msnbc takes you behind the walls, into a world of chaos and danger, and now the scenes you have never seen. "lockup raw." >> you do, you do your back that way. >> a few things in prison are as key to survival as having a good cellmate. >> when you live with a person for 24 hours a day, you build up

a rapport that you don't have with your family and you are both dependant on each other for survival. >> and there are some inmates that attack their cell mates. >> i bashed his head in and made him drink out that toilet and took the towel and strangled him. >> i tore up the sheet and wrapped it around his head, and i said, no, you ain't doing nothing. >> but at the correctional complex in tennessee, we met two cell mates that were not only successfully living together, but doing so in a maximum security event locked up 23 hours per day. >> it's not any kind of fun. you are stuck in a cell, and me and him go out and workout every

day. >>. >> what about your cellmate now? >> i have known him for over a year. i had him moved down here. we wanted to move in. makes time a lot easier if you have a roommate you have something in common with, and it makes prison a lot easier. >> when it came time for his interview, davis expressed nervous. >> just joking. >> jason and sky were a real team. these guys were playing cards, and smoking cigarettes, and i think it was their way to survive. he has his back and the other guy has his, and that's the way they made it work.

>> both men conceded drug use put them behind bars. >> he was smarting off to my girlfriend so we got into a fight with a guy and ended up stabbing him and running his buddy off of the road, off the interstate, and i got six years for it. >> davis has a 17-year-sentence for attempted murder, but said he was defending himself. >> two people came in to rob him, and in the state of tennessee, they say you cannot defend yourself, just run. >> well, as we dug a little further into the story, it was like peeling layers of an onion

a little bit. turns out he was high on crystal meth. >> basically what i thought when they come in, you know, like i had friends running in and out of the house all the time, it was a bachelor house, you know what i am saying? i thought they came to rob me. >> things got out of hand for poor jason. >> thought one with a bow and arrow. >> prior to prison, both were married, but as they revealed to the crew, they took different approaches to matrimony. >> my wife did not want to get a divorce, but i divorced her any way, i still have parole but it's hard telling when i can make it and i wanted her to move on with her life. >> on the contrast, does your wife know about the other woman.

>> she knows about her, and has for a long time, and she knows it's not a big deal. >> what is going on? you are in prison? >> sunshine new mexico a dog's ass some days. >> but the reality is, neither man will be with a woman for a long time. >> how do you deal with that? you have 17 years, how do you deal that? >> in here, you don't have a choice unless you turn gay, and all men in prison probably masturbate in the shower, after so many years of this, you are going to play with yourself or something. >> while davis and bishop were open in the interview, and the cameraman was reminded things are not always as they seem. >> after we finished up the interview, and we said our

tkpwgood byes, and i shook his hand and he grabbed me where he was trying to crush my hand, like he wanted to hurt me, and at that moment, it was like, oh, no, what have i done? that incident with davis always stuck with me, and i tried to figure out what that was about, and was it to show me it was in charge, and he wanted to let me know this was his house, and it was a macho and spontaneous moment, and for me it was a scary moment. next on "lock up:raw," -- >> to me the cells are too far, and i think it breeds an environment for homosexuality. >> that's not a luxury.

he should have thought about that before he went to prison. he gets a lot of compliments.

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while a good cellmate might help to make prison more tolerable for cell mates, and others believe any cellmate is a threat to their survival. >> if i can't take a celli, i can be sure a celli won't murder me. when you refuse you are going against their policy so they stick you in a hole. >> and that's exactly where we met dennis hamilton, in the hole. solitary confinement. it was the second time his refuse annual to share a cell

had landed him there, but his time in the hole was about to end and he was scheduled to return to general population. >> to me the cells are too small, and i think the cell is an environment for homosexually. >> dennis hamilton was an unusual inmate, and i think he had a fear about living with another man. >> to me you don't want these people in society but you want me to feel safe inside a cell with this person. >> ironically, other inmates may not feel safe around hamilton either. he is serving a life sentence, and now he is taking a stand against a cellmate. >> i don't want to live with another man for the rest of my life.

the prison officials disagree. we followed him to an administrative hearing on the matter. >> escort! >> you don't have any enemies? >> nope. >> you seem to be a guy that gets along with people? why don't you take a cellmate? >> i feel threatened and like my life is in danger. >> right now it seems like, okay, it's no big deal, and been locked up twice for it and there's documentation on one and there will be documentation on another, and if you keep going and you don't take a cellmate, guess what happens? >> what? >> indeterminate shoe.

>> you don't get visits, you know. >> no. no, it's -- nope. >> i am just telling you -- >> they don't matter. >> in order to be a programmer, you have to show you are willing to be socially acceptable with somebody else in your cell, otherwise you are a program failure and that's all i'm trying to setell you. >> okay. >> you don't want to do it, but you are going to do it, okay? i'm serious. you don't have to marry them. >> we're not -- we're not -- we're inside that cell all day. >> yeah, but that should have been a consideration before you went to prison. >> the committee is baffled, not

only by hamilton's suddenness but by its sudden appearance behind state bars in other prisons. >> when he got here, he stopped. >> that's not a luxury of being in prison. he should have thought about that before he went to prison. >> hamilton is optimistic that he will return. >> later we were with hamilton, as he was escorted -- >> don't get tense. i can feel your tense now. >> you can? >> yeah, i saw it.

>> finally, hamilton reaches his new cell and cellmate, and the relationship is short-lived. >> you refuse? close it. are you sure? we got to come back. >> all right. >> before hamilton's return to the cell, his escort officers make one more attempt to reason with him. >> you have to find somebody to be compatible with. eventually we're going to run out of bed space. >> i'm not asking you to do it for everybody. >> you're just asking special favoritism for yourself. >> no. >> i have a medical reason. >> you don't have a medical reason. >> they say an inmate has to be housed with another inmate? yes or no? >> no. you can talk to the sergeant about that. >> then something happened in prison that i've never seen

happened in prison before. the officer brought out the rule book. >> okay, hamilton. this here is the state prison operational procedure number 222. >> and set it down in front of dennis and said, look, here's what it says. >> in a nutshell, it says that every inmate will accept a cell mate. have you seen this? that means single cell status. if you're attached to your cdc number, then we'll never, ever try to house you with another inmate because you have gone through all the hoops, whatever it takes, either you committed battery on your inmate, your cell partners or you've, you know -- and it's now -- >> or commit battery. >> or a psychiatrist says you're not crazy. >> that's your answer.

call the governor. that's pretty much it for me. >> hamilton was sent back to the hole. a few days later, he heard of an alarming new development in his case. he assaulted an officer. >> sometimes you anticipate the moves in terms of what they're going to do and capability and sometimes you just are surprised. i -- i didn't think he was going to take it to this level where he would assault staff. >> the officer was not badly injured. but it landed hamilton back in administrative segregation with a high probability of being sent to the shoe, a place most inmates dread. >> to me, it's still prison. its not going to change. if you send me to the shoe, if you send me to one. it's prison. i can't leave when i want. i can't do what i want. but this is what i did control. i can control putting another inmate in there. since i can control that, you won't place another inmate in

there. >> next on "lockup raw" -- >> yes, i had a job. i was a professional escort. i was running ads in "play "time magazin magazine"" >> charged with murder, a former call girl makes peace with the past. >> yes, i had nice cars, living like a star with the bling, bling and dress code and gun always on lock and load and a long dark road going nowhere.

prison is tailor made to fit anybody. whether you're young, old, professional, nonprofessional, on skid row, white collar, blue collar, it is tailor made to fit anyone. so don't think, you know, it won't happen to you.

you commit this crime and you won't come to jail or go to prison because you will. >> we met this woman at the miami-dade county jail. >> my charge is second-degree murder. >> attempted, or -- >> second-degree murder. the person is deceased. >> still awaiting her trial, she didn't want to discuss the details of her crime. but she was quite frank about everything else. >> what were you doing before you came in here? did you have a job? >> yes. i had a job. i was a professional escort. i had -- i was running my ads in "play time" magazine and "sex action magazine." i had two or three lines i was running from my house. i was formalized to my cell phone. i could -- there was a 24-hour operation. i had maybe a few girls working for me besides my cousin. and, you know, i used to go out on calls. and so i used to make good money. >> the thing about gwen is she is facing a long prison sentence possibly for second-degree

murder. and she has kids. >> this is kevin. this is ricky. they're the loves of my life. he's 12 and he's 11. >> the thought that she would not be able to would be her kids or even right then was able to take care of her kids was literally torturing her. >> how do you explain to your children your situation? how do you tell them that, you know, that mommy is in jail and i might go away for a while? you know, i have a calendar to watch the days go by. you know, count the days. >> collins, a single mother, told us she used her escort service to support her family after previous convictions for fraud and grand theft made it tough to find a more conventional job. >> they say equal opportunity. there is no equal opportunity. they don't hire convicted felons. they don't hire murderers. they don't hire people like us. you know? and it's funny because i was going for a position one time and i took a microsoft entry

level test and i scored a 98%. i'm very intelligent. and they would not give me a job because i was a convicted felon. i told the lady, i said you're telling me you'd rather pay higher taxes than give me a job? you'd rather pay higher taxes and build more prisons and more jails than offer me a job and you know i'm qualified for it? and she told me, sorry, those are the rules. so the system is kind of messed up. i think that's why a lot of people keep coming back. >> though frustrated by the system, collins found a way to voice her grievances. >> okay. my name is gwen collins. the poem is why i write poetry. i don't write poetry for the fame, speaking loud with no shame, the words i spit i claim, it's part of the game i call life. i consider myself an artist painting mental pictures in my head. >> we saw collins the slam poet when she gave an impromptu performance for the women in her jail dorm.

>> in the bible it says god blesses babies and fools, i think that god has a sense of humor because income a woman's detention center is not all he has in store me. that's how i began to write poetry. it saved me from arguments and headaches. >> and like i like it because i feel that i can express. i can teach. i can motivate others. i feel good when i'm up there. >> when i'm on stage and recite i'm on the mike, i feel free. there is no boundaries. living a life of crime is nothing but misery. i had nice cars and living like a star with the bling, bling and dress code and my gun on lock and load and a long dark road going nowhere. >> poetry had such an effect on the younger women inmates, being moved to tears. they were so overwhelmed by what she had to say to them. >> this poet i have deep down in the core. i'm here to stay. i found my way. i want to be heard for all to hear and see. but to be honest, i do it. i do it for me. >> so articulate.

so verbal, so poetic. it just makes you wonder where would she have been if she wasn't in jail or gone down this path. >> i walked a mile here. you know? i've walked the mile. and it's kind of rough on me. i look out the window and i get sad. >> loving unified family, dignified, positive attitude, endless opportunities will arise, surprise, i'm not. >> do i have hope? oh, yeah. i have an abundance of it. i got a pocket full of it. >> divine, touch every person i meet through tribulations and trials. i wake up every morning and thank god with a smile. i'm a survivor. [ applause ]

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good morning. coming up on msnbc's "your business" a struggling main street in minnesota is revitaliz revitalized. the ceo of hallmark shares his philosophy. plus, getting your online customers to shop at your brick and mortar. all that and more coming up next on "your business."