due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. msnbc takes you behind the walls of america's most notorious prisons, to a world of chaos and danger. now, the scenes you have never seen, "lock up: raw." >> for inmates to survive, they have to make friends. they have to make alliances for security purposes. the problem is, they are surrounded by people who aren't very trust worthy. here is the dilemma. you have to make friends for protection, but they can be the friends that end up killing you.

>> finding true friendship in prison might be a dicey proposition. at the spring creek correctional center in alaska, we found cellmates that seemed more like brothers than inmates at a maximum penitentiary. [ bleep ]. >> when we met richard evans and roger, the high-spirited duo had recently reunited as cellmates after a release. >> who were you tattooing on, again? >> actually, got caught tattooing on this character here. this is the one we got caught doing right here. we got ran up on. in the end, oh, you going to bust us, really, for real. >> thank you gentlemen, thank you. >> i did 14 months in the hole.

he got here, coming to the window, coming out, bro. i'll be right out. >> we have developed a nice relationship. i would do anything for this guy. anything. >> same. >> he's my twin sister, older sister. >> you're my best. >> but this bond also has a dark side. the cell mates share a strong appetite for methamphetamine. >> what am i in for? meth. in 2002, i get pulled over. i have a lab in my car. microwave, everything. they pull me over for a traffic stop. look what we got here. cooking meth. what a surprise. i was cooking it, dealing it, doing it. anything i could, i was. i like it. the meth. the whole lifestyle it comes with.

living like a rock star. going to clubs, you know, naked girls dancing. oh, what's up? yeah, baby, that's right. >> never sleep. >> never sleep. >> he landed in prison after a robbery to support his meth habit earned him 18 years. >> i went through the whole progression from cocaine to heroin. been a speed freak for years. >> my whole life has been dope. dope, dope, dope. crack heads, i know crack is disgusting. i was a crack head for two years of my life. my wife left me, took my kids. i was like oh, crack is bad, maybe i'll do meth. >> meth is better. >> meth is better. then i ended up here. >> go figure. >> yeah. yeah. >> so i know meth is pretty addictive. how do you deal with it here, in

jail? >> here in jail? we don't deal with it here. >> we work out. we work out in jail. >> we build it up to break it down. >> in fact, we first met him during his workout a few days earlier, right before he shaved his head. >> i work out pretty much seven days a week. once in awhile, i take the day off. this is every morning, i come here and do this. start off the day right. >> while they have seemingly beat their habit and gained their health in prison, they told us this might all be temporary. >> i'm going to try to get out and do the right thing, but i really can't say i'm going get out -- i'm going to get high. i'm not going to lie. i love to do dope. i'm going to get out, go see my mom then get high. >> you'll be back together again? >> i have 6 1/2 years left. i'm trying to do something positive here. i can't say what i'm going to do yet. it's going to be 61/2 years.

i love getting high. it's what i've been doing half of my life. next on "lock up: raw." >> i hate cops. they're diabolical, they're petty. >> they are sharp on the edges. >> natural foes work side by side in a kitchen stocked with weapons. >> it only takes one of these guys to pick one of those up and cut my head off.

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but having a friendly rapport is essential to keeping the peace. >> we let our guard down for a moment, observe and tension can rise. we could have a volatile situation here. in the blink of an eye, it can change. >> we saw that firsthand. we caught him joking around with an inmate. >> does it qualify to wear shorts with legs like that on the track? >> we're going to see what it looks like. >> that's all right. >> 20 years. >> i'll carry you on my back. >> a piggy back ride? a piggy back ride? >> that's all. >> moments later, they flash nazi signs, the lieutenant was in no joking move. >> come here. you two, come here. what build you have in? >> five. >> okay. go to five and tell them you are going home. go to one and tell them you are going home. if i catch you out here and

don't go home, i'm going to look for you. go home. >> when it comes to their feelings of staff, we have heard a wide range of opinions. we met christopher inside a cell. >> 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. they got a lot of people in here. it's prison, not disney land. >> an inmate at another california prison had a harsher view. >> i hate cops. they present to the public they are law and order. in here, they'll stab you in the back, they write false write ups. they have a hidden agenda. they want to keep us locked up so they make money. it's a prison industrial complex, it's all about money. >> there is one place trust is put to the ultimate test.

the prison kitchen. >> everything here could be made into a potential weapon. the sheet pans are thin and sharp on the edges. he could pick one up and cut my head off. >> we met him at the kern valley state prison armed with pepper spray and baton. he's the lone officer responsible for supervising the inmate staff. >> i have six, seven inmates here. i have four or five cops outside that door. the door is locked. there's one dude with the key. you have to trust them to a certain extent. they have no reason to assault me unless they are pissed off and i disrespect them. >> the number two cook is carter hill. >> tell me what your sentence is. >> murder. >> what's your sentence?

>> 50 to life. >> there's a dynamic in prison, when you are interviewing somebody, if there's a corrections officer or inmate together, they will watch their ps and qs. they will tell you what you want to hear. when we met him, we got truth. >> like '82, right. later on, it came to cos. now, i look at them and we got gang members. in green suits. >> hill was willing to make an exception for officer epperson. >> this man here, he treats me like a human being. it's a rare occurrence around here. this man, he all right. >> you're all right. >> i got to live here. i can't say more than that. he all right, you know? >> i give these inmates nothing

more than what the state says they have coming. if they say give it to them, i give it to them. i give him what he gots 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 they were getting to know each other. they were joking. they were establishing repore with one another. >> in they eyes, he's a bad guy. >> respect never trumps security. every knife, fork and utensil is accounted for. >> i recount and make sure every metal is in. if it's not there, strip them down and find the metal. >> besides working together in the kitchen, there's one other time inmates and staff have close contact. it's during a medical emergency. >> a man down.

>> our cameras were at california's san quentin when officers received word an inmate was suffering severe chest pains. >> the thing you have to realize about san quentin is this is -- this prison was built prior to the civil war and the cells are stacked five stories high, no elevators. the emergency we were covering was on the fifth floor. not only did we have to haul our stuff up there, but so did the responding officers. >> they tend to the inmate inside his cell.

>> you're going to have to take deep breaths. i know you might be in pain -- >> moments later, the paramedics arrive on the tier. >> the paramedics had to make the five-story climb as well. it's difficult to respond because of that. the bigger challenge was getting the inmate out of the cell and back down all the stairs. >> we have him on a stretcher en route. >> the officers and paramedics did a great job of getting him down using the handrail to support the stretcher. it was impressive how swiftly they were able to move him down. >> sometimes the effort is all for nothing. >> it happens. he decides he wants fresh air, take a trip to the hospital and get in and get it.

we have to take him. >> they might say, well, i have back problems. you get them there and the nurses say nothing is wrong with him. we can't find anything wrong with him and he goes back to his house. within that time period, you have wasted an hour so he can get some fresh air. >> on this day, the emergency is legitimate. >> took an ekg. that turned out fine. it turns out he's got chest problems from trauma as a child. they are still reoccurring. >> the inmate was treated and returned to his cell. meanwhile, responding officers return to their normal duties. >> you get a lot of that. up next -- >> we try to have a disciplined environment, but try to co-mingle. >> lock up's most memorable warden reaches out to his inmates.

>> if you had been doing something constructive -- >> he's a narcissist. he loves to micromanage. give everybody at his mercy all a hard time.

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reliably fast internet starts at $59.95 a month. comcast business. built for business. the mood of a prison can be affected by any number of factors, the institution security level, the setting and 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? how many did you eat? >> this warden falls into the latter category. >> we try to have a disciplined

environment and try to co-mingle and communicate and talk to people so we are not at odds. there's the old adage, you can get more flies with sugar than salt. >> i got possession of a knife in september. >> then you have to realize, too, the inmate that is are here, they are not here for going to church. a lot of them have preyed on other people. >> he told it like it is. he was an ex-correctional officer. >> you need to shave. >> i'm a slave in that kitchen. >> he cared about his inmates and he wanted them to do well. it pissed him off when they screwed up. >> how?

>> you just came out. yeah. >> that was nothing. >> he became warden in 2002 when the prison was facing serious problems. >> it was a volatile facility. if you talk to some of the people in the community, probably a great number of times they saw the ambulance coming this way, they thought it was coming to holman. >> violence can be reduced, but not eliminated. >> if you come in and look meek and mild, the guys that have been here, they run gangs on you, get you into debt. once you are in debt, if they are not slitting sex, your family members send them money. if that doesn't happen, you get threatened, bodily harm. >> we met a number of inmates. few more memorable than stephen parker. a self-proclaimed leader of a

white supremacist gang. >> about six months ago, i cut a dude's throat. >> what happened? >> well, he beat me out of some money. me and him had work to do. i kept going back to him. i said hey y'all, you need to pay me my [ bleep ] money. he knew me from other prisons. he knew what would happen if he didn't pay me. i got tired and cut his throat. >> he assaulted numerous other inmates and staffers. he spent most of his time in the administrative segregation unit. >> he's impulsive, he's violent. he's in here for violence. time has not taught him different. >> can i be rehabilitated?

>> i could be if i can get over the hatred. i have a lot of hatred. i have hate red for people in jail and society. >> he's a narcissist. he's super -- he loves attention. he loves to micromanage. everybody at his mercy a hard time. he's trying to be somebody. he's trying to define his identity of the demoralization and dehumanization of other people, trying to boost his ego up. >> how would you describe him? >> crazy. he's a nut. no more, no less. he's not very intelligent. >> he combats predatory behavior 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 to shave, i talk to them about that. >> shave or go to health care. >> i've been to health care. >> he never hesitates to get involved in the endless array of

disciplinary problems. our crew caught up with him on a monday morning as he was trying to resolve an incident that occurred over the weekend. >> it was a use of force i got called about yesterday. this guy acting out. he refused to get it back. they took him out of the cell, put him outside. >> he often has uncooperative inmates in a holding cell. this time, it caused more problems. >> once we got him outside, he refused to come inside and refused to be uncuffed. he's high strung, agitated a lot. he does things, basically, to irritate staff. sometimes he has rhyme or reason for it, sometimes he doesn't. >> our crew followed as he went to confront the inmate, james broadhead. >> clean cell.

too much -- i asked him could i get another broom. he told me nah. >> you broke the broom? why? it's no reason to break a broom. the whole situation started because you broke a broom? >> i needed to clean up. >> you could have asked him and told him like you asked to see me this morning. you could have asked to see me yesterday in your cell to tell me the same thing. even if the broom wasn't working properly, if it was the broom, it was no reason for you to break it. yes or no? a few minutes later, the conversation turns to broadhead's disciplinary record. >> but 39 disciplinaries. but 39 disciplinaries. >> all in all, another monday morning for a warden who is always walking the line between friend and foe.

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