. >> reporter: erlan woods is out of prison now, but a couple years back he was my guide to prison life at san quinten outside san francisco. >>> you don't have a hell of a lot of room in here. >> it's like one person can only move at a time. if i'm -- we had to turn sideways. when i say that small space, as you know you was in there, it's about the size of an average person's bathroom. that's what that confinement is. >> reporter: a dna n kahn is happy to describe himself these days as an ex-con. >> we were in san quinten together. the floor we lived on, we shared with 100 people. and that floor was 3 feet wide. so it is physically impossible to do 6 foot distancing in a 3-foot wide tier. >> reporter: so what happens when inmates get sick? >> when viruses hit, the culture of prisons at least in my experience has been punitive. meaning when someone gets sick, they get punished by being sent to solitary confinement. >> reporter: that, at least, was the case at san quinten when erlan woods was an inmate there, he hosted and still hosts a podcast called ear hustle. he did an episode on sol