california state prison, corcoran. by talking to easley. >> i got it pretty good. it's all right. it's fine. this is something that i like doing, you know? it's kind of like a relaxation, you know? >> ernest had a legitimate job given to him by the administration in the kitchen, but he was smart in that he had figured out a way to have a little hustle on the side to make extra money. >> i usually charge, like a suit, a pair of pants is a suit, a shirt is a suit. i wash clothes. i don't wash boxers or socks. that's what i don't wash. you know, other than that i charge, you know, a dollar to wash, a dollar to iron their clothes. you'd be surprised. a lot of people, well men, they aren't really into washing or ironing, so i do it. >> one of the first things that struck me about ernest was he had a happiness about him you don't often see in a prison and then we came to find out why. >> well, i have a significant other. he's a very good person. you know? his name is robert. and he's a good man. you know? >> easley met rober

but this one yard at california state prison corcoran that's supposed to be gang-free. >> it's calledsitive needs yard, sny. it's where gang dropouts or sex offenders or high-risk inmates go for their own safety. but even here gangs can spring up, and we found one of the most unorthodox gangs. they call themselves gbg, the gay boy gangsters. >> it's a group of men that are gay, that are not transgender, and who are gay men who like men who do not want to be a woman. okay. that's it. we're pretty thick actually. we're pretty much respected. we don't get into fights. we don't get into that sort of thing, but we have a pretty good following. we're just a group of people that are gay and stand for our own. >> clement, who prefers to be called wicked, is serving 20 years for three counts of robbery. and he's not the only gay boy gangster on the sensitive needs yard at corcoran. nicolas turner, who goes by the name demon, told us the gbgs should not be taken lightly. >> we hurt anybody that -- inside the prison system, anybody that tries to forcefully take property or rape or in any way hur

. >> during one of our shoots at california state prison corcoran, our crew barely got a glimpse of mansonw much he has aged since first coming to prison in 1971. but his artwork provides a unique insight into his life behind bars. >> here a scorpion that he's made. basically, taking thread from various types of items, socks and t-shirts and towel, he creates it and uses -- it looks like a marker to color. this is probably one of the items that he makes the most of. spiders. i would assume this is something like a harp. and he's made it out of toilet paper and newspaper. it looks like some dental floss, a small stick, and probably for the coloring, he used kool-aid to get the coloring for it. >> why do you have it? >> he's not allowed to have it. occasionally, we go through and do cell searches and confiscate all items. he doesn't have a hobby card and other inmates try to sneak it out and put it on ebay and sell it. so we go in and dispose of it. >> how does he react when you take this stuff? >> sometime he's passive. occasionally he gets pretty angry and threatens us. for the most part,

. >>> california state prison corcoran has one of the largest populations of many dangerous inmates on west coast. our crews have visited here several times and correctional staff is always blunt about the danger. >> when talking to the cos at corcoran, they told me, you come in here, you have to join a gang for protection. immediately. >> when you come to the prison, you have to join a gang. you have no choice. it's a must. >> the prison cannot protect you from the other inmates. it's an incredible admission. >> so you have to have that backup from your other races that are out here, whatever race backs you up, you need to be in their gang because you have no protection. you're on your own and anything could happen to you. >> correctional officers know anything can happen to them as well. >> i'm very well aware that the gangs can reach outside these walls. it may hold them in, but it doesn't hold in their power, the things they can do. i keep my family business to myself. i don't go to areas in the public where i know gangs are known to hang out. i avoid those locations. >> the danger

for clay lopez, at california state prison corcoran, doing time led him to the harmonica. >> i'm almostand i'll be over 50 when i get out. so i don't have a career or anything, so i thought, well, you know, if i learn to play the harmonica, i can at least pay my own rent when i get out there, even as a street musician, if i'm sober. i think i'll do okay. ♪ i started to play the harp better when i lost this tooth. i started getting the sound the way it was supposed to sound. i was never so happy to lose a tooth. makes this harp sound real good. ♪ you can play what you feel without reading music, and i've tried to play guitar, piano, all kinds of stuff. and i never went anywhere. and not that i'm going anywhere with this. but, i know a few songs. mostly hymnals, gospel songs, and a few of my own, and it just expresses me. >> lopez was serving a 20-year sentence on 27 counts of burglary. but it was his exposure to inmates serving life terms that inspired him to pay them tribute through his songs. >> i just wanted to do something for the livers to kind of express them. i could sing the last

. ♪ >>> when we met brian at california state prison corcoran, we had a pretty good hunch that the originf his nickname would play a major part in his story. >> my nickname is lefty. never been called lefty, it's because i have one arm. at 18 i was the victim of a drunk driving accident when i was in the air force. >> the other thing that was significant about brian to me was he was the height of irony on a lot of levels. he was a good example as to why you don't want to take justice into your own hands. his crime was that of a vigilante. >> you know being a christian means you don't have to be scared of your past because your sins, no matter how ugly they are, and we have some ugly ones in this room -- >> he is an inmate preacher at the prison's chapel and can trace the ugliest of his sins to a bizarre series of events that began with the loss of his arm. >> after the air force medically retired me, i retired to little rock, arkansas, started selling clothes in the mall. all i thought about all day long was having one arm, being in the big city where i didn't know anybody, and i already

. >>> there are nearly 5,000 inmates at california state prison corcoran. they represent one of the highest concentrations of dangerous felons found anywhere. it's rare that inmates and correctional staff on this yard ever unite in a common goal. but when a bus load of teenagers arrive during our shoot there, we witnessed one of those times. >> come on. line them up. let's go. let's go. >> so all these kids they brought into corcoran for the day, there is an aura of like, hey, this is going to be kind of cool. we're going to see things on the inside. i will see what it's really like to be a bad ass. >> here at corcoran, we don't discriminate. if you're white, we'll take you. if you're black, we'll take you. hispanic, we'll take you. we do not discriminate. >> the teens, who have all had run-ins with the law, were sent here for a crime intervention program called "reaching out: convicts to kids" or r.o.c.k. it's designed to send a clear message -- prison is not a place to make new friends. >> when we go into the yard, if the alarm goes off, everybody goes do

. >> when we visited california state prison corcoran for "extended stay," we came upon clarence lees he was moving into a new cell with an old friend from the neighborhood. a place he might never see again. lee was a veteran of the crips street gang and is serving for murder. the majority of inmates in prison belong to gangs. >> welcome into our little casa. >> lee's old friend reginald maiden who preferred to be called terry was in a distinct minority. >> go to school together. help each other with schoolwork. go to chow together. i have no problem sitting with terry. i have no problem doing what it takes because i look at him as a human. i understand all of the things he went through. to others it seems like we're more than homies because they don't understand how long i've known terry. >> terry was a very overt transgender inmate. then we meet clarence who comes off as this very strong, straight-looking guy. and because terry was constantly running into problems with his cellmates, he needed protection, for lack of a better word, and clarence was willing to offer that for terry.

. >>> when we met brian at california state prison corcoran, we had a pretty good hunch the origin ofis nickname would play a major part in his story. >> my nickname is lefty. it's because i have one arm. at 18 i was the victim of a drunk driving accident. i was in the air force. >> the other thing that was significant about brian, to me, was he was the height of irony on a lot of levels. he was a good example as to why you don't want to take justice into your own hands. his crime was that of a vigilante. >> you know, being a christian means you don't have to be scared of your past because your sins, no matter how ugly they are, and we have some ugly ones in this room -- >> he's an inmate preacher at prison's chapel and can trace the ugliest of his sins to a bizarre series of events that began with the loss of his arm. >> after the air force medically retired me, i retired to little rock, arkansas. started selling clothes in the mall. all i thought about all day long was having one arm, being in a big city where i didn't know anybody. i already had self-confidence issues before that.