>> msnbc takes you behind the world of the world's most notorio notorious, lock up raw. i think it would be ina inaccurate to say there's never a dull moment in prison, actually there's plenty of dull moments in prison, it's just that all that is broken up with moments of sheer terror. there's a lot of bottled up

negative energy in prison and as our lock up crews found out many times you never when things can explode. >> the assault was a cup of urine thrown in an officer's face yesterday. >> the day we arrived the colorado state penitentiary a super max prison, we found a sterile steel environment, steel doors behind which inmates are locked up 23 hours a day. but despite his surroundings, inmate shawn shields was in high

spirits. when he sat down with us, he was eager to help our producer get the interview under way. >> quiet on the scene, bone head. just kidding. all right. let's roll. >> he calmly told us how he got 16 years added to his original sentence of 12 for robbery. >> me and another inmate had an altercation, i manipulated the door so it wouldn't latch completely, and when he came out to walk i came down after him and proceeded to stab him. >> why? >> it was just a verbal altercation. there is a lot of verbal altercations between people. you got to understand, there's 16 men living together behind closed doors, stress, animositiy towards one another in some cases and it is not always a pleasant place to be.

>> when inmates erupt no one is safe, including staff. >> we had an inmate that was on his way to the reck yard and came behind an officer and used a drog toerogatory statement an told him he was going to be taken away for that and he leaned forward tooz braand bit arm and severed the nerve in my arm and i now have permanent damage. >> while officer mill's bite wound was severe it was not nearly as terrifying as what his feller officer experienced.

hostage negotiators are outside hill's cell, moments late fer, over powered a female correctional officer and shackled her with her own restraints and she was now at knife point in his cell. meanwhile the emergency response team suits up and the team quietly assembles undetected outside the cell door. >> here we go. coming in. >> at a precise moments, the door opens and the team rushes in setting in a flash bang grenade. >> the team uses pepper spray to subdue the inmate. within seconds, the still shack

willing -- shackled office is pulled to safety. a short time later, hill is also removed from the cell. though dazed by the effect of the pepper spree he was uninjured he got an extension on his sentence. river bend's emergency response team regularly trains for crisis where a cell extraction is called for. our crew was there to cover one session. >> as you can see, when you get that many people in these small

cells it makes a havoc being able to operate in there. >> straighten him out. there you go. straighten him out. >> that's the reason we do more training. the more training you do, the better you get, the less injury you have, on the inmate or the staff. >> during the course of our shoot at river bend, the extraction team would assemble once again but this time it would be for real. the incident was triggered when officers conducted a routine cell search for weapons in maximum security. >> if they can get their hands on a piece of metal they will try to make shanks. >> we search a lot. we search as much as we can.

we make sure they don't have contraband like weapons, drugs, money. >> it was during the search we first met terel who was serving an 8 year sentence for carjacking. >> they try to see what we got. they leave things on us that we ain't supposed to have. >> his cell is thoroughly searched. >> sometimes they hide shanks in their boots. put stuff in the bottom of them. they got 12 hours at night, so it is possible. they are not allowed to have anything on the doors. i'm just going to take them down. >> even something as seemingly

harmless as a set of head phones could be considered contraband. >> every item had to be documented and approved by the prison officials. there was no record of his head phones so they were confiscated by the search team. >> later, he is led back to his cell. >> we followed him back to his cell really have no idea how he would react. cell searches are fairly common. so we weren't expecting anything in particular, as it turned out, the head phones were really a big deal. inmates have so little when they are in prison that the slightest things become precious. >> why you take my head phones. >> there wasn't a number on

them. >> a short time later he returns for the head phones. >> though he is agitated, our producer attempts to interview him about living in maximum security. >> terel, where are you. >> right here. >> tell me what life is like in maximum.

12k3w >> our producer didn't know how meaningful her next question would become. >> the next day our crew found the cell extraction team suiting up for action. he had assaulted two officers. coming up. >> the assault was a cup of urine thrown in an officer's face. >> he raraises the stakes. [ woman #1 ] why do i cook?

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>> during a routine cell search

at the river bend maximum security institution in tennessee, a pair of contra band head phones was removed from terel's cell, by the next day things had escalated. >> the river band team was assaulted a cup of you're iurin and a coke bottle thrown at the back of the officer's head. so we are pulling out every hard object, they are getting ready to forcibly remove an uncooperative inmate from the cell.

they take these procedures serious and the threat they pose. >> inside the cell block an officer gives terel one last chance to comply. >> i'm going to ask you one time. if you don't comply, you know what's it goes to be. >> with terel still refusing orders, the extraction team moves in. >> on the bed. right down. >> don't resist. >> don't resist. >> i ain't resisting. >> turn him over, face down. >> take him on out to the reck

yard. >> he is taken outside while his cell is cleared. >> don't resist now when we take these off. >> medical staff is always called in after a cell extraction to check the inmate for injuries. though they did not find any, his complaints continue. >> you're cutting off my circulation man, loosen them off my rest. >> if you could comply we wouldn't have to go through this. >> [ bleep ] you all taking my [ bleep ] [ bleep ] [ bleep ] . >> everything went according to the way it was supposed to. he was taken out of his cell and

all of the hard items were removed. got him restrained on the reck yard. he was checked out. there was no injuries. most of what he was doing was thee at rickal. and we moved him back into his house. he's be back there for two hours. when he wants to comply with procedures he will be removed from restraints. nobody got hurt. >> he eventually completed his sentence in february 2008. but another memorable inmate featured on lock up may never know such freedom. >> i was accused of assaulting an inmate with a padlock so that's what i'm in here for. >> when we met dante in iowa he

was spending his third day in the administrative segregation unit, also known as the hole. authorities say he brutally attacked another inmate with a padlock stuffed in a sock. >> do you have a violent past. >> i'm violent when i'm provoked. >> he is already serving a life sentence for kidnapping but he could be locked in the cell 23 hour as a day if found guilty. >> i was in the wrong place at the wrong time. i was in the area, i was pushed out of the way aft inmate was trying to get away from his -- the person that assaulted him. >> he was anxiously awaiting to plead his case. he let us know that it meant losing his television, the

location of his cell at least made it possible to keep up with current events. >> they divorced. >> three days later, he was about to face his own life altering event, his hearing on the assault charge. >> he's being charged with a serious rule violation and anybody that's locked up comes in handcuffs and the dog is extra security. >> not only to protect staff

from him but since he is believed to have assaulted another inmate it will also protect him from revenge seekers during the walk to the hearing. >> coming up, how can i understand the report and i don't even know what weapon it is. >> the hearing heats up as he and the judge face off. >> now you tell me what the weapon is. >> if you choose to be hard headed then there's nothing more i can do. to climb the empire state building. and then climb it again 1,000 times. your heart is amazing. take care of it with centrum silver. multivitamins with b vitamins and lycopene to help support your heart and packed with key nutrients to help support your eyes and brain, too. centrum silver. for the most amazing parts of you. centrum silver. ♪

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>> as the state penitentiary in iowa, dante faces the possibility of one year in the hole for allegedly assaulting another inmate with a homemade weapon, a lock in a sock. >> anything you say may be used against you in criminal prosecution. >> our cameras were with him as he was about to plead your case during a disciplinary hearing.

after addressing procedural matters, administrative law judge reads a correctional officers account of the assault. >> determining inmate assaulted [ bleep ] with a weapon and required stitches and broke a hand that was trying to block the weapon. i will share the pictures of the assault and before me i have the sock with theinside, i have the statement from the staff member that located that. >> i have nothing to do with the assault. i was on the stairs and the inmate ran by me. i believe i was mistaken by me being pushed aside when he was running that i was the one who assaulted him.

>> inmates who provided statements will remain anonymous in statements like this. but it is up to the judge to determine their credibility. >> do have any enemies. >> no i don't. people i gamble with. >> who are they. >> i'm not going to disclose any names. >> i'm giving you opportunity to provide to me names of people who may not be credible. if you choose not to provide those names, that's entirely up to you. >> how can i defend myself when you say there's a weapon involved and i don't know what the weapon is. >> i showed it to you. >> now you tell me what the weapon is, in the report it don't say nothing about what the weapon is. >> is there anything else you want to say. >> yes you have no evidence. how can you say it was my padlock. >> there were multiple witnesses. >> how do you know they were

credible. >> that's my responsibility to determine their credibility as i attempt to determine your credibility. you've given every opportunity to give a defense and your defense is you have nothing to do with this. >> you have the opportunity to make sure the report clearly states when where how and who. >> the standard of evidence is some evidence that could be the report of some staff member. hopefully i will use a greater standard for you, and i usually do, but that is all that is required to make a finding in this institution. now whether you accept that or not is entirely up to you. i've answered your questions and at this point i'm going to conclude your testimony. >> you're telling me the padlock is mine and you haven't even proved it is mine. >> you may have a chair in the

other room. >> that's what i'm talking about. he can't even approve it is mine. >> i believe i have a pretty clear understanding of due process, i'm not certain he does, we have met that requirement. >> it is pretty serious, you know what i mean, to look at what really happened. >> it's only a matter of moments before the judge is ready to render a decision. >> sir, my finding is assault with a weapon class a violation, accountability for that is 365 days of disciplinary detention and forrit you're of 265 days earned time and you will be required to pay any medical cost associated with this incident. you may go.

>> coming up on lock up raw, inmates gone wild, the story behind this take down and one brawling inmate learns how effective non-lethal weapons can be. anncr: you're working hard. all day. every day. and it shows... eight million new jobs. new businesses. new factories. new hope. still, it's harder than it should be to raise a family... save for retirement. so president obama is urging congress to give america... a raise. his plan raises the minimum wage to ten ten an hour. and requires equal pay for women to boost family incomes.

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>> president obama is not attending the olympics but he has a message wirnishing all ofe athletes well in sochi. joe biden says there's no reason

not to run for gres. . >> when lock up producers travelled to the correctional facility in illinois he walked through tone of the nation's mot historic buildings, the friction between staff and inmate seems every bit as old. >> during our shoot, our disruptive new inmate had just

been removed from his cell and was being taken into segregat n segregation. our cameras were there as they attempted the transfer. first a brief stop to do paperwork. >> don't mitt had he man, for real, he hit me man. >> we just received him in from the county. he was upset for one reason for other, i don't even know what it was, he was being aggressive, i told him to have a seat in the back of the cell and remain quiet. he wouldn't. disobeyed and it progressed since then. >> i didn't hit you. >> you did hit me on my momma. i swear [ bleep ] when i leave you want to hit me again. man, don't hurt me man. >> as captain morgan processes

the paperwork. the inmate continues his tirade against him. captain morgan completes the paperwork and then escorts him towards segregation, a 23 hour a day lock up for inmates who violate prison rules. >> i was told to lock him up in our cell unit. when the inmate turns morgan tightens his grip but it soon gets much more intense. >> he tried to pull away from me and that's when i through him to the ground until i could get more security help.

>> no. no. no. hold on hold on. >> i'm going to walk, on my momma, i'm going to walk. >> no you ain't walking jack. >> those charges were insole ens, assault, he spit on me. he hwill go to a panel and plea his case against my disciplinary report i give him and they will do whatever is just. >> while he received an extended term in segregation, combative inmates always risk suffering physical consequences as well. wherever inmates congregate, there is usually an overhead post, manned by armed correctional officers. extreme violence breaks out. these officers may use lethal

means as a last result but they usually stop most assaults through verbal orders. if that doesn't work they have an arsenal of non-lethal weapons including ones that fire wood blocks they can leave a lasting impression. as we discovered at at kern valley state prison in california. >> i don't even remember if i got shot. i don't even know if i got shot. >> we often talk about the non-lethal weapons they use but it is not often we end up actually seeing what those weapons do. and such is the case with george johns, this is something that happened just the night before. we're lucky to talk to him. >> during our shoot at kern valley, inmate george johns is serving eight years for being involved in a high speed chase

while on parole started a fight and we met him the following morning. >> what happened. >> i had a personal problem, i was in the chow hall eating and got irritated and decided i don't like this guy, i'm going to fight him, that's it. >> next thing you remember? >> they were dragging me out telling me i got hit in the head with a block hit. >> the shooting left john's with seven staples and a wound still caked with dry blood, he says the scar running towards the back of his head was a result of getting run over when he was younger. >> you knew the other guy you fought with. >> yeah kind of sort. i didn't like him. >> i was eating my dinner at a table way down at the corner of

the chow hall and the guy was running and he blind sided me and smacked me down to the ground. >> he is the inmate of the attack. >> he tries to intimidate other people and trying to manipulate or whatever. >> though asked why he started the fight he was never specific. >> if you can't tell me what's going on then tell me. >> i just told you. i ain't going to tell me i didn't like him. he didn't spit in my soup, he just progressed to the point where i felt i had to kick his as, i just exploded. i have a bad impulse problem. >> but a heart has his sus

pinnin suspicions why it occurred. >> he chose to attack me right in front of the cops in the chow hall, i consider that to be a pc move on his heart. >> he was just saying that other guy john's was doing a pc move. he's trying to say heos drug money on the yard or something like that so he is doing that so he is in the hole so he doesn't get stabbed in the yard. when he's in the hole he doesn't have contact with other inmates. so they do something in front of the cops and get sent to the hole and stay here until a later date. they will eventually have to deal with it. but for a short time he's safe in here. >> he gets sentenced to time in the hole but never confirmed whether it was on purpose or not. >> was it worth it. >> not really. but at the time, i didn't even think about the consequences, i didn't think about falling down and getting pepper sprayed or

getting staples, didn't think about none of that. . up next -- >> prison made whiskey. got prunes in it. >> alcohol inside correctional institutions are a great big problem. when inmates get drugged. in the nation... what's precious to you is precious to us.

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>> he got his nickname while working as a sparring partner to a heavy weight boxer. >> every time i get to the ropes he jabs me too hard so i snapped the gloves off and attacked him. i bit him. and when they broke us up and found the blood on him it was the shape of a gator. >> they call me coco joans. >> they call me stinky. >> everyone started calling me drac for short. >> kprrwhat is it. >> they just gave it to me. >> i got to hustle. >> ben quick, i don't know how i got that one. >> coyote, it is a nickname my

grandpa gave me when i was a baby. >> they call me outlaw. >> self explanatory. >> yeah, self explanatory. >> they call me doo like coal mine's daughter, not the daughter part. but doo little on there. >> the name hustle got me here, so sometimes it ain't good to hustle. >> while nicknames are common in prison we've discovered something else is as well, but it's not as harmless. >> prison made whiskey, called juice, it's got prunes in it. they wait until it ferm n eents

good, has a strong whiskey aroama. >> it goes by many names, pruno, hooch, white lightning, our crews have seen about it in every prison we film. >> alcohol is used daily, it is a very big problem. it takes a short amount of time to make it and everyone does it. so it is a constant cat and mouse game. >> this is the regular garbage bag and inside you smell the sweet smell of the pruno and apples. i would say to serve up to five or ten people, all depending, some of them actually even sell the pruno. >> you have a cocktail in it

here. >> i guess if you know the right person, i'm sure you could. i've got caught with it but i don't know the make up and how to do it. >> but we've met 20 officers and inmates who. >> we've given everything they need for it, we have to give them fresh fruit, you need something with sugar, extra sugar helps, we don't give them that but you can get candy from your issue, you need containers to keep it in, we give them little milk cartens, if they can't to destroy state property the mattresses and pillows are all in plastic cases they make very nice bags. then you need heat, you have lamps, they give off heat.

sugar, water, fruit, container, and heat. three to five days, you got drinkable pruno. >> inmates can choose from a wide array of ingredients to brew their hooch. >> grape fruits, pieces, sugar, yeast, anything they can get their hands on. >> of the many experts we've met, the true had to be right in the heart of california's central valley wine country. >> we have pruno made from oranges and fruit that we let sit and rot and we pour it into a bag and make mush and add a lot of hot water and let it sit with a lot of sugar to allow it

to ferment and then we take it from the bag and strain it, keeping all the muck out of it, we use 40 apples and two boxes of sugar, you come up with three gallons of pruno and you can sell each tumble cost $10. so 16 ounce for $10 or just get drunk all you want. >> he then told us about a much more momentent conkauks. >> the second one we have is light white lightning, similar to jack daniels, it is like 100%. >> and it has a dark side. >> pruno gets you drunk, that under the influence trip where as white lightning you can drink half of cup of white lightning

and if i ask a common question like can i see your id, because you have that white lightning in your system you immediately get violent. a lot of dudes maybe it will take six or seven dudes bring him day. >> at pelican bay we saw a hand drawn illustration in a cell search. >> i found that in an inmate's cell to explain to people how to manufacturer pure alcohol, that's what they are making, it is ever clear, 150 proof is not your regular pruno. >> this is the final result. this here is about the ee equivalent as grain alcohol. >> it takes like whiskey without

any cut. some guys in prison would cut it with cool aid or something because it is too strong, and then we have other inmate that's just down it just raw and a lot of these dudes that make this, they don't realize the bacteria that they are drinking could give them tb and other things. >> but since dunken inmates could lead in big trouble officers are constantly on the inmate. >> they will find it and three days later same cell they're making alcohol again. we have over 3,000 inmates doing this. >> coming up on lock up raw. >> one of the items that he makes the most of, spiders it says here that the confiscated art work of

america's most infamous inmate. helps reduce the risk of heart disease. keep heart-healthy. live long. eat the 100% goodness of post shredded wheat. doctors recommend it. that's my end goal, that's my end destination. for me, even a quick weekend trip to kind of reset makes me a better athlete. [ male announcer ] be a weekender like ashley wagner at hotels like hilton and hampton. book now at hiltonweekends.com.

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>> while some inmates might spend their time behind bars creating mayhem we met plenty of others who use their time in prison to do something constructive. for many that means turning to art. part majors had been in and out of prison for the last 23 years when we met him in the maximum security institution in tennessee. >> it is therapeutic because it gives me a chance to escape and release a lot of tension. i can look at the situations in the world today and what i can't say verbally i can say in a picture. because they say a picture says a thousand words i guess this is my way of saying a thousand words.

chalk pastels, pen and ink. if they gave me a stick and mud i would use it. anything i can get my hands on i can use. >> and some prison artists, especially those confined to high security sells nearly have to go through such length to create such art. >> all i need is some color in a pen. >> we could only shoot his art outside his cell at pelican bay. a correctional officer offered to hold it in place for our camera. >> but at another california prison one inmate's art work is either immediately confiscated and destroyed or kept in a secured location. the inmate is charles manson.

>> we have some manson memb memorabilian since he's been here in cochran. a recent mug shot shows how much he has aged since first coming to prison. his art work provides a unique insight. >> this is scorpion made from various types of items, socks and t-shirts and towels, and he creates it and this is probably one of the items he makes the most of, and spiders. i would assume this is something like a harp and he's made it out of toilet paper and newspaper,

looks like some dental floss, a small stick, and probably for the coloring, he used kool-aid for it. he's not allowed to have it. occasionally we go through and do cell sources and confiscate all items. he zrnt a hobby card and other inmates try to put it on e-bay and sell it so we confiscate it and dispose of it. >> how does he react. >> sometimes he is passive and sometimes he is angry and threatens us but for the most part he is passive because he knows all he can do is make more. >> there's one other remnant of manson's artistic interest hanging on the wall of the officer's wall.

>> this is when the inmates in maximum security were able to defeat the security lock and got through there and manson was in the yard playing guitar and they end under breaking it. >> they ended up breaking his guitar so we took it. he wasn't hurt or anything. we came out pretty quick. the guy that came into the yard is more scared than manson he broke the guitar up and got down and complied with orders. >> any ideas what manson was singing. >> i have no idea what he was playing, yeah, no, i don't know.

due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. to me, this place is dr. frankenstein and we are the monsters. >> one of the state's most infamous inmates tries to convince the prison officials he's changed. >> that sounds like a threat. >> no, that's water under the bridge. >> corrections staff investigate a potential escape plot. >> you understand why we would have concerns with an offender having an 11-foot rope? >> there is nothing for me to do. >> we've also given one of our cameras to the inmates to tell their own stories. >> hello, everybody. m