cocktail book, so it's a classic. >> wow. >> and i think i'm running out of time, so i can't get the rest out of the shaker, so quick. and i'd put an orange twist on it but we have to go to prison. lewis black, thank you for being here. congratulations your new show. details on maddowblog.com. >> is it okay? >> yeah, it worked. prison, bye. due to mature and graphic subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. there are 2 million people behind bars in america. for the next hour, we've opened the gates. "lockup." >> i pray to god that somebody recognizes what's going on here, you know. we're in here just rotting away, you know? >> today we have about 760 inmates serving a life sentence here at folsom. >> federally funded.

>> we're dealing with murderers and rapists, and that's always in the back of my mind. >> we're treated like slaves up in here, man. >> sometimes you've just got to do what you've got to do, you know, whether you like it or not. >> a lot of times, these inmates just don't get along with each other, you know. they didn't get along with people on the outside. that's why they're here. >> they were stomping his head and he went out code three in the ambulance, so he's pretty messed up. >> it's like you see around here, it's like this every day. >> it's the way they lived on the streets, so they're living it inside the walls. >> use your imagination, and anything that you can imagine, that's probably what goes on here. >> you watch horror movies, this is a horror movie. >> i'm innocent! i didn't do it! >> since 1880, california's folsom state prison has gained a reputation for violence and bloodshed. inmates once called it the end of the world. in december of 2002, the prison's worst riot in a decade

broke out with about 100 prisoners involved. dozens were hurt before the melee ended when a guard shot and seriously wounded a prisoner. it's graphic evidence that keeping the peace remains a challenge inside folsom, with officers out-numbered about 90 to 1. in this hour, you'll see what's being done to maintain safety and how violence sometimes boils over anyway. folsom state prison is located in the rolling hills of northern california, just east of sacramento. the original structures still stand as an imposing fortress of solid granite. up close, the first thing you notice is how old the prison looks. little has changed about these old, steel doors. many of them hung 120 years ago when the prison was still new. walls that surround folsom were built 30 feet into the air and 15 feet below ground to prevent

tunneling. in the early years, state dignitaries were invited to the annual fourth of july activities, where inmates were put on display. on most other days, violence ruled this yard where fights and stabbings were common. even the warden was stabbed to death by a group of inmates during a riot in 1937. originally constructed to relieve overcrowding at san quentin state prison, folsom housed some of the most dangerous inmates of the time. today, its history of a more violent time has not been forgotten. >> folsom, just the aura of this place hangs above us, like a fog hangs over this place. >> daniel bell is a newcomer, only on the yard for four months. >> i mean, you're like totally in awe of the fact that you're actually here and so many men have died and lost their lives on this very yard right here, at the very spot we're standing. i mean, you know, men have

gotten killed, so it's like, you're terrified. >> this is my first time here. don't like it. i don't like it. >> a lot of people getting stabbed, you know? i've seen people's throats get sliced. my first night in this building behind me here, when i woke up in the morning to gunshots on the tier, you know. >> you always have a fear factor when you walk through those gates. anybody would be lying to you if they told you they weren't scared when they were in here. >> there is not anyone who walks into folsom that looks at those gun towers and looks like european castles that isn't scared. >> david taylor is 60 years old, serving a life sentence for kidnapping and robbery. he entered folsom prison in 1975 when it was terrorized by sophisticated killers and gangs. >> the stabbings have been numerous. some of them have been right in front of me.

and when you see a person die, it sort of makes a change in you forever. the change makes you realize how tenuous life is or how important life is and how one minute you can be alive and the next minute you can be dead, and it doesn't matter who you are. you can be the warden or you can be an informant. everything in between can be alive one minute and dead the next minute. that's the things you think when you see these stabbings occur around you. and some of them die. and the code requires that you act like you didn't see it. >> i recall those days vividly, averaging four to six gunshots a day at this prison, and you were constantly carrying a gouurney with a wounded man on it, and many times the man was dead. >> lieutenant tom ayers, a former marine, has been a correctional officer at folsom for 21 years. >> when staff come in here, especially our uniformed officers, they are taught the history of this prison and the great sacrifice of people who have died here in the line of duty, and they're constantly

reminded of that. >> a reminder of folsom's grim past is the execution room. >> the hanging area was right here. in the old days, what they did was they did turns, down below us, more cells, and you've got these cells up here. you worked your way up to the very last cell. that was the death row cell. >> over a period of 40 years, 93 men were hanged at folsom, and the stay on death row was brief. each condemned man waited for his turn at the gallows in tiny cells only a few feet away. >> at the very last cell, the day of execution, they would come in. they would basically put metal over the door so you could not see it. they would bring the guy out. then he was hung. the inmates in the cells could only hear the hanging. they were not allowed to see that. >> hearing but not seeing what happens around you is a fact of

prison life that torments prisoners even today. >> it's not the feel of being intimidated by another person, it's the sounds, the movements, the keys that rattle, silence at night, the yells, the screams. you watch horror movies? this is a horror movie right here. we live it every day. >> many of the inmates at folsom are serving time for violent crim crimes. over 700 are serving life sentences for murder. due to the hazards presented by its archaic design, folsom no longer qualifies as a level 4 maximum security prison. therefore, it's been downgraded to a level 2 medium security facility. >> a level 2 is only a classification score. within two, three seconds, that same individual at a level 2 can stab another individual: assault a staff member, and he has now

become a level 4 individual within ten seconds of his lifetime. >> people that don't work in a prison don't realize how dangerous it is in here, and at the blink of an eye, something can go wrong. blink of an eye, you can lose your life or you can be crippled for life. >> i mean, there's inmates that i know for 20 years. even though we're friendly, we speak, they know my first name, i know their first name. they walk up on me. i still want to know what they're doing. >> the inmates who have been here over 20 years are lifers who may never leave. they came in as tough, young prisoners and lived amid the violence, violence that continues even now. officer darlene feist is still adapting to working behind the walls of folsom. >> i'm not used to being around violence. when i started, you know, not that. it really shocked me how cruel and emotionless these people can be. >> it does get scary sometimes.

you hear a lot of the war stories from around here. >> i've been stabbed, i've had my knee broke. >> i had a back injury first, stabbed. >> i was assaulted by an inmate in handcuffs. >> i was stabbed seven times. >> if you show the inmates fear, then they're going to go ahead and feed on it. >> keeping that fear in control can be difficult inside this 100-year-old prison, because what was state of the art at the turn of a previous century is now the biggest challenge to the officers' safety. when we return, cell block 5, the most notorious cell block inside folsom. [ ringing ] hello? [ sea ] hello, this is the sea calling. [ laughing ] [ sea ] what's the last romantic thing he did for you? ohh, i don't know... ummm... did you have to do that to me? what counts as romantic? is somebody watching me somewhere? like emptying the dishwasher? [ laughing ] is this your mother?

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folsom state prison is more than 120 years old, and as a result, the facilities are a patchwork of prison technology. >> back of the wall. okay. >> for example, arriving inmates are kept track of by a modern computer database, while officers on duty keep track of their weapons and keys by using a more low-tech method. some inmates will be housed in world war ii-era cell blocks, where each tier is visible from the ground floor. others will do their time in the bun dungeon-like confinement of cell block 5. it's a place where the sun never shines. >> you become a walking dead man

in here, you understand what i'm saying? you're a walking dead man. really don't know why i see you. it's like the old saying goes, out of sight, out of mind. >> 33-year-old inmate herman johnson is doing 12 years for a felony drug conviction. he is currently housed in cell block 5. >> in here, you lose a lot of things on the outside, and you really find out a lot about people by coming to prison, you know? >> paul poplan has been to prison several times over the last ten years for drugs and fighting. >> you know, this is a big cell, actually, because you know, the way it's situated with the toilet over here. there ain't much to them, you know? i guess, it ain't that bad in here, you know? it could be worse. i've been in worse. >> like being in a cage, basically. that's why i try and stay out as much as possible, you know what i mean. i go out to the yard, and when i come back from eating, i try to

avoid my unlock. that way, i'm only in there from 8:30 at night until about 7:30 in the morning, and i'm out the rest of the day. >> danld avila is serving a four-month sentence for parole violation. >> just a bunch of guys living together. somebody's going to get on your nerves and you're going to get on somebody's nerves one of these days. >> inmate johnson recalls his first experience with prison violence after going to general population, commonly referred to as the main line. >> when i hit the main line, maybe after like maybe two weeks, not even a good two weeks, a big riot jumped off and i saw a lot of stickings and everything, and it was just, it was crazy. >> we do have a lot of blind spots. may be a little difficult as far as observation if something happens, such as a riot or we had something else. the officers are at the end of tiers for visibility. however, it still makes it difficult for observation,

especially 150 yards down the tiers. >> sergeant rudy carmona supervises cell block 5, one of the oldest operating prison structures in the united states. >> you walk up to a cell to look, to see what's going on, and you have to sometimes look inside. so, it puts us up close proximity to whatever, whomever is inside here, and sometimes it could be dangerous. he could spear you through these holes, and you make the antiquated type out of rolled newspaper with a blade at the end of it and simply could be done, stabbing in the face, so forth. >> officers in newer prisons avoid the hazard of getting close to inmate doors. >> the newer prisons are all now automated with button control. one officer could actually control up to 100, 200 cell doors at one given time. here in this unit, every individual door has to be opened by a key, every single door. >> the doors must be locked and unlocked several times a day, as inmates are released to the

yard. to do so, two staff officers snake their way through narrow passageways and the central corridor, 160 yards long. in the process, they can find themselves surrounded by hundreds of inmates. >> there's too many inmates out. we're just on hold right now. >> check inside -- >> trying to keep it minimal in that dog run to how many inmates are in there, so we keep a clear path if something does happen to where we'd get through. >> i believe that the number one skill you really, really need in here is communication skills. if you can't communicate with these inmates, then you're going to have problems. because this is an old facility. this is not electric-powered doors. this is all key and we're walking these tiers with hundreds of inmates every day, and these officers are face to face with these inmates. >> inmates can change just like that. and so, you can't let your guard down.

>> warden diana butler knows the importance of communicating with inmates. she's only 1 of 11 female wardens in california. and with 22 yea0 years of servi she knows what to look for. >> one thing you develop when you work here is how to read the inmates. if you go on to an exercise yard, a lot of times, they will have magazines inside of their jackets. and of course, that is to stop any potential violence, such as stab wounds or something. and if they appear nervous, then you know you'd better bring some other officers over and kind of find out what's happening and why are they nervous. >> and that's why inmates are watched and counted all day long. >> right now we're having a major movement. we're having our main yard come in. at this particular building, this is daily, seven days a week, every day.

>> to prevent escape, inmates return five times a day to be counted, just as it was done a century ago, one man at a time. >> pb-1! standing count! bb-2, standing count! >> up next -- >> the concept is to do time, don't let time do you. >> surviving hard time inside folsom. >> it's kind of a struggle between evil and good, evil and good. i find the omega choices overwhelming.

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it's time for us to bring this cycle to an end. it's time for us to begin to realize to know who we are. amen? >> amen. >> each inmate at folsom must

find his own way of surviving physically and emotionally in this environment. >> it's like being sit down in front of a mirror and being made to look at yourself all day, every day. and usually, having gotten yourself in here, there's not going to be anything that reflection won't see. >> a lot of people don't know how to do time. a lot of people come here, think they can play. that's their perception, you know what i'm saying? but the concept is to do time, don't let time do you. >> after you get used to it, you know, you get programmed for how the system works, where at first it's kind of hard, you know? >> inmates refer to this process of survival and rehabilitation in prison as their program. >> basically, you know, you've got to do something, you've got to have some sort of program, you know what i mean? >> everybody here knows how to program, you know what i'm saying? this is a programmable tier. >> the main thing for me day to

day is to work to improve myself, because this is a correctional facility and i'm here for correction. and it's kind of hard to be in a situation like this, because not everybody here is for correction, not everybody here understands the meaning of correction. so, when you're trying to change your life, you have maybe others around you that don't want to change their lives, and it's kind of a struggle between, you know, evil and good, evil and good. >> it's tough being your own person in an environment like this, not to be sucked into a negativity. the saying misery loves company is so fit for this environment. >> kindness, compassion, caring, inside the institution, it's a weakness. >> they don't care about somebody's feelings. that's why they're in here, you know? that's why they're in here, because of what they did on the outside and what they did to somebody else. >> part of their program for self-rehabilitation means contemplating their crime. >> that's a before.

this is after. >> charles williams was only 27 years old when he arrived. as seen through his prison i.d. cards, serving 21 years of a life sentence has taken its toll. >> a bar fight that got out of hand, laid out into the parking lot and i beat a man to death. i mean, it was a senseless crime. i was drinking, he was drinking, and i just took it too far. he didn't deserve that. >> nobody could make an accurate assessment of me without getting to know me. i am a clink head guy. i'm not a trouble-maker, but you can't know that until you sit down and talk and get to know me. just by looking at me, i don't know, everybody thought ted bundy was a really swell looking cat, but turned out he was a freak. if you saw me on the street in a suit, you'd never guess i was in prison, so. you can't judge an individual by

just looking at him. you have to get to know him, bottom line. >> one mistake, no juvenile criminal history, no drinking in public or anything like that. one mistake. one mistake, and all because i was being a follower and not a leader. i was an impressionable kid who just thought that he would never get in trouble. >> brian tomisello has been in folsom for ten years. he was sentenced at the age of 21. >> i committed a crime of kidnap-robbery. jewelry store owner, went into the home, home invasion, took the safe. and the purpose of the whole crime was to go to the jewelry store, and it didn't work out like that, and the guys -- i was the youngest one in the crowd, so the most impressionable one. and the thing is, is i was basically the one who took the

fa fall. so, if you can just -- it's kind of sad. i still get choked up thinking about it, you know, because i wish i could just take everything back. >> coming up, tension boils over in the yard between inmates in the same gang. journey was made to explore the real world. it has under-seat storage to bring everything, available seating for up to seven people to take everyone, and the grip of available all-wheel drive to go everywhere. think of it as a search engine helping you browse the real world. this march, get no extra charge third-row seating plus 0% financing on dodge journey.

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hi, i'm richard lui. here's what's happening. the u.s. soldier accused of killing 16 afghan civilians is identified as 38-year-old staff sergeant robert bales. he's expected to arrive soon at a military detention center in kansas. and president obama appeared at his fourth fund-raiser of the night just a short time ago. he's expected to pull in at least $5.2 million from five campaign events just today. and mitt romney is leaving puerto rico earlier than expected to focus more heavily on illinois ahead of tuesday's

crucial primary there. back to "lockup" for you. due to mature and graphic subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. welcome back to "lockup." one of the most important aspects of prison life is time spent in the yard. at folsom state prison in california, over 1,000 inmates can be on the yard at any given time. it's a central meeting place where prisoners work out their aggressions and interact with other inmates, but it's also the flashpoint, when violence breaks out, as witnessed while msnbc's cameras were in the yard. >> state raised, federally funded. >> feel like a slave, man. treated like slaves up in here, man. >> what you see around here, it's like this every day. >> seeing people, you know, getting shot, you know, killed, you know, riots and, you know,

melees and stuff like that. like, if you get somebody that's been an informant from your county, you know, or a child molester or something, somebody in your car, that's your county, you know, your local people that are here in prison, you've got to handle it, somebody's got to handle it or the whole car is shunned, you know. your whole car will be put on shine, you know, on lame status. >> because folsom's yard is the smallest prison yard in the state, no one is segregated. members of the various prison gangs who are known to be enemies are forced to walk amongst each other. >> if i can describe it, sum it up in one word, i would say it's like a big toilet waiting to be flushed. >> uh-uh, come here, both of you. hey, you two, come here. what building are you in? >> 18. >> what building are you in? >> 5. >> okay, you go to the gate and tell them you're going home.

you don't do that on my yard, you know that. he threw an inappropriate sign denoting a praise of nazism and promoting that type of racist behavior and attitude that we will not tolerate here. if we let our guard down for one moment, we stop observing and interacting, tension can rise and we can have a very volatile situation here. >> you can feel it. it's like electricity in the air, so thick, you can actually breathe in the tension. and when that happens, you know, you want to put yourself against a wall or put somebody behind you that you can trust, or just stay off in a corner. >> in the blink of an eye, that much time, it can change. that's why our staff is out here watching, interacting and monitoring the attitudes and, we might say the temperature gauge, of this yard and institution, because there is the real threat that an attitude or temper can change in a moment.

>> and tempers did flair while msnbc's cameras were in the yard. >> main guard. >> well, we had two northern mexicans jumping on another morning mexican. it all stemmed over a disrespect issue. yesterday they beat him up over here in front of the yard shack. the guy who beat him up was about the victim's age. this guy i know is in his 60s. apparently, the northern mexicans felt business wasn't handled properly, so therefore, they sent over guys about a third his age. the guys that beat him up today are probably early 20s, late teens. >> what you saw here today was actually a battery. they were stomping his head. you can see he's pretty messed up. lately, the northern mexicans have been acting up more so than any race on this yard, beating up their own, over respect

issues. prison's about a lot of respect. when you're disrespected, situations like this take place. >> as long as you have street gangs, you will always have prison gangs. these guys aspire to do that. most individuals in free society would aspire to be doctors and lawyers. these guys don't think past tomorrow. they don't know what they're going to be doing a half hour from now. they aspire to be the shock collars, the leaders, the gang members. and just talking to these individuals at various times, i've posed that question, why is it that you want to do this, this lifestyle? and basically, it's because that's what they look up to. >> the inmate who was attacked will survive because of quick response from prison staff on the yard. >> they comply to your orders, they get down, you cuff them, bring them to the custody complex, interview them from there. if not, then sometimes force is used, baton, pepper spray. in this situation, there was no weapons involved. therefore, the gunners didn't have a reason to shoot.

>> the two inmates responsible for the attack were found guilty of battery and received 180 days added to their sentences. any time prisoners who are involved in assaults with other inmates or staff, they are placed in administration segregation, or ad seg. officer jeremy fackerd works on ad seg where inmates are locked down 24 hours a day, seven days a week. >> always have to stay alert. you never know what an inmate's doing and thinking. that's why you have partners. your partner watches what you're doing, you watch what your partner's doing for protection. any time an inmate comes out of the cell, he has to be strip-searched, handcuffed and escorted with two officers. >> for their own protection, all correctional staff are required to wear protective gear while working in the ad seg unit. >> the face shield is worn to protect us against possible

gassing, when inmates throw urine or feces at the officers. >> disruptive. >> this is a slide-handle baton. it's used to escort inmates when we take them outside the building. the inmate getting escorted is hand-cuffed and he can't protect himself. so if other inmates are going to jump him, we have to protect him. the protective gloves we wear in case we come in contact with blood or other bodily fluids when we're searching a house or if an inmate has it on him when we touch him. we also wear a protective vest that stab-proof. inmates will use elastic out of their waistbands from their boxers. they can use it like a bungee and shoot metal objects out at us if they're able to get a hold of it. >> administrative segregation is not the only area of folsom where officers are at risk. >> i've been on probably about two dozen cell extractions to where i've had people jump on my back when we're going in and we're trying to get them.

nothing i haven't healed from. but you've just got to understand that there is always potential to be hurt in this job, and that's basically what you're getting paid for, come in here and do that. a lot of times, these inmates just don't get along with each other, you know? they didn't get along with people on the outside. that's why they're here. and you put them all in the same setting, in a small cell, you have the ability to be volatile. >> for the inmates who demonstrate good behavior, there are areas of folsom prison that appear more like scenes outside the wall, where inmates are able to learn things like landscaping, how to rebuild computer systems, study in the law library, if they choose to appeal their sentence, learn about carpentry, or the most prized job among inmates is making license plates. every single license plate in

california is made here. but any time inmates have access to power tools and steel equipment, there's a danger of weapons getting into the population. when we return, how the investigative services unit guards against illegal weapons and drugs and how far they go to check everywhere.

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space. >> well, most of my time i do in the cell. >> like i said, it all depends what your cellmate is like. if you have a messed up cellmate, you're not going to want to be in here with him, you know what i mean, because there's too much animosity. >> inmates spend years living in cells with floor space about the size of a piece of plywood, four feet by eight feet. yet, in this tiny space, they manage to hide weapons and contraband not allowed in folsom prison. that's why there is the investigative services unit, sort of a police department within a police department. officer juan borrego and his team investigate prison gang activity, inmate squabbles, and homicides. and to keep all those things from getting out of hand, he's constantly looking for signs of trouble. >> they'll use toothpaste, they'll use any type of a ceramic putty or anything that's used in the institution, to be able to conceal things, and

sometimes even hidden compartments. >> when inmates are released to the exercise yard, they never know if officer borrego is looking in their cell, but when they return, there will be no doubt he was there. nothing will be overlooked. >> tubes of toothpaste, try to see the integrity of it, has not been broken. a lot of times they'll stuff stuff in it, try to retrieve it later. we have speed sticks, what we have to do is look all the way through to see they didn't secrete anything in the bottom. you can see there's nothing there. sometimes they'll allow or rent each other pornographic material. bedding has always been a good place to hide things for them. kind of like a food of choice in the institution, ramen. it's a delicacy. you can see these individuals here have a lot of personal property. well, the first thing i do, and this is just my personal observations and how i do my sub

searches. i will take an overall view of the cell. it tells me a little bit about the individual. is there certain colors that are prevalent in the cell to tell me if he's some kind of disruptive group, if he's a blood or a crypt just because of the colors, if he's a hispanic, a northern hispanic or a southern hispanic. if i see swastikas in there, my clues tell me white supremacist, so that tells me a little about them. if it's unruly, unkept, is he a drug addict? so i take all that into account before i look, depending on what i'm investigating. >> this was just a routine cell search. this time, nothing suspicious was found, but that's not always the case. >> as you see here, we have a wide variety of weapons that have been discovered here at folsom. they go all the way from the big type of weapons all the way down to the slashing type of instruments. they'll roll newspapers up. they'll actually make real crude type of darts that are dipped in feces and urine and are shot at

staff. we see these bottles here that are taped up together. one of the things that they do here is they secrete things in their rectums. the individual that had these bottles was actually trying to stretch his rectum up to be able to smuggle in some dynamite into our institution. >> another way weapons can get into prison is through the mail. while officers cannot read personal letters, they do have a right to inspect them for illegal items. >> reviewing the mail to make sure that there's nothing inappropriate. this particular letter here has pictures in it, and we want to make sure that there are no pictures of small children, as in, you know, child pornography. so, once we determine that these pictures are within the guidelines of what the inmates can have, then we'll go back, seal that back up and allow them to have that. this inmate has got a card from a loved one, and i can already see that there's some contraband

in there that he will not be allowed to have, so, we will remove this piece of contraband. and since drugs are secreted frequently inside cards like this, we want to make sure to see that the card has not been altered in any way. it's very time-consuming and exhausting process, but it's what you have to do in order to ensure that drugs aren't getting into the institution. >> their living quarters have been searched, the mail has been searched, and now the inmates who have been allowed to attend classes or work in the equipment shops must line up for yet another sort of inspection. each man must disrobe and shower in a full view of prison staff. clothes are carefully examined as inmates pass through a metal detector. for all of the scrutiny over things inmates are not allowed to have, one of the things some of the inmates are allowed is

conjugal visits. a string of apartments surrounded by barbed wire are made for families eligible and demonstrate good behavior. >> in other words, i behaved myself well enough to get out from behind the wall. >> gordon simpson was sentenced to 5 1/2 years for receiving stolen property. he has 2 1/2 years left and his wife, barbara, is allowed to visit. >> we met through a friend -- >> through my best friend, who was -- they were in the same county jail together and they were writing. she gave him my address to write to her, and i kept getting these letters, and i sent them on to her, but i got these really good vibes from his letters, and i've never written a stranger in my life, and i wrote him. you know, we just wrote back and forth. >> we put in an application for visiting. >> it took me eight months to get cleared. >> yeah, because it's a long process to get cleared. >> it's -- and especially if -- >> she's been in trouble

herself. >> yes. >> a long time ago. so, anyway, then we sort of fell in love, got married and here we are. >> i got married here december 9th of last year. so, in fact, we honeymooned in this very cottage here. this is only our third time remembers going to have a conjugal visit, so -- >> so, it's pretty cool. >> yeah. >> it makes time go by a lot easier, a lot easier. >> doing time in folsom affects the prisoners in two ways. physically, they all make the adjustment to the rigors of prison life -- regular meal schedule, regular work program, constantly being counted, daily searches of their bodies and their bumps. but emotionally, they all talk about separation from family as the most difficult part of doing time. when we return, the family connection. >> when you do wrong and you're in prison, it affects everyone who loves you as a person.

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♪ ♪ ♪ i'm kind of losing you >> for many of the inmates doing time in folsom, it's not their first lockup. >> this is my fifth stint in the penitentiary. i've been around. i've been in the system for a while. >> tracy, solano, jamestown, and now here. >> and many of these inmates are simply resigned to prison as a way of life. >> yeah, i'll probably come back once or twice on violation. ♪ i can't shake these

penitentiary state blues ♪ >> but flacco has come to the realization that hanging with a street gang does not mean lifetime loyalty. >> well, basically, what it boils down to, an eye-opener for me was, when i fell, when i got locked up, you know where were they? the only people writing me, taking care of me right now is my family. all those guys, oh, homeboy, homeboy this, they're nowhere to be found right now. you know, so, when it boils down to it, who's really here for me right now is my family. >> and for chester reed, it's that separation from family and his wife of 32 years that is most painful. >> misery i went through inside these walls and the pain that i caused my family, it will never happen again, not in my lifetime. it hurts me just to think of the hurt that i caused those ones i did that loves me, especially my wife. she was there all the time.

and then being together for 35 years as my soul mate, i don't even like insects to bite it. that's how personal i take it. >> twice a month for the past six years, chester's wife, ruby, has flown in from texas to visit. >> one of the things about being incarcerated is you feel so much shame. we had a pretty middle class family. my daughter thought it was the perfect family. i have two adult children also and suburban home. this stuff doesn't happen in your family. when it did happen, you don't want anybody to know about it. man, for me to sit here in front of the camera and talk about this and think that somebody else will see it, especially somebody on my job is more than i would have ever thought. i mean, my family didn't know about it for two or three years. >> what did you tell them? what did you tell your family? >> that my husband was out doing work. he was working so i was kind of budg fudging it, thinking he's working in prison, so i'm really

not lying, and he would travel from time to time, so for years i'd cover it that way. >> everyone in life periodically has told themselves, what i do, it only affects me. it's not true. when you do wrong and you're incarcerated in prison, it affects everyone who loves you. >> first-time offender brian tomicello now has a greater appreciation for the little things in life. >> during this experience, you learn that all the things that you took for granted -- washing your clothes in a washer machine -- i mean, something little to you, but now to me, it's going to mean everything. walking to the grocery store and having multiple choices of items i want to buy or going clothes shopping or just getting in a car, going to see the beach, that's what's tough about being in prison, because everything's the same, day in, day out. basically, your program doesn't change. once i leave here, i'm leaving here, it's going to stay behind me. i don't want nothing to do with

it, you know. >> flaco came to folsom prison in his teens and hopes he can overcome the stereotype of his street gang background. >> i came to prison right when i turned 18, you know, and i'm missing the best years of my life, you know. so, you know, it opened my eyes a lot, you know what i mean, being away from my family and all that. i mean, that's the most precious thing to me is my family, you know what i mean? i'm sure people, they're going to be watching this, they're going to look at us, you know, these guys look like criminals! they laich, look at this guy, he's got ink all over him, you know what i mean? but that's on them, that's on them. i've got a beautiful girl in my life. when she sees all this, she don't buy it, you know what i mean? she don't trip on it. my main priority is to get a job and just, you know, find myself a little corner, you know what i mean? do my little thing, i've got my girl. that's basically it. retire old, stay with my family, that's pretty much it.

stay away from old friends. ♪ >> the question of going straight or coming back is a question that plays out in the minds of men every day in the receiving and release unit. here, there's an ebb and flow of new inmates checking into the system while other inmates are there to pack up and move on. on this day, anthony nelson is going back to his food distribution company in lake tahoe after a year in folsom. and 23-year-old jesus acosta, a gang member from east l.a., is being released after serving four months. >> first name. >> jesus. >> don't you come back! don't you come back! i'll still be here. >> all right. you never know. that's why you've got to be careful. it's kind of good, because you know, coming right back, you're not on your toes out there. it's easy to get in trouble,

come right back. >> will they be back? young jesus has been in prison once before. and for anthony, this was his fourth time behind bars. ♪ one day you'll find me on the main streets ♪ ♪ i'll be the one who's looking square ♪ ♪ oh, yeah >> if the goal of prison is to deter, punish and rehabilitate criminals, maybe folsom is doing something right. in the past ten years, folsom inmates have provided about 1.5 million hours of community service. at that rate, in a single year, the labor saves community agencies over $100 million. the true test is whether these inmates can continue using the skills they learned inside folsom to help their community once they are