but other violations at colorado's limon correctional facility are viewed more seriously.f their eyes in an effort to stand out from the crowd. >> is it worth it? >> yeah. >> why? >> because it will be like this forever, you know? >> this is permanent? >> permanent. it will never go away, ever. >> tell me what the reaction was like around the facility? >> they thought it was cool. >> who? >> everyone. first it's, you're an idiot, but it's cool. i wouldn't do it, but it looks cool. >> i want to see everybody tattoos their whites. i want to see purple, green, blue, yellow, orange, everything. every color but white. i think it would be cool. i like it. >> but according to lieutenant jim fox, the attention they brought on the prison's illegal tattoo trade took them from trail blazers to targets among fellow inmates. inman got the message in no uncertain terms. >> apparently another inmate or two went into his cell and put some knots on his head and said don't be giving us anymore heat over here. we seen inman a day or two later, of course, he won't tell what happened or what i

. >> every week, dozens of new inmates arrive at limon correctional facility. a level 4 prison located on the barren plains of eastern colorado. [ livestock moos ] the prison sits on 320 acres and houses inmates in six different living units. >> the type of offenders that we have at limon are violent offenders. 64% violent. 244 are serving a life sentence. limon has had a reputation of being a violent prison amongst the offender population. they do tend to send the majority of violent offenders to limon. that would be inmate timothy schreiber. >> timothy schreiber has transferred here from another state prison. unlike most new arrivals, he is sent immediately to administrative segregation, a 23-hour a day lockup unit for disruptive inmates. >> oh, i get the room with a view, huh? >> at the facility that he was housed at just prior coming to limon, he was found with a weapon, a homemade knife, so he did have some charges that were pending and, as a result, he just went straight into our segregation unit. >> msnbc, any time you need me i'll be here. >> we did lea

the limon correctional facility located on the flat, windswept landscape of eastern colorado is no exception. >> the dynamics of the population were changing. they were becoming more violent. we were having more gang incidents. so we had begun to compartmentalize the facility and restrict the offender movement in the facility. >> when travis trini took charge of limon in 2008, he became the youngest warden in colorado, and oversaw the implementation of several new policies at a prison plagued by violence. the restrictions on movement were among the toughest. inmates from the six different housing units could no longer freely move throughout the prison. virtually all of their interactions would now only be with those in their own units. >> we identified the need to start having better control of the facility and isolating the units and restricting their interaction with each other in the courtyard and recreation and dining halls. so we isolated to where only one unit can access those areas at a time. >> everybody's separated from everybody now. so see, when you separate dogs like that, then t

that blanket the eastern colorado plains break up the stark, colorless confines of the limon correctional facility. a place where the comforts of home are a thing of the past. cells are cramped. hot showers, short and infrequent. the food in the chow hall is at best bland. if good behavior warrants, inmates may purchase a television for themselves or work at jobs that pay as little as 60 cents per day. but some inmates find more creative ways to raise their standard of living. they hustle. >> i just got these this past week. these sausages, man. they're so [ bleep ] good. look at them. >> at limon, ray slagle is king of the hustle. >> this is stuff that i want. [ bleep ] stuff that i want is different from any [ bleep ] that i need. you know, the money that my people send me, i use that on stuff i need and phone calls. the stuff that i want i hustle. you know, and that's where these come in. tokens. >> tokens are purchased from the canteen, a place where inmates can buy snacks and toiletries with money they earn from their jobs or that family and friends deposit into personal debit accounts manage

. >>> during his short time at the limon correctional facility in colorado -- >> i'm not saying anything>> timothy schrieber has gotten on the nerves of staff and fellow inmates alike. >> you dumb [bleep]. >> he says a case of boredom led him to spit on the window of another inmate's cell. but that has come with a price. >> they call it assault and put me on special control. >> special control is locked up for 72 hours. they're stripped of their property with the exception of their boxers. if they're compliant when the put them on special controls and just go for the ride and follow the rules, they'll start getting their property back one piece at a time. if not, he won't receive anything. he'll just have his blanket and that's all. >> but even after 72 hours on special control, schrieber's behavior hasn't improved. >> he's still acting out, still yelling, still trying to disrupt the other offenders. he has been on for 72 hours, so by policy, we do have to give him a shower. >> shreiber, we know you're still on special control and we're going to extend it for another 24 hours due to your

. >> at pendleton juvenile correctional facility, 40 minutes east of indianapolis, staff must always be prepared for the unexpected. >> you just talk to me. >> calm down. don't hurt yourself. shauntee, stop. that's not helping nothing! shauntee. >> got to call medical. >> yeah. >> shauntee. he's punching himself right now. >> this maximum security juvenile facility houses some of the state's most challenging juvenile offenders. 19-year-old jacob is one of them. >> he just what? he did what? >> he hurt himself. >> i was in my office counseling a couple other kids and i looked out my window, and one of the kids that was sitting at the table here, i saw his head look out the door. and i knew he was looking at something. that wasn't normal, and so i yelled at him, "heath, what's going on?" and he went like that. and i knew he was telling me something, so i came to the door, saw the officer and mr. shauntee struggling. at first, i wasn't sure if it was horseplay or something, but it wasn't. it was real. and so i called for a signal ten. i could see it escalating. >> shauntee, come here! c

." >>> on any given day, inside the razor wire fences of pendleton juvenile correctional facility, anything can happen. >> stop! stop! turn around. >> during our six months inside, we learned some days can be more chaotic than most. >> control to all units and shift supervisors. be advised of 24-9. >> control, entering. >> caught him signal 2000, which is an attempted escape. going to run for it. told the sergeant he was going to run and took off out of the unit. >> i think by 7:30 in the morning, we had a signal jam meaning officer needs assistance. we've had two signal 2000s, which are escaped. >> go back to your cell. turn around. turn around. get on your knees. get on your knees. put your hands behind your head. stay like that until we exit the cell. >> it was a half hearted attempt. he gave them a little struggle and they brought him here. he acts relieved now that he is here. as a matter of fact, i believe it's his second time trying to escape in the last two weeks because he's having such a problem getting acclimated with the other offenders out there in gp. >> i already got in troub

. >> but when we met him at the limon correctional facility in colorado, he was serving life without parole for murder. drake was convicted when he was 17. tens year later, he has his boyish looks and an adolescent appetite. >> some of the things i miss the most are peanut butter cap'n crunch. i miss gum. it's such a small thing, but you don't really realize how much you miss it until you haven't had it for 11 years. >> if i hadn't known adam's crime, i would never have guessed it was murder. adam drake had a very child-like quality about him, which is a little surprising to see in a prison environment. he came into prison as a teenager and it's almost as if something stopped in him at that age. >> drake's teen years were troubling, and he frequently ran away from home. >> i was bored, i guess. i'm smart. everything that they kind of taught me, i kind of learned. just didn't do homework, didn't like going. >> running away eventually led drake to murder. he shot and killed a man known for giving troubled teens, including himself and some of his friends, a place to stay. drake testifie

and the holeman correctal facility in alabama proved to be no exception.who prefers to be called holly berry. >> okay. i know that i was born a male. i know that. that i do know. that's just a reality. but i live as a woman. i so myself as a woman. oh, that's my schoolteacher look. yeah. i like to look sophisticated. >> i refer to holly as she because she asks me. to and out of respect, i'm happy to do that. but in reality, she's a man. the first time we met her, she was in lock up. she was being taken out to have an interview. and our cameraman, brian, started to follow her. and i watched his facial expression change. because holly would do these exaggerated mannerisms what she thought was a woman. and her hips were swaying back and forth as she walked down the tier. of course, all the other inmates start hooting and hollering. everywhere she went at holeman prison she created a scene. >> holly was in adseg because his various relationships with other inmates led to disruptions. but he's no stranger to troubling relationships. he's serving 25 years for mu

but in the first week of filming inside limon correction facility in colorado, something unusual happened. we inadvertently became part of the story we were covering. >> why is everybody getting agitated? we were in ad seg, administrative segregation, the prison within a prison. we started hearing inmates screaming out things and i started to hear them talking about cho-mos, which are sex offenders and then mayhem erupted. [ bleep ] >> i believe he threw a liquid substance under the door that smelled somewhat suspicious and we're going to report that. >> jonathan hall, serving 40 years for murder, was one of the first inmates to make it clear we weren't welcome in administrative segregation. >> unless he does calm down and follow our rules and orders, he'll be cell extracted. >> inmate hall won't calm down. so they call in the special response team. and they suit up in their gear. in these situations, when we want to film it, they always have us suit up as well. >> if he doesn't comply at that point, we'll introduce o.c. >> you got it? >> uh-huh. >> inmate hall, come to the door and cuff

. ♪ your ticket to a better night's sleep ♪ >>> super bowl weekend at colorado's limon correctional facility brought about a drama that has nothing to do with sports. sex offender david laudone has told authorities he was forced to hide inmate-made alcohol or hooch, and has been a victim of assault and extortion. he has fingered one of the prison's most prominent gang members, tommy holloman, of ordering the crimes and inmate jason wright of carrying them out. correctional staff have methods of protecting those in danger. by identifying his inmates in front of other inmates, laudone has made that hard to do. >> that's not how you handle things. you don't walk into the sergeant's office and point at other inmates and say them are the bad guys there. go arrest them. that's not how you handle things. not in a prison setting. i don't think he realizes how much peril he put himself in. >> holloman, wright, and laudone, himself, were immediately locked up in administrative segregation. after questioning holloman, gang intelligence coordinator lieutenant jim fox now moves on to the alleged assailan

. >> during our "extended stay" shoot at the holman correctional facility in alabama, we were filming interviews in the administrative segregation unit when a loud disturbance occurred. >> they put me in a cell! where it comes down to my [ bleep ] bed. it comes down on my bed, man. i can can't [ bleep ] sleep. >> inmate jamie bell is in a rage because his toilet is overflowing. he blames the inmate in the cell above him of creating the problem by interfering with the plumbing. >> [ bleep ]. >> jamie bell. listen. >> i'm trying to handle this. >> the confrontation becomes so heated that warden grant culliver gets involved. >> if you would shut [ bleep ] up, then nobody would be so [ bleep ] off at your ass. you're acting like a child. >> listen. >> we just moved him in. >> the inmate above bell's cell is serving life. his name is andrew alexander. >> there was no proof that this guy above him had done anything. but while we were filming i glanced up and i saw andrew alexander staring at me through his window. and i kind of asked him with my mouth, did you do this? and he just had the m

nine years later, during our shoot at the lyman correctional facility in eastern colorado, we met an inmate named ray slagle who wasted no time reminding us of our sibling. >> come here, look at this. this is my twin brother right here. you already did a clip on him on msnbc. he was wild as hell. but by then, roy was anything but wild. and, in fact, had recently been released on parole. so we visited him at his parents' home where he had been living. >> are you going to make it this time staying out? >> yeah, i believe i'm going to make it, no doubt. >> roy is optimistic about his future, and so were we. back at limon, his brother ray was serving a 15-year sentence for assault but was only days away from being released on parole. we looked forward to covering their first reunion in more than ten years. but then ray got bad news. roy was headed back to prison. >> my mom told me that ray was went to the parole office drunk. honestly, i guess he wanted to come back. >> roy served another 15 months in prison, then was paroled again. we visited him five months later. >> i was on borrowed

." >> pendleton juvenile correctional facility, one of america's largest maximum security juvenile prison. here, teams serve their time behind razor wire while staff attempt to rehabilitate and educate, over 300 male offenders. >> [ bleep ]. kkk. drop it. >> some are harder than others. unlike adult prisons staff here must deal with impulsive teen behavior that can escalate without warning. >> six months of shooting inside of pendleton, we witnessed all of this and more. >> these youngsters here when they simply get angry and go from 0 to 60 in a second, they simply react and then they think about the consequences and how they're going to get out of it. >> lieutenant gary burke supervises the segregation unit at pendleton. when an enmate acts out in the general population, he's moved to seg for the safety of offenders and staff. most kids who come here are still a long way from rehabilitation and their defiance can cause added pressure for officers. >> the challenge is bring your "a" game when you come to work. bring your "a" game. >> brown, come on up. >> they look -- in lashing out and

inmates at cook county jail have a mental illness artie's liz wahl took a deeper look at this correctional facility and the thousands of mentally ill inmates who may not belong in the prison system. chicago's cut county jail holds over ten thousand inmates making it the largest jail in the united states it's also the nation's largest mental health care provider it's exploding on any given day about twenty five to thirty percent of the inmates here at the county jail suffer from some sort of severe mental illness here in the minimum security section of the jail most inmates suffer from some kind of mental health issue most of the crimes they're accused of are nonviolent drug related almost all of these inmates are on psychiatric medication a lot of antidepressants and things i.b.m. antics that kind of just won't work stand out here they take part in group counseling sessions for an art therapy but resources are wearing thin and experts say many of these men diagnosed with mental health disorders simply don't belong behind bars they're under stress a court case and then again there are no psychiatric

of enjoyed it and now to an inside look at the cook county jail in chicago illinois the car correctional facility holds around ten thousand inmates making it the largest jail in the u.s. because of cuts to community mental health services and state psychiatric institutions the prison also stands as america's largest mental health care provider and sacks thirty percent of and maids at cook county jail have a mental illness artie's liz wahl took a deeper look at this correctional facility and the thousands of mentally ill inmates who may not belong in the prison system. chicago's cut county jail holds over ten thousand inmates making it the largest jail in the united states it's also the nation's largest mental health care provider it's exploding on any given day about twenty five to thirty percent of the inmates here at the county jail suffer from some sort of severe mental illness here in the minimum security section of the jail most inmates suffer from some kind of mental health issue most of the crimes they're accused of are nonviolent drug related almost all of these inmates are on psychiatric

i've been here in the philadelphia prison system for four years, working at the riverside correctional facility. staff inmates don't have equal access to services that they need and they need someone to be an advocate for them. people who can hear get ten minutes on the phone every day. on the other hand, if that inmate has to actually schedule an appointment with the city social worker to get the tty and talk on the phone. if they don't have communication with their family and loved ones they won't feel support, they won't feel love. they'll feel more isolated in the prison systems. right now, she lacks a sign language interpreter to complete a program that she needs to get relief, therefore she's in jail longer than she really needs to be. it would actually save the state money to get her out of jail sooner, having a sign language interpreter provided for her would be a good investment. >> it just makes it even more difficult to overcome if you have a disability. if you don't have sign language access, in terms of therapy, group therapy, you're not going to get the support you need to stay cl

. >> we were with timothy schreiber on his first day at the limon correctional facility in colorado. >> i have seven months to do, so i don't know what's going to happen after that, but i'm going to segregation. 23-hour lockdown. >> he was nearing parole on a six-year sentence for sexual assault and had just transferred in from another colorado prison. >> i just happened to be down there filming the new inmates coming in, and timothy schreiber immediately said he wanted to be part of the show. >> msnbc, any time you need me, i'll be here. >> and within a very short period of time did something that was so shocking to me, i couldn't believe it. >> i am a sex offender. i'm a violent sexual predator. >> he very loudly started proclaiming himself as a sexual predator. >> an attempted sexual assault on a 13-year-old girl. >> having a sex offense in prison, in some prisons it's tantamount to a death sentence, but in almost any prison facility, you are going to be harmed if you are a known sex offender. >> i have a history of repeated flashing. i'm like a serial flasher. >> schreiber could

but his twin brother, ray, is an inmate at colorado's limon correctional facility. the prison gave our crew permission to show ray videotape of his brother's cell extractions. it's the first time he is seeing them. >> a lot of things going on your face watching that. >> you know, honestly, i wanted to jump in there and help him, you know what i mean? that's my first instinct is just to help him. that's the first time i seen a couple of those clips. to be honest with you, it makes me mad right away. i see the [ bleep ] cops dropping all their weight and they're 230 pounds right on one leg, boom. you know what i mean? i ain't no fool. i know what time it is. that's not cool. yeah, i don't like to see my brother get hurt. >> but the prison says extraction teams are only called when inmates do not cooperate with staff. a practice roy gave up when the prison began using oc gas. or pepper spray. >> that stuff is really powerful. that will make anyone tap out. i would rather have my ass kicked then get hit by that. it's really bad. you can't breathe and it burns like fire.

. >> richard sampson is one of the more prolific tattoo artists at the limon correctional facility inorado. he shared a handful of his disciplinary write-ups. one tattoo motor. belonging to inmate sampson. one radio, one medical syringe with needle. one bottle of ink. tattoo needle. contraband. one spring being altered into a needle for tattoo gun found on desk. which is my desk. alarm clock radio, eight needles, one bottle of ink, one tattoo gun, one ink blood rag. got ink and blood on it. >> you're not very good at hiding your stuff, are you? >> out of all these, i get away with it more than i get caught, that's for sure. >> his tattoo write-ups have cost him more than 200 days in earned good time, but he says the extra time in prison is worth it. >> any time i have lost by getting caught doing what i'm doing is well worth the sanity that i would have lost if i had just done what they said and walked the line. shut my mouth and went to my house and did nothing and just sat there and watched my tv. i'm more at ease with myself. i respect myself a lot more for having done what i want

>> siblings corey, melissa and william were serving sentences at suffolk county's house of correctional facility>> the allen family was definitely a family that definitely seemed they were having hard times. three siblings being locked up was certainly a lot coming from one family. even though they were all inside, they constantly were telling us about one another and stories about one another from home. >> my family is one of the dysfunctional families that's out here. i love my family. you know what i'm saying? there's something good about us, you know. >> my sister, melissa, is loving. she's kind. >> she took care of me. she made sure we eat when we didn't have food. >> my little brother, he called me ma. >> she couldn't really cook but she forced us to eat it. we had no choice. >> corey is a complicated person. >> my brother corey is a funny guy. >> nasty. >> we used to beat each other up, steal candy, steal bikes. >> my brother william is very smart. >> take money out of wishing wells together, set fires. >> i don't know how he got caught up. >> family, it's been so many years since we drif

. >> ray slagel loved working in the kitchen at the limon correctional facility in colorado because he food for tokens, coin slots used to purchase ice cream and soda from prison vending machines. >> two tokens. i said double cheeseburger. i should have shown you one. double cheeseburger, two tokens. that's a good deal. yeah, yeah, i can't even get them fast enough. you know. i usually sell two of those a day. >> while most menus are designed to provide a basic level of nutrition, steven doad, the food service director at the hillsboro county jail in tampa, florida, has taken a more wholesome approach to inmate meals. >> we make up 11,000 meals a day and we have a 28-day cycle menu which has a variety for the inmates. and our last menu design we decided we were going to make this a heart healthy menu. that's the only jail in florida that i know of that does a heart healthy menu. the food has to have 2,650 calories per day. we have 33% or less fat. we have 3.5 grams of sodium per day or less. there are the 100% required amounts of vitamins and minerals to make a healthy lifestyle for an

. >> how shakespeare is helping inmates in a mexican correctional facility, and making dreams come true for christmas. how a team of u.s. postal workers are playing santa. >> the astronauts on the international space station are preparing for the second christmas eve spacewalk in history. the walk was initially scheduled for monday. the crew had to prepare a backup suit because of a slight malfunction with the one used over the weekend. the astronauts are hoping to use the walk to repair a space station cooling pump. >> from behind bars the center stage, a couple of stars from mexico city's foro shakespeare theatre are prisoners. the program designed to help inmates break a leg, instead of breaking the law. >> confronting one of lit ritures greater villians, inmates are learning about drama and gaining personal insights. >> king richard force us to face our dark side, the parts that are false and hypocritical. everyone had a bit of richard the iii inside of them, including the audience. >> for men like cesar david garcia, serving a life sentence for kidnapping, playing king richard is c

is going to be monumental in a person's recovery process that is transitioning from state correctional facilities, as well as regular state mental hospitals. how so? well, you know, if a person doesn't have health care, you know, oftentimes when you're going into treatment, you're going to need some kind of medicaid or medicare to be able to be seen during this process. you know, we also know that several of the programs are closing, you know, because of the lack of medicaid and resources for treatment. you know, treatment is one of the things that is an ongoing process and monumental in everyone's recovery process. you know, it's not just criminal justice involved, it's not just people with mental health challenges, it's people around america, you know, if there's a lack of insurance, you know, to pay for care. very good. monica, you're an outreach coordinator. yes. do you see both individuals that are in recovery and bring them to peer-to-peer support, and if so, you find me in the street, i talk to you, and i go, "monica, you know, i think i want to be able to do a program that provides me wit

he has been in and out of arizona correctional facilities for about four years. >> he is a violent offendern convicted of aggravated assault, who's been dealing with domestic violence and serious other felonies. >> now guerrero is free to go. he just needs to fill out some paperwork. >> this is an occasion that any prisoner, it's like their high five moment. hey, i'm about to have my freedom again, right? >> but guerrero might not want to leave the jail. why? a worst fate could await him on the outside. >> he said there was a hit upon him, meaning he was going to get killed if he got outside these doors. >> a hit by a mexican drug cartel group. the cartel sees him as a snitch for leaking information to law enforcement. sheriff babeu says to understand guerrero's fear, you'd have to understand the brutality of the mexican drug cartels. >> they're very proud of their violence and the fact they torture people, that they kill people, that they behead them. >> he felt that his life was in jeopardy as that cartel from mexico has identified him in his own words, as an informant. is it true? i don'

. >> before i was an inmate, you know, i was a correctional officer here at this facility. can of del monte green beans? ♪ ♪ if i was a flower growing wild and free ♪ ♪ all i'd want is you to be my sweet honeybee ♪ ♪ and if was a tree growing tall and green ♪ ♪ all i'd want is you to shade me and be my leaves ♪ grown in america. picked & packed at the peak of ripeness. the same essential nutrients as fresh. del monte. bursting with life™. the same essential nutrients as fresh. if yand you're talking toevere rheuyour rheumatologistike me, about trying or adding a biologic. this is humira, adalimumab. this is humira working to help relieve my pain. this is humira helping me through the twists and turns. this is humira helping to protect my joints from further damage. doctors have been prescribing humira for over ten years. humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. for many adults, humira is proven to help relieve pain and stop further joint damage. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, includ

of training new officers were indicted for allegedly beating an inmate at the twin towers correctional facility, strike, kicking and pepper spraying the man. five other deputies were charged with falsely arresting visitors at the men's central jail including a diplomat from austria trying to visit an austrian inmate. among the most serious allegations, that two ranking prison officials were part an elaborate scheme to hide an inmate after learning he was an fbi informant. as part of the conspiracy they allegedly falsified records to make it appear the inmate was released after which he was rebooked under another name. >> some members of the sheriff's department considered themselves to be above the law. instead of cooperating with a federal investigation to ensure that corrupt law enforcement officers would be brought to justice, the defendants in this case are accused of taking affirmative steps designed to ensure that the federal government would not shine light on illegal conduct that violated basic constitutional rights. >> following the indictments, los angeles county sheriff spoke with re

the kite that you wrote got our attention immediately, with the new prea standards that the correction facilitiesof inappropriate conduct we look at real serious and that's the main reason why we took action as quick as we did, and looked into it, did an investigation, interviewed you at least once or twice. okay, thank you very much, guys. >> a different sort of drama now plays out for joe leija. >> going to get sentenced today. i'm ready to get it over with. i don't have to apologize to the victim's family, but i am going to. i think it looks better, shows i am sorry. >> move it, everybody has to fit tlin. >> make me realize the damage i have done to this family. i have a lot of regrets. you know, to kill somebody. i am going to have a lot of family in the courtroom, my parents will be there, my mom, my dad, my aunt, uncle, brothers and sisters. makes it way easier for me. >> as the proceedings get under way, the victim's mother takes the podium and reads her statement to the court. >> i still don't understand why you had to pump six bullets into my son. it just goes to show what a cold-blooded

out of the nation's 28 penal institutions the zabela correctional facility houses the greatest number of high-security inmates. some 1,500 in all. it would also prove to be one of the most unique prisons ever profiled on lockup. >> translator: we have inmates who have committed some of the worst crimes and have received the longest and most severe punishments. these include inmates who are perceived to be dangerous by other facilities, a threat to inmates and security personnel alike. >> zabela, was built for 800 inmates but now houses more than 1300. the inmates considered the most dangerous of all are housed in this unit. it is called seventh block. >> translator: there are other housing units here. they call this building a prison within a prison. >> vladimir pejdo is serving four years for theft. he says he's housed here because of conflicts with other inmates. >> translator: well, i had some problems when i was in general population since there are a lot of bad people here. there are a lot of what we call rats. if i had stayed there, i could have ended up with six more months in

. >> sexual relations between inmates that are incarcerated in california department of corrections facilitys not allowed. inmates must refrain themselves from engaging in that kind of behavior. >> it's not just the officers that prohibit these relationships. it's also frowned upon by a group of the gang dropouts on the sny known as the 2-5. this group believes it runs the yard. >> some 2-5ers out here. >> don't say nothing. >> we can't talk about it on the yard, really. because a lot of people, they -- it's a role sore -- it's a sore subject with a couple of people. >> don't say nothing. too [ bleep ]. >> yeah, yeah. it's a problem with -- it's a problem on the yard and we're afraid of retaliation. so, yeah, we'd rather not say anything about it. >> let's go. >> the corcoran's institutional gang investigators, or igi, feel it's the 2-5 gang members that should be afraid. >> as far as the 2-5s that are out here, they're scared because they know we're coming, going to come out and when we take them away, they're going to get locked up. ♪ [ male announcer ] more people are leaving bmw, mercede

. ♪ >> we met christopher lashbrook at the lyman correctional facility in colorado. his music. it was the primary link that connected him to his father. the relationship was nearly destroyed by abuse. >> my dad tried everything to punish me. the slaps and kicks turned into punches, and head butts, broken nose. >> there's no doubt about it, he was abused at my hands. >> how you doing? >> good, how are you doing? >> i love my dad. there is distance between us because i spent so much time incarcerated. the bond that's always kept him and i together has been the music. ♪ you're my teacher. you taught me how to play. he's a musician and he's rubbed that off on me and i've been fortunate enough to have that talent. ♪ >> in some cases, a prison sentence allows an inmate to discover a talent he might never had known he had. for clay lopez, at california state prison corcoran, doing time led him to the harmonica. >> i'm almost 50 years old and 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,

. >>> one of the more unique facilities ever profiled on "lockup" is the stark youth correctional facility in southern california. referred to as wards, rather than inmates, the young men incarcerated here were all convicted as juveniles for serious crimes. they transfer to stark when they turn 18 and depending on their sentence, will remain here until age 21 or 25. we met several wards convicted of murder. they asked that we not use their last names. >> when i was like 12 years old, i killed some guy who tried to kill my brother. and it was gang related. and i retaliated and been in here ever since. >> you shot him? >> no, we beat him to death with tire irons, lumberjacks, mops, stuff like that. >> the guy walked through the gate. i drew down on him with a .22. and told him he was selling dope and we told him not to sell dope in this particular area. he looked at me and tried to get the gun out of my hand. he ran up the stairs. i fired. he got shot seven times. and i killed him. me being 15, it excited me to shoot at somebody. because it made other people look at me and say, man, you see

street first told producers of his story when he met him at the wabash correctional facility. you. what you're about to hear is extremely graphic. >> i become delusional. they say insane. i thought you got to eat some of her brains for her to become part of you. i wasn't a sane person that did that back then. you don't eat brains if you're somebody that's sane. >> you miss your mother? >> yes. but can't bring her back. >> what he's done really don't worry me at all. it's just, i hope he'll be okay with living with it. he has to deal with something like that. >> donnegan sees potential in street. he arranged for street to get a job working with him as an assistant electrician. >> i started as an electrician trainee about three weeks ago, and i just basically screw things into the wall right now, and hold the ladder steady and clean up the messes. >> what's the red wire? >> i don't know what the white wire is. >> that's common. >> red wire is hot. >> red is hot. >> black is hot. >> black is hot. what's your green wire? >> it's hot, too. >> green wire what? your ground wire. >> g

most of it at the holman correctional facility in alabama and sometimes it seems to have been just as's heard the sound of his real name. >> they call me red top. >> hey, redtop. >> they call me redtop. they call me ringating red. >> is there one you prefer? >> none. i just answer to them all. i've learned to answer to them all over the years. >> stall began serving his sentence 28 years earlier, when he was 22 years old. >> back when i first came here there was a lot of violence. >> was it scary? were you scared a lot? >> scared to death. >> my first impression of lawrence stall was that he doesn't fit. he didn't fit in those surroundings. i think that's initially what brought us to him. he looked a little meek. the red hair. the glasses. he looked more like a college professor, versus an inmate. >> the social system in here is totally different. it's nothing like the free world. it's a totally different world, you know? i mean, it's like moving to japan and not knowing japanese, you know? you know, you're lost. and that's how i'd be now if i got out. i'd be lost. >> due to a fatal a

off his medication, has been continuously pounding the walls of his cell at the spring creek correctional facilityor more than an hour. >> mr. blevins, we need you to come over here and cuff up. >> [ bleep ]. >> with blevins refusing orders to cuff up, it's up to the prison's special response team to forcefully remove him from his cell so that he can be given his medication. first, they attempt to subdue him with pepper spray. >> mr. blevins, cuff up. >> the burning spray eventually brings compliance. >> ah! >> blevins is removed from his cell and sedated. he is strapped into a restraint chair and watched until he no longer poses a threat to himself. >> mr. blevins, do you have any injuries you want to report? no? >> never crossed my mind one time other than to tell someone that i'm not interested in doing it. you know? >> today, spring creek staff uses medication and therapy to help blevins serve his 45-year sentence. >> even though he's done a horrible double murder, he's still a person and he has to have some kind of human contact. so what i try to focus on is just a relationship. we try to be

if that metaphor were applied to alabama's holman correctional facility, inmate, robert, would be about> this is home. bed to bed. right here. each one of these beds is like having a house in a subdivision out there on the street, only no walls, no doors, no privacy, so you just kind of ignore what's going on next door to you. >> after 20 years of incarceration, 17 served at holman, teter has developed an appreciation for simple routines. >> cup of coffee. first thing. cup of coffee and a cigarette. that's it. that's every morning. then, you know, comb your hair, get dressed, go outside. there is no such thing as a holiday here. there's no christmas. there's no tree. every day is the same. when you get up, it's the same people, the same thing, the same rat race, and there's no relaxation. >> at the time of our shoot he still had ten years left on a 30-year sentence for some very serious convictions. they include sodomy, public exposure and enticement of a child. >> robert was one of those inmates who was adamant he was falsely accused, falsely convicted. >> ever since his 1984 convictio

. >> the main thing for me from day to day is to work to improve myself because it's a correctional facilityction, and it's kind of hard to be in a situation like this because not everybody here is for corrections. not everybody here understands the meaning of correction. so when you're trying to change your life, you have maybe others around you that don't want to change their lives, and it's kind of a struggle between, you know, evil and good, evil and good. >> it's tough being your own person in an environment like this not to be sucked into a negativity. the saying "misery loves company" is so fit for this environment. >> kindness, compassion, caring, inside the institution it's a weakness. >> they don't care about somebody's feelings. that's why they're in here, you know. that's why they're in here, because of what they did on the outside and what they did to somebody else. >> part of their program for self-rehabilitation means contemplating their crime. >> that's a before. this is an after. >> charles williams was only 27 years old when he arrived. as seen through his prison i.d. card,

. >> for every one you make today, in a new facility, you could make four? >> correct>> where's the facility at? >> the building we're looking at is in keyport. >> can you take me to see it? >> i could. >> all right, so this is it. it's been vacant for 25 years, and there's so much crap in it, it's unbelievable, you know-- >> don't be too enthusiastic. >> yeah, well, you know, the roof's been leaking, the stuff fell, it was flooded, it's-- who knows what you're gonna find in there, but-- >> and then more after the storm. >> i personally think it's beautiful. i love the building, i love that we're right here. >> i know michael doesn't want to hear this, and he gets crazy when i talk about it. i think what scares me a lot about it is the uncertainty of what it's going to cost. because i know that--all right, the building, that's money you gotta lay out immediately. if it's a $300,000 price tag to buy it, that's way too much. you know, you get so far in, and then the problems that you're gonna have with what's uncovered, you know, um-- >> i would go right now, just get go