ranging from drug possession to murder can be a stressful job for officers in san antonio's bexar county jail. >> can i talk to you? i want to talk to you real for a second. >> even more so, when the jail faces staffing shortages. >> we're at least 120 officer short. right now we're doing what we call a mandatory overtime program where we're requiring officers to stay over after their shift is completed for at least a couple hours. talking to the officers, you can see this is stressing them, really stretching it and hopefully we can do something about that in the near future so it isn't the proverbial rubber band and snap. >> the demands on staff extend beyond inmate housing units to service areas such as the jail's mail room. >> the most overwhelming aspect is not the mail itself, it's the volume of the mail. on a busy day, we'll get about 2600 pieces of mail coming in. going out we probably send out half that, 1300 pieces. daily. then we'll go to the cutting machine and open them all up. and we start the inspection process. we don't read all of the mail. however, we do scan the mail. we ope

the gulf, and to america, has never been stronger. >>> across the street from san antonio's bexar county jailjail's annex. it is here that low-risk inmates charged with minor offenses are held in large dormitory style units that are usually teaming with activity. while some inmates try to rest or read, others are socializing. talking on the phone, or playing games. matt, the first to spend this time making music. ♪ i don't know about a job ♪ i'm tiring of being incarcerated ♪ i want the lifestyles ♪ you can stay up in the hood ♪ ♪ or you can widen your terrain ♪ ♪ you can keep on hustling but i'm going to follow my dreams ♪ ♪ don't you went to live a careful life ♪ ♪ it's up to you so do your thing ♪ ♪ yeah [ applause ] >> a whole different perspective on life. not all about what you are doing in the hood or growing up around. there is more to life than what you see. so, there is a whole different terrain, you can widen up to. all up to you to choose the path. that's what the whole song was about. >> some of the chosen paths of 39,500 men and women incarcerated in bexar county have led to hea

number of dangerous gang members joining their inmate population, officials at san antonio's bexar county jailmake every effort to not house rivals in the same unit. but in one section of the jail, old enemies made peace. >> a former member of the gang, has found a sympathetic friend in victor, a former member of the rival mexican mafia gang. both men have dropped out of the gangs and are housed in the ex-members unit. >> robles, charged with attempted capital murder has been devastated by the recent death of his 3-year-old daughter. >> losing my daughter in a car accident. i loved her very much. she was so beautiful. she was always so beautiful. i don't think no one can ever take the pain away. i try to do other things so my mind won't think about it. you didn't hatch no control over yourself. >> doesn't matter how much you try to push it out of your mind. it is always there. when you hold your feelings in, sometimes it is even worse. because you implode you, know. people trust me they all come to me for advice. i just try off to help them, you know. it doesn't matter, if they're ex-mexican m