i'm john seigenthaler. >>> due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. >>> there are 2 million people behind bars in america. we open the gates. "lockup." >> i'm not disappointed in anything i've done. i've made the decisions that i've made. you have to be a strong-minded individual. >> i have seen staff assaulted. i have seen staff die. >> i have lost over a pint and a half of blood. and the doctor says i don't know how much more you could have taken. >> i wish i could touch and hug them but i guess this is better than nothing. >> i shot a man and i burned him up in a car after i had shot him. >> i've got to be here until i die. i got double life and i've got to stay here until i die. >> i don't know how you feel about it, but i'm ready to receive something from god. >> with my retirement pending, i was in jail for having taken someone's life. >> the day of an execution, the entire facility goes on lockdown. if there's no last-second appeal, the offender is then advised the execution is to

please welcome john seigenthaler. [applause] next is a woman you all the, she's a hearst newspaper columnist, she spent 57 years as correspondent for united press international. and as white house bureau chief. she has covered every president since john f. kennedy and expressed her share of opinions about, especially the last one. in a provocative recent book. but you know what, the best way to describe helen thomas is, she's one of america's greatest journalists. please welcome >> i will skip the man to my right for a moment but not for long. for woodruff has followed many years. i will tell you she also is a great supporter of the first amendment. the final guess, there's so many things you could say about him. in addition to working for him, i was his chief of staff. former chairman of the company. he is a founder for the freedom forum. he was a best-selling author. the book was called "confessions publishing."th in [applause] [laughter] of usa today.nder please welcome mr. al neuharth. [applause] those of you who

i'm john seigenthaler. >>> due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. >> america's prison, dangerous, often deadly. there are 2 million people doing time. everyday is a battle to survive and to maintain order. among the nation's toughest, california state prison, corker, severely overcrowded and plagued by racial tension. we spent months inside where officers tried to maintain order in an institution with a notoriously violent past. this is lock-up, corcoran extended stay. inmates have been dreaming up new ways to smuggle in contraband since corcoran opened up its prison in 1998. >> it's contraband. >> or weapons. >> when we get it in, it's like this. >> stainless steel. >> came off one of our foot cards. >> it's always a race against time for officers to find the contraband before it's too late. during the months our crew spent inside corcoran, we witnessed our fair share of searches. today on a yard, the maximum security facility we caught up with an officer beginning his shift with one of three random cell searches. >> three a day every day, looking for contraband. not

i'm john seigenthaler. >>> due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. >>> there are 2 million people behind bars in america. we open the gates, "lockup." >> this place is crazy. it's totally insane. more insane than me. >> come on in. come on in. >> i don't really have a whole lot of respect for life in general, my own or anybody's. >> i took a knife and stabbed him with it, until he was dead, and then i butchered him with it. >> there is violence in here unheard of. but it was right up my alley. >> this is no way to spend your life. >> in medieval times, law breakers were punished in unspeakably cruel ways, so perhaps it was no accident that the architect who designed the kentucky state penitentiary more than a century ago, built a structure that resembles a castle where dungeons might have served as torture chambers. for even the most hardened criminals in kentucky today, the first sight of the prison can be overwhelming. during the next hour, we'll take you inside kentucky's maximum security prison, known as the castle on the cumberland. ♪ >> the cumberland river

i'm john seigenthaler. >>> due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. there are 2 million people behind bars in america. we open the gates. "lockup." >>> this is a new institution. inmates are trying to establish their own territory. a lot of inmate-on-inmate assaults. >> you're surrounded by 1,000 killers. every one of them is a stranger. >> watch out for this guy on the yard. something's going to happen, it's going to happen soon. >> obviously this has been tampered with. the inmates have restitched it back up. >> why won't you take a cellmate? >> i feel threatened to be placed in a sell with another inmate. i feel my life is in danger. >> the inmate has been secured in the family visiting area. he'll have this time with his wife, and he'll return back to a facility. >> you nervous? >> mm-hmm. >> i'm not in here for no rape, no child molesting. >> if i stay over here, before the day is out, i could never go back to the main line. because my reputation be worn. i'm now considered no good. >> california houses the largest inmate population in the countr

i'm john seigenthaler. >> due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. >> 1025, respond to the area. >> members of the jail's most predatory gang set their sites on vulnerable prey. >> the jail officials are determined to show who is in charge. >> this is my jail, ain't nobody in here want nothing in here but me. >> smeared feces all over his body and the walls and doors. >> another inmate has an apparent breakdown. >> the demons come in my room, going to kill me. >> an alleged gang member has choice words for the man known as big sam. >> now you're calling me a bitch, name calling doesn't bother me. they did call me everything but a ruben sandwich. just across the freeway from the cleveland browns stadium, practically on the shores of lake erie, it should be considered prime real estate. but for the 2200 men and women in the 11th story complex, it is the cuyahoga correctional center. it isn't all it's cracked up to be. >> this ain't the place to be, it's like a little prison. >> i see girls in here crying, hysterical, i want to kill myself, this and that. it's bad. this

i'm john seigenthaler >>> due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. >>> there are 2 million people behind bars in america. we open the gates, "lockup." >> jail is hell. jail is hell. >> willie, will you come to the door, sir? >> a lot of the mental state hospitals have closed down, and the only options to the police agencies are bring them to the jails. >> it's dirty. the shower's dirty. the toilet's dirty. the floor's dirty. point-blank, dirty. >> anything can happen, any given time, at any moment, just like that. very fast, very quick. >> let's go, let's go, let's go. >> i'm not even looking for shanks. i just happened to stumble upon these. >> you never know what to expect. all we do all day is sit here like a time bomb waiting for something to happen. >> this is as close to a living hell as i think i ever want to come. >> when someone breaks the law, there is a distinct difference between going to prison and jail. prison is for convicted felons, many with long-term sentences. jail is where suspects spend a relatively short time, either while waiting for trial or

i'm john seigenthaler. >>> due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. >>> there are 2 million people behind bars in america. we open the gates. "lockup." ♪ 15 to life, doing 15 to life ♪ ♪ you've got the browns and the whites against the blacks ♪ ♪ the first rule of the game is to watch your back ♪ ♪ it's either kill or be ♪ ♪ killed if you're scared ♪ ♪ then make a knife ♪ ♪ and the next mother [ muted ] will ♪ find me some steel lay in a strap ♪ ♪ like a mercenary death trap ♪ ♪ because if i got to do time ♪ ♪ i would rather do it like a real mother [ muted ] ♪ >> who is going to stab who? who's going to kill who? who's going to beat who bad? >> guys stomping each other on the head, knocking each other unconscious. >> what we got over here, anything? >> escort! >> you have to join a gang. you have no choice. ♪ 15 to life ♪ ♪ doing 15 to life ♪ ♪ 15 to life ♪ ♪ 15 to life ♪ ♪ doing 15 to life ♪ doing 15 to life. that's it. >> in an isolated part of california's central valley is corcoran state prison, one of the state's largest maximum security institutions, housing