there are 1,300 inmates serving life sentences at kern valley.d. >> i'm here for aggravated mayhem, attempted murder, kidnapping, and great bodily injury. >> i'm in here for the heat of passion. i caught my wife with somebody and killed her. >> for some of these inmates, the prospect of spending decades behind bars affects their ability to function. for others, a prison job can give them a sense of purpose. they work in the kitchen preparing and serving the food. they serve as porters, clerks, and barbers. marcus armstrong and jeffrey cattera know it's likely they'll never see the outside of prison again. >> january 13th, 1989, i committed my crime, was arrested the same day. it was a murder/robbery. i got life without the possibility of parole. stupid. stupid. i was a kid. did the wrong thing. you know? i've never denied my crime. i accept responsibility for what i did. although i regret what happened and -- i mean, it happened. i can't take that back. >> i'm in here for first-degree murder. i have 25 to life with an additional 6 years, so 31 al

> of the many experts we have met, the truest connoisseur had to be tyrone outlaw, an inmate at kern valleyifornia's central valley wine country. >> we have two types of alcohol. we have pruno made from oranges and fruit that you let sit and rot and we pour it into a bag and make mush out of it and then add a lot of hot water to it and add sugar which ferments it to make the alcohol base. then we take it from the bag and pour it into the pillow case and strain it and keep all of the mush out of it and put the liquid in the bag to be used for apples and two boxes of sugar and you will have three gallons of pruno, and you can sell it and each part is $10 for a pound or you can sell it $10 apiece or you can just get drunk off of it all you want. >> outlaw then told us about a much more potent concoction. >> the second version we do is called white lightning, that is similar to jack daniels, hennessey, and in fact, 150 proof. >> according to outlaw, white lightning has a very dark side. >> pruno can get you drunk and riled up and get you just that intoxication under the influence trip, whereas

when we ran into dillon dunn at work in kern valley's kitchen. >> how unusual are you here?in this prison i'm the only one. >> the only what? >> the only white krip. >> i think the whole crew was surprised to find out he was a crip. a white guy as a crip. >> i run with the blacks. there's not too many people like me. >> at first we thought he was messing with us or just trying to have a little fun but we found out he was the real deal. >> so talk to me about how an irish boy ends up as a crip? >> i'm not irish. >> dylan dunn? >> my father. i'm puerto rican and italian. >> how are you perceived here? >> i get my respect. if i didn't, i -- like, they could stab me or whatever i wouldn't be here i'd be dead you know. so evidently i get my respect. i mean it wasn't easy, you know, it's still not easy some places i go i'm a target. >> why? >> because of who i run with, who my gang is. like i said real racers. if blacks get into it, i got to be there. really especially -- i'm always out there on the front lines. i'm always going to be that way. >> why? >> because i pretty much alw

. >> aaron yost was 11 years into his latest sentence when we met him at kern valley state prison in california. he says his problems stem from a near life-long abuse of drugs. >> i grew up with drugs. my parents were quote/unquote hippies. both my parents dropped acid. my mom's dead now from a drug overdose. when i was 9 years old, i was rolling joints for mom and dad. >> yost's life is now largely confined to this cell, which he shares with another inmate. >> i'm not comfortable with this. i don't like men, i like women, you know? and this, to me, it's disgusting. i'm still irritated. if i wake up in the morning, i'm agitated because i have to live with another man. >> now, the closest yost comes to female companionship is through his tattoos. some of which are too graphic to show on television. >> that's what i dream about, that's all i got. you know? >> i remember when we met aaron, the man was tattooed, incredibly inked. if one word describes him, it's intense, just full of energy. and i remember when my producer asked him, what's the daily routine? he just started right in on t

. >>> it's monday at california's kern valley state prison.rcus armstrong, that means it's laundry day. >> a lot of guys don't trust the launders. we do the laundry ourselves. some do it in the sink. me, i do it in the shower so i can really get it clean. soap it up, rinse it out, wring it out. get a little workout in the meantime. good as new after two hours. just like mamma taught me. >> it's also the best night for television. >> monday night, primetime tv come on and i watch the primetime shows. my favorite shows right now are "24," "smallville," "grey's anatomy," "desperate housewives." you know what i'm saying? i love you bri. >> armstrong's weekly routine will continue indefinitely. he's serving 25 years to life for first-degree murder. >> sometimes i can see the victim in my case when i'm walking, you know what i'm saying? it's like demons that never go away. i have dreams about it, you know? >> the victim was a friend who learned that armstrong was involved in drug dealing and credit card fraud. >> she was an ex-girlfriend of mine, bu

. >> we met officer epperson at the kern valley state prison in california. armed only with pepper spray and a baton, he's the lone officer responsible for supervising the inmate kitchen staff. >> i have six, seven inmates back here now. i've got one sitting on the line. granted, i got four, five cops outside that door. that door's locked. there's only one dude out there with the key. you have to trust them to a certain extent. they have no reason to assault me. unless they're totally pissed off or i disrespect them. >> among the inmates epperson places his trust in is the number two cook, carter hill. >> tell me what your sentence is. >> murder. >> you're here for murder? what's your sentence? >> 51 to life. >> you know, it's interesting. sometimes there's this dynamic in prison when you're interviewing somebody, if there's a corrections officer and an inmate together, they'll pretty much watch their ps and qs. they'll tell you into the camera what the other guy wants to hear. but when we met carter hill, we got some real brutal honesty that day in the kitch