due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. i'm trying to make it easy. >> you're not going to get hurt. >> a distraught inmate is placed in the jail's restraint chair. >> i go crazy in here. i can't breathe. >> now staff must unravel the mystery of what has him so upset. >> how much time have you done in this jail? >> 31 years. >> a familiar face struggles to exit the jail's revolving door but there's a catch. >> he's islamic and wants to go into a christian program. that's a problem.

>> another inmate has pled guilty to manslaughter but now in an unusual legal twist he may have to stand trial for murder. >> they stated i was a monster, i would go out and kill somebody else again. >> a convicted murder stands trial for a gruesome related crime. >> god give me another chance. i said god is not here. many of the small towns in bergen county, new jersey, are considered wealthy suburbs of nearby new york city but bergen has a notable city of its honey, hackensack. outside of downtown is the

county's legal district home to its courthouses and the bergen county jail. >> state-of-the-art facility. we have 277 sworn officers as well as 58 civilians. >> close to 900 male and female inmates. most have only been charged with crimes and awaiting trial for the resolution of their cases. >> we're out here, man, we're the belly of the beast. >> many of those cases are resolved within days, but others can drag on for years. the challenge for those inmates is learning how to cope with monotony, confinement, fear and anxiety. some meet the challenge better than others. >> dixie. dixie. >> inside one of the jail's high security units, inmate paul dixon is having a difficult

time. >> paul. nobody's hurting you. put your hands through so we can get you out of here. >> dixon is naked in what is known as a single person special management cell. he was placed there earlier in the day due to erratic behavior. his clothes were replaced with a tear-proof gown to prevent self-injury or suicide. >> originally he was in a mental health housing unit and medically cleared through a psychiatrist and put in the general population. he lasted about ten minutes and was flipping out. brought him back to medical. they placed him on special management. >> put your hands through. nobody is hurting you. okay. >> paul, put the gown on. >> paul, i'm trying to make it easy. you're not going to get hurt. >> sergeant turry has decided to remove dixon from his cell and place him in a restraint chair so he can be safely evaluated by medical staff.

>> paul, relax. >> for legal reasons jail policy videotape incidents like this one. >> nobody's hurting you. listen. nobody is hurting you. okay? relax. grab him. i got the gloves on. >> intake. >> go right there. >> nonviolent. >> dixon is back in jail on a parole violation. he had been sentenced to 101 days for third degree theft. he had prior convictions for theft as well. >> we have to put him in the restraint chair until he calms down. gets evaluated once again by the medical staff then we'll take it from there. >> paul, nobody's hurting you. we're here to help you, all right? relax. >> i'm not a bad guy. >> look at me. nurse is going to come in, check you out. everything is going to be fine. just relax, poor guy.

relax, man. relax. >> for the safety of himself, saf, the institution, it's basically a cooling off period. supervised by custody staff, medical checks him out. >> roughly an hour later the officers return. dixon has calmed down and they feel he's now ready to be moved back to his special management cell. >> you've done your time in the chair. we're going to take you out of the chair. >> i want to stay in the chair. >> if that's what you want. you dwoept get what you want. you can't stay in the chair. >> i can't be in that room. i go crazy in there. i can't breathe. >> what's going to happen if you go in the room? >> you put me in medical. i won't say a word. i'll go to sleep. i can't stay in that room. >> it's the same size room. you have a window, you can see the outside. in medical, you have no window. >> please, no.

>> going over there, you chill out. eat something and you calm down. >> dixon continues begging to be housed elsewhere, but after several minutes of coaxing, he agrees to return to his cell. >> like i said, you'll see mental health tomorrow. >> in a nearby cell is edwin estrada, a friend dixon met during prior stays here. estrada says he didn't know dixon was on the unit until he was awakened by his anguished cry. >> my port was open. so i looked. i couldn't really see his face, but i remembered his voice. like, that's paul dixon. i know him. >> estrada is surprised dixon who's been to jail numerous times before was so distressed. >> not saying he was faking or anything like that. sometimes you really stress out in here. people who are not built for this. >> es trod to is going through some stress of his own. several weeks earlier, he pled

guilty to aggravated manslaughter for killing an 88-year-old world war ii veteran. the victim lived alone and was killed in his home was described by his family as a vibrant and active great-grandfather. >> i really don't want to go to hell for what happened. i'm really afraid. i don't want to spend the rest of eternity in hell. what happened was i was smoking angel dust and i had ended up in one of my friend's grandfather's house. angel dust gets you really paranoid. i just went crazy. i lost my mind. i went into the kitchen and i grabbed a pen to hit him twice or three times. the velocity of it was so fast, was so hard that the pot, itself, was bent. it was bent in. i heard him yell, turned around and i started running and i remember the only thing i do

vividly remember was me grabbing the wallet he left on the table. >> six days after the attack, estrada was arrested when he tried to use the victim's credit cards. the man regained consciousness but died 11 days later in the hospital. he was able to tell the authorities he was sitting on his couch watching tv and attacked from behind. estrada was charged with first degree murder. i'm francis. want to take you live to australia where the officials leading the search for the missing malaysian airliners jet are holding a news conference. this comes after news of pinging sounds detected in the indian ocean on three different occasions that could be connected to the plane's black box. so they are updating us any moment now. let's listen in. >> okay. good afternoon.

first of all, i'd like to start by introducing, again, peter levy, commander of the military task force doing all the great search work out at sea. father armstrong from the atsb, and mike barton. over on the left we also have our subject matter expert on underwater salvage and rescue. and that's captain matthews from the u.s. navy. he will be available for one-on-one interviews at the end of the press conference. well, good afternoon. yesterday i outlined a number of leads we were pursuing in relation to the search of the missing malaysian airlines flight mh-370. namely, the electronic pulse signals detected by the chinese

ship and an acoustic noise being pursued by the australian defense vessel ocean shield in her current location. i stated that the ocean shield would be delayed from going to the approximate area where the haishuan 0-1 detected the signals while she continued her own investigations. today i can report some very encouraging information which has unfolded over the last 24 hours. the towed pinger locator deployed from the australian defense vessel ocean shield has detected signals consistent with those emitted by aircraft black boxes. two separate signal detections have occurred within the northern part of the defined search area. the first detection was held for

approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes. the ship then lost contact before conducting a turn and attempting to reacquire the signal. the second detection on the return leg was held for approximately 13 minutes. on this occasion, two distinct pinger returns were audible. significantly, this would be consistent with transmissions from both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder. clearly, this is a most promising lead, and probably in the search so far, it's the -- it's probably the best information that we have had. and, again, i would ask all of you to treat this information cautiously and responsibly until such time as we can provide an

unequivocal determination. we haven't found the aircraft yet. we need further confirmation. and i really stress this, it's very important. ocean shield remains in the immediate area and continues to try and regain contact with the towed pinger locator. to this point, it has not been able to reacquire the signals. there are many steps yet before these detections can be positively verified as being from missing flight mh-370. firstly, we need to fix the position, then the ocean shield can lower the autonomous underwater vehicle blue fin 21 into the water and attempt to locate wreckage on the sea floor. another source of evidence such as wreckage would verify this

lead. the area in which the signals have been received has a depth of approximately 4,500 meters. this is also the limited capability of the autonomous underwater vehicle. i need to be honest with you. it could take some days before the information is available to establish whether these detections can be confirmed as being from mh-370. in very deep oceanic water, nothing happens fast. of course, i will update you once we have an unequivocal determination. ocean shield will stay in its current area until such time as it can verify or discount the detections as being from mh-370.

work continues by ocean shield to refine the pinger detection location. we will continue to follow a methodical and carefully planned process of investigation to verify or discount. a few words about today's search. up to nine military aircraft, three civil aircraft, and four ships will assist in today's search. the search area is around 234,000 square kilometers. good weather is expected throughout the day with showers in the afternoon, although this is not a -- again, i thank all the men and women assisting in the search effort. including military personnel from around the world.

of their time. the efforts of everyone involved are deeply appreciated. at yesterday's media conference, i said i would come back to you on some relevant matters. the chinese ship h-01 was on the southern extremity of the search area when it first detected a pulse signal. let me say a few words about the search area. i'm going to refer to a map which will be available on the net following this conference. now, you might all recall the analysis by the expert team that i referred to, i think, three days ago, three or four days ago. this was the analysis of the satellite signals and the

aircraft simulation work. and what that revealed was there were a series of arks which signified where each exchange or handshake occurred between the satellite and the aircraft. the sixth exchange is represented by this line here. a short time after the sixth exchange, there was another exchange with a slightly different signal. this was a matter of i think eight minutes after the sixth ping. and the expert team considered this as very significant. they think something happened at that stage. and we assessed that that's about where the aircraft would have ran out of fuel. now, the search area is the

underwater search area which is reflected here. it's the area where the aircraft might have entered the water is reflected by these boxes here. don't worry about the other areas because the aircraft have been looking at footage on the surface and been taking account of 30 days of oceanic drift. but the satellite has essentially given us this area here as the most likely place where mh-370 entered the water. now, what's significant about this is that yesterday, or couple days ago, haixun 01 had its encounter with the electronic pulse in this location here. ocean shield is currently

working up in this location there. so all of the search underwater is being enabled by that wonderful work that was done by the expert team in kuala lumpur. their work has enabled us to come up with an underwater search area which is quite narrowly focused and, you know, with the acoustic events that we're getting in the area, we are encouraged that we're very close to where we need to be. so i just put that on the table because people have asked the question, and i think we need to explain it. and what's the difference between this end of the box and that end of the box? it's the assumptions that relate to the aircraft's speed. if the aircraft was traveling slower than normal, it would be this area up here where the

aircraft might have ended up. if the aircraft was traveling faster than perhaps normal, or a bit faster than here, it would end up in this area here. so that is why we are searching in this area here and the most promising lead at this stage is the event i described first up with ocean shield in this location here. this graphic will be up on the net after this press conference. yesterday, i also stated ocean shield had a remotely operated vehicle onboard. that is not the case. the capability in that and which i've already mentioned is a blue fin 21 autonomous underwater vehicle with a side scan sonar capability for the accurate mapping of the seabed.

and, of course, it can also have a camera attached to it if the need arises. ocean shield is capable of carrying and employing a remote-operated vehicle but does not currently have one. options for the future employment of a vehicle are being collected and considered. i'm now happy to take your questions. >> if the black box batteries were to die in the next day or so, do you feel we're now close enough you'd be able to effectively find the wreckage of the plane if it is, indeed, there? >> i think that the lead we've got at the moment justifies a very thorough prosecution. obviously we're doing the first thing we're doing is trying to fix the position on the basis of the returns, the transmissions that were picked up earlier on. hopefully we'll reacquire those

transmissions, but you're right. the life of the batteries must be getting somewhere close to the end of life. it's, what, 31 days. so we're already one day past the advertised shelf life. we hope that it keeps going for a little bit longer. but then we need to go down, first of all, with the autonomous underwater vehicle to map the ocean floor. the subject matter expertise that's available will be able to determine if there's something unusual on the sea floor like aircraft wreckage. and in the event of finding something unusual, the autonomous vehicle will come back to the surface and will then be fitted with a camera and hopeful we would then be able to pick up imagery. now, i stress this is very deep water.

4,500 meters. and the limitation on depth in terms of this vehicle is 4,500 meters. so we're right on the edge of capability, and we might be limited by the capability if, for example, the aircraft ended up in deeper water. >> two-part question. one, is that possible? that signal detected by the ocean shield and the chinese ship is different, a different black box, the one belonging to the flight data recorder and the other one belonging to the cockpit voice recorder. the other question is, what's the moment, we want to know, what's the moment for official confirming that the signal is consistent or inconsistent with the aircraft? >> yeah, yep. >> it must be one of them. >> yep. in terms of both of those events, they're in the area of

probability that was worked out by the experts in kuala lumpur. so we have to prosecute both contacts. we don't know at the moment. we don't have any confirmation that one or the other is significant enough for us to say, yes, this is where the aircraft is. we have to have further confirmation. and i would put it to you that we cannot confirm until we have found some wreckage. and that's why the work that the blue fin 21, the work that it does, is absolutely vital in the immediate future. and, of course, we need a good position on the ocean floor to be able to prosecute a quick and efficient search. if we're dealing with an

imprecise position, it's going to take a lot longer because we'll have to search a much larger area. >> the timeline of the -- [ inaudible ] and also is it possible that the series of detections by the chinese, could they be sensible, or are they definitely digfferet events, one or the other? >> well, the two events, that search area is over 300 nautical miles one. one was unextremity, the other at the other extremity. so i would say unlikely that they're the same event. but in deep water, funny things happen with acoustic signals,

particularly with different temperatures layering and so on. and i might get, i might actually get commodore levy to speak to that in a second. i don't think you were here yesterday, but i referred to the fact that just before the press conference, we were starting to hear that ocean shield had made a contact, but we had no detail at that stage. and over the last 24 hours, and indeed probably for the next 24 hours, ocean shield will continue its runs back and forth over the area. i might add, this is a very time-intensive operation because it's towing a lot of cable. and to turn it around to come back again takes three hours to turn around.

>> were the detections 24 hours -- [ inaudible ] >> well, the detections, as i understand it, the first detections were around the middle of the night. not last night. night before. [ inaudible question ] >> there's been two contacts thus far, and they were early on in the process. and the precise timings i haven't got for you, but one of those contacts was 2 hours and 20 minutes. the other contact happened on the second run. so we can get the precise time for you, but it was, i would suggest it was probably several hours later. given that it takes three hours to turn the whole setup round. and the other question you had? i've answered it. great.

yep. yeah? >> in attempts of locating this pinger, i mean, how big of an area -- i mean, how are you able to locate that area at this point? is it within a couple miles or a hundred miles? >> what i might do is ask one of the subject matter experts, commodore levy, to address your question, and you might just add a little bit on some of the challenges associated with the work that's being done underwater. >> i might just open with some of the challenges we face. as you've heard, most of the, all of the detections that are happening at the moment are acoust acoustic. you can think of it essentially as deployed microphones listening for sound, and on the towed pinger locator, that's sitting approximately 3,000 meters below the surface of the ocean. unlike in air, where sound travels in a straight line, acoustic energy, sound, through the water, is greatly affected by temperature, pressure and

salinity and has the effect of attenuating, bending, sometimes 90 degrees of sound waves. it's quite possible for sound to travel great distances, but be very difficult to hear near the surface of the ocean, for instance. so it is a markedly different environment to what you see with sound traveling through air and it's a very specialized skillset that is being employed at the moment. in terms of the towed pinger locator, we're expecting around a 2,000 yard detection range, so you can picture now moving 3 knots through the water or 5 kilometers per hour with a detection range of around 2 miles. that's a very small piece of area that's being searched. ocean shield at the moment is on a fifth leg of a search that's an expanding square around that initial detection point. that will take -- or she will continue on that profile for at 24 hours.

if they gain another acoustic event on that towed pinger locator, that will be the trigger at the moment to launch the autonomous underwater vehicle with the more accurate sonar and potentially camera for mapping and visually looking at the ocean floor. at the moment, that's not deployed. the focus is on trying to reacquire the acoustic signal that hay had 24 hours ago. in terms of area, by the end of tomorrow when they've completed their runs, they expect to have a 3 x 3 mile box searched so it's quite a small area that will be searched very thoroughly, but it is a very small area and that gives hope, some sense of the challenges that they're facing out there. keep in mind, each of the runs they conduct is around 7 miles long. with the turn at the end, it takes quite some time, around seven to eight hours to do each leg and do the turn at the end. they need to steady on the new course and allow the towed pinger to complete the turn. and settle down.

so it is a very, very slow and painstaking process. we have the best in the world out there doing it, though. so we're confident that if there is the pinger out there and it's still radiating, we're quite confident we should find it, we've got the best in the world engaged in this task. thank you, sir. >> thank you very much. [ inaudible question ] >> well, i think we just have to be very, very careful. because we need to confirm it, in my view, with imagery of wreckage. [ inaudible question ] >> i don't, you know, my view is, my personal view is probably not, but as you've just heard, strange things do happen in the ocean, and i would want more

confirmation before we say this is it. the point is, this correlates very well with the work that was done in kuala lumpur, and, you know, essentially this has been done without finding any wreckage thus far. and i think it's quite extraordinary. and what i'd like to see now is us find some wreckage because that will -- that will basically help solve the mystery. and i would ask you to respect that, because fundamentally, without wreckage, we can't say it's definitely here. we've got to go down and have a look and hopefully we'll find it somewhere in the area that we've narrowed to. >> how optimistic are you at this point? >> well, i'm much more

optimistic than i was a week ago. some of you saw me a week ago. i was really concerned because we hadn't found any wreckage which is usually, i think in most other searches of this nature, the narrowing of the search area and the eventual finding of the downed aircraft has been enabled by wreckage on the surface. just wait a minute. and essentially this, to my knowledge, right in the middle of the ocean, this is quite an extraordinary, extraordinary set of circumstances that we're now in a very well-defined search area which hopefully will eventually yield the information that we need to say mh-370 might have entered the water just

here. yeah? >> i think you said there were two distinct pings returned. [ inaudible ] >> yeah. >> did you get a sense of how -- [ inaudible question ] >> i will get -- i'll get the subject matter expert to have a word. i've heard the -- i've heard the -- what we've got is a visual indication on a screen. and we've also got an audible signal. and the audible signal sounds to me just like an emergency locator beacon. and what we're talking about, there were two separate pingers. what we're probably looking at on the second run is the fact that we probably had not only the main emergency locator beacon, but also the cockpit

voice recorder. if that's, you know, that's the sort of signals we were getting. do you want to say any more on that? >> thanks. my understanding is there were around 2,000 yards, just under 2,000 yards apart. of note, the first detection was made whilst the towed pinger locator had been retracted, so it was much, much shallower. the reason they do that is at the end of each turn, as the ship pushes around, ocean shield reverses course. if they don't retract the towed pinger, the effective movement through the water slows down, the pinger will sink because the effective ship movement is reduced. so they -- it's brought up close to the surface. that also helps speed up the turn. and once they're around it, it's deployed fully again. so the first detection was obtained whilst the towed pinger locator was at a relatively shallow depth. and given that it's within about 800 yards to 2,000 yards, the two detections, that would be consistent with the sound

anomalies that i mentioned before. the different propagation paths. so it's quite possible that even though they assess it to be within 1,800 yards apart, it's quite possible it could be from the same source on the seabed. [ inaudible question ] >> well, we're very focused at the moment on exhausting the investigation into that source. and that's going to take quite some considerable period of time. for example, for the rest of the day, i would imagine and probably into tomorrow, we will still be doing towed pinger runs over this area. now, when that's finished, probably the next thing would be to let's say if we find we're able to fix the location, we

will send the autonomous underwater vehicle straight down. if we're unable to fix the location, the people who are out there have to do an analysis of everything they've got and make an assessment as to whether they would deploy the underwater vehicle to go down and have a look in the most likely area. so i would anticipate that's what will happen. the underwater vehicle will be deployed. and will continue the work. and just to emphasize, again, if we have a large area of uncertainty, it will take several days to actually cover a fairly what would appear to be a fairly small area. things happen very slowly at the

depths that we're dealing with. do you want to say any more about that? i think that covers it. >> this search area, are there any waters that are deeper than 4,500? >> absolutely. we're dealing with very deep water. some of the water out there exceeds 5,000 meters which is going to be very challenging and very demanding and we will need -- we will need other vehicles to go down there to that depth. sorry. could we -- this gentleman here, first, please. >> we can see from information by the research. [ inaudible question ] >> no, not at all. not at all. because i mentioned the need to find wreckage.

we have not seen any wreckage at all yet, and i think in previous incidents, accidents, involvie ing aircraft over the water, sometimes quite a big piece of wreckage is found in the water. witness what happened with the air france disaster a few years ago. the only large piece of wreckage that was found on the surface was actually the tail. so i think we need to continue the search and, again, i emphasize, this is not the end of the search. we've still got a lot of difficult, painstaking work to do to confirm that this is, indeed, where the aircraft entered the water. i would not be prepared to confirm that this is the spot where the aircraft is at the

present on the present evidence. we need more evidence, and the best evidence we could find is imagery from the autonomous vehicle that suggests the wreckage is on the bottom of the ocean and a photograph that demonstrates that. and we can then say this is where the aircraft entered the water and the wreckage is on the floor of the ocean. >> on the floor of the ocean, what would be the next step? >> well, we then go into -- we then go into the recovery operation. and the recovery operation, as we saw with the air france circumstances, will take a long, long time. and just depending on the circumstances, i'm not prepared to speculate about that. we would need to -- the starting point will be to sort of map where wreckage is and all the

rest of it. and that will take a period of time and that will be the vital starting point for whatever unfolds after that. but it's very deep water. very difficult. i guess i was involved as chief of the defense force with the recovery of a helicopter off the coach of fiji. we knew exactly where the helicopter went into the water. and it took us a long, long time to recover the blackhawk and the person who was inside it. i just emphasize, nothing will happen quickly. we're talking about a long operation here which will be measured in months and we have yet to find the aircraft. okay? one more question. and i'll take it over here. [ inaudible question ] >> yes, yes.

apparently they've been checked out and they have no relationship to mh-370. ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for coming today. and i'm sorry, we could be here all day. thank you very much for coming along. and, again, i stress, we need to think about the families here. we have a promising lead, but we have yet to get the confirming evidence. and that will be a long process. but we have been as open as we can be with you. we're hiding nothing. and that's the circumstances as they stand right now. thank you very much. >> search officials there in perth, australia, saying and calling this the most significant, most promising lead they have so far in the search for missing malaysian airlines, the jet, flight 370. they have basically said that in this search with the search in

that area, they have detected signals consistent with the transmission sent out by the black boxes of this missing malaysian jet. they were able to hold on to some of these transmissions for as long as 2 hours and 20 minutes. they lost that signal and were able to, again, get it and listen to these pings for about 13 minutes. they are calling it the most promising lead so far in this search. let's bring in nbc's ian williams who is there in perth, australia, about this. of course, they say this is promising. they're boosting the hopes in this search. again, cautioning that they do need more proof before they can actually connect this to the missing jet. >> reporter: >> that's right. we saw angus cautious as ever, saying, yes, this is probably the best lead we had. two detections. one lasting 2 hours, 20 minutes. then another one lasting 13 minutes. which he says were consistent with the plane's black boxes. now, what he also said was that

the towed pinger has been unable to reacquire those signals and is now working again in the area. should it reacquire them, they'll then be in a position to send down that underwater vehicle. but he warned that the depth of the ocean there is 4,500 which by my calculations which is about 15,000 feet. and that's the limit of that underwater vehicle which the ocean shield is carrying. also, ever cautious, he said that what we still don't have is wreckage. and until there is some wreckage, he said i'd really like to see wreckage. until that's the case, we can't confirm that that's where the aircraft went down. but certainly that was a much more upbeat angus houston than we've seen for a long time. and i do think that the next few days will be crucial, although he was also warning that we might not see a breakthrough

very quickly, frances. >> he twhactually mentioned it could take days before they're able to make that connection, that this is that of the plane, especially with the word of the autonomous vehicle being lowered to the ocean floor and the difficulty you mentioned in searching for wreckage. it seems like once that vehicle reaches the very bottom of the ocean floor, which is actually the limit that it's capable, he mentioned 4,500 meters. then they'll fit it with a camera and take images there in hopes of finding any kind of wreckage connecting it to the plane. >> reporter: that's right. he said that they wouldn't bring in other assets, other underwater vehicles that perhaps have more versatility. that can stay down there longer and go to greater depth. it was interesting when he talked about the speed at which the underwater pinger locator can be dragged. it's pretty slow and quite painstaking were the words that he used. but he believed that they do

have pretty good evidence, the best lead as he put it, but, you know, ever cautious that it could take days before they're able to establish whether this is, or these are signals from the black boxes. the data recorder. the voice recorder. so i think promising, but cautious there. >> definitely when you hear it's the most promising lead so far. definitely significant. the past 24 hours as far as these develops. nbc's ian williams from perth, australia, thank you for being with us. joining me on the phone, anthony roman, president of roman and associates. licensed commercial pilot and former corporal pilot. let's hear from you, sir, especially when the clock is ticking here and we know that the battery life of these black boxes should be ending any moment now. how significant is that when it comes to continuing and picking up the transmission from these pingers again?

>> this is very exciting news. the best news we've had in the last 30 days since the aircraft has gone missing. now these pingers can last as long as 45 days, and often do last far more than 30 days. so we're hopeful since they've narrowed the search area to now to several mile area that they will be able to reacquire this signal. narrow it down with the side scan sonar and perhaps pick up some underwater wreckage. >> anthony, let's talk about this hypothetical. in the event the actual batteries of these transmissions of black boxes die, they're pretty confident about this search area here. will they be able to go ahead and continue on as far as other autonomous vehicles being placed on the ocean floor? if, in fact, those black box detecters, the pingers die from the battery life? >> well, if those black boxes

pinger batteries die, it will become a much longer search. we're not then talking months. we are now talking years. side scan sonar has its limitations. it can reach out approximately one-half mile from its bottom, and each lateral side. and has to be towed at about 3 knots. and so it can -- it can take a very, very long time to try and locate the wreckage. in addition, you have the acoustic anomalies that were described by angus houston's subordinates during the press conference. the pingers can behave in a very funny acoustical way in deep, deep water in which they're located. the sound signals can bend 90

degrees. they can be heard 300 miles from their source. they can be heard 20 miles from their source. so the pingers' battery dying would be a real complication here. >> sure. not to mention that the acoustic equipment can actually rebound, so to speak, echo throwing things off even more. so it is promising they were able to hold on to the sound consistent with the transmission of airplane black boxes for over two hours and then again pick it up for 13. how crucial is it for them to find it? because at this point they said they're trying to regain contact but have not been able to get those signals once again. are you there, sir? >> yes. i'm here. >> yep. were you able to hear my question? i know that they told us that they're trying to regain contact but they've not been able to get those pings after hearing it once for two hours, over two hours then another time for 13 minutes. how crucial is it for them to find it any time now in the next 24 hours or even in the days to

come? >> i think it's very crucial. and i don't know if you heard my previous answer. but if the pingers die -- >> boxers emit an ultrasonic pulse or pinging. the pulse is typically picked up by sonar. >> sorry about that video there. go ahead. continue, please. >> is lost because the batteries die, we are now looking at a search that may take years, not months. so it is critical that they attempt to locate that pinger signal again. in addition, you have acoustic anomalies in which the pinger in very deep water, the signal can bend 90 degrees and travel great, great distances. so it's very important that within the next few days, they narrow down the search area more. >> all right. certainly a turning point that the world, especially the families have been waiting to

hear. anthony roman, we appreciate your perspective this morning. >> good night. just to recap, from officials out of perth, australia, calling this the most significant, most promising lead so far in the search for the missing malaysian airliner flight 370 this morning. the search ships were able to detect signals consistent with the transmission of airplane black boxes after over the weekend chinese ships were able to find and detect two pings, australian ship found another. they said they've heard six more pings that were heard this consistent with the transmission from black boxes. also with a caution that more proof needs -- more proof is needed before they actually connect this to the missing jet. keep it right here on msnbc throughout the night. and the morning. and also on msnbc.com. we'll keep you up to date on the very latest in the search for missing malaysian airliner flight 370. we take you now back to.

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compared to prison where the inmates have all been sentenced and know how long they will serve, life in jail is a world of uncertainty. >> spread your legs. >> nearly every day resolution arrives for someone. >> we're going to take you out of the chair. >> i can't be in that room. i'm claustrophobic. i go crazy in there. >> paul dixon put on a show in order to manipulate his housing assignment. >> you're going to cell one, if you cause problems you're going to end up back in the chair. >> it didn't work. one month after that incident, he's a free man. >> paul dixon, you violated probation for your original charge of third degree theft, was released yesterday. >> dixon will still be on probation. now he has another chance to make it on the outside. the future seems less bright for his friend, edwin estrada.

after admitting to killing an 88-year-old man by striking him numerous times with a kitchen pan, estrada's plea deal of 27 years was revoked by a judge who decided the sentence was too lenient. estrada is hopeful for a new plea deal but faces the possibility of going to trial for murder and a potential life sentence if found definitely. >> hi, frankie, it's jackie from mental health. how are you? i'm coming down to see estrada. >> helping him through it is mental health clinician, jackie gill. >> because edwin is facing very sears charges and his case has taken some twists and turns that we didn't expect i've been seeing him the whole time he's been here. good morning. we've just worked with the possibility of life. that's the reality he's going to prison for a long time. so to skirt around that issue would do him a disservice. >> i have a new attorney and stuff. i'm working trying to get something like 15 to 20. with this new attorney.

>> that would be a lot different than -- >> i would happy -- -- >> -- what we planned for. >> i wouldn't be happy. i would be content. >> how realistic do you think that option is, the lower end. >> the lower number? >> i just want you to be and we've talked about this all the time about being realistic as to what the situation is and realistic of all the possible outcomes. >> yeah. >> so, you know, whereas 15 to 20 would be great, we've also talked about 28 and we've also talked about 40 and life. >> that's crazy. >> it is crazy. >> no way i'll accept a plea deal for 40. i might as well go to trial. that's crazy. i'm not going to do that. like you say you have to be realistic. at the same time, i need to look at both sides, you know what i'm saying? i have to look at being realist eng and at the same time look at being hopeful and stuff. >> there's always hope but it's a slippery slope because you don't want to bash their hope or hinder their hope, but you've got to balance it with the

reality. >> hopefully if everything goes well because i can't do life. >> step in. step in. >> next day estrada leaves jail for the court hearing that will change the rest of his life. >> the victim's family they want me to do life. if i was in their position, i could sigh wheee where they're from, bullt i just don't think deserve to do life. >> just before he enters the courtroom estrada is summoned to a private meeting with his attorney where he presumably will learn his fate. moments later he has his answer. >> there's no deal today. they want to bring me to trial. i'm fine with that, you know. >> i thought earlier said you -- >> i can't do anything about it, so i have to accept the fact i'm going to trial. if i lose, i end up getting probably life.

>> estrada was 18 when he was arrested for this case. >> watch your step, gentlemen. watch your step. >> the same age as paul abdul wiggins when he first came to jail on an armed robbery charge. that was 31 years ago. and wiggins has been in and out of jail 40 times since then. but he says now he's finally ready to take advantage of the opportunity afforded him to do better. though she had some concerns about his muslim faith being a good fit, inmate advocate dawn was able to place wiggins in a christian halfway house where he'll receive drug counseling, job training and life skills programs. >> today the lieutenant called me down and informed me that i was going into the program and i should be leaving sometime next week. so i'm just hoping the program is right for me and do me some good because this ain't doing me nothing. i heard a lot about the program.

i heard a few guys who went there, they told me the program was good and they could help me, so, i need help. >> this is your first program all the years you've been going through us and coming through here this is the first time you're ready for a program. >> two of my greatest fears is me dying in prison, and my mother passing while i'm in here. i don't want that to ever happen. >> that's motivation. >> so, before i start -- >> go ahead, go ahead, my man. >> be good, all right? >> all right.

a 15-year-old louisville boy is murdered in his home, and a young man is taken into custody. >> he wasn't the one that was supposed to be killed. his mama was the one they was going for. >> the accused murderer's case collides with that of one of the jail's most infamous inmates. >> they call him hot boy. that's not somebody you need to be testifying against. >> j.r. jones. hot boy. mr. tony montana. that's me.