>> among the nation's toughest, california state prison corcoran, severely overcrowded and plagued by racial tension. we spent months inside, where officers try to maintain order in an institution with a notoriously violent past. this is "lockup: corcoran extended stay." >> get on ground! on the ground! hold him on the ground. on the ground! >> in corcoran, survival is the number one priority for inmates and officers alike. >> you have to live with it. this is what i want to do. so, i'm here. >> whether it's inmates adhering to racial politics. >> i will probably set off a race riot, if i sat right here. >> or officers keeping themselves and the population safe. >> this is what we're looking for. we're always looking for weapons. every time we remove weapons from a cell, that means one less weapon out there on the yard. one less weapon that could be used against staff. >> when these two sides are fighting to survive -- >> i don't care because he wears green. he bleeds just like i bleed. >> the results can be explosive. >>> in the four months we spent inside corcoran, our producers saw

this is lockup, corcoran, extended stay. in corcoran survival is the number one priority. or officers keeping themselves and the pop race safe -- >> this is what we're looking for. that means it's one last. >> i don't care. he bleed just like i bleed. >> the results can be explosive. >>> in the four months we spent inside corcoran, our producers saw violence erupt many times, though never between inmates and officers. as we neared the end of our stay, no one foresaw the greatest threat to corcoran's staff might come from an event at a california prison more than 300 miles away. >> three guards and two inmates were taken to area hospitals this afternoon after a stabbing in the maximum security area. two inmates used homemade weapons to stab two sergeants and a correctional officer around 1:00 this afternoon. >> it's significant enough that we locked down statewide the whole system. we made a determination that it had to do with a gang activity, southern hispanic gangs. in this particular case the attack seemed unprovoked. so that gave us cause to wonder about how widespread

>> welcome to corcoran. >> here kitty kitty. >> what's up? >> [ bleep ]. [ bleep ]. >> look at his hair. [ bleep ]. look at that. >> i don't know any of them. but i will know them. we don't know them. we don't know them. >> i don't want to know. is that a girl? >> if you have a broken leg, you will get aspirin. if you have the flu, you will get aspirin. turn back and face forward. >> the students aren't on the yard very long when they learn how unpredictable life here can be. >> down! >> get down. >> get down. >> alarms signaling a major disturbance are common at corcoran. inmates who don't hit the ground risk get taken down by staff. >> see that? >> you had everybody hitting the ground. you had the correctional officers telling them what to do. everyone's yelling and screaming and it was intense. >> when the yard officer tells you to get up, then you can get up. until then you don't move. >> get up. >> get up. >> back in the order you were at. >> there were a couple kids that were shaking. it wasn't the field trip they thought it was going t

thank you... áááá"" ç8 x9@fxx6vc1ló >>> california state prison corcoran has many dangerous inmates onest coast. our crews have visited here several times and correctional staff is always blunt about the danger. >> when talking to the cos at corcoran, they told me, you come in here, you have to join a gang for protection. immediately. >> when you come to the prison, you have to join a gang. you have no choice. it's a must. >> the prison cannot protect you from the other inmates. it's an incredible admission. >> so you have to have that backup from your other races that are out here, whatever race backs you up, you need to be in their gang because you have no protection. you're on your own and anything could happen to you. >> correctional officers know anything can happen to them as well. >> i'm very well aware that the gangs can reach outside these walls. it may hold them in, but it doesn't hold in their power, the things they can do. i keep my family business to myself. i don't go to areas in the public where i know gangs are known to hang out. i avoid those locations. >> the dangerou

when we met christian knight, he was serving 79 years for murder at california state prison corcoran. >> just seeing christian the first time, you kind of knew he had some kind of story. very dramatic looking. you know, with all the tats and very intense. >> it turns out knight had several incredible stories but one involved his attempt to attack a sex offender at the los angeles county jail. >> got this freaking child molester on the tier. he's actually in the van talking about what he does. you know, i like to keep myself, hey, i don't lose my temper. keep myself calm, cool, and collective. that dude made me snap. i get in the van and i tell him, i'm going to rip the toilet off the wall. i'm going to bust through this frickin' glass. i'm going to drag it down the tier, and i'm going to bust through your glass and cut you up your [ muted ]. you're a dead man. yeah, yeah, yeah. then all you hear is steel bending. i got behind the toilet, pushed the toilet all the way back. long story short, i ripped the whole toilet off, wrapped my hands up with my socks, smashed through the glass. he