breaking that cycle. it's a vicious cycle. okay? you ready go back? every day is a battle to survive and to maintain order. >> among the nation's most

notorious institutions san quentin state prison. we document life on the inside where gangs, drugs and sheer. >> don't let us catch you up in here. >> basically it's the same thing every day. you sit in your cell, sleep in your cell. >> strip out right now. >> get down. >> as long as i keep busy it's all right. the second i'm at a standstill i'm looking for something to do i will get in trouble. >> weeks go by, months go by, years go by.

temperature best part of his morning is -- >> i drink coffee and read a book. this is your class afolgers. if it ain't folgers it ain't

nothing. you know what i'm saying? >> nick rk i need some hot water from you. we make due. we do what we have to do to live in this nice little space of ours. i can't get a cigarette so i cut myself. they think i'm going kill myself. i'm not trying to kill myself. if i wanted to kill myself i would hang myself. i carved c-14. i did it with my fingernails. i like the feeling of the pain. it relieves stress.

we spent three months inside san quentin. one day can look a lot like the next. inmates are confined to tiny cells. >> all right. let's do this. blue eyes, check this out.

she is a little teacup short and stout. you can tell what this chick is all about. she is cool to the touch, cool to the touch. she's a little teacup short and stout. you can tell what the click is all about. she's cool to the touch, cool to the touch. she's cool to the touch. >> flies. nice. [ applause ] >> i have never captivated anybody like this. >> i took me coming to prison to realize how i love doing this. >> across the tier angel paints a must recall.

you can see it. deception and trickery against man, how we do each other wrong. that's what that represents. this represents the world is going to change. it is biblical stuff. people will see i believe there god also. maybe it will give youngsters a different perspective. she said she didn't keep a

misdemeanor. . my mind wasn't even focused. i wasn't thinking about my son or nothing like that. to get the job done. >> it is ink and pen and i mix a little drop of shampoo. >> i want a little boy crying.

he sees me getting locked up, he comes to visit me, he sees my girl, sees the tears in her eyes. so even though he's 3, he's sharp. know what i mean? smart. i want to put that in there. that will depict he's aware of what's happening. not fully aware of why i'm being locked up but he knows something bad is happening, you know what i mean? if you believe in god, you have to say it's a given. i never went to school for it, just on my own, i learned. nothing specific. if i didn't have that, i'd be mad. i'm going to be mad at the judicial system, mad at being here, mad at the inmates in here. right now i'm not. i'm at peace right now. coming up on "lockup: extended stay" -- >> nobody wants to go down in that shower with all kinds of freaks. >> when inmates refuse to shower with the group, it's the officers who wind up all wet. hold together. a little to the left. 1, 2, 3, push!

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it's late morning on west block, and inmates are released tier by tier to the showers where they're given an extremely brief opportunity to wash up before lunch. >> when you shower, you shower with a whole bunch of other men

that's not fully clothed, that's naked, you know? where's the privacy at? >> you only get to shower every other day here. and nobody wants to go down into that shower with all kinds of freaks. you're in the shower that has, what, 12 shower heads, and you got 50 dudes down there all trying to shower in five minutes, so you've got people all bumping into each other, you know? [ bleep ] that. >> okay. wash up. get out of here. >> hey, hey! all right. right here. let's go. >> i'm going back to my cell. i hate my life. >> you're live on tape. >> how's it going? >> oh, no. san quentin showers. >> this is my shower. i plug this into my sink. this right here plugs right into

the hole in the sink. i designed this. i ought to market this [ bleep]. i'm actually kind of lucky in a sense because i don't have a celly. i can't have a celly. i've had in-cell violence. i had incidents inside my cell with me and the person i'm living with. i stabbed one of my cellies 36 times and another one i cut his throat. and i just hold this, and that's how i do that. i pick up everything off the floor and wet myself and i get in here naked and i just put the soap all over, wash all over. it's a small stream of water. that's my shower. it isn't a big shower, but it is a shower. that's my shower. it isn't a good shower, but it works. i have to improvise. >> not only are birdbaths a nuisance, but they also pose a safety risk as officers and

inmates can easily slip on the tier. >> four tier. >> four, four, now. >> what you're looking at now, people would say it's flooding the tier, but i guarantee you've got a guy in a cell taking a birdbath as they call it. and that's something i can't -- i hate. yeah, you get that all the time. one time we had like, i don't know, probably about 50 cells that did it one time. on the front bar here, it was like niagara falls, it was beautiful. >> what's up with the water? >> i don't know. >> shut that [ bleep ] down. take a shower with everybody else. don't flood my tier. >> okay. >> all right? >> why you hollering now?

>> give me two. >> more than 3,000 inmates eat their meals in the same dining hall, which can only hold up to 400 at a time. the groups are released by tier to ensure everyone gets a chance to eat. >> let's go, gentlemen. let's go. >> i'm the eyes and ears of this south block rotunda. and it's the eye of the storm because everyone's relying on me if we have an incident in the kitchen or in the -- inside the unit sometimes, but mainly the landing areas. let's go! my main job is to make sure these inmates come from their housing unit into the chow hall, sit down, come back out. but i also have other officers that are inside. at the same time i'm watching my officers inside, watching their backs because who's watching their backs? you kind of see what i'm saying? because when you got two

officers in the chow hall, i try to keep the traffic where i can control it on the steps and have a gap here so if something were to kick off from there, from this point where we're talking, i can have a visual. you've got five landings right up in here. as you can see, i can't see what's going on there, there, i can barely see what's going on on here, so i'm relying on body language on the inmates and also my officers. this is where it becomes tricky up inside of here. >> that's it. >> stand by. stand by. >> this is my house. this is my home. this is what i do every day, eight hours a day. >> look at this food right here. >> look, we got to get something out of here. this ain't cool. >> what is this? >> despite having four meal options prepared by inmates, many prisoners attend chow for the social benefits but refuse to eat there. >> supposed to be spaghetti, broccoli, and salad, and i don't know what this look like. shampoo. i don't know who made this.

do i know it's safe for my body? i don't know. would you eat it if you didn't know who dished it? i don't think so. that's all i got to say. i cook my own food in my own cell. >> you know what i mean? you want to be eating out of trays? go ahead. bring it here. >> inmates like david monroe have found a more creative albeit more expensive option in cell cooking. >> i am making roast beef and corned beef tacos and in here, in prison, we have to cook in bags. we just get this off the canned goods, take the top off, flatten it so you can cut. other than that you don't have much to cut with. it's a whole lot harder than having a knife. as long as you ain't using it as a knife, the officers ain't -- they understand that you have to cut your meat. i haven't eaten anything in the chow hall in a really long time. i'd say a good year or so. yeah, i can cook pretty good. it tastes very well.

i can definitely hide the fact that it's coming from an inmate. you wouldn't know the difference. you just mix it up like that in a bag, and then you put it in here and it will cook itself and give it like 10, 15 minutes. i grew up with all girls, so i learned from them. and then most of the times i was by myself because i was always skipping school, so i had to cook for myself. i was basically the same as the kids that i talked to, troubled youth. bad family, you know. father was alcoholic. used to beat my mom. he ran out on us. i grew up around a lot of gangs. and it was just a 15-year-old kid trying to find an identity. didn't have one. i got caught up doing that stuff. skipping school. hanging out. doing stuff like that that gang members do, thugs do, whatever you want to call it. and i ended up killing somebody. i was at some girl's house, and i seen somebody walking by. we had a confrontation. and it resulted in me shooting him.

i was 15 when i committed the crime. at 16 i pled guilty to second-degree murder for 15 to life plea bargain, and that day just changed my whole life. celly! >> i know you like that. >> you've got to have the hot sauce. this is the best part of the day. coming home to a hot cooked meal. can't beat it. >> i was scared to come to prison. go do a life sentence in prison with adult men, that has its own fear on its own just knowing that you're going to do a life sentence with a bunch of adult men, but you're still a kid. >> so now we got to eat together. >> from a 15-year-old kid, i'm 24 now, almost 25. i'm absolutely nowhere near that person anymore. coming up on "lockup: extended stay" -- >> this is a very important tool for us. that's how easy it would show up. and it picks up the smallest things. >> even the laundry isn't exempt from random searches. ♪ you? it's me. jamie.

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when used daily. for a cleaner, fresher, brighter denture, use polident every day. i had severe fatigue, became diagnosed with hodgkin's lymphoma. he was a good candidate for immune therapy, which is allowing his immune system to attack the tumor. learn more at cancercenter.com so a few years ago, me and my wife were actually saving for a house. but one day we were sitting there and we decided that, you know what? something needed to be done about what was going on in our inner-city. instead of buying a house, we decided to form this youth league. what is he doing wrong? he should shed the block. exactly. it's volunteer, we don't get a paycheck. it's one hundred percent from the heart. football shaped my life and i'm praying that it will shape these kids' lives as well.

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inmates do whatever they can to overcome the monotony of prison life. and the more than 900 officers of san quentin have their own ways of escaping too. >> get started right now. go ahead and put your shirt on, do all that back there. >> you got to pull your pants up. you're still in prison, all all right? all right, all right.

walk around with your ass hanging out, it don't work. keep your pants pulled up. >> i have little tolerance for [ bleep ]. and if the inmates don't know me, they'll get my attention and i'll straighten them out. i demand respect right off the top. >> are you paroling? >> because i came up through a time in the early '80s when it was really violent. we had officers killed, a lot of staff hurt. a lot of inmates killed. savagely beaten. even still to this day our officers get hurt, get beat up quite a bit, and a lot of people don't know about this. straight ahead all the way from the back to your left. i don't want to cut that because i don't want to nip your ear by accident. >> what i got to do? >> because it's your ear. it's got to come off. i always have my -- i call it spider senses kind of up in case something happens. i put on a different -- just a higher -- higher level of like security because i'm in the walls. anything with stone on it is considered contraband, so you mail it home or donate it. you got a lot of room to cut that off. good job. you'll be all right.

what about them gold teeth? just wondering, just asking, man. gold teeth, that's a hot commodity too. >> hey, hey. >> nice of you to show up. nice. nice shot. >> when he is not processing the 350 incoming inmates each week, he's talking game strategy on a basketball court. >> are you going to bomb threes on us? >> no. >> what are you going to do? what do we say? >> drive. >> drive to the hoop. i'm the assistant coach of the windsor girls varsity high school basketball team. >> good job. good job. >> stop the ball, stop the ball! all the way! there you go. i have the hardest time with tattoos and stuff. the parents look at me like, who's the felon on the bench with the coach? usually. >> the ball, the ball, the ball. >> good job. good job, ladies. >> one, two, three. >> good game, blazers.

>> officer thompson is 1 of 35 correctional officers working in ad seg. >> so we have weekly laundry exchange in the ad seg. so we're setting up two sheets, a pair of socks, and a towel right now. >> while sorting laundry may seem mundane, it's critical to both the officer's and the inmate's safety. >> we don't wash it here anymore. so it comes back in locked carts and we run it through the rapid scan machine, and we check it for contraband. the last thing we'd need to do is have a piece of metal or something get inside these sheets. that's a real potential hazard for the staff in here. that's plastic, so it's really -- it's a very important tool for us. that's how easy it would show up. and it picks up the smallest things. >> but when his shift ends, he

trades in his uniform for a pair of jeans and hits the open road. >> i'm off work. i'm me. and this is how we get down. yeah, this is cutting loose. >> in the early afternoon, officer grant begins his shift in one of the ten towers surrounding the prison. >> how you doing, bird? >> i'm doing okay. how you doing? >> you're looking pretty good for a young kid. i'm 79 right now, and i'll be 80 august 7th. and i am the oldest correctional officer here at san quentin. >> you can check that. >> all right. >> i first came to san quentin when i was 60 years old. i just wasn't ready to retire yet. >> and your impact rounds are over there. >> primarily my job is to prevent escapes. this is a mini 14.

it's a high-powered rifle. we use these as a last resort to stop a situation that could be lethal. they say, "you're too old to be working here, grant." i just laugh it off. >> for officer grant time off brings him outside the walls into the bay surrounding the prison where he swims a mile and a half in a little more than an hour. >> i never, ever felt like quitting because i always kept myself in good health. coming up on "lockup: extended stay," the yard can be a dangerous place, especially for an ex-nazi low rider. >> you got a problem. >> i have a huge problem. >> come on. what the [ bleep ]. how many types i got to serve

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from around $879 per month. patients that i see about dry mouth. they feel that they have to drink a lot of water. medications seem to be the number one cause for dry mouth. i like to recommend biotene. it replenishes the moisture in your mouth. biotene definitely works.

i'm dara brown with this hour's top stories. the philadelphia eagles are super bowl champions for the first time in history. foles is named super bowl mvp. congress has four days to come up with another spending bills. they are planning a tuesday vote that would keep dprfederal agens open.

administration are so they put them out here to protect people like me because they know i'm not going to no longer do anything because i can't.

>> inmates have found other ways to keep in shape. >> that's our weights. >> yeah? >> yeah. that's how we work out. we don't get weights no more.

that's how we work out. we got to make water bags. we don't get weights no more. arnold schwarzenegger took those away from us. >> why is everybody looking at us, man? find you some business. >> while recreational options are limited on the sensitive needs yard, back in ad seg they're even more restricted. angel gets his first real human contact for the day when an officer escorts him out for his one-hour yard time. >> i thought you was coming with me. >> yeah. >> you got one open? >> like a dog pound. get an hour out here. it's better than nothing. but they put this because too many people getting stabbed. now what am i supposed to do? i don't need to work out in the

yard. you don't work out because you don't want no one to see what you can do. so you keep the secret if you're in shape or if you're not in shape. you know what i mean? you usually don't work out so the next man don't know what you're capable of. because then you expose your hand. it's like when you're playing cards. keep everything so no one knows what you have. your abilities or whatever. know what i mean? >> blinky was a paid hit! >> angel spends most of his time talking with other inmates rather than engaging in any sort of physical activity. >> are you validated or what? >> yeah, they got me validated. they validated me in '91. since then i ain't been out. since '91. yeah. they validated me in solitary. i been debriefing. you know what i mean? they tried to come up when i was in pelican bay, wanted me to go back to the main line. asked me to debrief.

i said, i don't know nothing. keep your head up, man. >> officers. >> ready. >> once back in the privacy of his own cell, angel begins his daily workout. >> i was standing on the toilet. it's easy to do like this. if you don't work out, you going to go crazy in here, you know what i mean? it's like -- >> how long do you work out? >> maybe two hours. i start with 1,000 push-ups, right? after i do that, i come and do these. >> fights inside the prison can

initiate a lockdown at any time, revoking yard privileges for all inmates, making the in-cell workout their only option. >> they call it burpees workout. we do different kind of stuff. we do burpees. we do abdominals. we do arms. tomorrow we get yard. we only get yard two times a week. that's our routine every day. we get bored. and we don't know what to do, so we work -- so working out is wasting the mind out, you know what i mean? my english is not too perfect. so after, that birdbath and everything, we wait for chow. it's just wasting time.

we got a long time to go. coming up on "lockup: extended stay," it's the bottom of the ninth. and for these inmates there's more on the line than just a game. >> if we don't get down, then somebody might get shot. your insurance company won't

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ythen you turn 40 ande everything goes. tell me about it. you know, it's made me think, i'm closer to my retirement days than i am my college days. hm. i'm thinking... will i have enough? should i change something? well, you're asking the right questions. i just want to know, am i gonna be okay? i know people who specialize in "am i going to be okay." i like that. you may need glasses though. yeah. schedule a complimentary goal planning session today with td ameritrade.

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for nghiep key lam, america's favorite pastime is his way to escape the realities of prison life. >> right now i'm going down to the baseball field to see what's going on. thanks. this year i'll be playing for the san quentin giants, and i'll be a starting left fielder. >> hey, guys. listen. breathe. make him throw strikes to you. here we go. san quentin giants baseball. come on. >> let's go, let's go. >> let's go now. >> one for a single. one for a home run. >> when i first got in in 2003, there was the giants and the pirates. so i went out there for the pirates. >> he don't even want to throw a strike, curtis. he don't even want to throw a strike. >> first day, i suit up in a pirates uniform. i felt like i was a kid again. >> let's go. stay focused. >> attack mode, baby, attack mode.

>> being familiar with something i grew up with, playing baseball. and so i felt alive at that point. baseball, no matter where you are, in prison or on the street, it's baseball. >> yeah. >> go, go! get him, get him! he's out of there. whoo-hoo! >> my year, i hope to hit over .400 and still be the leading base stealer on the team. >> go, go, go! go, go! >> in prison, you know, base stealing, that's not a good term to use, but baseball-wise, that's the best term to use. stealing bases and throwing people out. now i know why baseball is america's pastime sport, you know? >> key is serving a 25-year-to-life sentence that began when he was 17 years old. >> at 17 i was just confused.

i didn't know who i was. i wanted to play sports because i wanted to go to college, you know, and play baseball, you know. but then somewhere down that line i just -- i kind of gave up hope. i was a kid and looking for -- looking for companionship. looking for a place to fit in. the point of joining a gang was for the value of being connected with somebody. being accepted. being, you could say, loved. i was 17 years old. and i got in a gang fight with somebody, and i ended up stabbing them -- stabbing that person to death. and when i reflect back, when i was stabbing him, i wasn't stabbing just him. but it was -- i was stabbing my -- everybody that i had anger against. i went back to my buddy's house. and i just told him, man, i did something bad, you know. i did something bad. i was shaking. i didn't know what to do. next day i went to school, you know, like trying to make everything normal again.

but in reality, it wasn't normal. i took somebody's life. you now, somebody's son, somebody's brother. you know, and thinking back on it, it's sad, because -- because that didn't have to happen. you know, that didn't have to happen at all, but it did. and now i got to deal with it. in the process of this, i want to try to help somebody else that is going -- like a guy that might have three years, make sure he don't come back as a murderer. that's my new life now. >> yay! >> whoo! >> alarm. all inmates down in the prone position. lie flat down on the ground.

>> but no matter what's at stake in the game, the all-too- familiar sound of an alarm reminds the inmates whose yard this is. >> why is everybody down? >> there's an alarm. so that's just -- everybody in this, every time you hear an alarm, all inmates, everybody has to get down, all inmates. sometimes there might be a fight, might be somebody hurt. so they have to press the alarm. make sure the cos know what's going on. most of the time you get a lot of false alarms. but we don't know whether it's real or it's false. >> alarm clear. >> it's off now, so everybody can get up. that's a precaution. >> nobody rises, nobody moves. >> business as usual. >> if we don't get down, then somebody might get shot. >> good throw, thank you. >> good job, old man. >> nice beating you, home boy. good to beat you here.

>> underneath the towers surrounded by razor wire, level 2 inmates from north block and "h" unit get in one last game of tennis before the end of the day. >> just a little long. >> mohamed is the captain of the san quentin tennis team. >> hit it, squirrel. >> i started playing in the '70s on the street. when we first came to prison, a few places don't have tennis courts. so when i first saw this, it just kind of like touched my heart. my release date is 20 years from now, if they don't fix the law. and they better fix it. no, just kidding.

20 years from now, that's the release date they gave me. 2027. i had a drug -- drug problem. drugs became a big picture. and not just being under the influence. just being in part of drugs, period, will get you involved in doing different things. what happened, cocaine makes you feel like you're on the top of the world. you saw the movie "scarface." what can i say? i wanted to be scarface. the real special thing, really it takes you away from here, if you want to know the truth. it kind of takes you to where you've been before on the streets, playing tennis, because you forget about the madness. so when we into a game or into a good rally, you're just like, oh, man, that was good. and then sometimes, you know, you've really got to wake up. oh, man, remember where you at. coming up on "lockup: extended stay" -- >> number 32, checkmate. >> when boredom sets in, these inmates get inventive with household items. (vo) i was born during

the winter of '77. i first met james in 5th grade. we got married after college. and had twin boys. but then one night, a truck didn't stop. but thanks to our forester, neither did our story. and that's why we'll always drive a subaru.

coming at you with my brand-new vlog. just making some ice in my freezer here. so check back for that follow-up vid. this is my cashew guy bruno. holler at 'em, brun. kicking it live and direct here at the fountain. should i go habanero or maui onion? should i buy a chinchilla? comment below. did i mention i save people $620 for switching? chinchilla update -- got that chinchilla after all.

say what up, rocco.

as the hour grows later in san quentin, all inmates are required to remain in their cells until lights out. >> 13 and 64. >> 19 and 61. >> 12 and 32 checkmate. >> 13 to 31 check. >> 22 to 29. >> i'm going to have to move the pawn. i'll show you how to play chess. >> it's fun, you know what i mean? and you see how we work. this is all made out of toilet paper right here. this is a castle. that's some strawberry kool-aid and a piece of toilet paper. >> it's dyed with kool-aid.

>> it's dyed with kool-aid. that's where you get the color of it. that's the bishop. we made the pieces. you know what i mean? we got to work with what we can. >> this is a king for you. that's a queen right here. and the queen, that's a queen. she got the little "v" indention. this toilet paper and this kool-aid dye is our entertainment. >> his numbers are exactly the same as our numbers. i make a move, he can put it on his board too. if he doesn't do it right, it's going to mess the whole game up. >> 39 to 46 check. my pawn takes your pawn. >> your game's weak, man. >> you took my queen, man. >> with nothing but time, inmates are able to turn the most basic household items into pieces of art. >> there it is. that's the tread of the tire

made out of soap. once i paint it with black marker, which i put in toothpaste to mix it, use pastel as color, i put foil inside to make it shine. on the other side i'll carve the "v" twin, the motor, out of the soap. i'll indent lines into it so the motor will look like a motor. takes a long time. so i like motorcycles. i been doing it for like six years. and i mean, anybody that would -- likes art would never think that was made out of soap and paper. you know. i like doing it. it keeps me out of trouble.

that's a whole other friend right here. that's what keeps me from being depressed and angry and everything else. this has been my life for 22 years, prison. ♪ >> while these hobbies simply kill time for some inmates, for joe aske, it's a source of income. >> yeah, i make roses. for mother's day and all that stuff. these guys -- i sell them. this is made out of toilet paper, right? see this? it says -- the poem, here's a special flower to say i love and miss you. made from 14 little squares of prison toilet tissue. finding new and different ways to make you laugh or smile makes running out of toilet paper almost seem worthwhile. and people, they actually put them in the letter, send it home. but i make -- i should make two bucks off this tonight so i can smoke a cigarette later. that's what it's all about. >> cigarettes are expensive, huh? >> $2 a cigarette, wow. >> in our three months inside san quentin, our production crew barely found a quiet moment. the noise on the cell block can be deafening. and now at nearly 10:00 p.m., most inmates are about to call it a night before a new day of

the same old routine starts all over again. >> shutdown is at 9:30, 10:00, shutdown, everybody goes quiet. everybody says good night. respectfully, hey, you hear it from the front bar to the back bar, showing respects, so we can actually have peace and harmony amongst everybody. everybody says good night, buenas noches, whatever, right? >> it is now 10:30. we ask your cooperation, and participation. designed to facilitate peace. to all my brown brothers, buenas noches. >> it's like a shout, everybody will say it at one time. one person will direct it, to all my northerners, whatever,

all my hispanics, all my africans, good night. everybody will shout, hey, good night to each race. >> to the whites, skins, asians, souls and others, good night, god bless. >> in the morning it's good morning, too, right? they do that at like 5:30, 6:00 in the morning. hey, and start shouting out, right? then seal will come in and clown too. he'll say, to all my cambodians, you know, good morning. everybody will go, hey, good morning. and he gets a kick out of that. you know what i mean? you got humorous times in here too, you know what i mean? because this is our life, so we got to laugh, you know. we can't be always mad. >> god is good. all the time. >> god is good. >> all the time. >> good night, man. >> good night, bro.

due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. america's prisons, dangerous, often deadly. there are 2 million people doing time. every day is a battle to survive and to maintain order. >> down on your feet, down! >> among the nation's most notorious institutions, san quentin state prison. our cameras spent months documenting life on the inside where gangs, drugs, and sheer