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tv   Lockup Raw  MSNBC  July 4, 2012 12:00pm-1:00pm PDT

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msnbc takes you behind the walls of america's most notorious prisons into a world of chaos and danger. now, the scenes you have never seen. lockup: raw. for some inmates, a prison sentence means nothing left to lose. >> what the [ bleep ]. >> i'm ever put in general population, i'm as good as dead. >> sometimes life has other plans. >> him or me at that point. >> this was real.
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it was -- >> people often ask me if we've ever had a member of our production crew attacked or somehow hurt in a prison. unfortunatel fortunately, the answer is no. our crews are very experienced and know how to carry themselves in prison and never get too comfortable. >> but the reality of prison is you can go from calm and quiet to a life and death conflict in an instant. >> about halfway through ten weeks of filming for our extended stay series at the homan correctional facility in alabama, our crew experienced that reality firsthand. they had just finished a routine interview with an inmate in his cell. it was a little after 12:00 noon. >> there was a phone call and one of our producers went back to get this phone call. and if it wasn't for that, we would have been gone. we would have been out to lunch. as we were waiting for our
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producer to finish the phone call, these officers run by. so obviously i turn the camera, press record and i roll with them. >> suddenly, all these officers ran by me and we heard all this commotion and i saw an inmate who was wearing white covered in blood. brian, our cameraman and i both started filming immediately and realized that a stabbing had taken place. it was such a chaotic scene that i was trying to keep track of what everybody was doing. some of the officers were trying to rescue the stabbing victim. other officers were going after the assailant. >> i got a knife. >> the funny part about that experience was i was so caught up with the officers and what they were doing, i didn't notice until later that i ran right by the actual person that did the stabbing. in the video, you can see the knife, you can see the officer standing with the guy that did the stabbing.
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but i followed the action through to the victim. >> come on. come on. go, go. >> move him. lock him up. >> move him. >> move. >> where are you heading -- probably could have killed me if he wanted to. >> looked like an artery. he was gushing out pretty good. >> we follow the victim all the way into the ambulance and one of my favorite moments of that show was the warden going out to the ambulance to see what was happening and then him turning around to walk back into the building and saying lock it down. that's it. we're going to figure out what's happening here and i'm still in control. let's go. >> lock it down. >> warden grant placed the prison on lockdown confining every inmate to his cell. >> lockdown. we're under a lockdown. >> all right. lockdown, gentlemen. check it in.
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let's go. >> several days later, the victim was released from the hospital and recovered in the prison's medical unit. >> we tried to get interviews with both the victim of the stabbing as well as the perpetrator of the stabbing. the victim was an adamant no. he did not want to participate in the documentary. eventually, the assailant said he would talk to us. >> our interview with the stabber, terry moore, gave insight into how little it takes to prompt a potentially deadly attack in prison. >> what happened? >> i had assault on inmate. >> why? >> stole my shoes. >> actually, this was not a surprise to me. in prison, you have very few possessions. your resources are limited. if somebody comes and takes one of your possessions, two things happen. a, you lose something that could very well be useful to you. and b, you will be perceived as a weaker person if you don't
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retaliate. >> well, i just come here from work one day. they was missing. which one good thing about -- they talk about everything here. i knew it was just a matter of time finding out who had gotten them. >> moore and the inmate alleged have stolen his shoes work together in the prison laundry. >> so i just started making my plans about how i was going to deal with it. took me about four days. >> what took you four days? >> to get a knife and decide where i was going to get him at. >> moore says he decided to attack the inmate in a back hallway near the laundry. >> population had no access to that back there. just a few guys and that one officer. >> it was kind of surprising how calm and pragmatic he was in telling us the story about the stabbing incident. >> i'm not proud of it. but i'm not ashamed of it either. it's what i feel like i had to do and i did it. >> had you tried talking to him before you stabbed him? >> doesn't work like that.
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that doesn't work. >> moore went on to explain when his shoes first came up missing, the inmate he later attacked claimed to have known who stole them. he allegedly told moore that the thief would give the shoes back in exchange for a valuable prison commodity. three bags of coffee. >> i thought, well, okay three bags of coffee. if i can get a bag without going to lockup, don't have to stab no one, don't have to get in a fight, what have you, i figure okay, i'll go with three bags of coffee. >> moore says that after giving the coffee to his co-worker, he was told his shoes couldn't be returned. they had been confiscated by staff. >> obviously, he robbed me for the three bags too. i have no choice. either i let it go and let him back and steal everything i own or i deal it. in this case, i dealt with it. >> what kind of shoes were they? >> just $42 pair of nike running shoes. but it didn't matter if they cost $10 or $100.
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but there's nothing else than coffee alone is enough to do what i did. >> is that the way it is here? >> that's the way it is where i live it. >> terry was very clear about how his actions were justified. even though they were extreme actions. because that was part of prison life. that he almost killed a human being because the guy stole his shoes. the irony to me was the fact that terry was in prison for robbery. >> because he was already serving a life sentence or did not receive any new criminal charges for the stabbing but was kept in lockdown until his transfer to another prison later that year. >> not my first stabbing, probably not my last time. >> terry, what if he had died? >> that's something he should have thought about when he took my stuff. was it worth it to him? that's the question for me to ask. coming up. >> any prison gang would be happy to get their hands-on
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when we visited the special management unit at the maricopa county jail in phoenix, arizona, we were struck by how different it felt from the rest of the facility. >> this is where the killers rapists, the most violent offenders are housed. when you get up there, it has a very different feel than other areas of the jail. that's because there's an eerie silence. the reason there's an eerie silence as opposed to other segregation units, is because the inmates are housed behind double sets of doors. this is as close to a hannibal lekter cell environment as you can get. they're isolated. they don't have to leave for recreation. they open one of the interior
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slider doors and they walk out and they have their 45 minutes of recreation. each day and then boom -- >> right back into the cell without ever interacting with another inmate. so it has a very ominous feel when you walk through the special management unit. and this is the path that i took when i went to meet shawn gates. >> 29-year-old shawn gaines had spent most of the last six years in the special management unit. awaiting trial on a first-degree murder charge that could land him on death row. >> i've lived here longer than i've lived in one spot my entire life. even growing up as a kid. you know, i have yet to call it home. but it is what it is. >> gaines may not have wanted to call it home. but his security threat ranking dictated it. he was segregated because he was once a major player in the
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violent arizona skinhead movement. >> i was the notorious leader of that skinhead group. my lifestyle is full of hate and violence. >> with all of that hype, i was expecting shawn gaines to be a very intimidating character. but when i first met him, he wasn't. he looked a little bit more like a benign pudgy teddy bear. he was nice. >> i've taken up drawing. i can't quite say i'm an artist. but i like to draw a lot. three times a year i draw a large stack of cards and i donate it to the children's hospital. >> gaines didn't become a leader in the skinheads by being nice. >> i was power hungry, got caught up in the hype of telling a bunch of other grown men what to do. all the girls would flock to that scene. it's a nonstop party and i mean, it's like you can do no wrong. you talk a bunch of [ bleep ], you beat people up, cause hate, discontent. that's how i made my rise to power in the skinhead movement.
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>> when he took off his shirt, he had some of the most intense nazi skinhead white power tattoos that i've ever seen on an inmate. what's important to understand about tattoos like the ones that shawn had is that you don't get to just put those on your body. you have to do what the inmates call earn your ink. he had gotten the tattoos because in his past, shawn had done some pretty terrible things. >> first political tattoo was across my shoulder blades. i got that for smashing a guy on the yard. i beat him up pretty bad. you can get it swastika, you can get what is referred to as a blood swastika, which is about as high a level tattoo as you can get, which is what's on my back. >> what do you have to do to get that? >> shed the blood of another race. >> the murder that landed gaines in the maricopa county jail,
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however, was not racially motivated. >> my female co-defendant had problems with her roommate. he had stolen money from her and caught up a few of her friends, me being one of them. we went over to intimidate the guy, the intention was to go in with white power clothing and just look at me and one of them is carrying a baseball bat, one has a shotgun and a knife, i mean, that's -- >> what were you carrying? >> the shotgun. that's intimidating. >> but it didn't stop at intimidation. within minutes, one of the skinheads had beaten the man to death with the baseball bat. >> he was probably dead after the first hit. the first hit was to his head and just, it was just nasty vicious, bloody, brutal. >> while gaines admits he was a party to the crime. he claims it was one of his co-defendants who actually killed the victim. he and his lawyer have been fighting to get the charges
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reduced for years now. >> you'll be eligible for the death penalty. >> i'll get the death penalty, yes. >> where i carry guilt is i could have stopped it. i could have been more of a man, stepped up. stop, grabbed him. i mean, i played the scenario over and over and over. i mean, even one word out of my mouth would have stopped him. i didn't say [ bleep ]. i stood there and just let him continue to hit that man. >> gaines went on to tell us that he was no longer the skinhead that participated in that or any other heinous act. >> i was a hypocrite, a bigot, a hate monger. i was just as evil as any one of the rest of these dumb [ bleep ] around here. i wasn't always a good person. >> in 2004, while awaiting trial, he not only renounced his gang affiliation but decided to tell-all. >> i pulled people's covers who weren't known. i've given up information on other crimes. i've not held back.
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i renounced publicly through doing interviews like this, i've renounced with officers. i mean to every extent i've ruined myself, i've made it public knowledge to where everybody knows i don't have a chance to go back to that lifestyle. i don't want to go back to that lifestyle. >> in fact, he even works with some organization toss combat racism. i'm a source of information to the southern poverty law center to one people's project, the anti-racist action. i've done all i can to change myself as a person and not only to renounce and to become a hermit from that live tile but to take an opposition against it. >> but there was a price for coming clean. >> you're basically deemed a snitch. so that's why my custody is what it is. if i'm ever put in general population, i'm as good as dead. >> any prison gang would be happy to get their hands-on shawn gaines. >> it's kill or be killed for me
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now. i'll spend my time in protective custody. more than likely, slammed down the entire time. >> while his public confession may have put gaines' life in danger, it also generated some welcome attention from the outside world. >> currently, i'm writing my fiance. >> you have a fiance? >> yes. >> is this someone you knew before you were incarcerated? >> no. i've met her since i've been in here. she read what i wrote, dropped me postcards of encouragement and commending the changes i've made and such. we've been pen pals for almost two years now. been together for about the last year. she's beautiful, she's good heart. smart. funny. loves me to death. takes good care of me. couldn't ask for me. not to mention she's willing to stand by me and do the time with me. i mean, feel pretty blessed. >> coming up. >> after the 36 hours they come and take the baby from you.
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you just have to hand the baby over and you go straight back to prison. >> the harsh reality of being pregnant in prison. whoooa i'm in a river. what are some good kayaking words? like...rapids? look, i'm going through the rapids. ok. i'll take it. new offers in new places so you can try new things. sync your american express card with facebook, foursquare, and twitter to find savings. that's the membership effect of american express.
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when jennifer rose described her worst day at the tennessee prison for women for us, she left no doubt about how bad it really was. >> i was sick. literally sick. physically, emotionally crying, devastated. there's no way to explain it. it's the worst thing i've ever had to go through in my life. >> technically though, rose wasn't in prison that day. she was in a nearby hospital giving birth. >> i don't wish it on nobody. it was awful. they treat you pretty much like an inmate. it's no privacy at all. got to keep the baby in the hospital room with me for 36 hours. after the 36 hours, they come and take the baby from you. that's the hardest part. you just have to hand the baby over and you go straight back to
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prison. then i went through the crying spell for like a couple weeks, nothing but crying, crying, crying. >> when we met rose six months later, she was serving a four-year sentence for theft and forgery. but when she first got to prison, she didn't even know she was pregnant. >> while i was in classification, which is where you have to be for 30 days when you get here, i found out i was pregnant. so i been here since then through my whole pregnancy. >> one of the saddest things, i think, we film in lockup is the case where a pregnant inmate thohas to decide what do with her baby. at tennessee prison, they have a wonderful and unique program through their chapel where families of the community care for the babies of these inmates until the women are released from prison. >> terry hey good has been raising jennifer's son since he was born. >> isn't he cute? he's gotten big.
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>> that's okay. that's okay. >> hey. are you going to smile for mommy? there's a smile. smile. >> there's women in our church that don't have the heart for little ones even though my baby is 13. we enjoy him and specialness gives us a time to have a little one around and that kind of thing and get to know jennifer and encouragement to her as well. >> terry learned about the prison program from another church volunteer, karen romo who always felt something for inmates. >> i just felt to get involved because i think of somebody in prison and alone. only 10% of the prisoners actually get visitors every week. that tugged at my heart too. i just began praying for the person that i needed to minister to. it's been a really neat transition just seeing jennifer from one point to now. it's just a totally different
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person. >> watching these two women bring caden into the prison and seeing the love they had for both kay den and jennifer was inspirational. terry, taking full responsibility for this child, knowing that she was going to give the child back to jennifer when she got out of prison, astounded me. >> they cannot take custody from you without a reason to. as long as you have somebody to take care of him, you still have full custody. they just have temporary custody until you're released and then once upon your release from here, you'll be given back all custody. that gives me the focus that i have to do what i have to do to get him back and get my life up. >> what are you doing while you're in prison? how are you spending your days here? ged classes and then hopefully after i get my ged and start college classes. my goal is to be a vet tech. hopefully within two years i can be in a vet school somewhere. >> it was really sweet to watch
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jennifer with her son caden. the love was very obvious. then i found out that jennifer had four other children that she lost custody of and hadn't seen for three years. it became obvious to me that this was her second chance of actually being a mother and raising her child. >> now, he is eating vegetables and fruit. his six month checkup next week and he'll probably get shots. >> oh, no, you got to get shots. >> look at mama. kiss your mama. yes. >> emotionally, i have to tell myself that it's just time for bonding with him. but the hardest part is knowing that i have to leave him and come back to the cell. >> hopefully, when she gets out and it will be easier for them to bond again and be connected. >> i just talk to him the whole time and try to look in his eyes
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and keep him looking at me. hopefully that my picture will stick in his head. >> it's hard. i don't get to see like his first time he rolled over or the first time he grabbed at something. that part bothers me. but when i'm with him, it's just like i wish that time would hold still so i could spend more time with him. i treasure every minute. >> coming up -- >> what the [ bleep ]. >> one inmate struggles not only with his anger but his anger management class. >> i took a ten pound weight and i bust his head.
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in the heart of the deep south, the long hot days of
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summer often give rise to fierce thunderstorms. and in places like alabama's maximum security home and correctional facility, they can also lead to violence. >> all right. anybody in here been stressed out by the heat this week? it has been hot. do you all know they broke a record yesterday in mobile. it was 100 degrees. that was 120-year-old record. everybody agree in here that when it gets hot, everybody gets meaner and madder? >> yeah. >> packed into a tiny classroom without air conditioning, mental health professional leslie duds leads 18 inmates in an anger management class designed to help them recognize and control their emotions. >> is it possible to stay in prison, have a long sentence and be here for a long period of time and not get a disciplinary? is that possible? >> it is possible -- walter says it is. anybody agree or disagree? what do you say percy? >> i disagree with walter.
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i been locked up 11 years and got 57 disciplinaries. some i got was because of the administration because of certain situations happening. just like i caught a case at work release, somebody broke -- i stabbed him. you know what i'm saying. i wasn't bothering nobody. >> percy bradley jumped out at me immediately when i first met him. he was a very angry guy and he was very vocal about advocating violence. >> i was 21 years old. maximum security prison. a guy been locked up 30 years said he'd like to be in a gay way. if i kept on letting him tell tell me stuff like that no telling what going to happen. so i took a ten-pound weight and bust his head. all they have to do is leave my stuff alone. i let it slide one time. they broke it again, i couldn't let it slide. kept getting run over. >> but i also want to reiterate the point that if it were not
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possible to do, it would not be done. it is possible because people do it. there are men in here who have been here for 30 years with no disciplinaries. everybody doesn't react to stress with violence. that is a fact. and you may not agree with it, but it is a fact. >> when we met percy bradley, he was serving a 20-year sentence for assault and robbery and had been at the center of numerous conflicts at homan. though his violent behavior had tapered off, he had just been assigned to anger management after a disciplinary write-up for arguing with another inmate. >> how about disciplinaries? >> 57. >> how did that happen? >> it's a jungle, man. it's a jungle. a jungle my whole 11 years. you know what i'm saying. people say you can't blame other people for what you do. blame other people for your action. that's a lie. you got to blame other people. >> why? >> you got blame other people
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because you could do the best you can to try to avoid other people and people do stupid stuff in a certain way a person got to live in prison. so prison made me the man i am right now. >> how about your response to those stupid things? >> it all depends on what they do to make -- >> no. you can never blame other people for your behavior. if you don't think there's anything wrong with the way you behave or the way you handle stress and anger, then you're in the wrong class. because you first have to say, yes, i have a problem. and stop blaming other people for what you have done. that's a huge problem in here. percy obviously believed violence was a necessary tool in prison. but the fact was, over the last couple of years, he had a clean record. so he was able to move into the honor dorm, business the least restrictive housing unit at homan. >> inmates trying to change their life and learn different
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things. all of [ bleep ]. >> tell me why. you seem really unhappy. >> because you got certain guys had here, feel like they run the dorm. certain guys feel like they [ bleep ] don't stink. they apply the rules, they got a list of rules but they only apply to certain people, certain group of people. >> what are some of the people are saying about you? >> breaking my box. disrespect me verbally. bump into me, don't say excuse me. curse at me. anything. i'm talking about least little thing, man. i'm just their dude. been that way all my life. anything like that, straight up. off the top. >> any means necessary. straight up. stab you, bust your head or something. by my fist. i'm going to -- straight up. >> let me ask you a question. everything you described to me, disrespects or whatever, you
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don't think that happens -- >> can i speak freely? >> yes. >> [ bleep ] no. [ bleep ] no. >> in the free world, i ain't got to deal with those dudes. it's got -- nobody else's business. nobody else's business. >> if you stab somebody, it's their business. >> they had to do something f me to stab them. >> while bradley may not have been making much progress with the philosophy of anger management, the investigation into his latest write-up was moving right along. >> they got me. >> this time it was for getting into a loud argument with another honor dorm inmate. >> sit down there, percy, let's go over this write-up you got. >> bradley's write-up included testimony from other honor dorm inmates, all of whom agreed that bradley started the confrontation. >> they said this is not the first time that you have been written up for your anger problems out there too. they got some other things attached here to where you have
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gotten written up. >> i didn't threaten any guy or nothing. i walked off. >> it says here, they felt like if you would improve by being allowed to stay in the dorm, they would recommend him stay. however, they feel like you're not going to stop this behavior, they're not going to allow it. the bottom line is that the community manager's recommendation is that you be moved out of the dorm. right now, today, i'm going to agree with them. i'm going to agree with them. any other questions? >> no, sir. >> all right. appreciate you coming up. >> outside the hearing room, bradley was less accepting of the decision. >> bunch of [ bleep ]. [ bleep ]. [ bleep ]. >> i'm going to -- i ain't going to be what you want me to do. i ain't going to do what you want me to do, i ain't going to say what you want me to say. i'm going to stand for 11 years.
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continue to stand on them. >> technically, my job is to be an observer, but there was something about percy every single time i talked to him, i think i got a little tired of hearing this blame game from him. so i decided to confront him. >> you know what? >> i see a lot of guys here. i talked to a lot of guys here. everybody does a different path. not everybody walks around angry all the time. you're angry at everybody else, percy. you're angry at everybody else. >> i ain't blaming. that what you think. i don't get mad at everybody. that's what you this think. you're going to see the [ bleep ] they do around here. what do you expect me to do? what do you expect me to do? >> the following morning, it was time for bradley to leave the honor dorm. >> we were filming when the officers awakened percy to escort him out of the honor dorment. >> percy? got to pack you up. they're ready to take you. >> our cameraman, brian, asked
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percy a question while he was filming him and percy was annoyed and upset and lashed out at brian. >> what are they asking to you do now? >> what it [ bleep ] look like. i'm moving i'm out the dorm. >> the drama of having the officer wake him up and then us being there with the camera in his face, i think it bothered him and we understand. we don't take it personally. we're in their environment. >> they woke you up? >> up for this [ bleep ] going on but a bunch of red [ bleep ] in the [ bleep ]. that's what's going on out here. >> but what was interesting to me was after we continued to film him, suddenly percy turned to brian and apologized. >> my bad, when i snapped on you. i just woke up, man. my bad if i got griped at you, man. i was just waking up. >> totally understandable. totally. >> it was a little surprising to see him kind of let his guard
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down and apologize. but i was like, wait a second, you don't need to apologize. you just do your thing and don't worry about us. >> that was the first time i could see a flicker of awareness in percy and he actually stopped and was realizing how he was being perceived by other people. when percy got moved back into the general population dorm, he almost acted as though it was his choice. but i think he knew it was a demotion. i think he felt bad about it. so he had to put on this front for the other guys. >> i been in here before. it's not like i been there the whole time. i been in these dorms before. i been here 11 years. this is just another part. i ain't got to worry about that bull [ bleep ] out there. that cracker man. this was real. this is the real deal with you all people seeing. that over there is fake and passive and fruity. >> now that percy got kicked out of the honor dorm, he was no longer required to go to anger
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management classes. so just out of curiosity, i asked him what he was going to do the next day. >> what you mean? >> what's tomorrow? >> [ bleep ] the same thing that went -- i just got to go -- >> i just got to go to that anger management, that's it. >> are you going to go? >> yeah. i'm going because i need it. >> i honestly in my head, i thought, well, you know, this is going to be a long process. st going to have to eventually get it. but when we ended up back in the anger management class, it was like a different person. >> frustration, when it get to me, i lash out. i act on it. you know what i'm saying? i'm trying to learn by being around guys like all certain other guys that turn their stuff toward other direction. you know what i'm saying? like boxing and working out and stuff. i'm even starting where i start to read more. you no he what i'm saying? i'm trying to do the best i can to turn this stuff. i ain't to the point where i'm
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ready to let go certain things. >> a first step toward solving the problem is admitting there is a problem. that sort of sounds like what you're doing now. >> i'm going to use a cliche. i want to chew up the meat and spit out the bone. i'm pig headed and stubborn, i'm going to eat the whole chicken. >> bone and all, huh? >> bone and all. >> one of the hardest things about this job is we only get to see a little sliver of these people's lives. we don't often get to see the end of a story. in the case of percy, it felt like we were seeing a beginning. >> coming up -- >> look at you. >> two friends cope with the reality of a premature end to a prison sentence. and everyone lie cash -- well, except her. no! but, i'm about to change that. ♪ every little baby wants 50% more cash... ♪ phhht! fine, you try.
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i'm craig melvin. here's what's happening right now. a steaming live fourth across much of the country causing a change of plans in some areas. fireworks are being canceled in places where the hot and dry conditions pose a significant fire risk. also, mitt romney says the health care insurance mandate should be considered a tax since that is what the supreme court ruled it. it contradicts a statement from the top romney adviser who viewed the mandate as a penalty or fine. now back to lockup. during our many years of filming inside prisons, we've seen a lot of life and death conflict. we've sienna salts, we've seen stabbings. it's a very violent world. it hand inside indiana state prison. there's one where it wasn't rooted in violence. it was rooted in compassion and it involved an inmate named pizza man. >> he was even at the gas station, supermarket.
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i know you from somewhere. i used to work at a pizza place. that's right you're the pizza man. it just stuck. i got the same at that tie on my chest. >> how did it stick in prison? >> because everybody knows me. a lot of people are from my town. plus, it's all over the news my story. my case. >> the reason john pizza man max i's face was all over the news is because on halloween night 1996 he murdered his boss inside the pizza parlor where they worked. >> i was mad at my boss and things went bad and he lost. he said i was -- just -- >> disgruntled? >> exactly. >> he was given a 60-year sentence for murder. after meeting him, we realized he wasn't going to serve much more than the ten years he already had. he wasn't getting paroled. but his time was almost up.
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>> i got sa cirrhosis of the liver and stomach cramps and they can't give me no treatments. >> why? >> that's what the chief doctor said. if they cut me open, the cancer will spread and kill me faster. >> so ha does it mean for you sm. >> a death sentence. >> even with death looming over him, maxi found comfort in the support and camaraderie of his fellow inmates. >> him being around us, i feel like this is what gives him hope. even if he knows he's dying, he knows that there's not much the medical people can do -- >> more than anything else, joseph formed a special bond with him. like maxi he's also serving 60 years for murder. when the prison hired him as his care-giver, he discovered it was much more than just a job. >> when i care about somebody, i care about them hard. you know what i'm saying? i really care about them.
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>> god answered my prayer and gave me the ability to clean him up from his head to his feet. >> by the time we met him, maxi had a few recent brushes with death. the last time he fell into a coma and was rushed to an outside hospital. >> we was in church and one of the officers came in and was like, pizza man died. so you know, we all mourned and we was -- it was crazy. we like, man. well, come to find out, that there was a guy in the hospital with his name that died. not him. so when he came back, he come back strutting and we like, oh, man. >> i was in better shape. >> you know, we hug and all that. >> i know that he's not the only person in here that needs to be treated medically. but i live with him. this is the guy i got to take in the shower and make sure he gets
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bathed properly. this is the guy i got to make sure don't pee on the walls. you know what i'm saying. if you all was to see how big his -- >> groin area is. >> how big his stomach >> from my kneecaps twice the size as this. >> what's that swelling from? >> poison because it's got to leak down, right, exactly. i take a lot of medications now. >> at one point he revealed the swelling of his ankles and i couldn't comprehend how bad it really was until he showed us and then i really realized what kind of problems this guy really had. >> each day monigan wheels him over to the infirmary for a shot to relieve the pain. >> he would push him and inmates would joke with him because he knew the extent of his swelling
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in certain areas of his body and they would make up jokes and names for him and he had a great attitude about it. he would just laugh right back at them and, you know, act like it was nothing. >> oh, look at you. >> making that dude crash for the first time. >> what's going on, big balls? >> going to get my shower. what's up? >> coming up -- >> i woke up in the hospital. >> john maxi takes a turn for the worse. >> he was laying right here.
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death isn't sneaking up on john maxi. it warns him every day that it's coming. the swelling, the nausea, the chronic pain, all reminders that his 60-year sentence at indiana
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state prison is coming to a premature end. >> i fell into a light coma friday afternoon. i don't remember, you know, i woke up in the hospital. >> maxi recovered in the hospital and was sent back to prison. but the latest scare prompted some changes. >> this is some paperwork i signed for them to take off of dying like to give me cpr if i lose it again because before i told them i didn't want them to do that. resuscitate you? >> yeah, but now i have changed at the hospital, on the street and in here. >> his change of heart regarding his do not resuscitate was influenced by his best friend and caregiver, joseph. >> i told him i wasn't going to take care of him if they wasn't going to resuscitate him. he had to sign legal documents
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for me to prove that if i'm going to take care of him he has to take care of himself too. >> why? >> because i care about him. that's my brother. you don't see the resemblance? >> i think maxi gave monigan a reason to be. a reason to get up every morning and i think that monigan gave maxi a reason to continue living. >> his best hope of survival would be a liver transplant but that was unlikely. >> it's a complicated situation. there is some concern about the continuity of a transplant program if people find out, well, you're going to give my liver to a criminal, some people would be upset about that and so there's that legitimate concern about the appropriateness of that happening in this kind of population. >> with little hope of a transplant, most of maxi's care was focused on keeping him comfortable and alert.
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>> every day i think it was a question mark about maxi and his health and then we had arrived one day and there was an ambulance out front and it was actually blocking our entrance into parking, into the parking lot and we found out that maxi was inside the ambulance, so once we got in to see monigan he told us he had had an event during the night and he was being rushed to the hospital. >> what was the last communication you two had? >> he told me he loved me. >> what did you say? >> i love him too. and if he die i'm going to [ bleep ] him up. then he started laughing and he said, okay. he's telling me i'm embarrassing him in front of the ladies because the nurses is around so, you know -- >> straight up. >> you know, any time somebody can laugh in that much pain, man, that make me feel good. that's the type of relationship we got. >> from what he told us maxi became disoriented.
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he said usually that meant one thing and that was he was probably most likely going to be in a coma soon. >> he was laying right here like he was in his bunk so i got him up and he lay back in his bunk then he covered up. then he got out of his bunk and went to the restroom, came back and instead of laying backown in his bunk he sat on the floor, from his wheelchair. so when i woke up i see him sitting on the floor and i turn to him. it's the floor. he think he's sitting in the wheelchair. then i realized that he done ran out of gas. ain't no getting back to the bunk. so i take him to the hospital. bam. and i just hope he's all right. >> it was obvious he had grave concerns for his friend and i think the general sentiment at the time was maxi was not going to be coming back from the
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hospital. >> i ain't got nobody to laugh and joke and kick it with right now. because we could be watching tv and we'd be interacting. and they don't just be me, it be other people that would be around and it would be people that love him maybe talking to him and be making sure his spirits stay high so that was all. everybody just tried to take care of each other, man, i mean it's hard -- >> do you think you'll see pizza man again? >> i don't -- nope, nope. >> we finished our shoot shortly after we did that last interview with monigan and found out a few weeks later that maxi never returned to the prison. he passed away and monigan never got to say good-bye to him.

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