>> due to mature subject matter viewer discretion is advised. >> msnbc takes you behind the walls of america's notorious prisons into a world of chaos and danger. now, the scenes you have never seen. "lockup raw." >> that's enough. there is to be no talking, period. >> one behind the other, single file line. >> a prominent research study estimates that one in 31 american adults are either incarcerated, on probation, or on parole.

just as interest many of the inmates we met told us that they prefer serving out their sentences in prison to being freed on parole. >> they say it's difficult to find work and that the parole rules are so strict that they can make a simple mistake and end up back in prison where they cause more pain for their families and further tarnish their reputation. >> few inmates illustrated the problem of walking the thin line of parole better than one we met at the hillsborough county jail in tampa, florida. his name is lester jones. >> we entered one of the dorm housing units we noticed a guy, very large, working out on the yard. at the same time one of the inmates was telling us we needed to interview the the jail's resident poet. it turned out to be the same guy. >> lock him up, throw away the key. prisons built faster and further than the eyes can see. constructed to house you, me and all our families. nothing more than modern day

slavery. lock them up throw away the key. home of the brave, land of the free. millions of americans locked up in the pebt pent. if you are so brave and wild why can't you relate to the juvenile. wake up you sleeping fools, you're headed for the pen. then it would be too late, everyone will see that they are safely locked us up and threw away the key. >> thanks a lot. [ applause ] >> even though jones was popular among other inmates and spent time in prison, he struggled with some aspects of life in the dormitory style housing unit he shared with 71 other men. >> i never really liked open dorms. i'm a person that's like cleanliness. a lot of people when they sneeze or cough don't cover up. you know, sometimes i can be sitting there eating and somebody just sneezing and

sneezing and not covering their mouth. i try to cover my food and dang, what's wrong with these people. probably a little crazy. o father please save me and deliver me. >> as averse as he was to germs, jones was enthusiastic toward his spirituality. >> his nightly prayers could last up to 15 minutes. >> please set me free. please set me free. >> we would come to learn why jones' prayers to be set free were especially pertinent. first, we learned what brought him here. >> the story began 40 years earlier when jones joined a chicago street gang at age 13. >> we used to rob other children of milk money and stuff. then we would -- i got introduced to drugs. i was drunk all the time. i didn't know how to stay sober. >> as jones grew older his addictions to crack and alcohol grew more ferocious.

so did the robberies he committed to support them. he had been in and out of several jails and prisons but at age 35, he was sentenced to 25 years for multiple counts of armed robbery. prison didn't stop his taste for alcohol. he used to make hooch or illegal made inmate ryan from rotting fruit, sugar and bread. >> i used to get drunk and start fights and one day they sent me to the confinement, to the hole, for extortion. a guy said he owed me money for wine he bought and i jumped on him for not paying. when i was in confinement like my high power we call god, reveal his self to me and said it's time to get your life right. i stayed in that confinement cell for 90 days, they transferred me to another prison. i started making aa and na meetings, i started going to church, reading the bible,

studying. >> jones served 18 years of a 25-year sentence at a florida state prison before he was released on parole. he moved into the noah house, the residential substance abuse house in tampa. >> they help ex-offenders get a fresh start. they help you stay straight. i wanted to stay straight. i didn't want to go back to prison. i always you know, participated and so they finally gave me a job. my job title peer advocate. i basically helped ex-offenders. >> jones was doing well. he says he would ride his bicycle to various other half-way houses to recruit participants for programs at noah house. but eight months into his parole things went wrong when he decided to take a short cut home through a large hole 18 fence. >> i didn't know that was a crime to cross over the railroad tracks. the whole neighborhood goes through that way. children go to school back and forth from school that way, i

see grown folks going all the time. >> a police officer saw jones cut through the hole and cited him. when he discovered jones was on parole, he arrested him. >> out of all of these years that i was on drugs, i'm finally clean doing good, all of a sudden bam, you're back in jail you know, like i hurt my moma again. >> the trespassing charges were quickly dropped but because jones was on parole at the time of his arrest, he would have to be detained in jail until the parole commission completed its own investigation. we joined him on the morning of his hearing. >> from the day he was going to his hearing he was nervous and rightfully so because he was going to find out whether he was going to go back to prison for a few years or back on the street. >> mr. jones, come on in. >> good morning.

>> at the hearing, jones would again be confronted by his arresting officer who says his trespassing violation might not be as minor as it seems. >> majority of the people that commit the larger crimes are committing the smaller crimes, if you take those individuals that are committing the smaller crimes and you put them in jail for those, they are not out to commit the bigger ones. his charges were armed robbery, multiple times. that's the old saying you do the crime you got to do the time. >> but jones had his supporters at the hearing as well including loleta brown, his supervisor. >> we need him to be back at work, working and doing his work. >> mr. jones, state that you violated by failing to obey all laws or statutory conditions. at this time we're going to take testimony from the officer. >> i was on the west side of the rail road tracks. i saw the defendant ride his

bike toward the tracks. he entered through a hole in the 6-foot chain link fence that was put up to keep people off the property. and he was stopped on the west side. >> when you came in contact with him, was he cooperative with you? >> yes. >> after a few more questions, the parole examiner asked jones' probation officer to weigh in. >> give than this charge was dismissed i recommend reinstatement. and being convicted of the charge i would have recommended return to prison. >> mr. jones, is there anything you want to add? >> god know they need me back there working. i really want to be there to help them fulfill the goals and everything of the job. i want to go back to that position and really help make a difference in the lives of people that's just getting out of jail and prison. >> anything else? >> no, ma'am. >> finally, it was time for the parole examiner to decide jones' fate. >> coming up. >> i just got to really have

faith. >> another unexpected twist for jones.

>> jones is the first to admit that he has waste add significant portion of his life on gangs, crime, drugs and alcohol. he was once sentenced to 25 years in prison, and it was during that time that he says he changed his life by getting involved in alcoholics and narcotics anonymous. >> i started going to na, aa meetings in prison and started going to church. i stayed to myself and i only thing i be around if you wasn't spiritual or talk about something positive i wasn't you know, didn't want to be bothered with you.

>> jones was paroled and found a place to live and work at the noah house, a residential drug treatment program in tampa, florida. but one day, when he took a shortcut on the way home from work through a mole 18 fence he was arrested and sent back to jail for trespassing. >> when they handcuff immediate, as soon as they put them on me i cannot lie, you know, much as i've been through i didn't think i would do but tears start coming to my eyes. >> even though the charges were dropped, jones still faced the possibility of returning to prison. if the parole board determined that his arrest and admission that he did in fact take the shortcut, violated the conditions of his parole. jones expected to learn his fate after a hearing with the parole examiner. >> so regarding my findings in this hearing i'm going to defer them for a period of ten days in an effort to look everything over, i'm going to make a recommendation after i come up with my decision. i'm not going to recommend anything today.

>> the delay in his ruling meant jones would have to remain in jail until the board could reach a decision. >> come on, sir. >> not going to sleep tonight. probably toss and turn. feel more unsure than i did at first. i just got to really have faith in my prayers right now. got to have faith in prayers. oh, man. >> the final decision on jones came during a break in our shooting. when we return to tampa, there is a new inmate in jones' bunk. and jones himself was back at the noah house. a free man, but very much aware that he was still on parole and one slip away from going back to prison. >> when the people told me that i would be getting out, that day, i was so full of joy i wanted to scream but i had to hold my composure you know. i even wanted to ask her out to dinner. i felt i say no, she might take that the wrong way. >> since his release, jones has

been enjoying the simple pleasures of freedom. like getting to choose his own clothes. >> i like to match my clothes whatever shirt i got i like to have shoes that same color. i had these shoes first to go with a shirt that i had, and it was these shoes that made me go out and pick the color suit that i got. ain't that something. >> jones is not taking his second chance at freedom for granted. he gives himself a daily reminder of the shortcut that almost sent him back to prison. >> i purposely ride my bike that way not to go through, i go around the long way but even going around the long way i can see that place and it's still open. it's still a big old hole in the fence there. people still going in and out of it but i say well, never have to worry about me doing it no more. i just know i can't do what everybody else does.

just this last episode on the trespassing really gave me a eye opener even in a greater way, then i got to watch every thing, the little things that can lead to a big thing like going back to prison. coming up. >> watch your back. the dagger's coming. >> a housing unit with drama runs high. >> it gets overwhelming to the point when you leave the mod it's like draining, like wow. we need to take a little break.

> >> after more than a decade of producing lock up most prefer a low profile. of course there are always exceptions. >> we will die!

>> but at the orange county jail we discovered an entire housing unit where low profile seemed in short supply. it's official name was mod q but others preferred to call it the drama mod. >> this sector here houses protective custody inmates that are homosexuals and they have to be separated from the jail population for various reasons. >> i love you, baby. >> it's mainly to protect them from the rest of the population. >> mod q is different because did you find men dressed as women or men with breast implants, that looks like women. it was loud and there was girly screams. >> working out. >> the drama is exactly what you

could expect of young people without a solution to their problems. just run around like nuts. >> a lot of drama in mod q, there's fighting and there's flirting and there's yelling. >> come here. >> it gets overwhelming to the point when you leave the mod, it's just like draining. like wow. we need to take a little break for a little while and process that. >> transgender inmate cortez who calls himself alexis not only sought attention from other inmates -- >> yeah. >> but from certain members of our field team as well. >> i just got hit on by a bunch of men. >> men? >> i mean, women. women. it was -- quite something. >> what number cell? >> seven. >> what did she say?

>> she said i have very sexy legs. >> sexy legs. >> told me to keep being sexy. >> cortez who is in jail on a parole violation, told us about his struggles in choosing to live as a woman. >> i can say i feel like a woman. i just can't explain. i feel like i'm a homosexual, i'm a man but i prefer living as a woman. because mostly i am mostly attracted to men but i don't want to live my life as a man. i want to live my life as a woman. it's hard, it's really hard, to make it through my family and then society. it's very hard because the criticism and everything. but once i put in my mind i want to live my life for me, and have my family accepts me, criticism, it's always going to be and

sometimes i feel like i'm the brave one because i actually have the goods to be who i am and this is me you know. i live my life and who i am. but it's really hard. >> do you want to make a spread. i need a reason. >> she's a big girl. >> girl, size 20, honey. >> mod q was known for hospitality. charles barber, who was in on multiple charges of fraud and grand theft to which he pled not guilty offered us one of his homemade snacks. >> this is top ramin. >> cheetos, and top ramin. you eat this, this is what you get. >> i'm the opposite. >> you want some? think about that scale. >> i'm 279. >> still growing. >> and they told me to lose weight but i don't care.

>> in mod q the relationships are different from other mods because in other mods you got this high intensity gang politicking atmosphere and in mod q it's mostly homosexual protective custody inmate there is is none of that politics. it's more like love triangles going on. >> we are hooked. we are. we're sisters. >> big time drama mod. >> it seemed nobody drew more attention in mod q than marcus. just 21 cash was already on his eighth trip to the o.c. jail, this time on conviction for possession of stolen credit cards, better known by the nickname he shared with the unit. >> i love the drama. i'm drama. they call me drama in here.

>> shut up. you know me. you know me girl. >> marcus is probably our most flamboyant inmate. every time he comes out of the cell it's almost a show. exaggerates his movements and speech quite a bit so that draws a lot of attention to him. >> it's the kind of attention that cash's cell mate said he could do without. >> she's a good person, but sometimes she does draw a lot of attention to herself and she can be kind of noisy and drive me nuts. but some people try to get drama though. throw things at her window and yell and knock on the door and stuff like that. >> they hit on me. >> watch your back. the dagger's coming. >> you know me. >> when the drama got too high for cash he would often turn to barber for support. >> i'm more of a older sister or

brother to her. she's young. so i try to you know, give her advice. >> it's a lot of drama. it's a lot of drama. >> occasionally, the drama would bring a chuckle or two to the one member of our field team who couldn't help but hear every bit of it. >> one day at a time. >> have i not proven -- >> in and out of enough drug rehabs to know you take it one day at a time. with you patience is a virtue. >> we can't see each other. >> reminds me of high school. >> mod q was off the hook. by the time we would leave you would just be drained emotionally.

we traveled here to the famous fisherman's wharf because of a let are we got from one of our viewers, he wrote he was roried his father's business needed a makeover. we assembled our experts to swoop in and shake things up. that's coming up next on a special edition of "your business."