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, "lockup: raw." when you come to prison you have to join a gang. you have no choice. it's a must. >> once i opened the door with

the drugs i got recognition. >> many of them have this warrior mentality. >> by getting that recognition, i get power. >> my job was to go in there and kill him and went in with the intention of killing him. with power i get every one i go to. >> you're surrounded by, you know, a thousand killers. and every one of them did a stranger. >> once i control the yards i control the drug situation. i control the inmates as well. >> we were actually killing people that didn't deserve to be killed. >> this is california's san quentin state prison, one of the first prisons ever profiled on "lockup." >> for a photographer, san quentin was a really interesting place to shoot because it's the old-style tiers and the big exercise yard and there's a lot of corners and shadows and

things to attract your lens. so it was just as a photographer, it was really an interesting place to shoot. it can be a very dangerous place because it's got incredibly dangerous or infamous history as a dangerous place. >> on our first day of shooting here, we got a stark introduction to the constant security threats posed by gang warfare. >> we're basically getting ready to feed the level four, which are the maximum security inmates. tonight we're expecting some type of problems possibly. so we have extra coverage tonight to provide security. >> let's go. >> the correctional staff received a tip that a gang-related attack might occur at dinner. >> hispanic inmates, the gang members specifically, are doing what is called cleaning house. anyone that does not want to participatin their gang

activity, if they refuse, then the result is being slashed and it's usually across the face and they're marked for life. >> it doesn't matter how much staff we have, they will erupt if it's going to. >> our cameras rolled as the first group of inmates filed into the chow hall. pepper spray guns at the ready, officers carefully scan the room for any signs of trouble. >> i remember the potential riot at the cafeteria really well because we were right in the middle of it. there was not a whole lot of care taken at the time to keep us out of the line of fire. so we were right in the middle of it. that was kind of a tense thing. >> as the first group of inmates finished their meals and began to exit the cafeteria, an alarm sounds. signaling an assault or other disturbance near the chow hall.

>> get out of the way, step back. step back. >> following protocol, inmates on the yard hit the ground and those in the cafeteria take their seats as officers sprint to the scene. >> it was a tense moment when everybody hit the deck. sure enough, they found a weapon and we were right in the middle of it. >> officers catch a gang member attempting to conceal a shank, a homemade slashing weapon. this time, violence was avoided. but nowhere is gang influence more prevalent than out on the rec yards of california's prisons. >> this is a turf war here. everybody's got their own turf and they're not going to let anybody else take it from them. the inmates segregate themselves out here. and the reason being that the gangs want it that way. so a man has no choice but to go with his own type of people. >> it's all run by gangs or at least the gangs think they run the prisons, and then the correctional officers think they run the prison.

but everybody gangs up by race and you have to know where you're going. you don't want to go walking in the wrong area of the prison yard because you're on somebody else's turf. >> while inmates can segregate themselves in prison, it's not always that way in county jail. the first stop on the often long road of incarceration for gang members. >> every gang in los angeles county ends up coming here. and we just don't have enough places to segregate everybody and keep them from assaulting each other. and if you get one group that has superior numbers over the other and something sparks off a fight, it's going to be on. >> officials at the los angeles county jail told us racially segregated gangs are responsible for most of the violence including riots, like this one captured on surveillance tape.

but we met one inmate who blames the problem on the system. >> i never wanted to get involved in racial problems. when i went to prison, i didn't hate blacks. i didn't hate mexicans. i didn't hate indians. i didn't hate anybody like that. but when you go to these prisons and by the time you do ten years like me, if you're even halfway sane, it's a miracle. >> vanjlis garafolo was awaiting trial for the attempted murder of five police officers while on parole for an earlier conviction of voluntary manslaughter. >> the date i met vanjlis garafolo it was like meeting hannibal lecter with shackles. i saw his feet first and i kind of looked up i saw all the tattoos. this guy was huge, 6'3", probably about 235. i mean he was built like an nfl linebacker. he looked like a stone cold killer.

what's even more fascinating is what came out of his mouth. >> the california department of corrections is solely responsible for the madness that goes on in this prison system. and i'll tell you why, because when a big white boy like me goes to prison, he is expected to do his part for the white cause and it's the same for the blacks, the mexicans, the indians, the orientals, asians, everybody else. they're expected to go to prison and do their part. why? because the inmates who run the prisons are the inmates doing life and life without the possibility of parole and they don't give a damn about my parole date or anybody else's. and these guys doing life and life without, they're hopeless. they're so full of hate just because of the sentences they have that they don't care what kind of chaos they cause in there.

coming up -- >> we'd go for the vital areas, kidney, liver. we try to go for kill shots. >> prison gang attack methods revealed.

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1,100 inmates, over 800 have been validated as gang members or associates. >> pelican bay is the toughest prison in the california prison system. it's where the worst of the worst go to. the first time we sent a "lockup" crew was weeks after they suffered their worst gang riot in history. and there was still tension in the air as the crew walked through the gates. >> the riot fought primarily between black and hispanic inmates lasted a little over 30 minutes. one inmate was killed and dozens of others were stabbed or beaten. when we returned five years later, the tension was still palpable. >> one of the interesting things about pelican bay is there really seemed to be two systems of rules, the prison administration and then the rules of the gangs. and there's this constant tension between the two. it's like a modern day sparta. they have trained themselves mentally, physically for a wartime situation.

and it feels like a war. it feels like a wartime prison, pelican bay. >> correctional staff told us that when it comes to battling gang activity, they're fighting a system that starts long before inmates arrive in prison. >> they're convinced that at early ages, at 8, 9, 10, 11 years old that gangs are the way to go. >> such was the case with epi cortina. he joined a street gang at age 11. it led to a 16-year to life sentence for murder. >> i've been pelican-bay raised. been up here going on 14 years. >> he'd been in prison since he was 19. he was 32 at the time i interviewed him. and he'd just been through years and years of just senseless violence. >> after his arrival at pelican bay, cortina, like many other hispanic gang-bangers from northern california, joined a

prison gang known as nuestra. familia. >> i walked into a war atmosphere and i was all for it. let's go, strapped on the boots and let's go. so three months after coming to pelican bay, i was assigned squad leader because squad leader is i'm in charge of educating other people on the bombs, the format, how to make knives, how to stab people, where to stab people, what would be the best times, exercising and making sure everybody's following the guidelines of our gang. right? >> i almost felt like it must have been what it was like 10,000 years ago when you have this almost tribalism. and you have to rely on your clan for protection. >> people would get stabbed because the mentality that we had out here and the way we train people within our own gang is the only time you should be fighting using your fist is to defend yourself. when we're attacking somebody, you're going to come at them with a knife, period.

because, you know, it's better to do something right the first time than having to go back and do it a second time. >> this here is a sampling of the type of weapons that we do find here at pelican bay. some of these are made out of files, nails. here's a ballpoint pen with a sophisticated spear tip at the end of it. like when they don't have access to metal, they'll resort to plastic or wood. here's a good example of what they can make out of plastic. >> plastic weapons are for emergency situations. if we're going to stab someone, we're going to come at you with steel and make sure we do the job correctly. >> traditionally what inmates like to do is to come out and stage weapons on the yard to be used in assaults later on in the yard.

periodically, we search the yard. >> our cameras followed along as officers searched the pelican yard for buried weapons. >> there's something down here. right here. >> oh, yeah, we've got one. >> i've heard inmates tell me

you recoil, you draw yourself

populations of many dangerous

>> when you come to the prison,

whatever happens, then we come there was a fight in a part of were all standing up still still recording everything while i was

>> the specially trained officers assigned to these units are constantly working to intercept gang communications drug smuggling, and prevent illicit activities. another one of their functions is to validate an inmate's gang affiliation. >> you need three identifiers to validate a gang member. tattoos, known association with another gang member, admission and if they are a validated gang member, they are shipped off to one of three prisons throughout the state. >> those three prisons contain california's most restrictive cell blocks. they're known as security

they'll never leave shu until a >> they are restricted to their

well, these are the real bad

>> prison gangs run an illicit

you would think that putting

whole group of people out there

bizarre smuggling techniques that's what peeked the curiosity

you have to get heroin on a

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i'm always going to shine. the racial divide throughout california prisons is usually blamed on gangs. and it turnsed majority on the outside into a minority on the inside. >> whites are the minority in here. we're greatly outnumbered. i'm sure you've seen that on the yard. we have a tendency to look out for each other the best we can. you would do the same with your

you see something that's

>> that's how the whole system

i'm always going to be that way. >> why? >> because i pretty much always have to prove myself, you know? always, no matter what. so i can't change my life now, i chose that road, so i have to be a part of that. i don't try to be black, i'm me,

dropping out?

a system put in place by the

>> get myself on track, keeping

atmosphere from the rest of the

i don't depend on prison in prison to make it in here. >> in some ways you feel like now you have to rely on the

follow "lockup" producers and crews as they go behind the walls of america's prisons and jails with scenes you've never seen. "lockup: raw." >> unlike prison, all inmates are convicted, most jail inmates are only charged with crimes and waiting trial with resolution of their cases. both prisons and jails deal with common problem -- gangs.