there are 2 million people behind bars in america. we open the gates. lockup. >> i charge pelican bay with the following crimes. extortion, racketeering, police brutality. i charge pelican bay with racism, promoting inmate-on-inmate violence. how it was in the beginning it shall be in the end.

the righteous shall live and the wicked shall perish. i'm forest sawyer. anything inmates say must under go the screw any of people who control their lives. in some case, however, it is the institute itself that is under scrutiny. pelican bay has achieved nationwide notoriety because of its reported inmate violence and officer brutality. >> inmates on the general population yard right now consider everything a state of war so they're ready for anything. >> some guys going to get their head blown off, some guys going

to get stabbed real good. there's no hope. >> we're in a new alcatraz. >> it is a place most californians have never heard of, isolated along a remote coast line north of san francisco, there is a small community at war, a population besieged by violence, incinerated by racial hatred. the community is called pelican bay, one of the most violent and notorious prisons in america. pelican bay state prison was designed at california's new alcatraz, a single facility that would isolate and contain the state's worst inmates, inmates

too violent and dangerous for any other institution. since opening in 1989, pelican bay has been beset with violence and mired in litigation. >> i was involved in several fights on the tier. >> stabbing, beatings, it's a pretty regular occurrence around here. >> they're killing people. >> i seen people get their throat cut, people get rat packed, five guys on one, get their head smashed in. >> can you get stabbed anywhere. >> i'll never get out of this room until my parole or die. >> warden robert ayers is a 32-year-old veteran of the california department of correctio corrections. >> i'm the warden of pelican bay. i've been here since january of 1998. in the last year we've had 19

incidents of large scale violence, mass violence. throughout all of those incidents, we've had 134 staff injuries. now, that's not even counting the inmate injuries. that's 134 staff injuries. when you have that kind of violence, it's not safe for the inmates and it's not safe for the staff. >> prison gangs are estimated to be responsible for up to 75% of all violent assault and drug trafficking within the prison system. pelican bay's mission is to break the stranglehold of prison gangs throughout the state. in california, most convicts who are affiliated with prison gangs or suspected of being affiliated with prison gangs are banished to pelican bay. to understand this place, you must understand prison gangs. >> right now the california department of corrections recognizes seven different gangs as being prison games, northern structure, mexican mafia, bgs,

texas syndicate, natural low riders. >> to prevent bloodshed, gang associations must be strictly monitored and documented by every correction all-officer in the constitution. >> there are certain factions within the different races and gangs do to the get along. northern and southern his pan, do not get along. if i put a northern and southern hispanic in a same cell, there's going to be a fight. it's business. >> they will fight each other at any opportunity yet they band together along ethnic line. >> there's skin heads, several different types of white people. >> i state with my race. pretty much whatever happens happens. >> the die nam ibs will change constantly. one week there's a rift between

the black and whites, the next week a rift between the h hispanics and whites. >> february 25th looked like a regular day. one difference went unnoticed. while it's typical for some inmates to stay in their cell, every southern hispanic in the facility went to the yard that day. >> i was in this exact spot answered noticed over here some people started stabbing each other and i looked around and all over the yard there was fighting and stabbings going on. >> the southern hispanic launched a brutal take on the black inmate population. >> i've seen over 300 stabbings myself. been lots of incidents. this was by far the worst i've ever seen. >> the riot persisted through

tear gas, pepper spray and all orders to stop. for over 30 minutes the inmates continued to attack each other through fists and knives. >> it was the real deal. >> eventually correction officers made the decision to use force. >> i think they shot like four or five people and one of them died. >> it was the largest riot ever in pelican bay and one of the worst in american history. >> after we were done, i was cleaning blood off the walls and off the floors and benches in here for a good hour. >> one inmate was dead, 40 were wounded, 89 weapons were recovered. pelican bay's riot made international headlines. in its after math, prison officials declared a state of emergency and put the institution on lockdown,

restricting all inmate work programs and mandating strict segregation of of tthe races. as the lockdown continues, frustration builds. >> it's a discipline. then you turn around and give as you 115 for the same incident. >> yard is a privilege. it can be revoked at any time. >> the whites did not go last week. they did not. >> thursday, you guys went. ask around, you did. >> on the one hand if you keep the general population locked in their cells and they don't get out to exercise and do the things they would normally do, it builds up tension. on the other hand, if we let them out, we know that there's going to be more violence. >> tension builds. you lock people down long enough and you let them out on the yard, it's going to explode because tension builds. there's no way to let it off.

it's like take a dog, you lock a dog up in the cage. as soon as you let it out, what's it going to do, run wild, right? >> as the lockdown goes on, pelican bay remains one. last segregated societies in america. when "lockup" returns, pelican bay's security squad responds to an inmate assault. ...are unlocking a better way to prepare our children for college and their careers. because when our kids do better... ...america does better. let's reach higher. let's invest in our teachers and inspire our students. let's solve this. is this where we're at now? we just eat whatever tastes good? like these sweet honey clusters... actually there's a half a day's worth of fiber in every ... why stop at cereal? bring on the pork chops and the hot fudge. fantastic.

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prison. >> right here it's just a lot of ink that they use for tattooing. and that's a homemade tattoo gun. right here is a hypodermic needle. >> where did you niend? >> in a male inmate's cell. you have to be crazy to work here. we come here voluntarily every day. >> the squad must respond like street detectives carrying all the tools necessary to process the crime scene. pelican bay has over 900 violent assaults per year and the squad respond to every one of them. msnbc's cameras were rolling as one of these assaults occurred inside a cell block.

>> there's an alarm in that building right there. staff responds. sergeants and lieutenants responding from over here to your left. >> so this is an actual alarm because nobody's waving us off yet. something is going on inside of the building. >> now someone is being escorted out of the building, cuffed up. in all probability he was involved in some type of assault. either he was the aggressor -- more than likely he was the aggressor because he's the first one out. >> one of them had came out of his cell and was working down the tier actually to go out to the yard, to the general population yard. another inmate came up behind him and stabbed him several times. he received lacerations to the back of his neck along with several puncture wounds. >> the squad uses the evidence they collect on the scene to

begin building a felony case. based on a note found at the scene, the squad will search cells looking for conspirators and additional weapons, like a swat team on the streets, the element of surprise puts them at an advantage. >> all the way back. all the way back. the first guy come on out. come on back. >> inmates are adept at concealing contraband in their cells as well as on their person. >> they actually put it up their rectum. it's the best place to do it, unless we catch them in here quick enough where they can't get it up. behind this is hollow. they'll put like a razor blade on a string and hang it wait down here. you might not see one bitty tip of a string, you can barely see it but that's where they keep their stuff.

>> we'll take this because that's a handwriting sample. >> the squad will use the handwriting sample to determine if any of these suspects will be implicated in this morning's incident. if so, they'll be prosecuted for felony assault. next on "lockup," we'll go inside the hole, pelican bay's secure housing unit. hi, i'm phil mickelson. i've been fortunate to win on golf's biggest stages.

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♪ ...stream, stream, stream... ♪ whenever i want you, all i have to do is... ♪ [ female announcer ] introducing xfinity streampix. stream your favorite movies and full seasons of shows instantly on any screen. find out more online. as fierce aspel -- as pelican bay's main line can be, there's a place here that inmates fear more. >> the secure housing unit consists of two facilities. that's the part of the prison that gave pelican bay the reference of the worst of the worst. >> in prison slang, it's known as the hole. while pelican bay houses the worst inmates in the state of

california, the security housing unit or shu hosts the worst inmates in pelican bay. >> everything is concrete. >> no ground no, no grass. it's all cement. noisy, lights all the time. the yard, you look up at the roof, you don't see the sky. you still see bars. you know what i mean? >> can you drive yourself crazy, sitting somewhere for 23 hours a day. i wouldn't want to see my worst enemy go back there. it's no place for any human being. in addition to containing inmates with a history of violence in general population, the shu houses inmates validated by the prison as gang members. >> under current policy, if you classified as such, you will be housed in the security unit for

an indeterminate amount of time, that means forever. >> inmates are confined to their cells for all by 90 minutes per day, during which they're allowed to go to a concrete exercise area located a few feet from their cells. >> there's no one to talk to out there. you go by yourself. you're in splamall, enclosed ar. the sky, that's all you see. you don't see anything at all except four walls and the drain. >> while many in the pop lace are at war with each oh many in the shu are at war with the staff. >> i've been in hundreds of incident. i don't care if you're the peace officer or the governor, if you do something to me, it's on. >> hines is probably one of the most difficult behavior. he will tell you his agenda and that's to fight you every time

he can. we had a 5'2" officer call me -- excuse the express, a piece of sh -- at the same time, if i didn't have these handcuffs on and he didn't have gun coverage, he wouldn't do that. >> inmates are escorted by two escorts any time they leave their pod. these escorts are the greatest threat to safety. >> we're going to pick up inmate hynes, one of the inmates here we from time to time have trouble with, he doesn't always cooperate. >> i've stated to supervisors if certain people escort me, there's no doubt in my mind what i'm going to do. >> it all depends on his mood.

we never know. >> they do that to make sure you don't have any type of contraband or something. damn thing don't work most of the time. there's no one can put no limits on my retaliation. if you done something to me, i can retaliate for the rest of my life if i want to. you shouldn't have done nothing to me, that's the way i look at it. >> for some inmates hope resides outside the walls. inmate raul will spend the rest of his life in the shu for six counts of attempted murder but today he'll be married. >> she made a commitment when she got married, to be my friend. that's all she can be is my friend. i can't even touch her or nothing. but it gives me the hope, feel love. >> for other inmates hope is the all-consuming drive to get out. an average of seven times a week at pelican bay, the hope for release turns into reality.

>> i'm going home. >> it's a good feeling getting out of prison. i've done is so many times. >> this guy's got about three, four days left, you know what i mean? >> it ain't nothing to brag about or nothing but it is, it's a good feeling. but it's weird, though. it's like within a week later it's like all this was a dream. you forget all about it. >> i'm going to try and stay clean, you know. >> most of the time i like to think we're not going to see them again but sometimes we do. >> pelican bay's inmate population exceeds its designed capacity by nearly 40%. for every seven inmates paroled from here each week, another 13 come in. >> it used to be fun coming to prison. i actually had fun my first time and i enjoyed it. nowadays this ain't the life. ain't nothing about this that's cool. >> going home.

>> as a result of what we see here, we understand what the consequences are of us not paying attention to our children. if the community out there realized if they put a little more effort into the children, possibly they wouldn't end up in a place like this. >> i'm never getting out. and, you know, i have, you kn , know -- i don't know what to say. it's pretty hard. but i do my best. >> when we left pelican bay, the prison remained in a state of emergency with no end in sight to the race war in a looms over the institution. pelican bay officials continue to weigh the benefits of integrating the yard and opening inmate work programs against the threat of mass violence.

as long as it's deemed unsafe to put inmates together, pelican bay will replamain one of the m violently segregated prisons in america. for msnbc, i'm forest sawyer. . it feeds plants and prevents weeds for up to three months. so my plants grow bigger, more beautiful, without all the weeds. guaranteed. [ cellphone rings ] with miracle-gro shake 'n feed, anyone can have a green thumb. [ cellphone rings ] everyone grows with miracle-gro. [ slap! slap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums

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