california state prison. corcoran. when we interviewed these men, our crew was required to wear stab-proof vests. one of the corcoran inmates we san down with was christian knighten. nobody describes the daily pressures, the ups and downs of being a predator, like he does. >> it's seductive, you know what i mean? you can love the game, but the game loves nobody. you know what i mean? you could sit there and give it your all and think everyone's supporting you, and before you know it, just like that. get your throat cut. seen it, done it. >> knighten was serving time for murder and attempted murder. crimes he committed at the los angeles county jail while awaiting trial on an outside murder/robbery charge that he was convinced would send him to prison for life. but when he went on trial for that original murder charge, something completely unexpected happened. >> they find me not guilty, and it righteously blew my mind. i had to laugh. the irony of it it was classic. >> knighten should have walked away as a free man, in

> but we have never seen a more bizarre display of the gut churning activity than at california state prison corcoran. it happened during a routine shoot at the prison hospital. >> we were there for like ten minutes. did a couple interviews with a couple doctors. initially it seemed like it was going to be mundane and going through the process. so we decided to leave. we were all packed up ready to go back into the other section of the prison when all hell broke loose. >> we have four inmates in four different cells that are holding food trays, some have started flooding the pier with causing the toilets to back up, causing water to come out on the floor. i'll first go out, try to talk to the inmates and trying to get them into compliance. inmates failed to comply with staff instructions we will probably have to extract them. >> one by one the cells just started popping off. you know, one guy is just started throwing feces, the other guy was covering up his cell. i was like, wow, this isn't boring. this is pretty intense. >> i am going to talk to them. want to make sure we get that on video. at that

. >>> california state prison corcoran has one of the largest populations of dangerous gang members of prison on the west 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.

. >> during one of our shoots at california state prison corcoran, our crew barely got a glimpse of mansonup his window. a recent mug shot shows how much he has aged since first coming to prison in 1971. but his artwork provides a unique insight into his life behind bars. >> here a scorpion that he's made. basically, taking thread from various types of items, socks and t-shirts and towel, he creates it and uses -- it looks like a marker to color. this is probably one of the items that he makes the most of. spiders. i would assume this is something like a harp. and he's made it out of toilet paper and newspaper. it looks like some dental floss, a small stick, and probably for the coloring, he used kool-aid to get the coloring for it. >> why do you have it? >> he's not allowed to have it. occasionally, we go through and do cell searches and confiscate all items. he doesn't have a hobby card and other inmates try to sneak it out and put it on ebay and sell it. so we go in and dispose of it. >> how does he react when you take this stuff? >> sometime he's passive. occasionally he gets pretty an

. >> we found an even more unlikely bond at california state prison corcoran. >> like anything. treat it with love and respect. it will treat you with love and respect back. >> we were out on the yard shooting. i looked over and saw these guys petting something. at first i thought it was a kitten. and it ended up it was a gopher that they had tamed. >> shampoo, little baths, and let him run around the cell, feed him apple, let us. take care of them. they're good little pets. >> like the best little companion i ever had. >> a lot of the guys we ran into probably have never had anybody to love or anything or anybody to love them. and when you run into somebed who is -- you know adopted a gopher and it gives them some sort of outlet for affection. it's got to be a good thing. >> but we found a very different case of inmate creature bonding inside california's san quentin prison. >> i'm mike miller my real name. and the staff here call me birdman of san quentin. >> the first day i got here at san quentin. the birds seemed to have flocked to me for some reason. and i don't know they

. >> in the exercise yard at california state prison corcoran, we met an inmate whose art is inspiredll me your name. spell your last name for me. >> my name is kevin moore, m-o-o-r-e. >> what were you convicted for? >> i'm doing a parole violation for sales of marijuana. >> the yard is an interesting place because you never know who you're going to run into, you never know who you're going to talk to, you never know the personality, who they are. i kind of just started looking around and tried to find interesting-looking faces. i happened upon kevin moore. he started telling me that he's a rap artist. he is a ghost writer. >> i have a record deal waiting on me. death row records. for anybody, any rap fans that's listening, my akassassoon. and i got a demo coming out in a few months. if you're a rap fan, listen to it. >> when you start talking to inmates you are not sure what to believe. they start telling you these stories. you're kind of like say, all right. >> i have been a ghost writer in the rap industry for about 13 years. a lot of stuff i have written from behind these walls i

. >>> there are nearly 5,000 inmates at california state prison corcoran. they represent one of the highest concentrations of dangerous felons found anywhere. it's rare that inmates and correctional staff on this yard ever unite in a common goal. but when a bus load of teenagers arrive during our shoot there, we witnessed one of those times. >> come on. line them up. let's go. let's go. come on now. come on now. >> so all these kids they brought into corcoran for the day, there is an aura of like, hey, this is going to be kind of cool. we're going to see things on the inside. i will see what it's really like to be a bad ass. >> here at corcoran, we don't discriminate. if you're white, we'll take you. if you're black, we'll take you. hispanic, we'll take you. we do not discriminate. >> the teens, who have all had run-ins with the law, were sent here for a crime intervention program called "reaching out: convicts to kids" or r.o.c.k. it's designed to send a clear message -- prison is not a place to make new friends. >> when we go into the yard, if the alarm g

lives in california at corcoran state prison. eric rudolph is the guy who bombed the olympics in 1996 and bombed abortion clinics and a gay bar. eric rudolph lives in colorado, too, at the same prison. and the 9/11 conspirator lives in the supermax prison in colorado. if you're a convicted terrorist in the united states, depending on what exactly you're convicted of, it is possible you will be put to death, but it is likely instead you will just get locked up somewhere and then you will just live in that part of the united states. securely locked up for the length of your sentence. which is usually your life or considerably longer. that's how it works. that's how it has worked forever. there are 373 people convicted of terrorism or terrorism-related offenses living in 98 different prison facilities in america. there has never been an escape or a significant security problem associated with that fact. on his second full day in office, the then new president, president obama, signed an executive order to close the offshore prison a