but even those can't always beat the street skills picked up by inmates like abed bakir. >> you know,etimes i get to a place that it is forbidden to smoke. they say, don't smoke in here with a cigarette. i said, okay. and they think that i throw it. it's in my hand. >> bakir's sleight of hand skills have proven useful in other ways as well. >> sometimes i show officers in the jail that i took their mobiles and they didn't feel so i give it back. so when i bring it back, they laugh and say thank you. they've don't have it -- another choice. >> but bakir is not in rimonim for pickpocketing. he is serving a 30-year sentence for murder, yet still has an easy-going relationship with officers whose cell phones he occasionally pilfers. >> having worked on "lockup" for a while now, the relationship abed had with the staff at rimonim was remarkable to me. there is still division between the officers and inmates. but there was just a friendliness about it. it was like watching two neighbors greet each other. they would shake hands. in american prison we don't see that. there is a lot more animo