>> taking you behind the walls of america's most notorious prisons into a world of chaos and danger. now, the scenes you never see. lo "lock up raw." >> listen up. there is to be no talking, period. one behind the other single file line along the wall. >> a prominent research study estimates that one in 31 american adults are either incarcerated, on probation, or

on parole. just as interesting is the fact that many of the inmates we've met have told us they actually prefer serving out their sentences in prison to being freed on parole. >> they say it's difficult to find work, and the parole rules are so strict they can make a simple mistake and end up back in prison where they cause more pain for their families and further tarnishes their reputation. >> a few inmates illustrates the problem of walking the thib ln e of parole. this man's name is lester jones. >> when we first entered one of the jail's open door units, we noticed a guy working out in the yard. at the same time one of the inmates was telling us that we needed to interview their jail's resident poet, and it actually turned out to be the same guy. >> throw away the key. prisons are being built faster and further than the eyes can see. those buildings are being constructed to house you, me,

and all of our family. it's nothing more than modern day slavery. lock them up, throw away the key. home of the brave. land of the free. millions of americans locked up in the penitentiary. we're so brave and we're so wild, why can't you make it to the juvenile? fathers, mothers, sister, brother, inlaw, friends, ewe headed for the pen. then it would be too late, yet everyone will see that they are safe. locked us up and threw away the key. thanks, guys. [ applause ] >> even though jones was popular among other inmates and had spent time in prison, he struggled with some aspects of life of dormitory style housing that he shared with 71 other men. >> i never really like it in the dorms. i'm a person that likes cleanliness. a lot of people when they sneeze or cough don't cover up. you know, sometimes i can be sitting there eating and

somebody just start sneezing and sneezing and not covering their mouth. i try to cover my food. danger, what's wrong with these people? probably crazy. >> please save me, deliver me. >> as adverse as he was to germs, jones was enthusiastic towards his spirituality. his nightly prayers can last up to 50 minutes. >> please set me free. please set me free. >> we would come to learn why jones' prayers were to be set free were especially -- first we learn what brought him here. >> the story began 40 years earlier when jones joined a chicago street gang at age 13. i got introduced to drugs. i used to drink all the time. i didn't know how to stay sober.

as he grew older, his addictions to crack and alcohol grew more ferocious skpshs so did the robberies he committed to support them. he had been in and out of several jails and prisons, but at age 35 he was sentenced to 25 years for multiple counts of armed robbery. prison didn't stop his taste for alcohol. he used to make illegal inmate made wine from a mixture of rotting fruit, sugar, and bread. >> i used to get drunk, and i used to start fights, and one day they sent me to confinement, to the hole, for extortion. a guy said he was -- he owed me money for wine he bought, and i jumped on him, and when i was in confinement, it, like, my high power, god, revealed himself to me and said it's time to get --

i started reading the bible, more studying. >> jones served 18 years of a 25-year sentence at a florida state prison before he was released on parole. i moved into the residential entrance abuse program in tampa. >> they help ex-offenders get a fresh start in life. they helped me stay straight. i wanted to stay straight. i didn't want to go back to prison. i always, you know, participated and so they finally gave me a job. y you. >> he said would ride his bicycle and recruit participants for the program. then things went horribly wrong one day, and then he decided take a shortcut home. >> i didn't know that that was a crime to cross over the railroad tracks because the whole neighborhood goes through that way. back and forth.

children go to school back and forth from school that way. i see grown folks going through that way all the time. >> a police officer saw jones cut through the hole and cited him. when he discovered jones was on parole, arrested him. >> out of all these years that i was on drugs and alcohol, i finally clean, doing good, and all of a sudden, bam, you're back in jail. you know, like i hurt my mama again. you know? >> the trespassing charges were quickly dropped, but because jones was on parole at the time of his arrest, he would have to be detained in jail until the parole commission completed its own investigation. we joined him on the morning of his hearing. >> on the day that he was going to his hearing he was very nervous. he was going to find out whether he was going back to prison for a few years or go back on the street. >> mr. jones. come on in.

>> at the hearing jones would again be confronted by his arresting officer who says his trespassing violation might not be as minor as it seems. >> a majority of the people that commit the larger crimes are committing the smaller crimes. if you take those individuals that were committing the smaller crimes and you put them in jail for those, they're not out to commit the bigger ones. his charges were armed robbery multiple times. you do the crime, you do the time. >> but jones had his supporters at the hearing as well, including lolita brown, his supervisor at the knoll house. >> we need him to be back at work working and doing his routes. >> mr. jones, states that you violate condition 7 by failing to obey all laws, ordinances, or statutory conditions. at this time we're going to take testimony from officer frist. >> i was on the west side of the

railroad track and saw the defendant ride his bike towards the tracks. he entered through a hole in the six foot chainlink fence that was put up to keep people off the property and he was stopped on the west side. >> when you came in contact with him, was he cooperative with you? >> yes. >> after a few more questions, the parole examine are asked jones's probation officer to weigh in. >> given that this charge was dismissed, i recommend reinstateme reinstatement. >> mr. jones, is there neglect you want to add sf. >> i know they need me back there at work, and i really want to be there to help them fulfill the goals and everything of the job. i want to go back to that position and really help make a difference in the lives of people just getting out of jail and prison. >> anything else? >> no. >> finally, it was time for the parole examiner to decide jones's fate.

coming up -- >> i just got to really have faith in my prayers that i have. >> another unexpected twist for him. he gets a lot of compliments.

he wears his army hat, walks around with his army shirt looking all nice. and then people just say, "thank you for serving our country" and i'm like, that's my dad. male vo: no one deserves a warmer welcome home. that's why we're hiring 10,000 members of the military community by the end of 2017.

i'm very proud of him. male vo: comcast. >> valester jones is the first to admit that he has wasted a significant portion of his life on gangs, crime, drugs, and alcohol. he was once sentenced to 25 years in prison. it was during that time that he says he changed his life by getting involved in alcoholics and narcotics anonymous. >> i started going to na, aa meetings in prison and started going to church, and i stayed to myself, and if you wasn't spiritual or talked about something positive, i just wasn't going to be near you or didn't want to be bothered with you. >> jones was eventually paroled and found a place to live and

work at the knoll house. a residential drug treatment program in tampa, florida. one day when he took a shortcut on the way home from work through a hole in a fence, he was arrested and sent back to jail for trespassing. >> when they handcuff me, as soon as they put them handcuffs on me, i cannot lie. you know, much as i been through, i didn't think i would do it, but tears started coming to my eyes. >> even though the charges were dropped, jones still faced the possibility of returning to prison. if the parole board determined that his arrest and admission that he did, in fact, take the shortcut violated the conditions of his parole. jones expected to learn his fate after a hearing with the parole examiner. >> so regarding my findings, i'm going to defer them for a period of ten days in an effort to look everything over. i'm going to make a recommendation as -- after i come up with my decision. i'm not going to recommend anything today. >> the delay in his ruling meant jones would have to remain in

jail until the board could reach a decision. >> come on, sir. >> i'll probably toss and turn tonig tonight. i'm more unsure than i was at first. i just got to really have faith in my prayers right now. i got to have faith in prayers. >> oh, man. >> the final decision on jones came during a break in our shooting. when we returned to tampa, there was a new inmate in jones's bunk, and jones himself was back at the knoll house, a free man but very much aware that he was still on parole and one slip away from going back to prison. >> when the people told me that i would be getting out that day, i was so full of joy, i wanted to scream. i had to hold my composure. i even wanted to ask them out to dinner. that's how good i felt. i said, no, she might take that the wrong way.

since his release, jones has been enjoying the simple pleasures of freedom, like getting to choose his own clothes. >> i like to maftch my clothes. whatever shirt i got, i like to have shoes the same color. i had these shoes first to go to a shirt that i had, and it was these shoes that made me go out and pick the color suit that i got. isn't that something? >> jones is not taking a second chance at freedom for granted. he gives himself a daily reminder of the shortcut that almost sent him back to prison. >> i purposely ride my bike that way not to go through there. i go around the long way, but even going around the long way, i can see that place, and it's still open. it's still a big old hole in the fence there. people are still going in and out of it. i say, well, they'll never have to worry about me doing it no more. i just know i can't do what everybody else does. this last episode on the trespassing really gave me an

eye opener even in a greater way. i got to watch every little thing. it's the little things that can lead to a big thing like going back to prison. >> coming up -- >> watch your back because a dagger is coming. >> a housing unit where the drama runs high. >> it gets overwhelming to the point when you leave, it's just like draining. like, wow, we need to take a little break.

>> after more than a decade of producing "lock up" we have discovered most inmates prefer to keep a low profile rather than risk crossing the line with other inmates who might harm them or staff who could punish them. of course, there are always exceptions. >> i will not negotiate with

terrorists. >> but at the orange county jail we discovered an entire housing unit where low profile seems in short supply. its official name was mod q, but others prefer to call it the drama mod. >> that's my [ bleep ] right there. that's my [ bleep ]. come here and show your -- >> this specific sector here houses protective custody inmates that are homosexuals, and they have to be separated from the jail population for various reasons. >> i love you, baby. >> it's mainly to protect them from the rest of the population. >> mod q is different because you did find men dressed as women or men with breast implants that looks like women. it was loud, and there were girly screams. >> i've been working out. >> the drama, it's exactly what you could expect of young people

without a solution to their identity that just go crazy and run around like nuts. >> there's a lot of drama in mod q. there's fighting and there's flirting and there's yelling. >> baby, come here. >> it gets overwhelming to the point where when you leave the mod, it's just like draining. like, wow. we need to take a little break for a little while to process that. >> transgender enmate alejandro cortez, who calls himself alexus, not only sought attention from other inmates, but from certain members of our field team as well. >> i just got hit on by a bunch of men. >> men? >> i mean, women -- women. it was quite something. >> what number cell? >> 7. >> 7? >> 7. >> what did she say to you? >> she said i had very sexy

legs. sexy legs. she told me to keep being sexy. >> cortez, who was in jail on a parole violation, told us about her struggles in choosing to live as a woman. >> anyways, i can say i feel like a woman. i feel like i'm a homosexual. i'm a man, but i prefer living as a woman. mostly i'm attracted to men, and i don't want to live my life as a man. i live my life as a woman. it's hard. it's really hard to -- i had to make it through my family and then society, you know? it's very hard because the criticism and everything. once i put it in my mind i live my life for who i am, me, and if my family accepts me, criticism it's always going to be out there, you know? and honestly sometimes i feel

like i am the brave one because i have the guts to be who i am and, and this is me. i live my life, and i'm not going to change who i am, but it's really, really hard. >> you want to make -- i need a reason to be. girl, size 20, honey. >> mod q was also known for its hospitality. charles barber, who was in on multiple charges of fraud and grand theft to which he had pled not guilty, offered us one of his homemade commisary snacks. >> it consists of cheetos, chicharotis and -- >> you eat this, and this is what you get. >> i'm the opposite. i lost a little bit. >> do you want some. >> no. >> if you are 200 today -- >> i'm 279. >> still growing. >> and they told me to lose some weight, but i don't care.

>> in mod q, the relationships are different from other mods because in other mods you got some high intensity gang politicking, and in mod q where it's homosexual there's none of that politics going on. it's more like love triangles going on. sfr >> no, no. bitch, we are close. we are -- >> we're sisters. >> it's big-time drama mod. >> but it seemed nobody drew more attention than marcus cash. just 21 years old. cash was already on his eighth trip to the o.c. jail. this time on a conviction for possession of stolen credit cards. he was better known by the nickname he shared with the unit itself. >> i love the drama. i'm drama. like, i'm drama. i'm drama. >> shut up.

you're -- don't be -- you know me, bitch. you know me, girl. >> marcus is probably our most flamboyant inmate. every time he comes out of the cell, it's almost a show. he exaggerates his movement and his speech quite a bit, so that draws a lot of attention to him. >> it's the kind of attention that cash's cell mate mario said he could do without. >> well, she's a good person, but sometimes she does draw a lot of attention to herself, and she can be kind of noisy and drive me nuts, but some people try to give her drama, though. there a throw things at her window and yell and knock on the door. >> they hit on me. >> watch your back, bitch, because a dagger is coming. you know me. >> when the drama got too high for cash himself, he would often turn to barber for support. >> i'm more of an older sister

or brother to her. she's young, so you try to, you know, give her advice. >> it's a lot of drama. it's a lot of drama. >> but occasionally the drama would bring a chuckle or two to the one member of our field team who couldn't help but hear every bit of it. >> one day at a time. >> have i not proven -- >> you've been in and out of enough drug rehabs to know that it's one day at a time. with you patience is a virtue. >> we can't see each other. >> that's clear. >> it's like reminds me of high school [ bleep ]. >> mod q was off the hook. >> bitch. >> by the time we would leave, you would just be drained emotional

emotionally. take one.

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