due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. msnbc takes you behind the walls of america's most notorious prisons, into a world of chaos and danger. now the scenes you've never seen, "lock up, raw." for inmates to survive they have to make friends. the problem is they're surrounded by people who aren't very trustworthy. here's the dilemma. you have to make friends for

protection but they can the friends that end up killing you. finding true friendship in prison might be a dicey proposition but at the spring creek correctional center in alaska we found a pair of cell mates who seemed more like frat house brothers rather than inmates at a maximum security penitentiary. >> look at that. >> when why met richard evans and ronald bos hchheers. they reunited after ronald's release from a stay in the hole. >> i was in the hole tattooing. >> who were you tattooing. >> the guy right here. >> we got caught doing this one right here. we got ran up on while doing this. got in hand. oh, you going to bust for really?

>> thank you, gentlemen. thank you. >> next thing i know i do 14 months inle hole. he come to the window, coming out, bro. >> what's up, dude? >> be right out. >> suntanning. >> i know. >> we've developed a really nice relationship since we -- >> relationship. >> do anything for this guy, anything. >> same. this is my twin sister. >> older sister. >> i'm glad you came back, bro. >> you're my bestest roomy ever. >> but this bond also has a dark side. the cell mates share a strong appetite for methamphetamine. >> what am i in for? >> coke and meth. back in 2002 i get pulled over, i have a whole lab in the car, microwave, everything and they pulled me over just for a traffic stop and they said, oh, look what we got. look what we got here. cooking meth. what a surprise. i was cooking it, dealing it. doing it, anything i could do

with it, i was. i can't lie. i like it. you know, the meth. you know and the whole lifestyle that comes with. living like a rock star. going to clubs, you know, naked girls dancing. oh, what's up with y'all. yeah, that's right. >> never sleep. >> never sleep. >> boshears landed in reason after a robbery to support his meth habit earned him 18 years. >> i went through the whole progression from cocaine to heroin and on up and been a speed freak for years now. >> my whole life has been dope, dope, dope, dope. i was a crackhead. >> he was a crackhead. i was a heroin addict. >> my wife left me and took my kids and all because of crack so i was like crack is bad. maybe i'll just do meth. >> meth is better. >> and then i ended up here. >> go figure. >> yeah, yeah. >> so, i know meth is pretty addictive. how do you deal with it here? >> how do we do it here in jail?

we don't. >> we work out. >> we work out in jail and build it up to break it down. >> in fact, we at myers boshears during his workout a few days earlier right before he shaved his head. >> i work out pretty much seven days a week, every once in a while i take a day off. part of my program. this is every morning i come out and do this so i can do something productive. start off the day right. >> while boshears and evans have seemingly beat their habit and gained their health in prison, they told us this might all be temporary. >> i'm going to try and get out and do the right thing. i'm going to get out. i'm going to get high. i can't lie. i love doing dope. see my mom and then i'm bouncing. >> so then presumably you'll be back together again. >> i still got 6 1/2 years left.

working out, going to school but i can't even say what i'm going to do yet. it's going to be 6 1/2 years. yeah, i love getting high. that's all i've been doing for the last -- half of my life. >> next on "lock up: raw." >> they're guy boll cal and petty. >> natural foes work side by side in a kitchen stocked with weapons. >> it only takes one of these to pick one of those up. one day a rider made a decision. the decision to ride on and save money. he decided to save money by switching his motorcycle insurance to geico. there's no shame in saving money. ride on, ride proud.

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relationships ever cross the line into friendship, but having a friendly rapport is essential to keeping the peace. >> 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 as a man to wear shorts like that with legs like that 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? what building you're in? >> 5.

>> tell them you're going home. you don't do that on my yard. you know that. and 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 harsher view the cos. >> 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 first came in '82, we had guards. later on, became the cos. 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 live here. 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 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. put it out there. >> they were joking. they were establishing 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, it 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 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 his cell and back down all of 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, i'm having back problems and you get them over there and the nurses say 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 chest problems from trauma as a child that are still reoccurring. >> the inmate was treated and returned to his cell. meanwhile, responding officers returned to their normal duties. >> hey, you -- >> you'll get a lot of that. >> up next -- >> we try to have a disciplined environment, and 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 -- >> i was doing something constructive!

>> he's a narcissist. he loves attention. he loves to micromanage. he loves to get everybody at his mercy all the 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 grantt 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. but then you have to realize >> i got 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 in 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 that 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 that are seasoned and have been here, they run games on you. they get you into debt. once you get into debt, if they are not soliciting sex from you, then they solicit that they have your family members to send you 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. and 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. >> if i see somebody with a beard or looking like they need a shave i generally talk to them about it. >> you need to go to shave or go to health care. >> i done been to health care.

>> our crew caught up with him on a monday morning trying to resolve an incident. >> it was a use of force that i got a call about yesterday. this guy acting out, cell cleanout day. he refused to give the broom back. actually ended up taking him out of the cell, putting him outside. >> he often has uncooperative inmates moved to outdoor holding cages this will they calm down. this time it caused more problems. >> once we got him outside. he refused to come back inside, refused to be uncuffed. he's high strung. 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."

so, i broke the broom. >> you broke the broom? why? >> i just told you. the room had -- >> no reason 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. and even if the broom wasn't working properly, if it was the sorry broom, they gave you the sorriest broom of all, still no reason to break 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. hastert will but 39 disciplinaries. >> all in all, just another monday morning for a warden who's always walking the line between friend and foe.

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