sam wanted me to meet rashawn thomas, a writer for the award-winning prison newspaper "the san quentinews." >> rashawn, want to introduce you to someone. >> hey, brother. it's all good. >> hey, kamau bell. >> how you do, kamau bell. heard a lot about you. >> i wanted to come talk to you. i've heard lot about you. people said i should talk to you about what's going down here. >> i'm the sports editor. >> sports editor. can i ask, how long are you in for and what's your sentence? >> i'm a lifer, convicted of second-degree murder and manslaughter. i have a 55 to life sentence. i will probably never go home. >> 55 to life. level 2 is a blessing. >> you consider this a blessing? >> this is. free college here at san quentin. level 4s do not. >> they don't bring in unknown comedians to talk to you. >> what's up? >> that's the alarm for the prison. when there's an alarm, as you can see, people, no matter where they are in here, everybody gets down on the ground. and they get down on the ground until our staff figures out what's going on. >> how often does that alarm go off? >> some days not at