due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. msnbc takes you behind the walls of america's most notorious prisons, to a world of chaos and danger. now, the scenes you have never seen, "lock up: raw." >> for inmates to survive, they have to make friends. they have to make alliances for security purposes.

the problem is, they are surrounded by people who aren't very trust worthy. here is the dilemma. you have to make friends for protection, but they can be the friends that end up killing you. >> finding true friendship in prison might be a dicey proposition. at the spring creek correctional center in alaska, we found cell meats that seemed more like brothers than inmates at a maximum penitentiary. [ bleep ] >> when we met richard evans and roger bosheers, the high-spirited duo reunited as cell mates after a release. >> in the hole for tattooing. >> who were you tattooing on, again? >> actually, got caught tattooing on this character here. this is the one we got caught on. we got ran up on.

in the end, oh, you going to bust us, really, for real. >> thank you gentlemen, thank you. >> next thing i he know, i'm doing 14 months in the hole. he got here, coming to the window, coming out, bro. i'll be right out. >> we have developed a nice relationship. i would do anything for this guy. anything. >> same. >> he's my twin sister, older sister. >> glad you came back. you're the best. >> but this bond also has a dark side. the cell mates share a strong appetite for methamphetamine. >> what am i in for? cooking meth. back in 2002, i get pulled over. i have a lab in my car. microwave, everything. they pull me over for a traffic stop. they say, oh, look what we got here. cooking meth. what a surprise. i was cooking it, dealing it,

doing it. anything i could, i was. i can't lie, i like it. you know, the meth. the whole lifestyle it comes with. living like a rock star. going to clubs, you know, naked girls dancing. oh, what's up? yeah, baby, that's right. >> never sleep. >> never sleep. >> bosheers landed in prison after a robbery to support his meth habit earned him 18 years. >> i went through the whole progression from cocaine to heroin on up. been a speed freak for years. >> my whole life has been dope. dope, dope, dope. i was a crackhead. i know crack is disgusting. i was a crack head for two years of my life. my wife left me, took my kids. i was like oh, crack is bad, maybe i'll do meth. >> meth is better. >> meth is better. then i ended up here. >> go figure. >> yeah. yeah.

>> i know meth is pretty addictive, how do you deal with it here? >> here in jail? we don't deal with it here. >> we work out. we work out in jail. >> we build it up to break it down. >> in fact, we first met boshears during his workout a few days earlier, right before he shaved his head. >> i work out pretty much seven days a week. once in awhile, i take the day off. this is every morning, i come here and do this. start off the day right. >> while they have seemingly beat their habit and gained their health in prison, they told us this might all be temporary. >> i'm going to try to get out and do the right thing, but i really can't say i'm going get out -- i'm going to get high. i'm not going to lie. i love doing dope. i'm going to get out, go see my mom, then go to the bathroom and

get high. >> you believe you'll be back together again? >> i have 6 1/2 years left. i'm trying to do something positive here. working out, going to school. i can't say what i'm going to do yet. it's going to be 61/2 years. yeah. i love getting high. that's all i've been doing the last half of my life. next on "lock up: raw." >> i hate cops. >> they he are sharp on the edges. >> natural foes work side by side in a kitchen stocked with weapons. >> it only takes one of these guys to pick one of those up and cut my head off.

though there is an inherent distrust between them, inmates and correctional officers come in close contact every day of

the week. it's rare that these relationships ever cross the line into friendship, but having a friendly rapport is essential to keeping the peace. >> if we let our guard down for one moment, we stop observing and interacting, tension can rise and we can have a very volatile situation here. in the blink of an eye, that much time, it can change. >> we saw firsthand what lieutenant ayers meant. at one point we caught him joking around with an inmate. >> does it qualify for a real man to wear shorts like that with legs out there on the track? >> we're going to see what it looks like when you're in your 50s. >> oh, no, i got about 20 years. >> i'll carry you. i'll put you on my back and i'll take you right through. >> a piggyback ride? a piggyback ride? >> yeah, and that's all. >> but only moments later when two inmates flash nazi signs

right in front of both him and our camera, the lieutenant was in no joking mood. >> eh, eh, eh. come here. you two, come here. what building you're in? >> 18? >> what building you in? >> 5. >> you tell them you're going home. you don't do that on my yard. you know that. if i catch you out here and you don't go home, i'm going to be looking for you. go home. >> sorry, what? >> when it comes to inmates' feelings about correctional staff, our producers have heard a wide range of opinions. we met christopher carrillo inside a heavily graded cell at san quentin. >> you give respect, you get respect. a lot of people say these guys don't treat us right. at times they don't, but it's hard when you've got a lot of people in here. can't be happy too much in prison. it's not disneyland. >> but an inmate at another california prison had a much harsher view of the c.o.s. >> i hate cops. they're diabolical. they're petty. they present to the public that

they're law and order, this and that but in here they'll stab you in the back. they write false write-ups. they got a hidden agenda. they want to keep us locked up in here so they make money. you know, this is a prison industrial complex. it's all about money. >> there is one place, however, where trust is put to the ultimate test. it's the prison kitchen. >> everything back here could be made into a potential weapon. those sheet pans are very thin and they're sharp on the edges. it only takes one of these guys to pick one of those up and they could almost cut my head off. >> we met officer epperson at the kern valley state prison in california. armed only with pepper spray and a baton, he's the lone officer responsible for supervising the inmate kitchen staff. >> i have six, seven inmates back here now. i've got one sitting on the line. granted, i got four, five cops outside that door. that door's locked. there's only one dude out there with the key. you have to trust them to a certain extent. they have no reason to assault me. unless they're totally pissed off or i disrespect them. >> among the inmates epperson places his trust in is the

number two cook, carter hill. >> tell me what your sentence is. >> murder. >> you're here for murder? what's your sentence? >> 51 to life. >> you know, it's interesting. sometimes there's this dynamic in prison when you're interviewing somebody, if there's a corrections officer and an inmate together, they'll pretty much watch their ps and qs. they'll tell you into the camera what the other guy wants to hear. but when we met carter hill, we got some real brutal honesty that day in the kitchen. >> i don't know if y'all are going to print this, but right now like when i come to the pen in '82 in angola, we had guards. later on, became the c.o.s. now i look at him and he got gang members in green suits. >> but hill was willing to make an exception for officer epperson. >> this man here, he's fair. he treats me like a human being. that's a rare occurrence around here. this man here, he's all right. >> all right? >> all right. i'm all right. i can't say too much more than

that. but he all right, you know? >> i give these inmates nothing more than what the state says they have coming. if i can give it to them, i'll give it to them. if they don't have it coming, they don't get it. but because i give him what he's got coming, nine times out of ten, i won't be the staff member that gets assaulted. >> we knew they hadn't been working together very long but as we rolled tape we realized that these guys were getting to know each other. >> tell them. tell them the truth. put it out there. >> they were joking. they were establishing a rapport with one another. >> his co-workers, they look at him different because he treats us human. you know what i mean? in they eyes, he's a bad guy. >> but respect never trumps security. every knife, fork, and other utensil in this kitchen is accounted for prior to and after each shift. >> before i let them go back to their cells, i recount and make sure all the metal is there again. if it's not there, strip them out, lock them up, and find that metal. that's weapon stock. >> besides working together in the kitchen, there's one other time inmates and staff have

close contact in less than secure circumstances. it's during a medical emergency. >> be advised, a man down in carson section 50. >> 5-1, what's the problem? >> our cameras were at california's san quentin state prison when officers received word that a 20-year-old inmate was suffering severe chest pains. >> be advised, medical emergency. >> the thing you have to realize about san quentin is that this is -- this prison was built prior to the civil war and the cells are stacked five stories high. no elevators. so, of course, the emergency

that we were covering was on the fifth floor. so not only did we have to haul our stuff up there but so did the responding correctional officers. >> up on the fifth tier, officers tend to the inmate inside his cell. >> you're going to have to take some deep breaths, man. i know you might be in pain, but you're going to have to try and help me. >> moments later the paramedics arrive on the tier. >> the paramedics had to make the five-story climb as well, and it's difficult to respond right away because of that, but the bigger challenge, though, was getting the inmate out of o his cell and back down all those stairs. >> hospital door carson 2 be advised, we have inmate in stretcher, en route to the urgent care clinic. >> the officers and paramedics did a really great job of getting him down using the handrail to support the stretcher. it was pretty impressive how swiftly they were able to move him down. >> and sometimes the effort is

all for nothing. >> it happens where guys might decide to get some fresh air. take a trip to the hospital. my foot hurts or whatever and we have to take them. >> everything is an emergency to them. an inmate might say, well, you know, i'm having back problems, and you get them over there and the nurses say there's nothing wrong with him. can't find anything wrong with him and the guy goes back to his house. and within that time period, you've wasted an hour just so he can get some fresh air. >> on this day the emergency is legitimate. >> they took an ekg. that turned out fine. and it turns out he's possibly got some chest problems from trauma as a child that are still recurring. >> the inmate was treated and returned to his cell. meanwhile, responding officers returned to their normal duties. >> hey, you faggots. >> you'll get a lot of that. up next -- >> we try to have a disciplined environment, but we also try to comingle.

>> "lockup's" most memorable warden reaches out to his inmates. >> you ain't here because you were doing something constructive. if you were doing something constructive, you would never have been in here. >> i was doing something constructive! >> he's a narcissist. he loves attention. he loves to micromanage. he loves to get everybody at his mercy a hard time.

the mood of a prison can be affected by any number of factors -- the institution's security level. the setting it's in. perhaps most importantly, the personality and policies of the warden. some wardens have little direct contact with inmates. others have a lot. >> i tell you what, how many meals you eat? but how many did you eat? >> warden grant culliver of the holman correctional facility in alabama falls into the latter category. >> we try and have a disciplined environment but we also try to

be able to comingle, able to communicate and talk with people. so we're not so much at odds, staff and inmates. there's an old saying or adage, you know, that you can get more flies with sugar than salt. >> i got a possession of a knife case in september. >> but then you have to realize too, the inmates that are here, they're not here for going to church. a lot of them have preyed on other people. >> warden culliver tells it like it is. he's an ex-correctional officer that became a warden and was down there in the trenches. >> you're all right. you look ragged, man. every time i see you, you look ragged. you don't try to do no better. you've been out here working all night. you need to shave [ bleep ]. >> i have. i'm a slave up there in that kitchen. >> please. >> he cared about his inmates and he wanted them to do well

and it pissed him off when they screwed up. >> how? >> you just came back out of lockup. >> that was nothing. >> culliver became warden at holman in 2002 when the prison was facing some serious problems. >> it was a violent facility. if you talked to some of the people in the community, probably a great number of times they saw an ambulance coming this way, they thought the ambulance was coming to the holman prison. that was the case then, but that's not necessarily the case now. >> but culliver knows all too well that at a maximum security prison like holman, violence can be reduced, but not eliminated. >> if you come in and you look meek and mild, then those guys who are seasoned and they've been here, they run games on you. they get you into debt. once you get into debt, if they don't solicit sex from you, then they solicit that they have your family members send them money. if that doesn't happen, then you get threatened with bodily harm. >> we met a number of predatory inmates at holman but few more memorable than steven parker, a self-proclaimed leader of a white supremacist gang. parker is serving life without

parole for murdering his stepmother and attempting to kill his father. >> about six months ago, i cut a dude's throat down there in population. >> what happened? >> well, he was beating me out of some money. and me and him worked a deal and i kept going back to him. and i said, you need to pay me my [ bleep ] money. you need to pay me what you owe me. and he knew me from other prisons. he knew what would eventually happen if he didn't pay me. i finally got tired of it and went and cut his throat. >> parker has assaulted numerous other inmates and staff members. he has spent most of his time at holman in the administrative segregation unit. >> he's an impulsive type of a guy. he's violent. he's in here for violence and apparently the time has not taught him any differently. >> can i be rehabilitated? yeah, i could be rehabilitated. if i could figure out how to get

over the hatred. because i have a lot of hatred. i have a lot of hatred for people in general, for society. >> that includes warden culliver. >> he's a narcissist. he's super serious. he loves attention. he loves to micromanage [ bleep ]. and he loves to give everybody at his mercy a hard time. he's trying to be somebody. he's trying to define his identity off the demoralization and dehumanization of other people. trying to boost his own ego up. >> how would you describe steven parker? what kind of inmate is he? >> crazy. he's a nut. i mean, no more, no less. he's not a person that's very intelligent. >> culliver combats predatory behavior and other problems by knowing his inmates well and enforcing his rules. even the smaller ones, like being clean shaven.

>> that's how you shave? >> don't you see all the bumps? >> i don't see no bumps. you know what, some of that comes from not shaving. if you would shave, the hair wouldn't turn back in. that's where it comes from. it turns from the hair turning back in your skin. if you would shave, it would not turn back in. >> no, it would not happen from shaving. >> i guess it's the razor's fault. we buy some cheap razors. if i see somebody with a beard or looking like they need to shave, i generally talk to them about that. you need to shave or go to health care. one or the other. >> i've been to health care. >> culliver never hesitates to get involved in the seemingly endless array of disciplinary problems. our crew caught up with him on a monday morning as he was trying to resolve an incident that occurred over the weekend. >> well, it was a use of force that i got a call about yesterday. this guy acting out. cell clean-out day. they put a broom in his cell. he refused to give the broom back. they actually ended up taking him out of his cell, put him outside. >> culliver often has uncooperative inmates moved to outdoor holding cages until they calm down. but this time it caused more problems. >> once we got him outside, he refused to come back inside or

refused to be uncuffed. they used force on him to get him back inside. he's high-strung. he's agitated a lot. floods his cell. he does things basically to irritate the staff. sometimes he has rhyme or reason for it. sometimes he doesn't. >> our crew followed along as culliver went to confront the inmate, james broadhead. >> the officer gave me the broom. getting ready to clean my cell. the broom had too much straw on it, right. so i asked him, can i get another broom. he told me "nah." i broke the broom. >> you broke the broom? why? >> i just told you. >> it ain't no reason for you to break the broom. the whole situation started because you broke the broom. >> i needed to clean up. >> okay, but you could have waited until somebody came back tomorrow. you asked to see me this morning. you could have asked to see me yesterday morning in your cell and told me the same thing that you told me, right? and even if the broom wasn't working properly, if it was a sorry broom, they gave you the sorriest broom of all, still no reason to break the handle of the broom.

yes or no? >> a few minutes later, the conversation turns to broadhead's disciplinary record at holman. >> i ain't got but 39 disciplinaries. i did all of them. >> but 39 disciplinaries. but 39 disciplinaries. >> all in all, just another monday morning for a warden who's always walking the line between friend and foe. [ narrator ] mama sherman and the legion of super fans. wow! [ narrator ] on a mission to get richard to his campbell's chunky soup. it's new chunky beer-n-cheese with beef and bacon soup. i love it. and mama loves you. ♪

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