit these guys were coming with drugs secured, whether it was methamphetamines, cocaine, heroin, marijuana, acid, pcp, any drug that was in demand at the yard at the time that i knew would make the most money is what i would have these women bring in. >> perez told us visitors usually smuggled the drugs inside small balloons. >> if there were balloons, the size for you to swallow, then we would usually wait till the end of the visiting. at the end when he's kissing his visitor good-bye, she's passing everything from her mouth to his mouth. he would hold it within his mouth until he was ready to get searched. before you get searched is when you swallow it. by the time it takes for the balloon to travel from the top

of your throat into your stomach is 45 minutes so you use that window to get home and make him throw up so they don't have to go through all that. everything was always timed. if it was too big for him to swallow to where he might choke, we would secure it through the rectum. and if it was going to be done that way then we couldn't wait till the end of the visiting so we'd have to do it during the visiting. >> surveillance footage from the visiting room at kern valley state valley prison showed how such bizarre drug smuggling techniques take place. >> this is actual footage from our visit surveillance area. we have a suspect attempting to introduce narcotics into the institution. that is the suspect sitting right there. as you can see, he's looking around. there's another inmate, the inmate directly in front of him is attempting to block the cameras. as you can see, he's halfway off the chair, that's what kind of piqued the curiosity of my officers, the way the individual

is sitting. that's usually an indicator that he's going to possibly attempt to introduce narcotics. you can see his right hand, there is an orange object, within a matter of seconds, that will be secreted in his rectum. you can see there he goes. at that point, he's pretty much introduced narcotics into the institution. unfortunately for him, we had staff in the area monitoring the video cameras and we watched it as it unfolded and we were able to apprehend him and his visitor. >> for this attempt to smuggle one ounce of marijuana into prison, the inmate was placed in administrative segregation. and his female visitor was arrested. >> some women are attracted to the bad boys. well, these are the real bad boys. and the inmates in prison, they just use these people. it's not about love or anything like that. they just use them, destroy their lives.

>> but for some, destroying the life of a loved one is offset by the profits generated by drug trafficking behind bars. >> one gram of black tar heroin on the street will cost somewhere between $40 and $80. once it comes inside prison, it can go for as much as $800 and a gram is very easy to get in. >> but demand along with the lure of easy money has drugs flooding into prisons. pitting inmates and corrections officials in a constant game of cat and mouse, often played in the prison mail room. >> we go through hundreds of pieces of mail a day. and sometimes we get lucky and find something. >> when you do it through mail, you have to get heroin on a sheet, like a plastic sheet of paper or something and smash it down to where it's smooth. you put another sheet on top of it and you seal it all the way

around. >> 0.7 grams. most likely heroin. it was recovered from the mail room in the greeting card. the card was peeled back. the narcotics were pressed between two pieces of wax paper. the greeting card was opened, they laid it in there and then resealed it. >> also stamps, underneath the stamps. if it's just someone and you're not trying to get a big amount, someone that just wants to get high for the day, instead of licking the stamp, you can wet it with acid. it's just getting in what you want in. >> this guy had so much talent for tactics and strategy and going around the authorities and dealing with all the different other inmates. i mean, here's a guy carrying one of the most precious commodities to inmates in prison. he survives for year. that's what gets me about some of these guys, they're ingenious survivors.

coming up on "lockup: raw" -- >> i'm a crip. i run with the blacks, which there's not too many people like me. >> whites are the minority in here. >> one prison's minority race seeks an identity.

the racial divide throughout california prisons is usually blamed on gangs. and it turns the majority on the outside into a minority on the inside. >> whites are the minority in here. we're greatly outnumbered. i'm sure you've already seen that on the yard. also, we have a tendency to look out for each other the best that we can. i mean, you would do the same, you know, with your family. it's family-oriented. >> in fact, aaron yost serving 35 years to life for burglary and drug possession under

california's three strikes law says the racial divide has less to do with gangs than it does with human nature. >> we're animals, aren't we? man's history is like -- is racial. you have all different groups of people that invade other people's country that take what they want, their resources. we're animals. we evolve and you have different ethnicities. it's inbred in us. it's genetic. isn't it? you see something that's different -- all animals are like that. chickens in a farm. you think it's different? why should it be any different in here. in this prison, you have to. anyone that's different -- but in here, you have to -- this prison, the conditions in here were set when prison first started. how is it going to change? nobody wants it to change. >> two other inmates, russell and shawn also claim they felt threatened by their minority status. >> what are your tattoos about?

>> just white power, you know what i mean? we grow up in a situation like this, you've got to do something, you know what i mean? everybody's cliqued up. >> that's how the whole system runs. everything's broke into little groups. i mean theoretically a lot of people think all these people hate, hate. it's all about hate. but it's not really. what it's about is mainly you come into an environment and you're surrounded by 1,000 killers and every one of them's a stranger. so naturally you're going to find people that you have things in common with and you're going to group up because you have to. >> the day after this interview, we witnessed one of the few times that inmates of different races act as one. >> 86. two in, two out. >> we followed this man out to the exercise yard to see part of

their daily routine. >> this is our exercise cage. we get it every other day. it's four hours of exercise. we look forward to it, for sure. definitely look forward to it. sunlight. sunlight's a big deal. he's getting sunlight. it's like a lizard. takes a minute to get going. >> can we watch you guys work out a little? >> yeah, yeah. >> then nearly two minutes pass with nothing happening. our camera operator walked in between exercise cages waiting for the session to begin. finally our crew was informed it wouldn't start until they left. >> they're going to wait for you guys to be done. >> when our crew went back indoors, they learned that kern valley's dominant hispanic gang

controlled the exercise session. because all their practices are shrouded in secrecy, they would not work out in front of our cameras. but they can't avoid prison surveillance cameras. >> notice right now you have what they call a cadence calling, which is an exercise routine. there's a certain group of inmates that initiate it and, therefore, the rest have to follow as long as they show respect because everything in prison is about respect. >> we found another example of an inmate bridging the racial divide. when we ran into dylan dunn at work in kern valley's kitchen. >> how unusual are you here? >> in this prison, i'm the only one. >> the only what? >> the only white crip. >> when we met dylan dunn, i think the whole crew was very surprised to find out he was a crip, a white guy as a crip. >> i run with the blacks which there's not too many people like

me. >> at first we thought maybe he was just messing with us or just trying to have a little fun. but we found out he was the real deal. >> talk to me a little bit about how an irish boy becomes a crip. dillon dunn. i got to tell you -- >> i'm not irish. >> but are you white? >> i'm puerto rican and italian. so, yeah, you know, a little bit. >> dunn's fish out of water status could last for a long time. he's serving 25 years to life for armed robbery. >> how are you perceived here? i mean when you -- >> i get my respect. or else if i didn't, then, you know, like they could stab me or whatever. i mean i wouldn't be here. i'd be dead. you know, so evidently i get my respect. i mean, it wasn't easy. you know, it's still not easy. i mean some places i go, i'm a target. >> why? >> because of who i run with, because of my gang affiliates. like i said, it's real racial.

and then if blacks get into it, i've got to be there, you know, really especially, you know. i mean i'm always out there on the front line. i'm always going to be that way. >> why? >> because i pretty much always have to prove myself, always, no matter what. so i can't change my life now. i chose that road, so i have to be a part of that. you know, so i don't try to be black. i'm me. you know, i'm dylan, you know. >> but even the brotherhood of his prison gang didn't allow dunn much optimism for the future. >> hope is the biggest -- to me, hope is like, that will kill me before one of the inmates kills me. >> what? >> hope. you know, as far as getting out. if i hope too much for it, i'll go bald. i'll probably shrivel up. you know, it's a disease to me. coming up on "lockup: raw" --

>> for a gang member, it's probably one of the toughest decisions they'll ever make in their life. >> in some ways you feel like you hung up your balls. >> the life and death consequence of leaving a prison gang. >> am i going to get killed by dropping out? is my family going to get killed by dropping out?

key to surviving a prison sentence at pelican bay is understanding the politics of the yard. a system put in place by the prison's gang population. >> everyone is separated by gangs, by race. you cannot just run into a certain area. you have to be so careful about where you go, how you look at someone, what handlebars you used to do chin-ups or push-ups. there's a series of invisible lines that are all over that yard. and that makes for a great deal of tension. >> you can feel tension in the air. when something's going to

happen, you can feel that the tension -- you can cut it with a knife sometimes it's so bad. life here is kind of rough, you know. stabbings all the time, guys have to be real careful of what he associates with. stick with your own race. i've seen people get their throat cut. i've seen people get rat-packed, five guys on one, get their head smashed in. i've seen people strangled in cells. life here is pretty treacherous. >> authorities told us that the violence is like a drug to the gangs here. >> the violence is for many inmates, if the truth be known and told by them, they're addicted to it. they're so into the violence, into the experience of the adrenaline rush of combat that that's what they want. they look for that.

when your whole environment is nothing but drive-bys and gangland slayings, the thrill of surviving every single day is a merit badge. >> but even for some of the most hardened prison gang members, the dues of belonging came at too high a cost. >> people would be put on the hat being they would be put on the hit list for any personal reason. it could be the personal agenda. didn't like the way you said good morning. i didn't want that to happen to me. >> when former gang members like epi and walter decided to leave gang life behind, pelican bay had a place for them to go, a protective housing unit. but admittance came with a price. >> one of the areas we filmed at pelican bay was the transitional housing unit. this is the place where inmates who want to opt out of the gang

life divulge everything they know to the prison authority, they then get the protection of being put away from the rest of the prison population. >> you give up information on the organization and the other individuals who were involved. but the thing is, they're trying to build up some credibility with you, are you being honest with us or are you trying to be a sleeper so you can get out there and stab one of these people that's disassociated themselves from one of these gangs? >> for a gang member, it's probably one of the toughest decisions they'll ever make in their life. it's easy to get into the gang and start doing things with the gang. but to step away from it, the other gang members consider them a rat or no good. so it's a tough decision for them. if they have family members involved, that puts their family members in jeopardy, their safety. >> the big issues i wrestled with was am i going to get killed by dropping out? is my family going to get killed by dropping out? defecting from the gangs, that was my big issue. but then i started realizing that, am i going to get killed

by staying over there? what seems to be the biggest problem in your life right now? >> we met jason in an anger management class inside the transitional housing unit. >> getting myself on track, keeping myself on track. >> jason had to join the nazi lowriders once in prison for protection. and just looking in his eyes, you could just see at times he just almost had this 1,000-yard stare i'm sure that war veterans have of having seen and felt the shock of so much violence. >> he's serving a life sentence for murder and told us he reached the breaking point when he was ordered to kill a fellow gang member. >> they told me if i don't do it, that do the right thing and whack the guy that i'd be whacked. so i started seeing that they ask people to do stuff that they aren't willing to do themselves

and they're playing people as a puppet, and that's what they are, puppet masters and i'm not a puppet. >> one of the things i noticed in the transitional housing unit was that there was a real mix of prisoners, people that previously on the main yard would have been trying to kill each other but now were all mixing. there were books, there were counseling sessions, a much less tense atmosphere from the rest of the prison. the irony, though, is that some of them still carry this weight of being, quote, unquote, snitches, of having divulged information to the prison authorities. >> i've just seen a lot of the people that were involved with the nazi lowriders starting to debrief and i used to look down on it because i grew up thinking that child molesters, rapos and snitches were all in the same category. >> many of them still were a little bit uncomfortable with that idea, especially

uncomfortable about having to give over their protection now completely to the prison authorities. they were not able anymore to prison environment. you know, i don't depend on prison administration to protect me. you know, yeah, they're going to take steps to make sure we're secure. but tame, i'm going to fall back on the things that i learned while in prison to help me survive out here. >> in some way, you feel like you hung up your balls because now you have to rely on the administration handling your issues as opposed to you handling them in the way you were taught to handle issues. but now i play sports with people that i once was enemies with. and it's a big step.