due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. >> follow lockup producers and crews, for the scenes you've never seen. "lockup: raw." >> they're found behind the walls of every prison and jail we visit. >> no one would look at me and guess i have an addiction to heroin. >> faces of young first time inmates who look as though they

should be sitting in classrooms rather than surrounded by men and women hardened by the experiences that brought them here. >> most of the people here would die in the yard. i would watch them. i don't care about them. >> i try to be hopeful and maybe i won't be spending the rest of my life in here. >> while lockup production teams consist of season eed veterans o have been in prisons and jails the world over -- >> it's a "lockup" show. msnbc. >> we love "lockup." >> you got to get out of here to watch it. >> we, too, have our firsttimers. the young men and women who serve as production assistants take notes, carry gear and make sure the rest of the crew has enough snacks and water to get through long days. >> it's all made and beautiful there. >> for most, the job provides them with their first experience behind the walls. >> anybody who does not want to be on camera, can you just raise

your hand? >> kevin got his start in grand rapids, michigan. >> first time i remember thinking this is real. we were in jail. we were doing an interview in one of the seg units and there was suddenly a call for a suicide that was happening two cells down. so we rushed over to see what was happening, and we had seen the noose. >> this is what we pulled from his cell. >> it just blew me away that i was encountering it. here i am in the field seeing it happen right in front of me, that somebody was feeling that low, that the bed sheet is what their solution was, pretty much. >> at the fairfax county jail in virginia, we met another young man who would soon have his own experience with the dangers of incarceration. >> we just finished doing a check in with an inmate and walking down the hallway and private viola started really chewing out an inmate in one of the units. we came late to it and caught the end of it.

essentially viola was upset because an inmate was doing pull-ups on a shower curtain rod, which was a no-no. >> get your inmate handbook out and read that. keep you occupied. maybe you'll learn something. obviously, you don't know how to follow the rules. what cell are you in? >> d. >> the guy he pulled out was this young kid. he's a 21-year-old guy, but he could have passed for like 15 or 16. he had this naivety about him. imy knew this was a fish out of water story that we had to cover. >> i'm not really a criminal. that's why i don't belong here. i'm more like a kid who is lot smarter than the stupid decision he makes. i'm grateful i'm here. i'm learning. >> does it scare you being here? >> no. no. >> john carlo has been arrested on charge for grand larceny for allegedly stealing a car.

he entered a plea of not guilty and was awaiting trial, but admitted to us that he had committed the crime, and that it came with plenty of rookie mistakes. >> i was homeless by choice. i got into an altercation with my mother. i ended up leaving the house. i couldn't find place to stay. i was walking around a neighborhood when i saw a car with its engine running. the guy left it running for a good 20 minutes, enough time for me in my mind to hijack it. i was using it as a shelter. i ran into one of my buddies from florida. he's like let's go to the bar. we parked it somewhere where it got towed. it was the police station number. he ended up like ratting me out by accident. the cops were about to arrest him and he was so innocent i had to spill the beans and now i'm here. that's my first felony. i think i'm going to be able to

get away. i guess i have this faith. >> what makes you have faith? >> i don't feel like i really belong here. there's worse people out there who belong here. i didn't hurt anybody. i didn't damage the vehicle. i put gas in it. it was on empty when i got it. >> despite feeling like he didn't belong here, he said he didn't have much to complain about. >> this jail is actually pretty nice. it's not like the movies or alcatrez. like shawshank redemption. you still don't want to be here, but you're not -- there's not like bullies going around taking your lunch, or a guy making a shank out of a pen. there's nothing like that. >> coming up, john carlo runs into a bully who wants his lunch. >> you owe me a sandwich and you owe him the cookies. >> part of me doesn't want to do it. the other part of me doesn't

care. >> but first -- >> how many of you have a family member, parent, cousin, uncle in prison right now? raise your hand. >> the staggering effects of growing up with incarcerated parents. plaque psoriasis...

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i don't like to talk about it. most people don't understand. >> in 2013, sesame street introduced a new muppet character named alex. what makes alex so unique is that his father is doing time in jail. and that has become a reality for more children across america than ever before. >> i love you. >> according to the pugh research center there's about 2.7 million children with a parent in prison, or about 1 in 28 kids. 25 years earlier it was only 1 in 125. >> you like that? >> during our extended day shoot in california's prison we saw the statistics come to life.

>> somebody got stabbed up. that's what happens in prison. >> it was during a program in which inmates and corrections officers visit local schools to steer youngsters away from crime. >> how many of you guys have a family member, parent, uncle, cousin in jail right now? raise your hand. >> i was really surprised when all those hands went up. i shouldn't have been so surprised, because, you know, we've kind of dealt with that throughout the years of filming "lockup." it just seemed shocking and very sad to me. >> my dad's been in and out of prison since i was like born. we've just been living together all alone, just going back and forth as to my grandma's and my mom's. >> jonathan was a sad little soul. he seemed like such an innocent. when he sat down to interview him, he was very quiet, but very compelling in his story of having grown up in a home where his father was pretty much in prison the whole time. >> if you could talk to your dad right now, what would you like to tell your dad?

>> i would tell him stop being in gangs and doing drugs, and come home to my mom and do right things, do positive stuff. >> what about come home to you? >> yeah, that's what i meant. >> do you miss your father? >> yeah. i never really got to really, like, sit down and talk to him, but i miss him. i would like to know more about him. like what he likes to do. i don't want to grow up to be like him. >> you couldn't help but wonder what was going to happen to jonathan. i was hoping he wouldn't follow in his father's footsteps. >> sadly, seven years after our interview with jonathan, we read of his arrest for allegedly robbing a convenience store at gun point. he eventually pled no contest to a charge of taking property. due to a criminal record as a juvenile his three years sentence was increased to six. when we shot our extended stay

series at the tulsa county jail in oklahoma, we encountered a different version of a son following in his father's footsteps. during our coverage of our entirely different story we happened to record one inmate's intriguing comment. >> my first cell partner was my father. >> and one of the inmates started talking about how his father was his first cell mate in prison. i was really struck by that. >> i talked to my dad about it. it hurts a father to see his son follow in his footsteps. >> the inmate was david childers. his father served years in prison for sodomy and rape. david was sentenced to 22 years for convictions including armed robbery and larceny. their sentences overland and they served time together in a number of different oklahoma state prisons. >> i haven't seen him in a few

weeks. been anxious to see him. see how he's doing. >> david had been out of prison for several years. but now he's back in jail awaiting trial on new charges. the exact same ones for which his father went to prison, sodomy and rape. >> what did they say at the cancer center anyway? mom come up here and said they did some more tests. >> we were present when gary childers who was undergoing treatment for cancer came to visit his son. >> my mri was negative. my c.a.t. scan did show something. >> it's always hard to visit him in the jail. it's the roughest time. because i've done everything to keep him out, but he's a hard head. i did time. that wasn't a lifestyle. that was a journey into self-destruction. >> how did you feel, dad, when i walked in on the yard? >> i felt [ bleep ]. it was one of the toughest yards in the system.

people got killed there. then here comes my son. something else to worry about. a lot of people get along well if they have their family in the yard. but if you're doing a lot of time, you're old school, an old-timer, we have rules we live by. then they bring your son in. there's something they can use against you, that's a weakness, and you're always looking for a weakness to prey on you. so here comes this one. not only do you have to be concerned about what you're doing, make sure you're doing everything right, now you have to worry about him doing everything right. one time was enough for me. this is, what, your third? >> yeah. >> like i said, i think you're trying to make a career out of it. >> i don't want to make a career out of it, it's just -- >> you know what, you're so intelligent, that you're stupid. i've been telling you that for years. you don't see that everything that's going on around you.

>> i think what it was, dad, is when i got out, i was still thinking like i was inside. >> you forgot which side of the fence you was on. >> i was still thinking like i was on the inside, and -- >> on the outside you don't play by the inside rules. >> a lot of stuff didn't make accepts. when you're my age and start asking questions about how do you do this, how do you do that, you feel like an idiot. >> i know. >> after all them years in prison, what do you expect. >> i expected you to act like me. you know? you need to understand that, david, when you come back out, just remember those fences. those damn fences are a [ bleep ]. they not only keep you in, in your physical body, but they keep you in your mental body. you forget which side that fence you're on, you're a dead man. >> dad, i love you. >> you know i love you. i'm going to kick your [ bleep ]

damn ass again. >> when do you think you're coming back up here? >> i'll come up here whenever you want me here. >> when you're off chemo, you're probably going to get stronger and gain weight and stuff. >> i'm getting stronger, but my skin's giving away. i'm breaking out in blood sores, but they say that's normal. what the cancer didn't get, the chemo did, so -- >> i love you. tell mom i love her. >> she knows that. >> his dad knew he was terminal. and i could feel the sadness. you know, even if he was going to leave the planet, his son was going to walk down that same dark path that he had gone. >> love you, dad. >> love you, too, son. he needs to figure out where his life's heading. because life ain't going to wait on you. it's like my grandfather told me, if you don't learn the lessons in life, you're doomed to repeat them until you do.

>> what i've always been struck by with parents in these situations, they have obviously gone down a bad path. and then they're always so surprised when their kids follow them on that path. they think somehow by talking to the kid, don't do as i did, just do as i say, that somehow that's going to change their children's life. rarely does it. i mean, we are constantly now interviewing people who have parents who have already been in the system. >> six months later, gary childers passed away, and eventually david childers was convicted on several charges, including rape, battery, and sodomy. and just like his father, he received a 20-year state prison sentence. coming up -- >> i've been doing real good in school. and my grades are really high. >> the jail in san antonio attempts to break the cycle of children repeating the mistakes of their parents.

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at the bexar county jail in san antonio, texas, 38-year-old kathy mermia is more than familiar with the accommodations. >> this is my temporary home for now. it's where i live at the moment. i kind of keep my -- this is kind of like my little strain here. it makes me feel free. i sit here, and sometimes i'm looking out here, i look at this. >> when we met her, she was serving 59 days for theft but had also done time on prior convictions including burglary and evading police. she said that time she was pulled over when a friend in her car told her he had a warrant out for his arrest. >> i see the cop get out, and the cop starts coming this way. and i put the car in drive and i took off. we went on a high-speed chase for maybe 10, 12 miles.

i hit another car head-on. at this time i knew i'm screwed. i was on parole. i'm on a high-speed chase with the cops. i knew i was going back. i went head-on with another vehicle. and i remember, you know, the air bag popping out. i remember snapping out of it, and looking over at him. he's trying to get his seat belt off. i told him, run, i said, run. i started to run way and he was running the other way. of course, the cop is going to chase me, because i was the driver. they chased me for about two blocks. a police pulled up in front of me and pulled me out and tackled me down. >> a few floors down, in one of the men's units, is her 19-year-old son. he declined to speak with us. bermia acknowledges she was not a good role model. >> he got in trouble on

aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in a road rage shooting. this goes back to me. i would always carry a little deringer. and i was selling drugs, and i always had to carry my guns. so they would see that, you know? my 19-year-old picked up on it. i'll never forget one day he was talking to his friends, he was like 12. something he had seen me do one day when we pulled up to a stop sign. he said, you should see my mom, she got out and beat somebody up. you thought, wow, did i really do that? and those were a lot of eye openers for me. >> but now, bermia had a chance to do better with her 11-year-old son. she was participating in a parenting program, run by the bexar county jail, called mothers with children. >> the program was developed in the hopes of stopping the cycle of intergenerational incarceration. the more they learn about

themselves, the more they learn what happened to them, the more they learn how to let go of a lot of things. the greater they become at parenting. >> while some jails and prisons have similar programs, bexar's at 31 years old is one of the longest running in the nation. they say graduates of the program have about a 15% lower arrest rate of the national average of about 70%. >> the match program has helped me a lot with communication, as far as with my child, the way i communicate with him, the things i say to him, how i say it. it makes a big difference on how you say something to your child. >> the program allows participants weekly hour-long visits with their children in classroom settings. as opposed to the jail's noncontact visitation area, used by other inmates for 50-minute-long visits. >> he says, daddy! >> a lot of people are against children coming to the jail, but the children take a lot of responsibilities and a lot of things that aren't -- they don't

belong to them. they feel like they're the ones that caused the parent to be in jail. because they were bad, or because they made bad grades in school. >> today, bermia will visit with her son tony. >> the emotions are going to start running high here in just a minute. you see people's emotions a lot in here. >> how are you doing? good? good to see you. you smell good. i don't want to mess up your hair. are you doing good? it's heart-wrenching at the same time, but it's great, you know? when we connect like this, he gets to feel me hugging him. i think that hug helps him let go. and it helps me, being able to touch him helps me let go. >> i've been doing really good in school. and my grades are really high.

>> i know you're on the honor roll. i'm so proud of you. he made the honor roll. we've been talking about it. i told him, you know, you do better in school, i'll do better over here, we'll try hard to get this going. you pick your grades up and your mom will do good on this side, too. i'll try hard. he made the honor roll. >> they're really nice, because they're volunteering, and they're not asking for any money. i think they raise support, having her letting the children of the mothers who are incarcerated see each other. >> how about that? >> very good! >> we draw on the chalk boards. and we play games. and read books. >> he had chock on his hands, and he put his hands all over

me. when i came back to the pods, the girls saw his little hand prints all over the back of my blue shirt. i didn't want to turn the shirt in, i was so careful folding the shirt, i didn't want the chalk to come off because i could see his little hand prints on it. i love you. >> i love you. >> are you going to make the next visit? >> i'm going to try to. >> ow! >> no matter how many times he visits me, it never gets easier to have to let him go out that door, and not be able to go with him. but when i hit the window, he turned around and saw me, and i had tears running down my eyes. and he turned, and he couldn't turn back and look at me like that. he just turned away. i know i hurt him, you know? it's okay.

we're going to get through this. god's going to see me through this. we're all going to get through it. coming up -- >> you know you still owe me lunch. >> john carlos is faced with a jail house threat. >> if you keep playing with me, then it's going to get physical. and i'm still struggling with my diabetes. i do my best to manage. but it's hard to keep up with it. your body and your diabetes change over time. your treatment plan may too.

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here's what's happening. french president francois hollande met with russian president vladimir putin today and wants closer cooperation to fight isis. in new york, 2,500 police officers stood along the macy's thanksgiving day parade route for security. there are no known threats following the attacks in paris. a man draped in a u.s. flag was arrested after climbing the white house fence as the first family celebrated thanksgiving inside. back to "lockup." due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised.

at the fairfax county adult detention center in virginia, john carlos' boy looks caught our attention. he was 21 years old. but it was his first time in jail. he was awaiting trial for allegedly stealing a car and hoping his family would bail him out. >> talked to my sister just yesterday. she said she's going to try to get some money and talk to my parents. they want to know if i've learned my lesson. they want to know that i've changed. >> in the meantime, he was doing his best to fit in. >> during john carlos' meal time, he was able to get a job in the kitchen. we actually shot some roll with him on the line, serving food. >> that was actually my second day. so i'm learning still. >> but apparently he got fired for allegedly stealing cookies. and he ended up on a much

tougher housing unit and it was definitely a place he didn't want to do. >> he denied stealing anything. >> one of the managers had found a bag or packet of cookies in the trash bag, and he didn't know whose it was. instead of checking the cameras, he just called the four new guys working the cookie line. and so since none of us knew who did it, he fired all of us. >> and things would get much tougher for john carlos. another inmate in a new unit, charles robinson, who is awaiting trial on charges decided he owed him somebody. >> he owed me a lunch. he was supposed to give me his breakfast tray. but he didn't give it up. so he's going to give me his lunch today. >> he told me that people who come in for the first week don't eat or something. i don't know if it's an

initiation. maybe everybody had to go through that. >> robinson had this rule, on that unit, that if a new inmate came up, he has to give up his tray. i asked him, what's up with that? like where does this come from? it was done to him. >> you have to pay rent on this. even when i first came here, i gave them my tray. so you've got to pay. i need my lunch. >> so we were just getting some basic shots of john carlos, and he was on the phone with his family and then something really surprising happened. >> you know, bro, you still owe me lunch, sandwiches, right? you know that, right? you owe me the sandwiches. and you owe him the cookies. so send it to me.

>> okay. thank you. love you. >> don't forget. don't forget. i'm eating good today. >> the fact that he did it so blatantly in front of us, i think robinson wanted to seem tough. he wanted to look like he was a bad ass. inmates who would normally bully somebody, they're not going to do it right in front of us, because we do walk around with escort officers, so they don't want to get busted. so it was really surprising to see robinson go up and just blatantly start to bully this guy in front of everybody. i'm speculating, but i think they didn't just take him right to lockup, because they were giving us the respect of sort of doing our job, and filming life in jail. >> either way, john carlos now had a decision to make, stand his ground and face a possible beating, or give up his food and become a perpetual victim.

>> i was like, i don't want to say -- i don't want to be viewed as weak. the other part of me really doesn't care. but at the same time, i do need to eat. it's tough on your mind, you know? the decisions you have to make. every decision here might have a consequence. >> you put your hands on it and everything. on both of them. tomorrow's another day. that right there, that gets me. he pisses me off. he touched the sandwich. i don't know where your hand's been. i want both his sandwiches. i might not even eat the dinner, i might give it to somebody else who wants it. or i'm taking his breakfast tomorrow. or if he keeps playing with me, man, it's going to get physical.

>> this guy gives you something, is it going to be cool from then on? >> probably not, because i don't like his attitude. but he ain't going to last up here, the way he carry himself. the way he act. >> my religion tells me to just give it to him. maybe god's trying to teach me something right there. it's hard, you know? i'm just trying to be calm and be myself and not bother anybody. that just makes me stand out more, i guess. everything here right now is a test. you know, studying for my test. now sometimes i get pop quizzes like that. and i'm like, i'm not prepared, you know? >> but the next day his decision was made for him. >> i don't see him in the unit today. what happened? >> they called and told him he was going to leave. >> i had to get bailed out. i knew i had to. i was trying to convince them,

persuade them. nobody in my family thinks i should be out. nobody in my family thinks i'm ready. as soon as that guy came over, he actually helped me a lot. he said something, like, you're going to give me your sandwich or something. >> you know you're going to give me your lunch, right? >> other people on the line said, who is that? what did they say? okay, i'm coming right now. that guy actually helped me a lot that day. >> he says he would consider a return visit to jail, but in a different role. >> i want to study law and criminology. i never wanted to do that in my life, but after going through this place, and experiencing everything that someone has to go through, i really want to be able to help people who were in my situation as well. >> everybody stand up. >> in other jails and prisons across the country, officials try to take steps to make sure young men and women never cross their threshold. one of the more popular has been scaring kids for several decades now. >> all these. why you here?

look at me. you talking to me, right? >> back in the 1970s, a new program came out that was designed to keep kids who had been in trouble with the law from committing the kinds of crimes that could send them to prison or in jail. it was called scared straight. >> [ bleep ]! >> what are you crying for? >> inmates would get right in their face and literally try to scare them straight. it became really popular. but over the years, a number of studies came out suggesting these programs were not effective. and actually might be contributing to the problem. but when we went to the suffolk county jail in long island in new york, we discovered a different kind of scared straight program that wasn't targeting at-risk kids at all. new plan...same doctor.

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>> for many of the inmates at the suffolk county jail on long island, new york, the arrival of students from nearby babylon high school, hopes the promise of this day will be considerably less monotonous than many others. >> we have the enlightenment seminars, which many people compared it to scared straight. i think this is a little more toned down. high schools and junior high schools from suffolk county, they come here on a bus, and they come through with their chaperones and their teachers. >> all right, good morning! >> we want these kids to see that, you know, this is a dead end coming to jail. and it's not necessarily kids who are in trouble. this is a whole grade of kids from a high school or junior high school that come in. >> this is a maximum security facility. when we go inside, there are some rules we have to follow. >> officer nelson is their

guide. >> this class today is a high school class. so they're not like at-risk youth. they're just kids that are in a law course in high school. >> this is our criminal justice elective. it's an opportunity for the students to see how the criminal system works from all aspects. this field trip gives them an insight into the jail system. which is one of the topics covered in the course. >> ladies, nothing in your hair. no bob i pins, straight pins, clips. >> the seminars have been running since the '80s. i actually came through when i was in high school. and i ended up working here, which was nowhere in my plans. but i'm glad i did. last week we had an inmate, he was slashed in the yard. they sharpened a peach pit and they gave him what they called a buck fifty on this side and buck fifty on this side. 150 stitches on each side.

they won't be allowed to have peaches anymore. >> the students are processed into the jail. and like any new inmate, are searched for contraband. >> two rows, stay to your right. >> in the beginning i was excited, but now i've been hearing stories, and i'm nervous. my teachers have gone on previous trips here, and they said they were scared a little bit. >> nobody's looking forward to experiencing this. it's like a lesson how not to end up like one of these guys. no offense to them, but maybe help me become a lawyer. >> make room. >> the first stop is a holding cell. where new arrestees are confined during the booking process. >> all right. we can put up to 60 inmates into each holding pen. 40 people, another 20 people. there's one toilet. we don't separate inmates by their charges. there may be three blood over there, one crypt over here. a guy stabbed his wife over here. the drunk guy over there.

>> i've never going to jail. >> follow me. come around this pole. >> the two are now headed to the men's maximum security units. most of the inmates they will encounter are charged with serious crimes. but are not necessarily convicted. >> all right, listen up! we are now on the fourth floor. the fourth floor is a male floor, all right? i'm going to read you the charges of these inmates. murder, criminal contempt, criminal possession of a controlled substance, failure to register as a sex offender, burglary, criminal possession of a controlled substance, murder, criminal contempt, murder, murder. all right. we'll be going through 4 east first. >> like most other scared straight programs, their reception is graphic, if not over the top.

>> [ bleep ]! [ bleep ]! >> what you looking at [ bleep ]? huh? white boy, yeah, look that way. don't look over there. don't look at me. don't be scared. >> the inmates can't touch the kids. they can intimidate them and yell at them. >> what you looking at, man? what's up, man? what you looking at, man? >> we try to scare them when they come through, you know what i mean? let them know it's not really that fun to be in here, you know what i'm saying? because it's not. >> the students exit the men's block. but it's not over. >> oh, my god, i'm like shaking. >> now the students are led through a women's tier.

>> [ bleep ]! >> why won't you look! look at me! remember this day! >> and jamie greco. >> [ bleep ]! you want to [ bleep ]! all the things i was saying to those kids was horrible, but it wasn't me. that's not how i am. that's just me putting on a front so that they see like what goes on. wipe that smile off your face you ugly [ bleep ]! you ugly [ bleep ]! wipe that smile off! we want them to know that this is real. i'm going to lose my voice. >> the students get a break from the verbal assault, and ready themselves for the next part of the program. >> i thought the girls were worse. >> yeah, they kept calling us

fresh meat. >> it was scary. >> it wasn't like a normal thing. they were yelling at you. and screaming. and you just -- you couldn't say anything, you couldn't do anything, you just had to walk past it like it wasn't going on. >> quiet, guys. all right. now we're going to bring down some inmates to talk to you guys, all right? winter storm warnings are in effect all along the eastern seaboard... flights are cancelled on account of severe wind speeds. looks like it's just you and me. rolling power outages have...

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but a group of local high school students took a tour of the suffolk county jail on long island in new york. they were subjected to a barrage of insults and threats from inmates. they hadn't even done anything wrong. >> this is a youth enlightenment seminar. it's like a very mild scared straight program. they're taking their first criminal justice course, so they're looking the way courts work and stuff like that. quiet, guys.

all right, now we're going to bring down some inmates to talk to you guys. you might recognize some of them, all right? >> the guy said something scary to me. >> i'm going to cry. >> all right, all right, all right. hold the chitchat. everything cease. >> the second half of the program begins with the same tough talk from some of the inmates. but now they're not behind bars. >> put your hands on your knees. >> together. >> put your feet together and your hands on your knees! you, get up in the front. you, pink shirt. >> [ bleep ]. [ bleep ]. >> wipe the smile off your face. >> make your feet touch like everybody else. you're not special. >> rule number one, keep your eyes on the speaker. don't worry about what's going

on to your left or your right. if someone gets called out, you can't help them. if you feel like you can help one of your classmates, get up and try. otherwise, keep your eyes on the speaker. number two, show some kind of respect. otherwise we're going to come at you a little hard. >> the first speaker shifts from an intimidating inmate with a man with something to share. >> i just want to speak about life. if you want to make life [ bleep ], it's going to be [ bleep ]. if you want to make it beautiful, it's going to be beautiful. what do you want to make it? if i had a chance to do it all over again, trust me, i would. how old was i? 15 years old. if i had the chance to jump in a time machine and go back, i would. trust me. i would, man. >> watts was in jail for parole violation, on prior convictions including robbery and assault for which he has already served

three years in prison. >> i was active in sports growing up. i ran track, hurdles, high jump, cross-country. and i played basketball. i had a scholarship to a prestigious catholic school in brooklyn. i didn't rehabilitate fast enough and i lost my scholarship. my father is a retired police officer. they say i'm not supposed to be here. i say, if i make idiotic choices for myself, i am supposed to be here. the same could happen to you. don't try to portray an image that's not you. for years i tried to fit into a lifestyle that didn't necessarily fit me. and you know what it got me? years and years of pain. years and years of my mother crying. years and years of my father -- our relationship is strained. we're just recently trying to mend our relationship. you have the opportunity not to even [ bleep ] live not a day of the [ bleep ] that we live here. just by the choices you make

today. it's going to make an impact on you tomorrow. i was a business major, man. and now i'm fighting to get back to finish up my degree. i'm fighting to get back to my daughter. i'm missing milestone after milestone of my daughter's life. i came here when my daughter was 4. my daughter is about to turn 8. i wish at your age somebody was standing in front of me talking to me the way i am to you here. >> the inmates like to do what -- they enjoy doing it. sometimes i think it's like a therapy for them. all right. right about now, i'm going to give you guys a chance to ask the inmates any questions you want. there are no questions off limits. all right? anybody have a question for any of these inmates up here? you in the back? >> why do you have us sit with our hands on our knees? >> it's like on the bus ride. yes, please. you're shackled.

feet and hands. black box. shackled ankle to ankle. when i get up to go to the bathroom, she's coming with me. >> it would be another man. >> i would love for her to keep me company, trust me. the reason why we do that, you only have to do that for 45 minutes. if that. so if you make the wrong decisions, you can take that eight-hour, 14-hour ride in that position. that's the reason why. i think john had a question as well. >> at any point in your life, did you ever think to stop and think of what you were doing? >> of course. i did. and you know what? it's something called insanity, where you think you can do the same thing over and over, just might be a light difference and expect different results. that's what happened. try to cut corners. what happened is i got cut out

of the race all together. but i'm done with that. you can't conform 50%. it has to be 100% if you expect any real change. >> sir? >> when you started screaming at us, and now you're calm. why? >> we just don't want you to know it's not a joke in here. it's not. once you come in here, we don't know when we're going home. this is not a joke. when you come through seeing us playing cards, it's not like that. but it is. it gets turned up in there. it gets like that. >> yeah. it does. >> you guys are just like me in my position earlier in their life. they just made decisions -- they didn't have anybody in their corner to tell them to do the right thing. it didn't turn out too well. >> what he was saying was so, like, i guess motivational. like to do the right thing. and not to do anything wrong. he had his life all planned out and then that one thing just changed everything.

>> i thought it was good to see different perspective on how the inmatsd really live their life and what it's like, to actually be in there, and live 24/7 in that environment. i wouldn't be able to live in that, i don't think. i wouldn't like that at all. >> well, now that i have an idea of what actually happens, i don't know if i would ever take a career here. i don't know if i have like the capability to, like, handle everything. or, like, see real people like this. it would probably just make me upset.

due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. follow "lockup" producers and crews as they go behind the walls of america's prisons and jails with the scenes you've never seen. "lockup: raw." unlike prison, where all the inmates are convicted and serving sentences, most jail inmates are only accused of crimes and are awaiting trial at the resolution of their cases.