due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. msnbc takes you inside the notorious walls of america's most dangerous prisons. into a world of chaos and danger. now the scenes you've never seen. "lock-up raw." >> listen up. there's to be no talking, period. one behind the other, single file, along the wall. >> a prominent research study estimates that 1 in 31 american adults are either incarcerated, on probation, or on parole. just as interesting is the fact that many of the inmates we've met have told us they actually 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 illustrate the problem of walking the thin line of parole better than an inmate we met in tampa, florida. his name is vilester jones. >> we noticed someone, large guy, working out on the yard. at the same time, one of the inmates was telling us that we needed to interview their jailhouse redent, a local poet. >> lock 'em up, throw away the

key, land of the brave, home of the free, while millions of american locked up in the penitentiary, father, cousin, in-laws, friends, wake up you fools, you headed for the pen, yet it would be too late, everyone would see, we were locked up and threw away the key. >> even though jones was popular among other inmates and had spent time in prison, he struggled with some aspects of life in the dormitory housing unit he shared with 71 other men. i never really liked open bay dorms. i'm a person that likes 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 starts sneezing and sneezing around not covering their mouth. automatically i try to cover my

food. i say, dang, what's wrong with these people. i'm probably a little crazy. >> as adverse as he was to germs, jones was enthusiastic to his spirituality. >> hallelujah. >> his nightly prayers could last up to 15 minutes. >> please set me free, please let me free, please let me see. >> we would come to learn why jones prayers to be set free would be especially pertinent but first we find out 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 their lunch money, milk money and stuff. i got introduced to drugs. i was drunk all the time. i didn't know how to stay sober. >> as jones grew older, his addiction 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. but prison didn't stop his taste for alcohol. he used to make hooch or illegal inmate made wine from a mixture of rotting fruit, sugar and bread. >> i used to get drunk, start fights. one day they sent me to confinement, to the hole for extortion. a guy said he owed me money for wine i had bought and i jumped on him for not paying me. and when i was in confinement, like my high power who i call god revealed himself to me and said it's time to get yourself right. i stayed in that confinement sell for 90 days. then i got transferred to another prison. when i got transferred i started making na and aa meetings. i starting going to church, reading the bible and studying.

>> he served 18 years of a 25-year sentence before he was released on patrol. he moved into the noah house, a residential house in tampa. >> they help ex-offenders get a fresh start in life. they help you to stay straight. i wanted to stay straight. i didn't want to go back to prison. i always participated. so they finally gave me a job. my title is peer advocate. i help ex-offenders. >> jones was doing well. he said he would ride his bicycle to various other halfway houses to recruit others. but eight months in his parole things went horribly wrong one day when he decided to take a shortcut home through a large hole in a fence. >> i didn't know that that was a crime to cross over the railroad tracks because the whole neighborhood goes through that way, back and forth, back and forth. children go to school that way. i see grown folks going through that way 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 these years that i was on drugs, i was finally clean, doing good, and all of a sudden, bam, back in jail. i hurt my mama again, you know. >> the trespassing charges were quickly dropped but because he was on parole at the time of the 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. >> on the day that he was going to his hearing he was very nervous and rightfully so because he was going to find out if he was going to go back to prison for a few years or back out on the street. >> mr. jones, you can come on in. >> at the hearing jones would again be confronted by his

arresting officer who said his trespassing might not be as minor as it seems. >> the majority of the people committing the smaller crimes are committing the larger crimes. they're not out to commit the bigger ones. his charges were armed robbery multiple times. what's the old saying, if you do the crime, you've got to do the time. >> but jones had his supporters at the hearing as well, including lolita brown, his supervisor at the halfway house. >> mr. jones, it states you failed condition 7, by failing all laws at time of release. at this time we're going to take testimony from officer fricks. >> i was on the west side of the railroad tracks. i saw the defendant enter

through a hole in a 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. >> given that this charge is dismissed i would recommend reinstatement. and be convicted of the charge, i would recommend he be returned 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 of filling that job, i want to go back to that position and really help make a difference in the lives of people that are just getting out of jail and prison. >> anything else? >> no, ma'am. >> finally, it was time for the parole examiner to determine jones' fate. coming up -- >> i just have to have faith in

my prayers. >> another unexpected twist for vilester jones. 're apart in stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and more, swanson® makes holiday dishes delicious!

[ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup lets you hear it in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. [ m'm... ] great taste. [ tapping ] sounds good. campbell's healthy request. m'm! m'm! good.®

vilester jones is the first to admit he's wasted a significant portion of his life on gangs, drugs, crimes, and alcohol. he was once sentenced to 25 years in prison, and it was during that time that he said he changed his life by getting involved in alcoholics and narcotics anonymous. >> i started going to na/aa meetings in prison and i started going to church. i stayed to myself. if you wasn't part of the ritual, didn't say nothing positive, i didn't want to be bothered with you. >> jones was eventually paroled

and found a place to work at the noah house, a residential drug prevention and treatment program. one day he took a shortcut on his way home in a hole in a fence and was sentenced back to jail fortress massing. >> as soon as they put the handcuffs on me, i cannot lie. as much as i been through, i didn't think, but the tears would start coming to my eyes. >> even though the charges were dropped, jones still faced the possibility of returning the prison if the parole boards determined the arrest and did in fact that he took the short cut violated his parole. he was expected to learn his fate after a hearing with the patrol examiner. >> 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. >> how am i going to sleep tonight? i'll probably toss and turn. feel a little more unsure than i did at first. i really have to 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 returned to tampa, there was 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 wom composure. i even wanted to ask her out to dinner. i thought, oh, she might take

that the wrong way. >> since his release, jones has been enjoying the simple joys of freedom like getting to choose his own clothes. >> i like to match my clothes. whatever shirt i got i like my shoes the 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 that. i go around the long way. even going around the long way, i can see that place. it's still open. there's still a big old hole in the fence there. people going in and out of it. i said, well, they don't ever have to worry about me doing it no more. i can't do what everybody else does. this last episode on the tress

massing gave me an eye opener even in a greater way, that i got to watch every little thing. it's the little things that can lead to a big thing like going back to prison. coming up. watch your back, because the dagger is coming. >> it gets overwhelming to the point that when you leave the mod, it's draining like wow we need to take a break.

after more than a decade of producing "lockup," we've discovered most inmates prefer to keep a low profile rather than risk crossing the line with other inmates who might harm them or staff who might punish them. of course, there are always exceptions. >> we will not negotiate with terrorists. >> but at the orange county jail, we discovered an entire

housing unit where low profile seemed in short supply. its official name was mod q, but others prefer to call it the drama mod. >> that's my [ bleep ] right there. that's my [ bleep ] right there. >> come here and show your [ bleep ]. >> yeah. >> this specific 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. >> it's mainly to protect them from the rest of the population. >> mod q is different because you did find men dressed as women or men with breast implants that look like women. it was loud, girly screams.

>> the drama, it's exactly what you could expect of young people who have no solutions to their proms. they go crazy. >> there's a lot of drama in mod q. there's fighting and there's flirting and there's yelling. it gets overwhelming where when you leave the mod, it's like draining, like, wow, we need to take a little break for a little while and just process that. >> transgender inmate alejandro cortez who calls himself alexis not only wanted attention from other inmates but our field team as well. i just got hit on by a bunch of men. >> men? >> i mean women men -- women -- it was -- it was quite something. >> what number cell? >> 7. >> 7? >> 7. >> what did show say? >> she said i had very sexy

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

who accepts me, criticism is always going going to be out there. and sometimes i feel like i'm the brave one because i have the guts to be who i am. i live my life and i live how i am but it's really, really hard. >> do you want me to make a -- i need a reason to be. >> she's a big girl. >> girl. size 20, honey. >> mod q was also known for its hospitality. charles barber, who was in on multiple charges of fraud and grand theft to what he had pled not guilty offered us one of his homemade commissary snacks. >> this is top ramen. >> it consists of cheetoes, and gorditas. >> you eat this, and this is what you get. >> no. i'm the opposite. >> i'm 271, and they told me to

lose some weight, but i don't care. >> in mod q the relations are absolutely different than from other mods because in other mods you've got this high-intensity gang politicking atmosphere going on and mod q where it's mostly homosexual protective custody inmate, there's none of that politics going on. it's more like love triangles going on. >> we are close. we are sisters, girl! we are sisters! this is -- i married him, girl. >> it's big-time drama mod. >> but it seemed nobody drew more attention in mod q than marcus cash. just 21 years old, cash was already on his eighth trip to the o.c. jail, this time on a conviction for possession of stolen credit cards. he was better known for the nickname he shared with the unit itself. >> i love the drama. the deputies call mow drama in here. i'm drama.

>> shut up. you know me, bitch. you know me, girl. >> marcus is probably our most flamboyant inmate. every time he comes out of the cell, it's almost a show. he exaggerates his movements and his speech quite a bit, so that draws a lot of attention to him. >> it's the kind of attention that cash's soulmate says 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 give her drama, throw things at her window and yell and knock on the door and stuff like that. >> they hit on me. >> watch your back, bitch, because the dagger's coming. you know me. >> when the drama got too high for cash himself, he would often turn to barbaro for support. >> i'm more of an 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. >> but 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. >> take it one bit at a time. >> you have been in and out of enough drug rehabs to know you take it one day at a time. with you, patients is a virtue. we can't see each other. >> it reminds me of high school. >> mod q was off the hook. >> bitch. >> by the time we would leave, you would just be drained emotionally. 

from meals to transportation to lodging, the sharing economy is booming, aided by digital technology. how this entrepreneurial phenomenon has become the fastest growing sector of the service industry, and the challenges owners face due to increased regulations. that's all coming up next, on "your business." small businesses are revitalizing the economy. and american express open is here to help. that's why we are proud to present "your business" on msnbc.