america's prisons, dangerous, often deadly. there are 2 million people doing time. every day is a battle to survive and to maintain order. >> down on your feet. down. >> among the nation's most notorious institutions, san quentin state prison. our cameras spent months nothing happens so like one day goes into the other and the next thing, months go by, years go by.

a new day goes by in san quentin. a typical day at san quentin is more often than not just like hundreds, even thousands, of other days. for 19-year-old troy ka missski the best part of his morning is a cell mate cup of joe. >> i read coffee, drink a book. this is your good class-a folgers. if it ain't folgers, it ain't nothing, you know what i'm saying? >> my hot water is broken thanks to this wonderful place, but i get it from my next-door neighbor nick. you probably don't want to talk to him.

he's probably talking to his demons right now. hey, nick. >> hey. >> i need some hot water from you, homey. thank you! thank god he's got long arms, huh? we've got some hot water. we make do, you know. we do what we've got to do to live and survive in this nice little space of ours. i smoke cigarettes, but i can't get a cigarette here anymore so i cut myself. then they think i'm trying to kill myself. they put me in a butt-naked room, which is bull [ bleep ] because i'm not trying to kill myself. if i was trying to kill myself, i'd just slice up or hang myself. i carved c-14 into my arm. it was a jail gang i was in. i just did it with my fingernails. i like the feeling of the pain. it relieves stress. the walls started talking to me, and, you know, when you've got a thick slab of cement, you know, and you can't talk to the next person, you got no one to talk to the whole day, you kind of lose it, you know? so what else are you supposed to

do? >> don't come back, mate. this is no playground. >> even for the "lockup" crew who spent three months inside san quentin, one day can look a lot like the next. back in ad seg, they're locked up 23 hours a day and confined to their small cell. >> let's do this, blue eyes. check this out. ♪ she's a little teacup short and stout ♪ ♪ you can tell what this chick is all about ♪ ♪ she's cool to the touch cool to the touch ♪ ♪ she's cool to the touch, cool

to the touch ♪ ♪ she's a little teacup short and stout ♪ ♪ you can tell what this chick is all about ♪ ♪ she's cool to the touch ♪ cool to the touch >> nice, nice. >> i've never, ever captivated anybody like i've captivated these people's minds because the way i sing, they love it. i love it. it took me coming to prison to realize how much i enjoy doing this. >> while demetrius jefferson finds solace in music to drown out the deafening noise, across the tier, angel rodriguez begins his day with a mural. >> i'm trying to get spiritual now. god has a plan tore you, whatever. that's what i'm seeing now. it might be some reality to it. might not be. i don't know.

i start with the hearts because that, like, represents me and my girl, the hearts are coming over the bars so she'll be with me throughout this time. right now there's the grim reaper, that's overall who's running this earth. you can see it if you look around you. there's death and deception, trickery against man, right? how we do each other wrong. that's what that represents. the hourglass represents the world is going to change. it's biblical stuff. there are people who believe in god out there. and there's a different perspective seeing that i've been there. >> the judge could have gave me a misdemeanor, but she said, because of my past i'm violent in my past, she said, something good will happen. i could have hurt my girl. so therefore she didn't keep it a misdemeanor. she upped it. i promised her i wouldn't bring that into her life.

i used to sneak it and pushing her. i didn't realize it. that's where it started, got worse and worse. >> when you're locked inside the walls of san quentin, the nearest art supply store may as well will be a million miles away. jailhouse artists like angel have to use their ingenuity to create the right tools to get the job done. >> it's regular ink from a pen. i just take off the tip and i blow it out into a little container and i mix a little drop of shampoo, i use white toothpaste because clear don't work. i stir it and then i cut my hair, i make some paintbrushes, wrap them with paper and string and make two paintbrushes. this one right here says my son and wife, i was thinking of a scene where they're behind the fence. i want a little boy crying, you know what i mean? it shows that, even though he's young, that he's aware of the sadness, you know what i mean? because he sees me get locked up, he comes to visit me. then he sees my girl and sees the tears in her eyes.

even though he's 3, he's still smart, sharp. i want to put that in there, that he's aware of what's happening. he's not fully aware of me being locked up but he knows something has happened. if you believe in god, you've got to say it's a given. i didn't go to school, just learned. nothing specific goes through my mind when i draw. if i didn't have that, i'd be mad. i'd be mad at the judicial system. i'd be mad at being here, mad at the inmates here. but right now i'm not. i'm at peace right now. coming up on "lockup: extended stay" -- >> no one wants to go in the shower with the freaks. >> when inmate s refuse to showr with the group, it's the officers who end up all wet. to watch it for us. thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back.

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it's late morning on west block and inmates are released tier by tier to the showers, where they're given an extremely brief opportunity to wash up before lunch. >> when you shower, you shower with a whole bunch of other men that's not fully clothed, that's naked. you know? where's the privacy at? >> you only get to shower every other day here, and nobody wants to go down in that shower with all kinds of freaks.

you're in the shower that has, what, 12 shower heads and you've got 50 dudes down there all wanting to shower in five minutes. you've got people bumping into each other, you know? [ bleep ] that. >> okay, wash up, get out of here. >> hey, hey! all right. i'm going back to my cell. hate my life. >> you're live on tape. >> how's it going? san quentin showers. >> this is my shower. i plug this into my sink. this right here plugs right into the hole in the sink. i designed this. i ought to market this [ bleep ]. i'm actually kind of lucky in a sense because i don't have a ce

ce celly. i can't have a celly. i've had cell violence. i had incidents inside my cell with me and the person i'm living with. i stabbed one of my cellies 36 times and another one i cut his throat. i pick up everything off the floor and kind of shower and wet myself all the way down. and i get in here naked and i [ bleep ] soap all up and wash all off with a small stream of water. it's not a big shower but, hell, it's a shower. that's my shower. it isn't a big shower but it is a shower. that's my shower. it isn't a good shower but it works. you have to improvise. >> not only are birdbaths a nuisance, but they also pose a safety risk, as officers and inmates can easily slip on the tier. >> four tier. >> it's booty water. >> what you're looking at now, people would say it's flooding the tier, but i guarantee you've got a guy in a cell taking a birdbath, as they call it. that's something i can't -- i hate. yeah, you get that all the time.

one time we had like, i don't know, 50 cells that did it one time. on the front bar here, it was like niagara falls, it was beautiful. >> what's up with the water? >> i don't know. >> shut that [ bleep ] down. take a shower with everybody else. don't flood my tier. >> okay. >> all right? >> why you hollering now? >> give me two. >> more than 3,000 inmates eat their meals in the same dining hall, which can only hold up to 400 at a time. the groups are released by tier to ensure everyone gets a chance to eat.

>> i'm the eyes and ears of this south block rotunda. it's the eye of the storm because everyone's relying on me if we have an incident in the kitchen or inside the unit sometimes but mainly the landing areas. let's go! my main job is to make sure the inmates come from their housing unit, into the chow hall, sit down, come back out. but i also have other officers that are inside. at the same time, i'm watching my officers inside, watching their backs, because who's watching their backs? you kind of see what i'm saying? because when you've got two officers in the chow hall, i try to keep traffic where i can control it on the steps and have a gap here so if something were to kick off from there, from this point where we're talking i can have a visual. you've got five landings up here. as you can see, i can't see what's going on there, there. i can barely see what's going on here. so i'm relying on body language on the inmates and also my officers.

this is where it becomes tricky, up inside of here. >> stand by. stand by. >> this is my house. this is my home. this is what i do every day, eight hours a day. >> look at this food right here. look at this food. >> this ain't cool! >> what is this? >> despite having four meal options prepared by inmates, many prisoners attend chow for the social benefits but refuse to eat there. >> supposed to be spaghetti, broccoli, salad. and i don't know what -- this looks like shampoo. i don't know who made this. do i know it's safe for my body? i don't know. would you eat it if you didn't know who dished it? i don't think so. that's all i got to say. i cook my own food in my own cell. >> know what i mean? you want to be eating out of trays? go ahead. bring it here.

>> inmates like david monroe have found a more creative, albeit more expensive, option in cell cooking. >> i am making roast beef and corned beef tacos and in here, in prison, we have to cook in bags. we get this off the canned goods, take the top off and use it to cut because other than that, you don't have anything to cut with. it's a whole lot harder than having a knife. as long as you ain't using it as a knife the officers ain't -- they understand that you have to cut your meat. i haven't eaten anything in the chow hall in a really long time. i'd say a good year or so. i can cook pretty good. it tastes very well. i can definitely hide the fact that it's coming from an inmate. you wouldn't know the difference. you just mix it up like that in a bag, then you put it in here and it will cook itself and give it like 10, 15 minutes. i grew up with all girls so i learned from them. and then most of the times i was by myself because i was always skipping school so i had to cook for myself.

i was basically the same as the kids i associated with, troubled youth. bad family, you know. father was alcoholic. used to beat my mom. he ran out on us. i grew up around a lot of gangs. it was just a 15-year-old kid trying to find an identity. didn't have one. i got caught up doing that stuff, skipping school, hanging out. doing stuff like that that gang members do, thugs do, whatever you want to call it. and i ended up killing somebody. i was at some girl's house and i seen somebody walking by. we had a confrontation. and it resulted in me shooting him. i was 15 when i committed the crime. at 16, i pled guilty to second-degree murder for 15 to life plea bargain. that day just changed my whole life. celly! >> you've got to have the hot sauce. this is the best part of the

day. coming home to a hot cooked meal. can't beat it. >> i was scared to come to prison. doing a life sentence in prison with adult men, that has its own fear and its own just knowing that you're going to do a life sentence with a bunch of adult men but you're still a kid. now we have to eat together. i'm a 15-year-old kid. i'm 24 now, almost 25. i'm absolutely not nowhere near that person anymore. coming up on "lockup: extended stay" -- >> this is a very important tool for us. that's how easy it would show up. it picks up the smallest things. >> even the laundry isn't exempt from random searches. ♪

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inmates do whatever they can to overcome the monotony of prison life. and the more than 900 officers of san quentin have their own ways of escaping, too.

>> get started right now, though. put your shirt on, do all that back there. got to pull your pants on. you're still in prison, all right? all right, all right. walk around with your ass hanging out, it don't work. keep your pants pulled up. i have little tolerance for [ bleep ]. i do. and if the inmates don't know me, they'll get my attention and i'll straighten them out. i demand respect right off the top. are you paroling? i came up through a time in the early '80s when it was really violent. we had officers killed, a lot of staff hurt. a lot of inmates killed, savagely beaten. to this day officers get hurt and beat up quite a bit and a lot of people don't know about this. straight ahead all the way from the back to your left. i don't want to cut that because i don't want to nip your ear by accident. >> why do i got to do it? >> because it's your ear. it's got to come off.

i always have my -- i call it spider senses. kind of up in case something happens. i put on a different -- just a higher -- higher level of security. i'm in the walls. anything with stone on it is considered contraband so you mail it home or donate it. you got a lot of room to cut that off. good job. you'll be all right. what about them gold teeth? just wondering, just asking, man. gold teeth, that's a hot commodity, too. >> hey! >> hey, hey. nice of you to show up. nice. nice shot. >> when he is not processing the 350 incoming inmates each week, he's talking game strategy on a basketball court. >> are you going to bomb threes on us? of. >> no! >> what are you going to do? what do we say? >> drive. >> drive to the hoop. i'm assistant coach of the windsor girls varsity high school basketball team. >> stop the ball, stop the ball! all the way! there you go. i have a hard time with my size and the tattoos. parents look at me like, who's

the felon on the bench with the coach, usually. >> the ball, the ball, the ball. >> good job. good job, ladies. >> officer thompson is one of 35 correctional officers working in ad seg. >> so we have weekly laundry exchange in the ad seg. so we're setting up two sheets, a pair of socks and a towel right now. >> while sorting laundry may seem mundane, it's critical to both the officers' and the inmates' safety. >> we don't wash it here anymore. it comes back in locked carts and we run it through the rapid scan machine, check it for contraband. the last thing we'd need to do is have a piece of metal or

something inside these sheets. that's a real potential hazard for staff in here. that's plastic. so it's really -- it's a very important tool for us. that's how easy it would show up. it picks up the smallest things. >> but when his shift ends, he trades in his uniform for a pair of jeans and hits the open road. >> i'm off work. i'm me. and this is how we get down. yeah, this is -- this is cutting loose. >> in the early afternoon, officer grant begins his shift in one of the ten towers surrounding the prison. >> how you doing, bird? >> i'm doing okay, how you doing? >> you're looking pretty good for a young kid. i'm 79 right now.

i'll be 80 august 7th. i am the oldest correctional officer here at san quentin. >> you can check that. >> all right. i first came to san quentin when i was 60 years old. i just wasn't ready to retire yet. >> your impact rounds are over there, grant. >> primarily my job is to prevent escapes. this is a mini 14. it's a high-powered rifle. we use these as a last resort to stop a situation that could be lethal. >> and they say, you're too old to be working here, grant. i just laugh it off. >> for officer grant, time off brings him outside the walls into the bay surrounding the prison where he swims a mile and a half in a little more than an hour. >> i never, ever felt like quitting because i always kept myself in good health.

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hi, i'm veronica de la cruz with breaking news to report. nbc news now reporting that mitt romney will announce his choice for a vice presidential running mate in norfolk, virginia, tomorrow. previously the campaign said it would use an app to announce his choice. speculation has swirled about his potential choices including rob portman, tim pawlenty and marco rubio. chris christie, paul ryan and others are general p rating vice presidential buzz. let's go to peter alexander who has been on the campaign trail with mitt romney. are you with us? >> reporter: i am. we're in norfolk, virginia, right now, staying with the romney campaign, traveling with them as part of the bus tour that kicks off officially tomorrow morning. it's at that first event that the campaign now advises us that they will announce their choice for vice president. and at this hour, fox news is reporting that that choice will be wisconsin congressman paul

ryan, the 42-year-old congressman from wisconsin has been viewed by many within the conservative movement, for quite a while, as the long shot in this situation. he was viewed as what would be considered a bold choice for the governor. he was given a series of choices. we had heard throughout the course of this time, they would be safer picks, as it was viewed, tim pawlenty, former governor of minnesota, as well as the senator of ohio, rob portman, or this more bold choice some were urging governor romney, to go with a bolder choice in paul ryan. ryan is a 42-year-old viewed as a young rising star in the gop. he's become their chief spokesperson when it comes to reducing the deficit and debt. and in a conversation that romney had with nbc's chief white house correspondent chuck todd just within the last 24 to 48 hours, he made it clear that he was looking for smuchb womeo

would have a bold vision for the future of this country. he tried to make the conversation in this campaign more specific about the issues and paul ryan, veronica, is viewed as someone who would very quickly do that. we have reached out to the campaign for confirmation, but, again, at this point, they have not responded to that. they are just acknowledging there will be an announcement made tomorrow morning at 9:00 here at the site of the "uss wisconsin" in norfolk, virginia. the state of virginia is significant, as this campaign goes. many people have said what happens in virginia will dictate what happens in the november 6th election. but the next several days will be spent in several key battlegrounds beginning in virginia before novemberi imovi carolina and then florida and ohio. there had been a lot of speculation that the decision wouldn't be made until the beginning of next week, after the olympics, when they would have the entire media spotlight to themselves, but it appears pretty clear this campaign

thin thinks they need to take advantage of the next four days and get the positive momentum they can get before the convention. >> we're about 17 days away from the rnc now, peter. i do want to talk about the significance as to how they're going to be making this announcement. they were saying that they might release it via an app. but also he'll be making an announcement from the "uss wisconsin." does that tell us anything? trnch . >> reporter: it's a pretty good background. it's a naval ship here, but it's specific to wisconsin. it's the home state of ryan. we asked if it was a coincidence. they said the site had been set up for weeks the campaign told us. to give you a sense of conversations we've had with campaign advisers, there were a series of events scheduled tomorrow, they have back-to-back events over the next few days. beginning tomorrow here in norfolk, there was an event scheduled for lunchtime and advisers had been suggesting us

to keep our eyes on an event scheduled tomorrow night in manassas, in northern virginia, one of the last events of the day. it appears very quick s 5,000 t people are expected to be at that event. that will make it pretty interesting. again, the reports right now unclear exactly who the vice presidential candidate will be. fox news appears to be reporting that it may be the wisconsin congressman paul ryan, but, suffice to say, we will find out officially tomorrow morning at roughly 9:00. >> let's go over a couple of the other names just in case it isn't paul ryan. i mean, we've been talking about chris christie, tim pawlenty, bobby jindal has been named a couple of time. >> reporter: your, ththat's def true. it appeared for a long time rob portman was one of the possible front-runners. one reason is he's from ohio,

among other reasons. he could offer the potential to win what would be considered a key battleground, as they've often said, the way ohio goes is the way the nation goes. rob portman, of course, the sna senator from that state. he hails from a place that i think is 59% of the vote he won in the 2010 senate campaign in that state. he's from the cincinnati area, an area that could be critical going forward. and, as it's been described, if you're looking for sort of the exact opposite of sarah palin four years ago, it might be rob portman, a former congressman, u.s. trade representative. he played i believe barack obama in 2008, john edwards in 2004, as well as hillary clinton in 2000 2000. >> let's talk about the last few days on the campaign trail. you've been traveling with the romney camp for a while . he's been behind in the polls. >> reporter: veronica?

>> yes. can you hear me? i was asking you, peerlter, abo the latest poll numbers for romney. he's fall cen some six to nine percentage points. what does the campaign have to say about that? it seems that we've lost peter alexander. peter alexander has been on the campaign trail with mitt romney and we've been speaking to him in northern virginia. peter, are you with us? all right, doesn't seem like we have him anymore. anyway, just wanted to confirm once again, mitt romney will be making his pick for vice presidential candidate, and, of course, msnbc will cover that live. it will take place oetomorrow he on msnbc. kelly o'donnell is also on the phone with us. kelly, can you hear me? >> yes, i am. good morning. >> good morning. you're many ohio, what information do you have at this point?

>> reporter: i can tell you here in ohio voters are immersed in the ads of this campaign and seeing it and living it daily. when it comes to the choice mitt romney is going to announce, we've been talking about a couple of the possible choices who have been most speculated about. paul ryan, for example, who is considered one of the bright voices, popular among conservatives. now, i've been on the campaign trail with paul ryan and mitt romney, there's a clear rapport between the two of them. i've been with paul ryan when he has been doing his own town hall meetings in wisconsin. he has a great relationship with voters, even as he has presented some controversial plans, and most chief among those is a plan to change how medicare would work years from now. and that is a lightning rod. that would be a risky thing for the romney campaign in a state like florida that has so many seniors. conservatives really like paul ryan because he would be someone who could be a credible voice on doing things differently, with a

lot of experience. he's been in congress for seven terms. he had worked in congress. and on the personal side, he brings a much more common touch than mitt romney. he is someone who has gone through some personal hardships. he lost his father as a teenager. his dad died of a heart attack in his 50s, which has made paul ryan a fitness enthusiast. he's one of the members of congress who is working out the popular p-90x routine every day. he is very vital, very vigorous, has a good family story to tell, and he's from a state where many people say, if he had run for senate in wisconsin there was an open seat there this year, he could have won that. and he was moved up ahead of seniority in congress to become chairman of the budget committee, a very powerful role. so for a very long time people have seen paul ryan as someone with a bright future who would probably be a choice on a ticket some day. is it this year? we don't know. peter mentioned rob portman, the

senator from ohio, the state where i am. he is one of those people who brings credibility in a number of areas. governor romney does not have washington experience. someone like paul ryan, someone like rob portman, they do have that. and one of the things you learn about washington is the need to understand how washington works. so if you have a candidate who's an outsider, like mitt romney, there might be some real value in having a vice presidential running mate who has worked within the system in washington. so those are some of the things we're hearing. we have reached out to our sources. everyone has gone dark, if you will will. so far no one is talking. that's pretty typical, having covered campaigns before, in the final hours before an announcement is made public. typically what you would have is the candidate would be notifying his ultimate choice, notifying the final contenders, and trying to keep it as close as possible. when i've talked to candidates who have done this themselves in the past, they talk about having

a very small window of time between notifying the choice and making it public. so it's possible this story is playing out in the lives of these potential running mate candidates as we speak. veronica? >> kelly o'donnell in ohio. kelly, thank you so much for your time tonight. we'll check back in with you later. in the meantime, let's bring in alex mo who's in jamesville, wisconsin. at paul ryan's house. al e alex, what do you know at this point? >> reporter: mitt romney will obviously be announcing vp tomorrow. congressman ryan has been in wisconsin all day. i did just go up and knock on his door to no answer. most of the lights in his house have gone off. we are pretty sure that he is inside his house. he went to the memorial service earlier today over near milwaukee for the shooting victims at oak creek. after that, he came home and all we have been told is that he was preparing for his vacation where he was supposed to leave

tomorrow for a week-long vacation in colorado with his family. obviously we have no idea if that is going to continue or not, but that is the latest we have, that he is going to colorado tomorrow for a week-long vacation. >> and that's it. you have no other details. >> reporter: no other details. >> no other travel plans. >> reporter: we aren't sure where he's going to be going, but we'll be here watching. >> alex mo in jamesville, wisconsin, watching outside of congressman paul ryan's house. alex, we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> let's go ahead and get you back right now to peter alexander, who again has been on the campaign trail with mitt romney. peter, are you with us? >> reporter: i am with you. >> great. i was trying to ask you earlier, peter, before we lost the signal, i know romney has slipped in the polls a few percentage points over the last couple of days. i just wanted to get the reaction from the campaign. >> reporter: it's a good question. we posed the question to the campgn when with we talked to

campaign a senior adviser for governor romney had not much to explain why the governor has been falling behind president obama in at least three national polls, that gap has now grown to almost 9%, if not more, according to some of those polls. they articulate it being part of the summer codoldrums. they've been convinced this campaign will heat up when the conventions begin. the convention has been worth about a 7% bump for incumbents and challengers an 11% bump, which would be enough, in their eyes, to put them ahead as the republican national convention is before the democratic convention. but suffice to say they recognize right now there is a need to try to get back in front of the conversation, which has been heavily focused on trying to define governor romney. and a lot of it in a negative way in recent weeks with the obama campaign and super pacs who support president obama

spending a flood of money to try to define mitt romney particularly in the key battleground states like ohio and virginia, norfolk, virginia, where we are right now is one of the places where more money has been spent almost than anywhere else. the most money that's been spent is in cleveland, the home state, of course, of rob portman. >> so he's going to be making this bus tour. he's doing a four-day bus tour called the romney plan for a stronger middle class. what more can you tell us about at that? peter, are you with us? >> reporter: i am. sorry, i keep losing you, but i hear you now. >> i was asking you about this bus tour that the romney camp is going to start tomorrow. they're going to be making their announcement tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m., then go on the four-day tour called the romney plan for a stronger middle class. what more do you know about this? >> reporter: the effort of the bus tour is to play on barack

obama's home turf, as they say, all four of the states they'll be hitting in the course of the next four days, again, beginning in virginia, then north carolina, florida and ohio, are states that barack obama and joe biden won four years ago. they are confident these are states that are in place. they believe they can win. they are trying, as they describe it, to grow the map, show they can expand, you know, winning to areas that they didn't win in four years ago. a lot of people will will be spectacle of that. a lot of states they say they can win they lost four years ago are states traditionally republicans have won, north carolina and virginia. but that's really the intent with this. they also want to focus on showing mitt romney his accessibility, the way he understands the issues of the middle class, the acknowledgement that barack obama has tried to make this about the middle class, negatively defining their candidate. they believe mitt romney can help the middle class of

america. >> something interesting to me is the campaign said they were going to make the announcement via app. is that something they're going to do? especially when you look at the president, trying to be the first internet president, is that an area where mitt romney feels he has to compete? all right, so we've lost peter alexander, unfortunately, but we had him for a while. again, peter traveling with mitt romney in norfolk, virginia. again, breaking news out of the msnbc newsroom. wanted to go ahead and just recap one more time that mitt romney will be announcing his choice for a vice presidential running mate tomorrow in norfolk, virginia. previously, the campaign said that it would use this app to announce his choice. and speculation has been swirling about potential choices. they've really run the gamut from rob portman to tim pawlenty, marco rubio, bobby jindal. but right now all eyes seem to be on paul ryan. all of these names really

generating vice presidential buzz. so, once again, mitt romney will be making that announcement 9:00 a.m. of course, msnbc will have live coverage. i'm veronica de la cruz in the msnbc newsroom. stay tuned. we will have more coverage in a moment. >> i went back it to my buddy's house and said, i did something bad. the next day i went to school, trying to make everything normal again. but in reality, it wasn't normal. i took somebody's life. somebody's son, somebody's brother. you know, and thinking back on it, it's sad because that didn't have to happen.

that diplomdn't have to happen all, but it did. now i've got to deal with it. in the process of this, i want to try to help somebody else, like a guy that might have three years, make sure he don't come back as a murderer. that's my new life now. >> yeah! woo! >> but, no matter what's at stake in the game, the all-too-familiar sound of an alarm reminds the inmates of whose yard this is. >> why is everybody down? >> there's an alarm so that's just -- everybody in the institution, every time you hear an alarm, everybody gets down, all inmates. sometimes there might be a fight, there might be somebody

who is hurt. so they have to press the alarm, make sure c.o.s know what's going on. most of the time we get a lot of false alarms, but we all know whether it's real or false. >> yard's clear. >> it's off now so everybody can get up. >> that's a precaution. >> nobody rise. nobody moves. >> business as usual. >> if we don't get down, then somebody might get shot. >> good throw! >> home boy. >> underneath the tower. i'm veronica dela carouse in the msnbc newsroom with news to report. nbc news confirming that mitt romney will announce his choice for a vice presidential running mate tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. eastern in norfolk,

virginia. msnbc will, of course, have live coverage. now, previously, the campaign was saying it would use this app to announce the choice, and speculation has been swirling about potential choices. the names that have been bandied about range from rob portman, marco rubio, tim tau lenty, bobby jindal, chris christie. but it seems right now all eyes are on paul ryan, in terms of vice presidential buzz. we want to go ahead and bring in our del kelly o'donnell in high right now. kelly are you with us? >> reporter: yes, i am. >> kelly, let's go over why they would break this on a friday night. what do they really have to gain here in terms of letting all of the news organizations know they're going to do this on a friday night? >> reporter: well, first of all, they want everyone to be in place and make the biggest splash when the event occurs. it is a bit surprising it's on a friday night, this late, and the olympics are still going on. we had been given a lot of sort of indications by people who are

close to the process that it would likely not occur during the olympics for two reasons. many people are still glued to that. the attention has been consumed by the olympics. and mitt romney has his own personal tie to the olympics with his work leading the games in 2002. and you could make the case that he should not step on the olympics, if you will, that he should not step on the olympics by making the announcement. another way to look at that is by making the announcement on a saturday, mitt romney can dominate the all-important monday talk shows as well as the morning paper in people's homes on sunday morning and drive the conversation for the new week you can always analyze the timing of the choice. they may have made a call in the last days to do it tomorrow, perhaps they reacted a bit to

some events in the news, like polling that showed him slipping or perhaps they femt for quite a while that this was their plan and kept it very closely held, which is typical. usually the nominee and maybe two to three close advisers would know about this process and very slowly they began to put the wheels in motion. the campaign is a big apparatus. they have an event staged and then they choose which event is already in the plan where they made this big splash. and be able to most of all his campaign goes first, and part of

what happens is when a vp announcement is made, who did this nominee choose? what does that say about the candidate, and who is this person? what do we need to know about the running mate? and so that will eat up a considerable amount of time over the next few days and it will be a very big reflection on mitt romney. when you look back at john mccain choosing sarah palin, a huge surprise. they criticized mccain for acting i am pull civil. when you look back to john kerry, he chose john edwards. he turned to him hoping that he would bring some of his popularity in key states. so we'll have to look to mitt romney's choice for, what does this person bring to his campaign? if it is someo like paul ryan who we've had a lot of

conservative support, congressman 42 years old, a young man but he's been in congress for seven terms. he knows his way around washington. he's got a lovely family. that is always part of the picture of the campaign. he comes from an important state. wisconsin is critical. he's very popular there. he's been very popular among conservatives in part because he sort of took on all of the conventional wisdom and took on all of the p courageous thinking, his most ar dent supporters would say, in putting out a budget plan that takes on medicare. there are critics that would say it's so destructive to medicare that why would romney choose him and the budget plan for ryan which tries to deal with the deficit would change medicare over time. and that's a very controversial thing. some people think it's critical, and others think that is just too politically risky. they wouldn't touch it. if you look at someone like tim

paul l pawlenty in the state of washington, romney has said that they have loved the work that romney has done and worked tirelessly for him and a strong voice, also brings the credentials and evangelical christian which is important to many voters in the base. the religious overturns and rob portman, he's the governing choice. george w. bush working in the white house of george h.w. bush, a member of the house, and now the united states senator who was also the u.s. trade rep for the united states and that means that he had dealt with foreign leader around the world on issues like trade and that, of course, is about the economy. so each one of these potential picks brings a different story,

perhaps different attributes and might fill in parts of mitt romney for voters. romney himself said he wanted someone who would have the ability should that become necessary. someone without vision for the country. and there may be clues as to who he has selected. we won't really know until the final confirmation but we've been talking about pawlenty, a portman, and when you talk about the broader voices, some of the names that came about were jeb bush, condoleezza rice. >> marco rubio. >> absolutely. >> chris christie. >> so what happened to those names and why is the focus suddenly really on rob portman? really on paul ryan. >> well, as a candidate is

trying to make a choice, the first thing they can do is cast the net very wide and you would have men and women, people of different background, people from different regions of the country. that big lift is always out there. the smaller lift really comes down to a personal relationship with the candidate. we know that pawlenty is well thought of by the romneys and the romney team, the political team. i have personally been on the road with paul ryan and mitt romney in wisconsin and the relationship that they showed in public was certainly a warm and easy one and you, in fact, can tell sometimes if people relate well together and when you look at a rob portman, he has been doing a lot of work for romney doing fund-raisers, going to meet people, doing things that the candidate needs in a state as important as ohio. no republican has ever been elected president without winning ohio and president obama won the state -- i'm in ohio

right now -- last time. so it's a big potential. perhaps having an ohioan on the ticket, could it push them forward? so we know from this very secretive process that vetting occurs where they review the background, not only the public background and policies of these individuals who are being considered but it's a very detailed questionnaire that they've filled out that is a very deep process. they get to know their background and family and it's ultimately up to the candidate, mitt romney, to make a choice. and those who are not going to call, i would expect something -- this is a potential possibility, that there's a private plane that might be coming to take the person who has a pick to the virginia event site by 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. these things come down very late. there's a lot of behind the

scenes operation that goes into effect. but even some of the people in a campaign would not know who the choice is. we looked for clues last time with john mccain and sarah palin and, for example, no sign had been printed. no materials with her name have been put together in advance to try to keep the secret. >> well, kelly, talking about looking for the clues and reading the tea leaves, if you will, i wanted to go ahead and read you a quote from mitt romney. he was interviewed by chuck todd the other day. he said, i certainly expect that someone with a strength of character and adds something to the political discourse of the country. that's the type of vp running mate he's looking for. that is what he had said. also, he plans on making this announcement tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. at the "uss wisconsin." what can we think about that? >> perhaps the romney folks were

so clever as to have the "uss wisconsin" as a backdrop for a paul ryan since he's from wisconsin. maybe that doesn't mean anything. we just don't know yet. i think in romney's own words are an indication, a window into his thinking. you read the quote where he talked about a vision for the country and people have looked at that and said because of the choices that paul ryan made with his budget and speaking about cutting the deficit, that that might fill that sort of characteristic that romney was talking about. it's one of those things where you can look at each of the finalists and see things they bring to mitt romney. how it was done and what the conversations were, a lot of this will seem so much more clear. but this is one of washington's finest parlor games, the moment between knowing that an announcement is coming and knowing who the actual candidate is. it's an exciting time.