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

number of dangerous gang members joining their inmate population, officials at san antonio's bexar county jail make 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

. >> anyone accused of a crime in san antonio will most likely pass through the bexar county jail. >> got to spread out on the wall right here. remove your shoes and socks and put them on the floor behind you. >> some will make bond and leave, but on any given day, about 3,500 men and women are housed here awaiting trial or resolution of their cases. deciding in which of jail's 84 housing units to place each inmate is a complex process known as classification. >> every inmate that comes into our facility is interviewed by a classification officer. so our class officer are trained to try to figure out where do we house this person where we will have the least amount of problems. so they're looking for things like is he mentally ill? does he have any medical issues? >> any problem with seizures? >> no, ma'am. >> suicidal? >> no, ma'am. >> gang related? >> no, ma'am. >> homosexual? >> no, ma'am. >> of all these factors, arguably the most critical to reducing violence is determining if an inmate is a gang member. >> if they confirm him as a gang member, the next question is, is he a threa

and some younger groups have come in and it's creating a lot of problems for us here at the bexar county jail. >> the capacity for 4,500 men and women, bexar county jail is larger than many state prisons. most of the inmates here are pretrial detainees, meaning they have only been charged with crimes and are awaiting the resolution of their cases. but that doesn't stop violence. >> code 2! >> code 2. an inmate has just assaulted an officer. a jail special emergency response team, or sert, answers the call. >> put your head to the wall. >> what's your name? >> juan rubio. >> number? >> 773699. >> injuries. >> right there to the nose. >> redness -- >> redness around the ear. it's all good. >> i don't have a statement. >> the report will read that juan rubio, currently in jail on charges including aggravated robbery, to which he has pled not guilty, was on his way to the recreation yard when he stopped for a drink of water. corporal odegaard then instructed him to hurry along. >> he turned, threw the water at me, struck me several times in the left side of my face. as he was striking me and i wa

the bexar county jail is a modern-day fortress that houses approximately 3500 male and female inmates. most have only been charged with crimes and are awaiting trial for the resolution of their cases. >> we're very regulated on how we have to handle inmates. we realize that even though they're incarcerated, they still have rights. we also realize that we're not here to punish or to convict anyone. it's just to hold them. >> but in jail, holding inmates is never a simple proposition, especially when they don't want to be held. >> a lot of the gang members, because they're secured in a cell for 23 hours a day, they've got all that time to, you know, think of different games they can play with the officers. because they're trying to create a reputation for themselves that they're not to be messed with. >> i'm easy to get along with, but once somebody disrespects me or something, we going -- we going to take care of business. >> jose hidalgo is a member of what officials describe as the fastest growing and most notorious gang in the jail. the tango orejones. but hidalgo describes the gang

. >> during most shifts at bexar county jail, the ratio between inmates and officers is 48 to 1.tly what to do. they reach for the small box attached to each of their belts. >> it is called a duress box. when an officer is in need of assistance, main reason is, when inmates get into a fight, a physical altercation. this is when we would utilize the duress box. >> pushing the button puts especially trained officers into action. >> the cert team. the special emergency response team. respond to all fights, fires, riots. >> one, two, three, stand up. >> yes, sir. >> these guys are highly trained officers in tasers, pepper ball weapons, 40-millimeter launcher weapons, ready to rock 'n roll. >> as intimidating as the weaponry is all of it is nonlethal. sert also relies on tactics and training to quell disruptions. >> we are always training. be prepared for anything. >> while sert training focuses on what to do during a crisis it also covers what not to do. >> what's wrong with that? >> they're dragging him. >> they're dragging him. you put stress look that on somebody's rotator cuff, i