msnbc takes you behind the walls of america's most notorious prisoners into a world of chaos and danger. now the scenes you've never seen. "lock up, raw." 90% of prison life is boring. it's that other 10% that we worry about as producers. the safety of the crew. we take great precaution to make sure that we can do everything possible to protect our crews. sometimes they're going to wear stab vests. other time they're followed by a

group of correctional officers for protection. >> there are some things you can't protect against. there's a particular type of prison assault that has been described to lockup crews over and over again. the nature of this assault is not only disturbing, but it's disgusting. we warn you, what you are about to hear is extremely graphic. >> the common way the inmates assault staff now is what we call gassing where the inmate will throw a liquid substance on an officer usually what the inmates use is a combination of urine and feces. what they do is they will urine ate or defecate in a cup and then stir the two human exciments together and then let it rot. when staff walks by, they throw it in our face. i would say a gassing assault happens at least once a day here at san quentin.

>> seemingly at almost every other prison we've visited. >> i've had serious incident with fecal matter and urine to where i was placed on medicine, and i've had hepatitis blood spit in my face. >> they put fees yis or urine in a toothpaste tube and swirting it through their door or under their door. those kinds of things. >> about 5:45 i was carrying an inmate tray to feed them. inmate has -- we were feeding his tray. at that time he had a squirt bottle filled with a entrance and while i was carrying the trays back downstairs is when he squeezed the bottle and shot urine into my eye and mouth area. >> i was checked out. i had a tetanus shot done by urgent care in nashville. blood sample drawn from me. >> for? >> to see if i had anything or contracted anything from this inmate. >> i do worry. i have a wife at home.

my fear is taking something home to my wife and possibly kids down the road. >> this vial form of assault isn't limited only to correctional staff. lockup crews also stay constantly aware knowing all too well they could wind up in the line of fire. >> in my mind that is one of the worst things that can happen, and we were shooting in san quentin and we were down on the ground floor and suddenly i felt something hit me on the top of my head, and i had the worst thought that, oh, my god, i've just been gassed, and luckily, it turned out to be a banana peel. >> when we visited the state correctional center in illinois, we encountered another bizarre practice with human waste. >> feces. he spreads it on everything. >> every day. >> puts it right back on. >> in the segregation unit in the stateville correction center.

basically this is where bad people were being extra bad in the facility come to be locked up. they urine ate. i think they're just kind of crazy. the prison life is probably getting to them. >> we've never seen a more bizarre display of this gut churning activity than a california state prison coccoran. it happened during a routine shoot at a prison hospital. >> we were there for about ten minutes and a couple of doctors and initially it seemed like it was going to be mundane and going through the process, and so we decided to leave. we were all packed up and ready to go back into the other section of the prison when all hell broke loose. >> we have four inmates in four different cells that are holding food trays. some of them have started flooding it causing their toilets to back up and causing water to come out on to the floor. i'm going to first go out and talk to the enmates and try to

get them to comply with staff's instructions. if they fail to comply with staff instructions, we'll probably have to extract them. >> and one by one the cells just started popping off. one guy just started throwing feces. the other guy was covering up his cell. i was, like, wow. this is important. this is pretty intense. >> i'm going to talk to them. i want to make sure we get that on video, and at that time if the inmate doesn't comply, put on your gas mask. i want everything ready to go in no more than five minutes. i want everything ready to go in five minutes. >> knowing they might be exposed to human waste, correctional staff suit up in plastic coveralls to protect their clothing, but they encounter a few snags. >> wasn't big enough. >> yeah. >> slide in there. one of them might throw feces at you. you don't want to be catching. >> while the extraction team suits up, the hospital staff

continues to negotiate with the unruly inmates. >> give you some medications. >> meanwhile, the extraction team readies a five-point restraint table to which they will secure any inmate who becomes combative. the medical personnel continue to negotiate with the inmate in order to avoid cell extraction where anyone can be injured. >> if you cooperate with us and you take your medication as we give it to you, then we can keep you -- >> finally, one inmate decides to comply and officers move in to take him peacefully. with his cell still a flooded mess and feces covering part of the wall, he is taken to another cell where he is medicated.

>> we need to come in to give you medications. >> i ain't taking no medications. >> are you going to come out? >> no. >> no way! >> i'm captain carls. i'm going to give you one more opportunity to comply with staff instructions. i want you to take the coverings down, turn around and submit to mechanical restraints. >> do what you got to do. >> i'm telling you now, this is your last option. >> you currently have a mat reshgs so i want you to go ahead and -- >> the extraction team prmz to disburse pepper spray into the cell using a canon-like device that will also ram the mattress away from the door. after a final warning the team

takes action. >> with other prisoners egging on the inmate, the team spraz a second round of gas and continues demanding that he cuff up. camera operator mike elway begins to feel the effects of the pepper spray himself. >> i was standing next to the correctional officer. he had the full face mask and a gas mask, and, you know, all kinds of protection. i'm standing next to him just painter's dusk mask that i put on, which needless to say dent work, and after the pepper spray went off, i was crying like a baby and coughing and, you know, i'm surprised it didn't show up on the videotape. >> nearly two minutes after first being sprayed, the inmate finally gives up. for their disruptive behavior,

the inmates involved receive time in administrative segregation. one their treatment in the infirmery was completed. next, a lockup -- >> my crime is serial rapist. >> they accuse me of killing a little girl back in 1994. >> sex offenders, the pariahs of the prison yard. >> as far as i'm concerned, they can die.

kids are expensive. so i'm always looking to get more for my money. that's why i switched from u-verse to xfinity. they have the most free on demand tv shows and movies

on all my devices. it's perfect for me because my kids are costing me a fortune. i'm going to cabo! ♪ don't settle for u-verse. xfinity is perfect for people who want more entertainment for their money. it's probably the most common of all emotions inside prison, and fear comes in many forms. as a group of inmates at kentucky state penitentiary explain to us. >> i don't care none of these guys out here. more than one, i figure -- it's

not a clique. my friends that i hang with, these 10, 15 people. i father them the most because i know who they are. the rest of these guys, i don't care. i hope they watch this, and they all know the ones that don't because they don't know. they probably do anyway. >> the only thing out here i believe the old cigarette, getting cancer and kicking the bucket. >> just because i don't fear them doesn't mean they can't take me out. if he fears you, that's the one you got to worry. in here especially because they'll sneak up in here with a rock or knife. they'll get you because they fear you. >> to me a coward will hurt you. he is more dangerous than a stone cold killer is. you know, he is scared. you know, he is in a situation where he is in a corner. >> that's his only way out. >> yeah. >> and no group of inmates feels more cornered than sex offenders. rapists and child molesters,

they're pariahs of the prison with regard. >> as far as i'm concerned they can die. when they get around me and they start talking and they think it's okay to reveal that they're child molesters, every time they say that, i'm going to smash them. >> most sex offenders choose between a life of constant threats or to serve their time in highly restrictive custody units. mark higgins takes a different approach. >> my crime is a serial rapist. i was convicted of several different charges of rape, attempted rape. nine assorted counts in all for a total of 35 years. >> we met higgins at the river bend maximum security institution in tennessee. on the outside he had a professional career and lived in a wealthy nashville suburb with his wife and four children. but he lived a secretive double life. as he carried out his string of

attacks against women between 1990 and 1995 the media dubbed him the gentleman rapist. >> the feeling we had on the crew was, wow, that guy is really scary. he is certainly not, you know -- didn't appear dangerous or your stereotypical inmate, but, you know, i think that's what made him really scary was that he was like your neighbor. the president of your city council or your best friend. i think that made it all the more creepy. >> rapists such as myself, pedophiles, people that murder children or women, they're at the bottom of that pecking order, okay? there is a lot of men that will take advantage of your crime to try to manipulate you into doing something you don't want to do. be that giving them sexual favors, food from the commisary that you buy, things like that. at the end of the day we're all wearing blue jeans with a white

stripe on them. we're all in prison for some law that we've broken. >> unlike most other sex offenders, higgins has stood up for himself. >> someone wants to make a big deal about my crime, i'll turn to them and look them in the face and ask them, well, what exactly do you want to know about it? if this person thinks that he is going to try to control me by holding that over my head, well then he has just made a terrible mistake because i will absolutely confront him on that. oh, by the way, what's your crime? well, is that really better than what -- do you have less of a victim than what i had? e you're in here for murder. well, at least my victim is walking around living and breathing. >> one way he can get away with defending himself is because he is housed in a minimum security unit where many of the inmates have similar charges. but the sex offender we met at iowa's anamosa state

penitentiary has a different existence. larry morgan spends nearly every hour of every day inside a small protective custody cell where he never sees the sun. >> well, what happened is they accused me of killing a little girl back in 1994, and i said i'm in prison, and there's people talking about a contract supposed to be out on me. >> morgan was convicted of kidnapping, raping, and murdering a 9-year-old girl. he is serving life without the possibility of parole. >> there's been a lot of threats against me. it was a high profile crime at the time. everybody in the system knew about it, and, of course, they're all trying to stand up and be some sort of righteous convict. i only rob banks or do drugs or sell crack to kids. this guy, he killed one. now we're going to go and kill again. >> protective custody inmates look morgan are locked in their

cells 23 hours a day to keep them from other inmates. >> it's kind of claustrophobic being in a little cell 23 hours a day, but after a while you get used to it. what i miss most about freedom is just probably being able to be outside, and i miss the sun. i probably miss that more than anything else and fresh air. these places don't smell too good. >> next, on "lock up, raw" -- >> all of a sudden the lock started rattling back and forth together. >> when a life sentence extends to the afterlife. >> i'm not a superstitious person, and i believe that everything has an explanation.

kids are expensive. so i'm always looking to get more for my money. that's why i switched from u-verse to xfinity. they have the most free on demand tv shows and movies on all my devices. it's perfect for me because my kids are costing me a fortune. i'm going to cabo! ♪ don't settle for u-verse. xfinity is perfect for people who want more entertainment for their money. >> correctional officers are well aware that some inmates pose a near constant threat and that many of them will be incarcerated until the day they

die, but "lockup" crews have found it might take more than death to keep some inmates down. >> i love a good ghost story, and anywhere i go that it looks like it has the potential, i'll always ask do you have any ghosts around? in new mexico they have a lot in the old prison. >> when we shot at the penitentiary of new mexico, major dean lopez took us to the old main. a now abandoned building that used to be the heart of the prison before it was replaced with a state-of-the-art facility. >> this is where most of the murders took place was in this cell cell block right here. >> it was the site of a 1980 riot in which inmates slaughtered 33 of their own and reminders are everywhere. >> this is an area here where an inmate actually got chopped up with an ax and what you see here on the floor is just indentures and ligature marks where the ax went through the body and carved

into the floor. bloo one remnant of the riot is just as grizzly but has also been the source of an unexplainable phenomenon. >> they burned a guy to a crisp right there. down here on the floor is the area where he was burned, and it doesn't matter what we've done to try to cover that up. we've tried industrial grade paint, floor wax, stripper, everything. we paint it. within a month and a half this whole burn mark will be back on the surface of the paint again. >> some people would look at this and say that's a ghost coming up through the floor. >> well, there's been a lot of things that certain people have seen in the old main. one point in time we had no electricity in this place, and we find lights on. then we get to the facility, and the lights would be off again. no explanation for why they would be on. you would hear noises that people would say were people screaming. i'm not very much of a superstitious person, and eebl that everything has an explanation. matter of fact, i was one of the people that they would send down to investigate those noises

because, wrau, right, you know? there are some things that i have seen here that i've not been able to explain. if somebody else can, i would be more than happy to hear them try. >> the specter of inmates refusing to leave prison even after death. lockup crews have found that in other prisons too. build in 1852 california's san quentin is one of the oldest prisons we visited. >> approximately 1985 a brand new correctional officer here at san quinton. i was working graveyard in a section. >> officer is an eh member of an investigative services. an elite term of seals that track gang activities and other threats to the institution. >> one night my partner and i were working graveyard. i was sitting with my back to a file cabinet just like this, and there was a row of locks,

padlocks, on the top handle. my partner and i were talking. all of a sudden the lox started rattling back and forth together, clacking. he looked at it. i looked at it. see, i'm getting goose bumps just thinking about it. we both ran out of the office, and we had no explanation as to what that was. we asked some other officers, and they said that, you know the unit is probably haunted. you never can tell. there's no explanation for it. there's no earthquake. the inmates weren't complaining in the unit about the ground moving. there were no wild animals in there. i didn't bump it. he didn't bump it. no telling. >> there's been a history of other strange phenomenon here as well. >> this is san quinton's old dental clinic. back in approximately 1984 there was an inmate that was murdered here in this corner. late at night our officers

working in here have heard the same thing i've heard, foot steps walking in the floors above me right here, and i keep telling them that the guy that was killed here, the inmate, that's him. still walking in this building. >> how do people react? how did you react when you first heard it? >> well, i thought somebody was in the building, so whether or not -- i didn't know whether or not it was an inmate or another officer. when i walk upstairs, everything was locked up. i no longer heard the foot steps. came back down. continued my work. got quiet again. heard the footsteps once again. everybody in this unit has heard them late at night. >> with so many inmates bent on destructive behavior, it's no wonder that some would, if they could, carry on even after death because in prison danger never dies.

>> the owner of a socially conscious cosmetics country lobbies lil. and smart business lessons from the head master of the school of rock, paul green. we have that and so much more coming up next on "your business." small businesses are revitalizing the economy and american express open is here to