due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. >> msnbc takes you behind the walls of america's most notorious prisons, a world of chaos and danger. now, the scenes you've never seen. "lock-up: raw." for the uninitiated, incarcerated there's a confug for prison and jail. prison is for convicted felons.

jails house convicts on the way to prison or serving short-term sentences, usually less than a year. but most jail detainees have pending court cases and have been denied or are unable to make bail. >> put your stomach on the wall. stomach on the wall. hands behind your back. >> there's another type of jail detainee of all. they are ochbt the most dangerous. those who have just been arrested. sometimes still drunk, high on drugs or fresh from committing a crime. >> my biggest challenge, dealing with all the variety of people on the streets. we have a lot of mental patients. a lot of inmates arrested have psychological problems and haven't been taking their medications for a long time. >> are there voices talking to you? >> yes, there are. >> you do hear that? >> yes. >> okay. how long have the voices been talking to you? >> for a while. >> for a while.

>> sometimes they are unavoidable. people that come in here have nothing to lose. they are coming in here on their third strike. they are angry at the officers that arrest them. sometimes they take that aggression out on us. >> our crews have come to expect the unexpected. at the miami-dade county jail we ran into a young inmate that was washing his clothes in his seat in the cell. he was an interesting looking kid, so we asked for an interview. >> for the birds getting locked up. >> the interview was not unlike a lot of interviews of inmates. had a lot to do with complaining about conditions. >> giving out permanent homes across the courthouse. >> the next thing we know, officers were running in telling us we had to grab our gear and go. there was some kind of

disturbance going on and they were locking down the floor. that's one of the things that's makes yals really interesting. there really is a strong sense that anything can happen at any time. >> and nowhere is that more true than behind the walls of this sprawling jail complex that serves america's largest city. >> while new york city is the safest large city in america, crime has been going down, one of the reasons crime is going down is because the police do make a lot of arrests. everybody who gets arrested and who doesn't get bailed out comes to us. >> get arrested in the big apple, and you're almost assured of a trip to rikers island, 400 acre colony on the river. connected to the mainland by a narrow two-lane bridge, the island is home to an average of

14,000 inmates in two separate facilities. >> every criminal who committed an act is coming through here if they come from new york city. >> they come off of the streets. they are tired. they are dirt y. they are hungry. if you saw everything there, whether it was somebody who was from wall street who was charged with fraud or the lowest of the low drug dealers. >> get between 80, 90 admission a day. around the clock, 4 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. >> what size do you wear? >> 8.5. >> guess what. 10 is going to be your lucky number. >> never stops. the city never sleeps. >> while cell inspections are routine and all the jails and prisons profile lockup, they were conducted with a hir

military-like show of force at rikers. first the emergency response team marches to the cellblock in full riot gear armed with high-voltage stun shields. they secure the area and provide an intimidating presence for any inmates who might be tempted to resist. then a team of correctional officers moves into the cells to begin their inspections. >> the last time they came in here, went in everybody's cell and took everything out of everybody's cell and through it in the tier. after it was done there was 48 people's property in the middle of the floor mixed up with clothes. they said, this is how we dis you. >> while they anger inmates, they are done for safety.

the primary goal is to uncover weapons. they are often successful. >> contraband weapon. >> inspection 955. >> during our stay on rikers island, one weapon that was found was used in a double stabbing of two inmates. >> yesterday approximately 1140 hours we had a stabbing. >> a latin king, sitting at a table. we believe associating himself with the bloods. had his back sitting at another table. the inmate removed a shank and stabbed him in the back. yes, we did. it was the show support from a work boot that was sharpened. it went in three-quarters of an inch. at which time he removed the

weapon from his back and stabbed inmate baez. >> both inmates -- >> to combat such jail attacks corrections officials often prosecute offenders with new charges in addition to the ones that landed them in jail. >> we're placing you under arrest for saumt. put your hands behind your back. >> when he was put in the holding cell, we were actually amazed that he actually confessed to us. we were shocked he was admit to us, on camera, that he actually stabbed another prisoner. >> he pulled it out, he attacked me and stabbed me in the lower part of my abdomen. >> the other inmate involved in the incident is also arrested and put into the holding cell next to him. he denied being a gang member to

our producer. >> why he stabbed me, i don't know. >> who? >> they were trying to set me up. that's why. >> i never even spoke to the guy. >> do you know the name of the guy he stabbed. >> no. >> you just know he was part of a gang. >> did you hear what he said? >> charged with assault second degree as well as criminal possession of a weapon. if found guilty, they could receive three and a half to seven in addition to what they are incarcerated with already. >> coming up on lockup: raw, gender bending inmates. >> sheets and towels. >> the disturbed. >> violent. he was definitely someone you would not want to be left in a room alone with.

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>> i'm not doing something, somebody will find somebody for me to do. most of the time stupid stuff. better to find something for yourself to do. >> when we met joseph at one of the massive kitchens at rikers island jail, he was serving 90 days for misdemeanor assault, larsy. >> you've got cockroaches, stuff like that. but i haven't seen any dilately, so i guess they get away with it. >> while he may not get a job as

a spokesman, he offered a plug for life here. >> if you like being told what to do, when to eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, scratch your ass, take a chance of getting your ass killed or getting killed or whatever by inmate cell police, if you like that, this is the place for you. >> like many inmates here, he's had multiple arrests. >> most people that come to jail stay in jail. regardless whether they go home, they come back, come back. spend the rest of their life in jail. >> while inmates can be in denial about circumstances that brought them to jail, reegan is crystal clear. >> we don't have the knowledge to do different things. i know carpentry, masonry, ability, skills. it all comes down to choice. i just choose not to for various reasons, lack of discipline, self-confidence, a self-destructive nature. it's not that i can't do it,

it's just that i won't. >> not everyone believes jail is a choice. some feel they are victims to a probation system that's all too easy to violate and keeps sending them back. >> i was told by my first probation officer after reading the conditions of my probation, if you can do this without me violating you, this will be lucky. this is the first time i've met this man, the first time i've been on probation. he was very right. >> eric johns original charge was for sexual battery. after serving four years in prison, he was released on probation. but when a urine test proved positive for marijuana, he was back in the miami-dade county jail. >> i'm a three-time loser. this makes my third time. once you're in the system, you will be back. >> eric johns was definitely a loner in the jail system but he developed his own method of survival. in fact, he told us how in his first stay in jail. he sent a message to ward off

any predatory inmates. >> first time i came in, the first thing i did was look for the biggest guy in the unit and decked him. that's how i lost my front teeth. i got my teeth knocked out. but they had at that point, either that guy is crazy or he's bad, but it just ain't worth it. it works. i am a caucasian male. i speak english. i'm educated. i'm the oddball now, and i realize that. >> actually this looks like one of the better meals. you should be here on pigeon night. i think they call it chicken night everywhere else. >> there's nothing in here that fascinates me or makes me happy. this is as close to a living hell as i think i ever want to come. >> seeing some of the inmates cycle in and out of their facilities is not uncommon for most jail officials. nor is it unusual for certain types of inmates to be housed

together as we discovered during a visit to the fifth floor at the los angeles county jail. >> i call it the drama floor. you get a mix of everything. you get a mix of general population from petty theft to burglary to homosexual inmates. normally they are separated from everyone else simply because a lot of times they will be abused. there's a lot of homosexual inmates, gender bending, and it's hard to tell. >> 37-year-old bernard tasha wayne was sesk a sentence for parole violation. >> prostitution and drugs. >> one of the things bernard did on occasion inside l.a. county jail was put on beauty pageants. he was like a peacock. he wanted to show off his feather. >> like the miss america pageant, we do them in here. we do them for the boys, all

that. there's a variety of things. we cover with sheets and towels, stuff like that, for dresses. you know, we destroy state property. >> do you wear makeup? >> yes. look at my face. >> we explored another special housing unit at l.a. county as well, the mental health ward where we encountered one of the most unforgettable scenes ever shown on lockup. >> there's one gentleman in particular, i could barely see him because there was so much graffiti on his cell door. all over his walls, it looked like hieroglyphics. >> a lot of writing on the door is human feces and combined a little mustard on it for coloring. that's what he's writing with on the actual door. he's been here a long time, so

he continually works on it. then i saw the inmate inside, he was completely naked except cellophane over private parts. he seemed gentle. wasn't pounding on doors, hurting himself but he was definitely someone you would not want to be left in a room alone with. coming up on lockup: raw. >> i've been in the street hustling. i never had a regular job in my life. that's what i'm trying to tell you. i never had a regular job. >> one woman find hope in a jailhouse bakery. stay in motio. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies,

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. one of the most unlikely sites on rikers island is the bakery. they worked beside civilian bakers to help feed the jail's

14,000 residents. >> every inmate has total four slices of bread per meal per day. also to feed the boys. we make a lot of bread. >> they gave us a couple of loaves and this butter. we slathered the butter on the loaves of bread. it rivaled any bakery in new york. >> inmate rhonda was hoping the bakery would help turn her life around. >> when i first came in here, i wanted to hurt myself. i was really depressed. i was going crazy. i said oh, my god. my records are messed up now. i don't know what to do. so i got myself into the bakery. to keep myself busy, and i love the bakery. >> ever worked in a bakery before? >> no, i never worked outside.

i've been in the street hustling. i never had a regular job in my life. that's what i'm trying to tell you. i never had a regular job. >> she was serving eight months on a drug possession charge. >> i was working with the street, and some guy approached me. he gave me the money. i went to the drug dealer and got the drugs for him and gave him the stuff. crack. before you know it, they got me and him. my first felony. >> she told our producer she worked at a prostitute for the past 14 years. >> i didn't like myself doing it. i wasn't too happy about it. but i had no choice. i had no money. i had no nothing. >> how many years did you do that? >> since i was 21. >> she hopes the skills she picked up in the bakery will give her a second chance as a mother. >> have you got a daughter? >> yes, she's 14. she's with her father's mother in florida.

>> what's her name? >> roseanne. >> she writes to you? >> yeah. >> what does she write? >> she's saying she loves me. she misses me. i'm like crying right now. >> you all right? >> yeah. >> it's okay. >> i do miss my daughter. >> i know you do. i know you do. >> my heart went out to her. whenever prisoners begin to talk about their children, it is the one very sensitive spot in their lives. no matter what they may have done to get them to a jail, to prison, they still are very touched and love their children. >> the good thing is you got a lot out of being here, right? >> yes. since i've been in here for several months doing my eight months, i feel good now. god -- i thank god i'm in here. i'm glad.

because when i was on the street, i started smoking that stuff. it didn't help me, didn't get me anywhere. got me into trouble. got me in here. now i learned my lesson, i ain't touching it no more. i want my life back together. >> i felt i was going to commit crimes to the day i die, government, society, america, slavery, all the excuses you can think of until i started taking accountability for my own action, what i had done to my own life. >> scott randolph was another rikers inmate anticipating his release. when we met him, he was serving a year for petty larceny. >> spiraled out of control. i've been back and forth a few times. mostly for drug activity, trying to hustle in the street. >> randolph took advantage of the writing program and had hope of becoming a journalist.

>> we publish rikers review. it's a magazine created by inmates for inmates. it's extremely helpful. gave me computer skills, marketable skills. i'm hoping to use that when i get out of here. >> the prison journal showed his poems. >> can you read one? >> hold this. grip these words as if you're embrace alop will help me save my life, so that i might live to give my tomorrows as payment for yesterday's debts. >> randolph says his poem is his vision for a new life. >> the future conceals hopes and happiness i have yet to feel. for this you present a fresh foundation on which to build. the peace i seek is yield. i reach for compassion, strong as steel. this is my truth you feel. my i cherish my conscious and hold this. that's it.

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