as a result, he spent his first 30 days at suffolk county in segregation.ow he's on his way to general population where he will have more privileges and time outside his cell. >> today i'm getting out of the hole. i'm going go play with the big kids in the big box now. i'm pretty excited. when you go to a new unit, you don't know who's on that unit or whatever. could be a lot of small time units. so i'll see what's going on. 30 days since i got to put a pair of sneakers on. my new unit. see what's going to happen. >> 2-4, open. >> daniel esdale has spent the last four months living and working in the jail's infirmary hoping good behavior would convince jail officials to overlook his history of fighting and grant him a transfer to general population. >> he actually got to a point where he had a detail in medical where he served food to the other inmates and cleaned the unit, so he came a lot farther than we ever anticipated him coming. >> esdale did finally get a transfer, but definitely not the one he wanted. he's back in the box. >> i'm in segregation beca

i don't know if you've ever been there, but suffolk county is about 60 miles from new york city. and this kind of situation was going on so near, it's actually between new york city and the hamptons. and so many -- maybe not so many -- [inaudible] but so many people from new york drive to the hamptons every weekend that maybe they don't hook sideways and think, you know, this is going on here. these people are our neighbors, and it's happening right next door to us. so that was the second reason why i was attracted to this story. and the third reason was because as many of you also know, i'm an immigrant myself. i came from cuba when i was 16 years old. i boarded a boat, and i wrote a book about it called "finding -- [inaudible] and so i felt somehow connected to the story. those of us who came from cuba in 1980 came to be known as -- [speaking spanish] because the boat lift was called the mariel boat lift. it's a term that i actually use with pride, but it became a derogatory term, no question about it. so i've always been conscious of labels and what that means, what -- how muc

. >> the suffolk county jail is often the first stop for bostonians who find themselves under arrest. male inmates who are awaiting trial and have yet to make bail are detained at the nashua street facility, where the daily population averages about 700. if they have been convicted of a crime and are sentenced to less than two and a half years, most will transfer to the nearby house of correction, which averages 1, 00 inmates. while their charges vary, nearly all of them will need to confront the truths of their pasts if they hope to avoid coming back. >> it may be a history of abuse, and neglect, a lack of education, lack of job history, substance abuse issues, you name it. >> but there's another issue that is also bringing more people to jail. not only in boston but nationwide. >> the percentages of mental illness are off the charts. they are shocking. it's much harder once people begin to get older to tackle those deficits that have been growing and growing and growing over a period of time. >> though he was deemed competent enough to understand his charges and stand trial, a lifel

located just outside downtown is a key landmark in that battle, the suffolk county jail. >> the jaila maximum security facility, it holds anyone who is arrested and held on a bail they can't make. that could be someone charged with shoplifting and it is very frequently someone charged with homicide. >> unlike prison where all inmates have been convicted and sentenced, most jail inmates have only been charged with crimes and are innocent until proven guilty. suffolk county has an average daily population of 700 such detainees, along with nearly 2,000 other inmates who have been convicted and are serving short sentences. >> we're the largest sheriff's department in the northeast. so we're moving a lot of people in and out of here and trying to do a lot with them in the relatively short period of time we have them. the people who get that job done every single day, do a remarkable job. >> in some units, a lone officer supervises inmates, like a beat cop on the streets, it allows him to build rapport and actually has been proven to reduce fighting. >> i'll talk to you later. >> but in ja

at the suffolk county jail in boston, massachusetts, we encountered another program called jail breake visiting here you're going to get experience what it is to be in jail. they're going to have you empty everything out of your pockets, put into locker. make sure you take everything out of your pockets, all right? hat, you take the hat off. show some respect. take everything out of your pockets. change, quarters, nickels, anything, bus passes. >> when we film in a prison or a jail, we do do our best to be a fly on the wall. in the case of jail break, you know, these kids came in, and yeah, they were definitely aware of the camera. >> you scared? are you scared? how about you? >> no. >> you're not scared right now? >> no. >> there's no reason to be scared, to tell you the truth. >> at the same time, i don't think it was necessarily the camera that affected them in the way that they had an attitude or they had this certain bravado. i think it was more relating to the age. >> everybody stand up. come right over here. right now all you got to do is empty your pockets, take your jackets o

. >> but it was at boston's suffolk county jail that we met not just two but three siblings.nd the bonds they shared transcended the numerous troubles they faced. >> my sister's on that side. she'll be coming to the window like yo, yo, yeah, yeah. >> it didn't take long for the allen family to catch our attention. >> straight from the bloody beat, you know what i mean [ bleep ] ferocious. >> siblings corey, melissa and william were serving sentences at suffolk county's house of correctional facility. >> the allen family was definitely a family that definitely seemed they were having hard times. three siblings being locked up was certainly a lot coming from one family. even though they were all inside, they constantly were telling us about one another and stories about one another from home. >> my family is one of the dysfunctional families that's out here. i love my family. you know what i'm saying? there's something good about us, you know. >> my sister, melissa, is loving. she's kind. >> she took care of me. she made sure we eat when we didn't have food. >> my little brothe

it was a state program managed from suffolk county. it was working. all of that -- >> one last question. just to make sure, you're going to pay $1200 more. you have this uncertainty. then you're going to have a higher deductible but you can't go to the same hospital? >> right. >> you can't keep your doctor born. u have had since she was >> right. >> what do you want to say to the president? >> we have to repeal obama care and read it. we have to have people now that it's all coming out we have to go back to the drawing table. >> i agree with you. >> i understand there are people in difficult situations who have no insurance. my solution from my point of view is go ahead and do some expansion of medicaid that's carefully programmed and also cut away all the extra stuff that doesn't need to be in medica medicaid tighten up the system and the ship. we also need to elect leaders who are going to -- >> keep their word. >> yeah. >> your daughter is a lovely girl. >> thank you. >> i got to spend time with her earlier. you have a great doctor. i wish you and

. >> at the suffolk county jail in boston, we encountered one group of inmates who found working out more motivated than working out alone. >> get that ab workout. get it toned up. this crew right here, that's what we do all day. six day workout, one day rest. every day, every rep we're out here. we out here. >> man, it's not that big but twice this week, man. i take it for granted, man. big things come in small packages. rise against these walls and these bars. >> definitely. got to do something with your time. >> always working out. always working on my mind, my body, my soul. >> that's pretty much it. >> in another section of the jail, we discovered a group of women also working on mind, body, and soul. but in the most unexpected way. >> lift the buttocks up any amount, excellent. move the inner thighs through the back wall. >> we found out that once a week a professional yoga instructor would come inside the jail and teach yoga to the women. we decided to cover it and when we got there we saw a normal classroom environment had been transformed into a yoga studio. they had pushed