when we met him 15 years later at california state prison corcoran, he was still in prison.f his former cellmates were six feet under. glenn murdered the first one while he was still in county jail. >> i slashed his throat repeatedly. blood was everywhere. and then another inmate passed me a shank, probably about that long, with a handle on it and i just started stabbing him. stabbed him over 100 times, in the back, sides, the neck. he was crying, telling me to stop, begging for me to stop. he was still alive through all of it. >> you're smiling. >> i like that. that was one of my favorite ones right there. >> he surprised me in that he had a gleefulness about him as he was discussing the violence he had committed in prison. he had this proud little smile as he was telling us these very disturbing and violent acts. >> after murdering his cell mate in jail, glenn came to prison where his predatory behavior escalated. >> while i was there for about a year, i got about 14 assault on inmates. >> why? >> a lot of my violence i've had is like people don't clean up after themselves

some of the most violent gang attacks have taken place here at california state prison corcoran's securityt, or shu. we visited the shu's now-vacant exercise yard, which has been the scene of some of the prison's most brutal violence. ♪ >> i could see why fights went on in that exercise yard. because it was literally like a cage. there was nowhere for you to go. and if you really wanted to take someone out, that was the place to do it. it's literally -- like the most extreme ultimate fighting thing you would see. >> correctional officers showed our cameras how they quell the violence with an arsenal of their own. one that includes nonlethal and lethal weaponry. >> get down! get down! >> the first rounds we fire are wood blocks. hopefully the hurt will make them stop. if we really have to escalate with our nonlethal options, we use what we call a scat round. which is really irritating. see, those ar little bit louder. the smoke you see there, that's cn gas. it's no fun. it messes up your sight, makes you, you know, makes your snot roll. and of course, we have a lethal option. we have a mini

respect and don't cross those boundaries, we get treated just like anybody else. >> at california state prison corcoranng openly as homosexuals at what is considered one of the toughest and most violent prisons in the state. >> okay. if you could just state and spell your name for us. >> regina maiden. well, actually, reginald maiden. r-e-g-i-n-a-l-d. m-a-i-d-e-n. >> in this raw interview footage the three men discuss the possibility of attack and how they would respond. >> it's not being attacked. it's just being like -- you know, the proper word is stalked, harassed, because of rejection. you know, a lot of people here can't deal with rejection, especially coming from a transsexual. >> a lot of other things people don't realize, we're men like them. we're feminine like them. >> don't forget. women do kill. >> a lot of us don't put up with that and a lot of guys know that and a lot of guys that don't, so you know, when the ones don't, they end up getting beat up. >> and it makes them look bad on the yard. so that's why a lot of people do give homosexuals respect sometimes. they don't know what we're c

. >> we found an even more unlikely bond at california state prison corcoran. >> like anything, treatm with love and respect they'll treat you with love and respect back. >> we were just kind of out on the yard shooting and i looked over and i saw these guys petting something. and at first i thought it was like a little kitten. and it ended up it was a gopher that they had -- >> bring the termites in and play with them and let them run around with our cells. feed them apples, lettuce, take care of them. >> it's like the best companion i ever had. >> a lot of the guys that we ran into have probably never had anybody, you know, to love, or anything or anybody to love them. and, you know, we you run into somebody who is, you know, adopted a gopher, and it gives him some sort of outlet for affection, it's got to be a good thing. >> but we found a very different case of inmate creature bonding inside california's san quentin state prison. >> i'm mike miller is my real name. and the staff here call me bird man of san quentin. the first day i got here at san quentin, the birds seemed to have

. >>> california state prison corcoran has one of the largest populations of many dangerous inmates on the 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 da