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." >> most prisons have units designed for protective custody. they're for inmates who become targets, child molesters or gang

dropouts. but it doesn't matter where you're housed, your safety is never guaranteed. >> we believe you may have been a victim of a battery. >> joseph de la cruz is a gang dropout. serving nine years for attempted murder at california's san quentin state prison. and when we first met him, authorities had just discovered that he had been assaulted inside his protective custody cell. >> this morning you didn't come out of your cell. we did a sweep to find out how many people stayed behind and you were discovered with injuries, and here's the medical report. >> despite obvious injuries, de la cruz refused to give correctional staff any information about the attack. >> they're trying to find out what happened and i won't tell what happened. >> any specific individuals you know or are your enemies? >> no, sir. >> do you belong to a gang? >> no, i don't. >> outside from what you're accused of, are you involved in any other batteries in your history? >> no.

>> due to this evidence, you're deemed a threat to the safety and security of the institution, to staff, and inmates. >> without good information about what prompted the attack and whether this attack could lead to others, the prison decides to place de la cruz into administrative segregation where he will be isolated in a single cell 23 hours per day. >> it's very complicated, but in the process of asking questions, we're trying to cover all angles of why he was assaulted. so i started my questioning whether or not it was more than one person or not, and he didn't want to say. >> a group assault is disturbing news for prison staff. it indicates the gang activity has penetrates protective custody. which at san quentin is also referred to as the sensitive needs yard, or sny. >> it's supposed to be gang-free, but a lot of these guys go into sny not because they want to. a lot of these guys still want to be gangsters.

>> many of these inmates come to sny because they have violated gang rules, and now need protection from gang retaliation. >> the easiest way to describe it is even though you've walked away from the gang, it doesn't change your gang mental state, because what happens is you've already been trained by the gang. so it's easy again to reestablish yourself. >> a lot of them, they go into sny, they see older inmates, weaker inmates and they band together again, whether as a formal gang, we have dropout gangs, or even just a group of four or five bigger guys that want to pressure other guys out of anything. clothing, money, food, anything they can get out of them. >> lieutenant munoz must now determine whether de la cruz is a victim of a gang or an active gang member himself. perhaps one who has requested protective custody under false pretenses. >> one of the terms that they use is sleeper is one of the names. he's a sleeper, he's coming in under the radar.

the other one, the term they use, is he's a torpedo. he's coming in, he's got a target, and he's going to find his target and explode on a guy. so i questioned him about that. >> while de la cruz still refused to give officials any information about the attack, later, he was willing to tell us why he decided to drop out and seek protective custody. >> they're all like 18, 19, 20 years old. murder, robbery. got 25 to life. all for this [ bleep ]. these home boys killed each other. it's stupid stuff, you know what i'm saying? >> but then de la cruz told us there was an even more compelling reason to quit gng life. >> it's my little boy. after they see him right there, it was like yeah, that's your

dream right there. that was the day we were at the hospital. >> the thing about joseph that stood out for me was the fact that here was this young man who was obvious gang affiliated, in a pretty tough prison who had made a very huge transformation because of his child. i rarely see people in his situation be moved to change because of children. his love for his son was so great that he made some pretty monumental changes in order to try to get out and be a father. >> my son's always loved going to the best schools. he's going to be all right, you know what i'm saying? i'm not trying to start trouble. not part of those little gangs they call themselves. i just want to do my time and get out of here. >> after further investigation, lieutenant munoz found no evidence that de la cruz is

still an active gang member. so now he suspects that de la cruz may have been beaten for refusing to join an emerging sny gang. >> we're hoping that through the interviews that we'll do in the same unit, we may come across one of the eyewitnesss, or folks will be able to confirm information that's floating around out there on the tiers as to why he got battery. >> what does your gut tell you? you're a veteran. >> these guys are trying to get away from gangs to do their time safely and they're getting beat up. so it just doesn't seem to end. >> eventually the prison decided the safest solution for de la cruz was to transfer him to a different prison. >> right now, get my thoughts together, you know what i'm saying? >> lieutenant munoz still sees challenges ahead. >> like i say, he's young. first time. and it's hard for him to understand how he is supposed to maintain an attitude and protect himself at the same time and not

look weak. so it's an ongoing process that never stops. coming up -- >> love you. >> you sort of get used to it. it gets like a daily routine and everything. >> an inmate's wife watches her husband grow old behind bar. >> she's everything. i mean, i don't know how to say it any more than that. i'm just crazy about her. that's the smile i was waiting on.

it's often said that prisons are like cities behind walls. if that metaphor were applied to

alabama's correctional facility, robert's home would be about six feet long by three feet wide. >> this is home. bed-to-bed right here. each one of these beds is like having a house in a subdivision on the street, only no walls, no doors, no privacy. so you just kind of ignore what's going on next door to you. >> after 20 years of incarceration, 17 of them served as holmen, he has developed an appreciation of the little things. >> a cup of coffee. cup of coffee and a cigarette, that's every morning. >> at the time of our shoot, he still had ten years left on the conviction of sodomy, public exposure, and enticement of a child. >> robert was one of those inmates who was adamant that he was falsely accused, falsely

convicted. >> ever since his 1984 conviction, tedder has said his charges were trumped up in order to run him out of town. >> i found out a bunch of people here in alabama needed a good contractor, so i moved up to alabama. five years later, i got a warning to get out of town and quick contracting or we're going to stop you. i laughed at them because i was licensed for everything, plumbing, electrical and everything. and they stopped me. they pulled the rug out from under my feet, put some fake charges on me and took me to court. i've been here since 1990. and it's a long time. now i've got three grandkids out there. and i'm a greatgrandfather, i was told. and all this has happened while i've been in prison the last 20 years. the hardest part of it is being without my wife. it's like, she's everything. she's the bubble i live in.

>> i'm here to visit my husband robert tedder. >> ava tedder lives just a few miles from holmen and visits regularly. >> usually it's every two weeks, and you can stay from 8:00 until about 1:20. for a long time, it was real stressful. but then, you sort of get used to it. it sort of gets like a daily routine and everything. just like everyday life. >> love you. >> love you. >> you okay? >> yeah. >> my wife comes over to visit, i feel like i'm 25 again. about three days later after she leaves, i'm about 70 again. age catches up with me. but she's everything. i mean, i don't know how to say it any more than that, i'm just

crazy about her. now that's the smile i was waiting on. >> what are you allowed to do affection-wise? >> i can kiss her, hold her for a little bit. when we start to leave, i get to kiss her again. that's it. >> not much. >> no. not much at all. >> while we were there, the couple was also dealing with the anxiety of an upcoming parole hearing. if things go well, they could be reunited again on the outside. but they've been down this road before. >> in '95, i came up the first time. that was eight years. and they put me off a year at the time and then they changed the law then and put me off five years, to 2002. and then again five years to 2007. >> so how are you feeling about the next chance? >> after what i know about the

state of alabama, i don't know. >> i got to the point where i don't trust people. i don't trust the law. i don't trust anybody. >> i'll probably never live to get out of here. i don't know. i'm just going to go in there and hand him the paper and answer his questions, and just kind of like playing florida lottery, you just pick a number and wait. >> prior to parole hearings, the board sends a representative to conduct a pre-interview in order to prepare a recommendation on whether or not the inmate should be paroled. >> come on in, robert. just have a seat. this morning, i'm going to be interviewing robert tedder for a parole hearing that he had set in august. any time you have an inmate that's come up for parole that's a sex offender, red flags go up everywhere. when someone gets on parole, everything's got guidelines, and of course, in your situation, the guidelines are a little narrow because of the case.

and that's just something that you'll have to just stay within those guidelines just a little more tighter than someone else. now, according to your record, i didn't see anything in there where you had been on probation or parole before, is that correct? i see you were in the air force. >> yeah. you wasn't a parole officer here the last time, were you? >> no, i don't think i was the officer that interviewed you. >> every time they've come here before, it was what's your home plan and job plan? and i give them that and that was it. no questions. >> i do mine a little bit differently. >> that's good. >> as far as his chances of making parole, that's difficult to say. because the parole board has the final decision. any time you have a case that's a sex case, sex offender and it's dealing with children, and i wouldn't even speculate what his chances are. i mean, i know what's stacked up against him. >> all right, robert, good luck to you. i hope it works the way you want

it. all right. good luck to you. >> i appreciate it. >> the parole hearing for robert was interesting in that robert believed every time he might have a chance. he felt very hopeful. he had been turned down many times before, so he obviously carried that realism with him. but i think that there was a piece of him that thought maybe this could be the time i get set free. >> so what are your thoughts and feelings about the whole thing? >> well, the way he was talking, he may give a good report. so things may go my way this time. >> what's your main hope? >> getting back on the street. going back to work. letting my wife sit back for a while. >> i'm hoping this time that it will go through, because things are going a little bit different than it has in the past times. i've done got everything prepared to where we can have a little time together and everything whenever he does get out. because we've got a lot of time

to make up for. >> but the wait would continue. tedder was once again denied parole. he will most likely not leave holmen until his 30-year sentence is complete. >> i have two daughters and i look at it from that perspective. do i want these people around my family? no. but there again, someday, in this case robert tedder is going to walk out this door free. so you have to look at it from that side. he's going to go free. it may not be in parole, but he's going to eos his sentence in 2014 and he's coming out. and society's going to have to accept that. >> see you later. coming up -- >> i'm making a birdhouse right now. >> two inmates seek a creative respite from hell. >> art is my sanity and my

salvation. i mean, that's what keeps me stable. (cell phone rings) where are you? well the squirrels are back in the attic. mom? your dad won't call an exterminator... can i call you back, mom? he says it's personal this time... if you're a mom, you call at the worst time. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. where are you? it's very loud there. are you taking a zumba class?

the majority of the maximum security inmates we meet might describe prison as hell. but at indiana state prison, we encountered a pair of old-timers who figured out how to make the best of it. >> what are you doing there? >> sitting here buying time. that's all i'm doing. >> steve robins was serving 90 years for murder. but he had a sensitive eye when it came to color. >> this is blue. a very beautiful color. you see i had to use it sparingly, you know what i'm talking about? the sky. all right? creativity, i got you, no problem. this is oil paint. it's not acrylics.

you got to let this dry and build. that's how i do it. i don't put too much of a buildup on the paint because i want to control it. >> darrell mayman, serving four years for multiple counts of burglary and fraud, had a different hobby. >> i'm making a birdhouse right now. i also do chest sets. when i was in florida, i worked in the hobby craft shop, and we had saws and band saws and everything that we could just cut regular wood with. here we don't. here we've got popsicle sticks. and i buy them a thousand at a time. and i cut the ends off. good old elmer's glue. and this is my little saw, which happens to be the bottom of a pringles can. it's not sharp. it won't cut a person. but it'll cut these sticks like a little saw. that's the only tool i use to

make these. you can see why it takes eight to nine months to make one. >> why? why do you do this? >> just to pass time, basically. >> it is a farmhouse right here. a rough draft, you know what i'm talking about? little dimensions to it. art is my sanity and my salvation. i mean, that's what keeps me stable. >> i just come up with all kinds of little ideas. two of these like a little protection vent to keep the rain out of the chimney. i found this in the yard. it reminded me of air-conditioning. that trips everybody out. they like my little grill. and you get the exclusive of looking inside, with the

fireplace and light switch and the plug-in outlets. it won't be seen once this is completed, but i put those in, because right now, people are seeing it in progress. >> what i'm doing now, i've got to put some grass in here. in order to see the land, i'm using yellow ochre and green, it's a soft green color to separate this here. give it just a little distance. it doesn't take that long, other than drying time. this is oil paint. once you get it in there, like the rest of these paintings. you get the first stage of paint in, you let it dry. then you repeat the process. and that's what it's about. >> the birdhouse, the top part, is about done. everybody kept saying where's the bird going to get in? so i decided i would go ahead and stop all the questions and

add the international symbol for a birdhouse. >> starving artist for real. yeah. believe me. no one's knocking on my door now for work. the average person here can't afford my services. fortunately, we have an exhibit coming up in indiana university northwest in january, so hopefully we'll get the exposure we need. let's highlight this rail here. see, that's what i'm trying to get. public support. there you go. now. an original for msnbc. is there a check with this here?

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