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." >> with "lockup" we film in some of the toughest prisons in america. and every time we send a crew out to a maximum security prison, you never know what might happen with regards to violence. whether it's a stabbing, or whether it's a fight in the yard, or even a riot.

there's always a chance that violence may break out. >> we found that was the case when we visited california's legendary folsom state prison. >> i can feel it. it's like electricity in the air. it's so thick you can actually breathe in the tension. >> in the blink of an eye, that much time, it can change. because there is the real threat that an attitude or temper can change in just a moment. >> and tempers did flare while our cameras were in the yard. >> we had just gotten done interviewing a, basically, a prison preacher. >> i'm a born-again christian. and i believe that everybody should know the lord. if you don't know the lord, i encourage you to know the lord. >> and i'd just gotten done putting the camera down. the cameraman was walking around. and then i started hearing a bing, like bing, bing, bing. and literally five feet away i

see this man probably his late 50s, early 60s, and i look down and i saw these two younger hispanic guys kicking him in the head, like repeatedly and his head was bouncing off this pole. >> what you saw today was actually a battery, they were stomping his head. you can see he was pretty messed up. >> the inmate who was attacked survived because of quick response from staff on the yard. his assailants were sentenced to six months in folsom's administrative segregation unit. some of the most violent gang attacks have taken place here, at california state prison corcoran's security housing unit or shu. we visited the shu's now vacant exercise yard which has been the scene of some of the prison's most brutal violence. ♪

♪ correctional officers showed our cameras how they quell the violence with an arsenal of their own. one that includes nonlethal and lethal weaponry. >> first rounds we fire are wood blocks. hopefully it will make them stop. we really have to escalate with our nonlethal options. we use what we call a scat round, which is really irritating. those are louder. the smoke you see there, that's cn gas. it's no fun. it messes up your sight. makes you, you know, makes your snot roll. and of course we have a lethal option. we have a mini-14 here the 223 round. we only use that as a last resort. >> today, california state prison corcoran no longer has to resort to such drastic measures to control violence in the shu yard. they close the yards down, and now inmates exercise in walk-alone areas called the

cages. but even when officers are able to quell violence, sorting out its cause can be just as difficult. as our crews found out at the spring creek correctional center in seward, alaska. >> slow down. slow down. slow down. >> on the floor over there we need blood-borne pathogens cleaned up. >> you really need to respond to me so i know you're all right. let's go a little bit more. okay. okay. >> joel brooks is doing 12 years for assault. his adversary, john slaku is serving a six-year sentence for sexual assault. our cameras were there when officers interrogated them about the fight. >> what was this all about? >> well, he's a rapist, and i was talking to the inmate, in the meal line about it with him. >> you're talking about his crime with another person. >> yeah, yeah. >> okay. >> and i was talking with another prisoner about him being a rapist and he came up to me

and said you ain't [ bleep ] i said you're not. >> i told him to stop talking about me. i repeated it. he said, what are you going to do? and i just repeated it again, stop talking about me. and then he walked up to me in my face, and said, now what are you going to do? >> five minutes later, he rushed me -- >> don't come at me. >> well, slammed me against the wall. >> -- in his face, i don't know what i did after that. >> then he starts scratching my face and i grabbed him around the waist and threw him on the floor and i hit him twice in self-defense to get him to let go of my neck. >> okay. >> and i got 100 witnesses i can bring up at d-board i'm not worried about it. >> about him hitting you first or you talking about him and starting it. >> about him hitting me first. >> you got witnesses about him -- i'm talking, you're not. do you have witnesses that you were talking about him? to start this? >> well -- i didn't start it. he --

>> we'll figure that out in d-board. do we have the camera? because he's beginning to be back there a while until we get him calmed down. strip him, lower body over there, any more marks -- >> the bottom line is he hit me first. that's what it comes down to. >> i think it's the bottom line you were talking about somebody else. >> so what? >> how about he starts talking about you? >> i -- so does that give him the right to hit me first? i didn't think so. >> well -- don't move. >> whoa, whoa. >> what? >> you think you're a bad ass? >> no, not at all. >> well don't cop an attitude. >> i'm not. i'm not copping an attitude. >> [ bleep ] >> i'm sorry, what? >> you heard me. >> no, i didn't. >> you better. >> after a hearing, the disciplinary board ruled that slaku had been provoked by brooks' repeated taunts, while slaku wasn't punished, brooks got 30 days in solitary confinement. >> prison is something that you'll never get over. it always stick with you. and even though i don't have life, but, one moment of anger

is a lifetime of misery. because prison will always stick with you. coming up -- the victim of one of the most brutal attacks ever profiled on "lockup." >> the doctor said, i don't know how much more you could have taken. >> an officer faces her fears as she returns to the scene of the crime. ♪ you're not gonna watch it! ♪

♪ no, you're not gonna watch it! ♪ ♪ we can't let you download on the goooooo! ♪

♪ you'll just have to miss it! ♪ yeah, you'll just have to miss it! ♪ ♪ we can't let you download... uh, no thanks. i have x1 from xfinity so... don't fall for directv. xfinity lets you download your shows from anywhere. i used to like that song. over the years, we've learned that attacks on officers are an all-too-frequent occupational hazard. when we visited indiana's wabash valley correctional facility,

officers in the security housing unit were dealing with the latest in a string of violent incidents involving convicted burglar douglas mccombs. >> since he's been inside the shu he was on strip cell. when you see the offender come out of his cell and all he's wearing is his underwear, at that time he is on strip cell. i think it was for resisting staff or trying to assault staff before. we've had trouble with about every range we've put him on so far. >> i can't get along with people too much. especially when they're evil. >> one of the people mccombs claims was evil, officer sachtjen. >> an average day in the shu can be pretty mundane. you have rec and showers to do, chow to serve, sick call. so on and so forth. some days like today do get a little more exciting. we had an offender who became belligerent in the shower. >> the offender was mccombs. who told us he had good reason to be upset. >> they tried to get me to take a shower but they don't have no soap or nothing. and i said, well, ma'am, i just

came from the other side. it was nasty where i come from. i need something to wash, a bar of soap. she's talking crazy to me, right? okay. she come up there, talking to me. and started talk to me, well, you [ bleep ] [ bleep ] and i said, what? i said wait a minute [ bleep ] i asked you for some [ bleep ] and i snapped on her. >> he threatened to kill everybody out there, staff and all. >> our cameras were present when mccombs was moved from his cell. but because he is so dangerous, we were restricted to shooting from the unit's security center. >> i don't need your [ bleep ] because i'll tell you something [ bleep ] and every time you come [ bleep ]. >> cell! >> [ bleep ]. >> easy, easy. >> we put him on the wall first, when we say put him on the wall, have him face the wall. we want him facing the wall. we don't want him turning his head getting mouthy and this and that. that's when you're going to get spit on.

we won't his nose to the wall. i don't want to talk to him. he can talk to the wall. >> [ bleep ] >> face the wall. turn around. face the wall. >> you got a [ bleep ] -- >> wants to sit up there and talk to him [ bleep ] >> face the wall. >> face the wall. >> [ bleep ] >> face the wall. face the wall. >> you just [ bleep ]. i'm tired of your [ bleep ] [ bleep ]. >> stand still. >> mccombs freely admitted to our producer that by the time the officers put him back in his cell, he was looking for any possible way to hurt them. >> i just grabbed [ bleep ] start -- you know, because i'm just getting targeted with what's going on with these people, man. if they don't get me out of here, i probably will -- might end up killing somebody or they might kill me. >> today, mccombs remains incarcerated and has been transferred to another state prison. >> i figured that if it was going to happen, it would happen within the first year.

>> in 2004, karen talley was in her sixth year as a correctional officer at indiana state prison when she was so brutally attacked by an inmate, she nearly died. we met her two years later. >> you know, they all know me. the guys know me. i used to work the intake unit and when the new arrivals would come in, they know me. i'll be all right. never imagined all these years later. never imagined it. >> at the time of the attack, officer talley was responsible for supervising "b" cell house. an important part of her job was securing the inmates back in their cells with a system called rolling of the bar. an older, manual cell locking device. >> that day the chow lines had run late. i said, come on guys, go in your cell. if you miss roll-in, you know what happens.

i figured all of them would be in. i rolled the bar. bigger than anything, here's three of them, didn't make it. so i went down the range and i started at the end and worked my way up. the last cell that missed roll-in was 424. i locked his door, went to 418, locked his door. went to the next cell, 410. i said, come on, go on in your cell. he said, i'm not going in. >> officer talley, alone on the tier with the inmate, says she knew immediately she was in trouble. >> at that time, a sick feeling just overcomes you, and you think, wow, something's not right. so i called for my sergeant on the radio. he said, it will be a minute. and the guy just hit me. both of my eyes were busted right in the eyebrows. i had 50 stitches in my eyebrows. he broke my jaw. it was broken two places. the doctor said, i don't know how much more you could have

taken. had he kicked you one more time, he could have killed you. without a doubt you could have died. >> her attacker received an additional ten-year sentence for aggravated battery. and after recovering from her injuries, officer talley took the brave step of returning to work at the prison. this time monitoring the trucks that deliver food to the facility. she no longer has any contact with the inmates. >> in life itself, within seconds your whole life can change. in a prison environment, sometimes it doesn't even take seconds. in the blink of an eye it could be over. all right. you're okay. >> the day after her interview with us, talley surprised our field producer when she said that she was ready to return to the cell block for the first time since the attack. escorted by officer chris st. martin and our crew, the return proved to be far more emotional

than she could have imagined. >> here you go. safe and sound. you want my chair? the black one. sit down. sit down. there you go. you're good. >> though returning to the cell block was difficult, talley told us it was also cathartic. >> yeah, i was down for awhile. but i'm not dead. they didn't kill me. i'm okay. emotionally, i'll heal. some day. and the sleepless nights, and the worry, and the wonder, oh, my god is this ever going to happen to me again. i've dealt with most of that. and it's -- it's really a hard thing. next, on "lockup: raw," an inmate turns violent against himself.

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violence inside america's prisons comes in many forms. at iowa state penitentiary, we found that the most brutal violence is sometimes against ones self. >> open 11. >> 22-year-old inmate caleb suffered severe burns over two-thirds of his body when the methamphetamine lab he was running exploded. when we interviewed etter, he was also serving time for both sexual assault and for attacking a peace officer. >> i pushed everything to the

limit, because, caz you can tell, i think i'm unstoppable. i think nothing can stop me. nothing will ever kill me. i thought i was god. reality check. i'm not. >> in spite of his calm demeanor, a few hours after this interview, etter got into a verbal confrontation with a female correctional officer that quickly escalated. cert, the correctional emergency response team, was called in to extract him from his cell. >> he's banging his head on the door, spitting at the glass. refusing to comply with orders. permission to extract him from his cell. >> for security reasons the prison videotapes all extractions. >> you ready to move? keep your hands down. all the way. >> open b-11. >> a mask is placed over his head to prevent him from spitting. >> let's go. initially, he seems to be compliant. but as they pass through the doorway, etter explodes.

>> oh, hey, hey, hey. >> [ bleep ] [ bleep ] [ bleep ] i swear, don't break my neck. [ bleep ] yeah! yeah! >> etter, stop, stop. >> yeah! [ bleep ] hurt me more. >> stop banging your head. you understand? >> i'll kill you all [ bleep ] i'll kill you all [ bleep ] i'll kill you! >> etter! calm down. >> calm down. >> put him down. >> on the floor. all right. >> all right. easy. that's good. >> hurt me more. hurt me more. aah! >> stand up. and walk normal. etter, etter. >> as his fit continues, etter is taken to the suicide

prevention unit for observation. >> [ bleep ] hurt me more. hurt me more. hurt me. >> etter, nobody wants to hurt you. >> why are you smashing me against the wall if you don't want to hurt me, huh? >> to prevent him from harming himself, etter is placed in four-point restraints. our cameras were there the next morning when a nurse came in to check on him. >> are you feeling like you still want to hurt yourself? >> i never wanted to hurt myself. >> now, were you banging your head last night? >> yes, because i was frustrated. i do that when i'm frustrated. >> that's not the right thing to do though, is it now? >> well, it's better than hurting somebody else. >> well, you're right. what i'm going to do now is call the psychiatrist, and see if we can discontinue the four-point order so he doesn't even have to go back in to them now because i really don't feel that he's of

any threat to himself or others at this point. >> released from the four-point restraints, etter is moved to a 24-hour observation cell and is placed in a suicide smock. a tear-proof gown to prevent him from hanging himself. our crew later accompanied the nurse when she asked etter to relay his version of what led to the extraction. the confrontation that he'd had with a female officer. >> she started antagonizing me at my door. i said, get lost. get [ bleep ] out of here. i don't like you. i don't want to talk to you. she made a smart comment, so i smashed my head on the door and i said, you see that right there? i said, next time it's going to be yours. i said [ bleep ] and then i spit on the window. i said, that's what i think of you. you're nothing but trash. so get the [ bleep ] she started [ bleep ] saying oh, at least i ain't some meth using something like that.

i snapped. i said you know what? i said you want to go there. i said, i will have someone on the outside visit -- pay you a visit and they will [ bleep ] and rape every one of your kids and kill you, how do you like that, bitch? i said bring that [ bleep ] i said you don't [ bleep ] go there. >> four days later, etter is released back to his cell. >> seem to be doing a lot better to me. i hope you feel you are. >> i'm doing better. >> okay. i'm glad to hear that. just keep it up. >> just get real frustrated. i wrapped up my emotions. i never think ahead. i never plan ahead about what i'm doing. >> while nobody can tell if he will hurt himself again, etter still feels it's better than the alternative. >> i'm going to take my aggressions out on myself rather than other people. it might be the wrong thing to do, you know, but i learned that hurting other people will get you in more trouble than it does hurting yourself.

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