dies. msnbc takes you behind the walls of america's most notorious prisons, to a world of chaos and danger. now the scenes you've never seen. lockup: raw. you're in a jail. there's no greater punishment in the world. >> crack heads, dope feends, rapists, murderers. >> you're all treated guilty until proven otherwise. >> lockup has spent time in three of america's busiest and

largest jails, l.a. county, miami-dade and new york's riker's island. they represent a cross section of life across the country. each one has its own unique set of challenges. >> lockdown, lockdown. >> be on point. >> lockdown, lockdown. >> can't let your guards down for nobody. >> it's not the place to be. >> this is as close to a living hell as i think i ever want to come. >> step back behind the red line. >> everyone, bend over. >> if you like this type of thing, this is the place for you. >> i am not in there. >> for the uninitial nated or the unincarcerated, there is sometimes confusion between prison and jail. prison is only for convicted felons. jails also house convicts, but only those awaiting transfer to

prison or certain short term sentences, usually less than a year. >> listen up for your name. >> step there please. >> most jail dee tien ease have pending court cases and have been denied or are unable to make bail. >> put your stomach on the wall. hands behind your back. >> there is another type of jail detaine detainee. they're the most dangerous. those who have just been arrested sometimes still drunk, high on drugs or fresh from committing a crime. >> my biggest challenge in here is dealing with the varieties of people that come in from the streets. we have a lot of mental patients, a lot of the inmates that are arrested have psychological problems and they haven't taken their medication for a long time. >> are there voices talking to you? >> yes, there is. >> you do hear them? >> yes, i do. >> okay. how long has the voices been talking to you? >> for a while. >> for a while? >> for a while.

>> sometimes they're unavoidable. the people that come in here, they have nothing to lose. they're coming in here on their third strike and they're angry at the officers that arrested them. sometimes they take that aggression out on us. >> during shoots at three of the nation's largest jail systems, our crews have come to always expect the unexpected. >> this is how we wash our clothes, in the sink. >> at the miami-dade county jail, we ran into a young inmate who was washing his clothes in the sink in his cell and he was an interesting looking kid. we asked for an interview. >> this is for the birds, man. being locked up is for the birds. >> the interview is not unlike a lot of interviews we conduct with jail inmates. it had a lot to do with lazaro complaining about conditions. >> no -- they giving out permanent homes across the courthouse.

>> the next thing we know, officers were running in telling us we had to grab our gear and go, there was some kind of disturbance going on and they were locking down the floor. >> that was a backup call you just heard. officers are responding to the fifth floor emergency. >> put them in on their bunks. everybody on their bunks. >> fortunately, it turned out it wasn't a riot and we were able to keep shooting. that's one of the things that makes jails really interesting. there really is a very strong sense that anything can happen at any time. >> and nowhere is that more true than behind the walls of this sprawling jail complex that serves america's largest city. >> while new york city is the safest city in america and crime

has been going down, one of the reasons the crime is going down is because the police do make a lot of arrests and everybody who gets arrested and who doesn't get bailed out comes to us. >> get arrested in the big apple and you're almost assured of a trip to riker's island. a 400-acre penal colony on the east river directly under the flight path of laguardia airport. connected to the mainland by a narrow two-lane bridge, the island is home to an average of 14,000 inmates in ten different facilities. >> we patrol the meanest precincts in america. when our officers go to work every day, they know that everyone they run into is going to be a criminal. >> every criminal who has committed the worst act is coming through here if they're coming from new york city. >> they come off of the streets. they're tired, they're dirty. they're hungry. and you saw everything there, whether it was somebody who was from wall street who was charged

with fraud or whether it was the lowest of the low of the drug dealers. >> get between 80 to 90 admissions a day. around the clock, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. >> what size you wear? >> 8.5. >> guess what? 10 is going to be your lucky number. these are air giulianis. you can have these my brother. >> never stops. the city never sleeps. >> don your mask. >> while some inspection rs routine at all the jails and prisons profiled on lockup, they were conducted with a military-like show of force at riker's. first, the emergency response team marches to the cell block in full riot gear armed with

high voltage stun shields. they secure the area and provide an intimidating presence for any inmates who might be tempted to resist. then a team of correctional officers moves into the cells to begin their inspections. >> the last time they came in here, went in everybody's cell and took everything out and threw it down. after it was done, there was 48 people property mixed up in the middle of the floor, personal clothes, legal work. they said this is how we disyou. >> while the inspections anger many inmates, they have to do it for safety. the primary goal is uncover weapons and they're often successful. >> contraband weapons, approximately 5 inches long, sharpened metal. >> 955.

>> section 3. >> during our stay on riker's island, one weapon that wasn't found was used in a double stabbing involving two inmates. >> yesterday at approximately 1140 hours, we had a stabbing. >> inmate baez a self-admitted latin king was sitting at one table and was associating himself with the bloods, had his back to them at another table. inmate baez removed the shank from his pocket, turned around and stabbed inmate brathwaite in the back. >> did you get the weapon? >> yes, we did. >> yes it was. >> a shoe support from a weapon that was sharpened. went in about three quarters of an inch. at which time he removed the weapon from his back and stabbed inmate baez. >> both inmates received puncture wounds? >> yes, sir. >> to combat such jailhouse attacks, correctional officials often prosecute them in addition

to the charges that landed them in jail snamt carlos baez. >> placing you under arrest for assault. place your hands behind your back. >> when he was put in the holding cell, we were absolutely amazed that he actually confessed to us. >> i stabbed one of the bloods in the back. >> we were shocked that he would admit to us on camera that he actually stabbed another prisoner. >> when he felt it, he pulled it out and attacked me and stabbed me in the lower part of my abdomen. >> rodney bratt wait, the other inmate involved in the incident is also arrested and put in the holding cell next to baez. he denies being a gang member to our producer. >> i don't know why you stabbed me. for what? i don't even know him. >> he knows why. he was running with them. >> running with them. >> running with the guys who were trying to set me up to hurt me. that's why. >> i never even spoke to the guy. >> do you know the name of the guy you stabbed? >> no, i don't know his name.

>> you just know that he was part of a gang. >> yeah. >> is that a reason to stab someone? >> they'll both be charged with penal 120.05, criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth. if found guilty, they could receive 3.5 to 7 in addition to what they're incarcerated with already. coming up on lockup: raw, corrections officials combat inmate uprisings and gang violence inside america's toughest jails. >> these kids don't know how to act like proper gangsters anymore. tion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation.

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moving out. >> 40 seconds. >> so when we visited the los angeles county jail, it was no surprise that our cameras captured one of the many drills that test the readiness of those charged with maintaining order. >> okay. good job, guys. excellent. had a lockdown in about a minute and 30 seconds. that's a record. >> the state of readiness when they were doing at that drill was pretty intense. there was definitely tension in the air because a couple weeks prior, there was a significant riot that lasted about 45 minutes and no one was killed, but someone was put in a coma from a pretty bad beating. >> jail is completely different than what it was 30 years ago. for one thing, we have much more violence-prone inmates in our system. in the past, that was never a problem. we did not have major riots and the disturbances. we did not have the races fighting against one another in the jail system. >> l.a. county jail officials

told us most of that violence stems from one source. >> [ bleep ] [ bleep ]. >> almost half of our jail population is street gang members and they are probably responsible for 70 to 80% of the crime that occurs in our jail. and nearly all of our murders have been gang-related one way or another. >> the gang bangers get younger every year. >> are you boys in gangs? >> what gang are you in. >> south gate -- >> i'm from lynwood rude boys. >> 19-year-old matthew joined a street gang when he was 14. >> you got a job outside? >> no. >> you going to get a job? >> i don't think so but you never know. >> how are you going to survive? >> there's ways to survive out there. self-employed. >> i continue to question him. i started pressing, started

finding out, trying to find answers to him. what motivates him to do that. he shifted from being a goofball to you're crossing the line. >> what do you do as a gangster in your daily job? >> no comment on that one. >> just like, i'm sure you have an everyday -- >> just kick it, get drunk and party. >> make sure ain't nobody tripping around you. >> and then stared me down and kind of gave me that junkyard dog look like i think we're done here. >> these kids don't know how to act like proper gangsters anymore. >> when we met garafalo, the 44-year-old inmate had spent 25 years in either jail or prison. back in l.a. county on an attempted murder charge, he told us he doesn't care much for the new generation of gang bangers. >> when i was out there, i would steal cars. joyride, whatever you want to call it. look at the new generation,

carjacking. these kids will go out, stick a gun in someone's face to go joyriding in a car and turn a misdemeanor crime into a death penalty case because seven out of ten times they carjack, they kill the person they steal the car from. they don't get time around that like me anymore to tell them hey, look, stupid you don't want to sit on death row for a crime you cough got out of jail in 24 hours on. >> there was a generation gap between gangsters. there's a code of ethics amongst killers and felons. he felt like the new generation was not abiding by that. >> when my dad was a small time mafioso back east, he used to say there's thugs and there are gangsters. thugs come and go. gangsters are about making money and respect. if you're going to be a gangster in this life, two things you got to know. you don't kill cops and you don't kill innocent women and children. if you live that way, most cops will let you make a dime.

>> we've had some issues with the gangs here in miami-dade county, but not to the extent that the l.a. county and some of the larger jurisdictions. >> but the miami-dade county jail faces a daunting problem of its own. the area's booming narcotics trade and the casualties in its wake. >> the crimes vary. but most of them are sent to use of drugs. we don't know if they're high on drugs and going to fight people. >> superman came in one day. guy dressed in a superman suit and he was upset, visibly upset because they took his cape. >> we had just gotten done interviewing some of the jail officers about miami's drug problems and how they contribute to most of the city's crime when we stepped outside and saw on officer bringing in a young man to be booked. >> what was he picked up for? >> shoplifting. retail theft. >> it turns out he was a prime

example of someone's whose drug abuse was not only leading to other crimes but stealing his life from him. >> you want to give up drugs? >> yes. i tried. i don't do drugs every day. i don't smoke crack every day. but when i do, i go on a binge. >> are you taking medication in. >> cocaine. prozac. that's for depression. >> alfonzo's drug abuse landed him in jail so many times that it really felt spleetly routine and he seemed to know the rest of the booking proeld ur well enough that he could walk himself through it. >> process and fingerprint. >> after we get through with this, yes. >> i done been here about 20 times. >> alfonzo even knew the best time of day to get arrested. >> at night it gets so crowded so you got to use the bathroom in front of people. god knows if you got to take a

dump. me coming here early in the morning, i think i got a big break. >> the sad thing about alfonzo, he not only had an addiction that kept getting him thrown in jail, he couldn't be honest about it to his own family. his one phone call was to his mother and it was heartbreaking. >> i'm here all the time. i was with a friend. i spent the night with a friend. it's a female, though. i'm so sick of lying to my mom. i feel so bad. what can she do? she ain't going to bond me out. if i call and say mom, i'm in jail. again? i told you to stay home. i didn't want to hear all that right now. the damage has been done. >> after being processed, alfonzo was finally assigned to a cell. >> then i be here until court. >> coming up on lockup: raw.

>> lipstick and it's all with -- >> the women who cope. >> she's telling you all she needs help. >> bond and raise their babies. >> she's cold. >> inside america's toughest jails. with the spark cash card from capital one, sven's home security gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! how does this thing work? oh, i like it! [ garth ] sven's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! woo-hoo!!! so that's ten security gators, right? put them on my spark card! why settle for less? testing hot tar... great businesses deserve the most rewards! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? here's your invoice.

i been here a little over ten days. >> what are you in for? >> trespassing. >> we met mildred rodriguez at riker's island jail. she represents a rising tide of women who find themselves on the wrong side of jailhouse bars. >> listen, i'm 32 years old. i have a daughter who i don't see because i'm using drugs, used crack, i'm not going to lie. this brings you back here. >> let me ask you, what do you expect the city to do? >> i expect the city to stop rearresting me is wa i expect. >> the women are more emotional than men. they're separating from their families, having psychological

trauma. >> every week i'm here. i'm not saying it's good. it's not good to say i'm at riker's island. my record is about this thick and it's all with misdemeanors. i have over 35 misdemeanors. i want the city to help me. and say, we'll give you a year's program that's it. but don't keep giving me 30 days or ten days. because that's not helping me. >> this young lady back here, she's telling y'all she need help. they're throwing her in and out of here like it's nothing this is going to help her. >> a thousand dollars for each inmate. where is it? >> not catching real criminals. >> not the -- i'm being honest. they got murdersers out there, the drug dealers. they'll pick up the drug addicts, instead of the person that's giving it to them. >> drug-related arrests and anger at the system were common themes among most of the women we met in jail. >> we're threatened to sit --

we're threat yented to get in our bunks. we're threatened to get things out of our hair that make us feel a little more feminine. >> repeat offender, kimberly jean maybe had been sentenced for sales of a controlled substance. with her time near an end, she let loose on the staff. >> i feel like the sheriff's department is organized crime themselves anyway. they organize a way to disenfranchise us at every step. we stick together, they break our pods up. i was in a whole another pod. all of a sudden, i'm in this pod over here. why? because we all got along. >> hi ladies. >> there are women here that are innocent and we're all treated guilty until proven otherwise. >> how come you're all in there? is there a party in there? huh? >> l.a.'s women's facility wasn't all doom and gloom. this group found a creative way to play volleyball. with a toilet paper net held up

by sanitary pads. >> they had to stretch this toilet paper pretty far to connect it to the wall. every five seconds the net would fall down and they would have three or four sanitary napkins against the cinderblock walls. if you need to distract yourself from the day-to-day craziness of being locked up, you'll do just about anything to entertain yourselves. >> as surprising as this was, our crew found another unexpected site back at likers riker's island. incarcerated mothers raising their babies. >> she's laughing a lot. she's a good baby. she sleep real good. >> george even a and her baby vanessa were housed at riker's maternity cell block, a place for inmates who have babies in jail. >> under new york state law, a woman who gives birth while in custody has a legal right to

keep the baby with her for up to a year as long as they're not neglectful or abusive of the child. >> being in that nursery was probably one of the saddest places i can remember on riker's isla island. it was a real slice of reality. and i remember the crew and i talking about how sad we felt for these children. >> at this age, they don't know where they are. all they know is they're with their mother. that's it. they do not know where they are except that mommy is there. >> this young mother who asked that we not reveal her name was with her infant daughter. >> it's nice. it's nice to be able to take care of her. >> the disadvantage is that she doesn't see the outside, she doesn't hear the dogs barking, the cars going by. >> what's your greatest fear being here? >> losing my child. that's the only thing. because like i do, i got to face a lot of time that's my greatest

fear. >> coming up on lockup: raw -- >> i call it the drama four. >> gender bending inmates. >> sheets and towels and stuff like that. >> and jailing the mentally disturbed. >> didn't seem violent but he was definitely someone you would not want to be left in a room alone with.

i'm craig melvin. here's what's happening now now. the national weather service issued heat advisories this july 4th holiday. forecasters are expecting record breaking heat from the midwest. 90 to 105 degrees. pakistan will reopen supply routes tomorrow following a seven month blockade. the move is after the united states apologized for air strikes that killed 24 pakistani soldiers in november. back to lockup.

if i'm not doing something, somebody will find something for me to do. most of the time stupid stuff. so it's better to just to find something for yourself to do. >> when we met joseph in one of the massive kitchens at riker's island jail, he was serving 90 days for misdemeanor assault, criminal mischief and petit larceny. >> not as clean as they should be. you got cockroaches and stuff like that in here. but, you know, i haven't seen anybody dilately. i guess they get away with it. >> while regan may never get a job as a spokesman for riker's island, he offered a plug for life here. >> if you like being told what to do, eat, sleep, go to the

bathroom, scratch your [ bleep ], if you like taking a chance of getting your butt kicked or getting killed by inmates or police, if you like this type of thing, then this is the place for you. >> like many other inmates here, regan has had multiple arrests. >> most people that come to jail stay in jail regardless if they go home or not. they come back and come back. you spend the rest of your life in jail. >> while inmates can sometimes be in denial about the circumstances that have brought them to jail, regan was crystal clear. >> me like a lot of other people, it's not that we don't have the knowledge to do different things. i know carpentry, i know masonry. not like i don't have the ability and skills. it comes down to i choose not to for various reasons. lack of discipline, self-confidence, self-destructive nature. not that i can't do it, it's just that i don't. >> but not everyone believes jail is a choice. some feel they're victims to a probation system that's all too

easy to violate and keep sending them back. i was told by my first probation officer after reading the conditions of my probation, if you can do this without me violating you, you'll be lucky. this was the first time i met this man, the first time i had been on probation. he was very right. >> eric johns original charge was for sexual battery. after serving four years in prison, he was released on probation. but when a urine test proved positive for marijuana, he was back in the miami-dade county jail. >> i am a three-time loser. this makes my third time. once you're in the system, you will be back. >> eric johns was definitely a loner in the jail system. but he had developed his own method of survival. in fact, he told us how during his first stay in jail, he sent a message to ward off any predatory inmates. >> the first time i came in, the first thing i did was looked for the biggest guy in the unit and decked him.

that's how i lost my front teeth. i got my teeth knocked out. but, they said at that point, either that guy is crazy or he's bad. we're going to leave him alone, he just ain't worth it. it works. i am a caucasian male. i speak english. i'm educated. i'm the oddball. i realize that. >> actually, this looks like one of the better meals. you should be here on pigeon night. i think they call it chicken night everywhere else. there's nothing in here that fascinates me or makes me happy. this is as close to a living hell as i think i ever want to come. >> seeing many of the same inmates cycle in and out of their facilities is not uncommon for most jail officials. nor is it unusual for certain types of inmates to be housed together. as we discovered during a visit to the fifth floor of the los angeles county jail. >> i call it the drama floor because you get a mix of

everything. you get a mix of general population from petty theft to burglary to the k 11 inmates, the homosexual inmates. normally they're separated from everyone else simply because a lot of times they will be abused. there's a lot of homosexual inmates that -- the gender bending and it's hard to tell. >> my name is tash a. my last name is duane. >> 37-year-old bernard tash a swain was serving a nine-month sentence for a parole violation. >> how were you making money in. >> prostitution and selling drugs. >> one of the other things that bernard did on occasion inside l.a. county jail was put on beauty pageants. it was like a peacock. he wanted to show off his feathers. >> like the miss america pageant. we do them in here but we do them for the boys. first runner up for the girls, the boys, the school boys, the vogue and stuff like that. a variety of things you can run for. not just beauty.

we cut up sheets and towels and make little dresses. we destroy state property to make the outfits in other words. >> do you make them look better? >> yes. look at mine. >> we explored another special housing unit at l.a. county as well. the mental health ward where we encountered one of the most unforgettable scenes ever shown on lockup. >> it was one gentleman in particular who i could barely see him because there was so much graffiti on his cell door. and all over his walls it looked like hire glif i cans. >> it's human feces and combined mustard for coloring. that's what he's writing with on the actual door. he's been here for a long time. he continually works on it. >> then i saw the inmate inside. he was completely naked except for cellophane over his private

parts. seemed gentle and didn't seem violent. he wasn't pounding or hurting himself. but he was definitely someone you would not want to be left in the room alone with. >> coming up on lockup: raw. >> if anyone is caught with contraband, they will be arrested. >> we found two empty balloons. >> visiting day inside america's toughest jails. >> how is my mom doing? they remind a nation of the benefits of shopping small. on just one day, 100 million of us joined a movement... and main street found its might again. and main street found its fight again. and we, the locals, found delight again. that's the power of all of us. that's the power of all of us. that's the membership effect of american express.

i was worried about 'em, you know? i mean for instance my mom went to bed tonight

before making my dinner. which is fine, i mean i, i know how to make dinner. it just starts to make you wonder. is this what happens when you age? my friends used to say i was the lucky one. i had the fun parents. where's the fun now? night guys! [ sighs ] ♪ [ male announcer ] venza. from toyota. when someone is arrested and they go to jail, they could be there from anywhere from a few hours to over a year. in the jails that we filmed in, the average time was about six weeks. so the only bright spot for these inmates is a visit from a family member or a friend. >> visitation is an important right for inmates. but it also causes a security

risk. it's one of the chief ways drugs and other contraband can be smuggled into the jail. at new york city's riker's island we found the correctional staff wasn't about to let that happen. >> welcome to new york city department of corrections. my officer p hunt, i'm a member of the canine unit, narcotic unit. today we're going to do a narcotic serve where we board the bus and looking for any type of illegal substance, crack, cocaine, marijuana, heroin. if you have it, people, now is the time to put it on the floor or see that amnesty box, deposit it in that box over there. >> when leaving the bus to enter the jail facility, visitors are not only given a blunt warning about contraband, they're handed a number to correspond with their seat. then a drug sniffing dog boards the bus. >> my dog boards that bus and starts scratching seat number 3. i'm going to look over and see that's who we must search. >> got balloons. >> beautifulment. >> right here, we found two

empty balloons. now, a lot of people, what they like to do, stuff either the marijuana, the cocaine, the crack cocaine inside these balloons. you have seat number ten and 11. as of right now, i'm going to request for the visiting officer to search who was at seat number 10 and 11. they may still have something on them. >> an off camera search of the visitors in those seats reveals no contraband and denied knowledge of the balloons. inside the reception area, the visitors were given yet another warning. >> penal law, a d felony, if anyone is caught with contraband, they will be arrested look into your pocketbooks and pockets and wallets, i'm not saying that you have anything. if you happen to find anything by chance, you can put it in this box here. >> we want to make the message clear, this is your last chance. drop it on the bus, in the box, visit your people. we want you to visit your people.

but we have people who still want to try to sneak the drugs into the jails. >> security measures are equally tight at the los angeles county jail. once inside, advice toors and inmates are separated by glass partitions and are strictly monitored. >> general population gets 15 minutes four days a week. they're on the timers. we push the button. start up. clicks when it goes off. >> you got to share that space with all the other inmates and their 15 minutes. then all of a sudden as soon as that timer clicks off, there's no warning. it just goes off. they'll be sitting there in the middle of a conversation maybe saying i love you to someone. >> how is my mom doing and boom, there's no sound. >> that sound you just heard clicking is one of the rows shutting off. that means we got inmates that are ready to return to their housing location. >> for a black man. we -- going to find each other that -- >> when we met bernard jones at

the miami-dade joint jail, the aspiring rapper was anticipating a visit from his girlfriend. he had been incarcerated nearly four years while appealing a life sentence for armed robbery. >> what's your best moment in here? >> it's hard for me to say that. i got a problem with keeping my hands in my areas. i get my a visit, so i can see a little something. it's hard here. >> i get tired of seeing men every day. when i get a chance to see a beautiful woman, can't look at the officers too much. that's against the rules. can't even tell if she is beautiful. i don't even got the right to tell you, you're beautiful, how are you doing today. i got to wait until i can see something of my own and tell her you're beautiful. that's when i get my moment, on thursdays and saturdays. thursdays and saturdays. >> well, i think the visit mean

a lot for him because if i don't come or no one don't come, he's going to be mad. >> bernard's girlfriend angela has only known him behind bars. it turns out they had met four months earlier on a blind date of sorts. >> my brother is locked up here too. he put him on the phone one day thinking we wasn't going to click. but we did. >> what does he say to you when you come in? does he say thank god? >> he love me. i'm so beautiful. thank you for coming. thank you for being by my side. that type of stuff. >> got go back. >> transmitter on. that's why. >> you want me to go back? >> angela was so nervous and then our microphone set off the alarm system but she had good reason to be excited. at miami-dade inmates without

disciplinary problems are allowed one contact visit a month. >> hmm? >> are you excited about seeing him. >> yes. my first time being able to touch him. >> yeah. >> angela was literally hyperventilating. she was overwhelmed with emotion. after four months, they would finally get a chance to touch each other. >> we didn't really know what to expect from the visit. but they had both obviously been anticipating this meeting and the intensity of that moment was very powerful. >> you look pretty. all that for me? >> baby, i love you.

>> i do. >> today is the first time that we have to touch each other. i'm i want you to know that this day will never be forgotten. >> come closer, please. >> but there's a catch to the contact visits at the miami-dade county jail. >> come closer to me. >> why? everybody else is close. >> when there is a contact visit, the couple can only have contact to the beginning to the end of the time together. quick hug and that's it. bernard was very aware of this. i don't think angela was. >> why you can't sit close to me? >> you all cannot sit like that. y'all can't sit like that. >> jail officers are strict. because of a history of past infractions. >> don't do that. >> surprise inspections like this one by miami's canine team often uncover contraband on

visitors. >> i find marijuana and cocaine all the time. it was a visit to the jail last year, female, she came to see her boyfriend. i found 12 balls wrapped in plastic and she had it in her body cavities. the alert was given this that area. you know, we're not allowed to strip them. but we pat them down. we found one little ball in her bra. so that gave us a cause for arrest. >> for bernard and angela, the tight constraints make their first contact visit bittersweet. >> i need you to know that. sometimes it ain't nothing we have control of. all right? but we got to comply with the rules. understand? >> yes. >> that's what i need you to do. >> we will make it work. we will because it's not easy being with someone in jail. it's really not. no, i'm happy being with him.

but it's not easy. it's really not. >> coming up on lockup: raw -- >> been in the street hustling. i never had a regular job in my life. that's what i'm trying to tell you, i never had a regular job. >> one woman finds hope in a jailhouse bakery.

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one of the most unlikely sites we found on new york city's riker's island was the jail's huge bakery. here inmates work alongside civilian bakers to help feed the jail's 14,000 residents. >> making 80,000 loaves a week. every inmate needs four slices of bread per meal per day. used to feed the employees. we make a lot of bread here.

>> they gave us a couple of loaves and this huge pad of butter. we slathered this butter on loaves of the bread. it rivalled any bakery in new york. >> inmate rhonda nar duch i was hoping that the bakery would help turn her life around. >> when i first came in here, i wanted to hurt myself. i was really depressed. i was going crazy. i said oh, my god, my records are messed up now. i don't know what to do. so i got myself into the bakery, keep myself busy. and i love the bakery. >> there wasn't a bakery before? >> no, i never worked outside. i've always been in the street hustling. i never had a regular job in my life. that's what i'm trying to tell you, i never had a regular job. >> she was serving eight months on a drug possession charge.

>> i was working in the street and down west farms and some guy coached me. i thought it was a date because i work in the street. he gives me the money and asked me where can i get drugs and i send him to the drug dealer. he gave me the money and went to the drug dealer and gave him the stuff. one crack and before you know it, they got me and him. my first felony. >> she told our producer, she worked as a prostitute the past 14 years. >> i didn't like myself doing it. i wasn't too happy about it. i had no choice. i had no money. i had no nothing. >> how many years did you do that? >> since i was 21. >> she hopes the skills she has picked up in the bakery will give her a second chance as a mother. >> got a daughter? >> yes, she's 14. she's with her father's mother in florida. >> what's her maim? >> roseanne. >> what does she write?

>> she's saying that she loves me, she misses me. feel like crying right now. >> it's okay. it's all right. are you all right? >> yeah. >> it's okay. >> i just miss my daughter. >> i know you do. i know you do. it's all right. >> my heart went out to her because whenever prisoners begin to talk about their children, it is the one very sensitive spot in their lives, and no matter what they may have done to get them to jail, to prison, they still are very touched and love their children. >> the good thing is that you got a lot out of being here, right? >> yes. ever since i been in here for several months, doing my eight months i feel good now. god -- i thank god that i'm in here. i'm glad. because when i was in the street, i started smoking that stuff and it didn't help me,

didn't get me anywhere. get me into trouble. got me in here. but now i learned my lesson. i ain't touching it no more. i want my life back together. >> i thought that i was going to commit crime to the day i died. i hated the government, society, america, slavery. all the excuses you could think of until i started to just take accountability for my own actions and responsibility for what i had done to my life. >> scott randolph was another riker's inmate anticipating his release. when we met him, he was serving a year for petit larceny and violating parole. >> i went out of control as far as criminality goes. i've been back and forth a few times, mostly for drug activity, trying to hustle in the street. >> but randolph took advantage of the jail's writing program and had hopes of becoming a journalist. >> we publish the riker's review created by inmates for inmates.

it was extremely help fum. it gave me computer skills, marketable skills. i'm looking forward to trying to utilize that when i get out. >> the journal randolph showed us included one of his poems. >> read a little bit of your poem. >> all right. this one is called hold this. hold this. grip these words as if your embrace alone would help me save my life. so that i might live to give my tomorrows as payment for yesterday's debts. >> randolph says the poem is his vision about life. >> the future conceals hopes and happiness i have yet to feel. with this you present a fresh foundation on which to rebuild. the peace i seek is real. i reach for your compassion, strong as steel. this is my truth that you feel. may you cherish my conscience and hold this. that's it.