stands for the maricopa county sheriff's office animal safe haven. or. >> m.a.s.h. is a housing unit for abused animals whose owners are incarcerated at maricopa. its located in one of the original jail facilities, which was shut down for human occupants in 1999. >> we get animals in that are literally skin and bones. we nurse them back to health. we resocialize them. we get them used to being around people. and once their court case is cleared, we take actual ownership of the animal, we adopt them out to a good home. >> good boy. >> the animals are cared for by inmate workers who have no history of animal abuse. male inmates take care of the horses and other farm animals. >> we get accused of standing around scratching our ass all day here at m.a.s.h. unit. best job on the yard. >> i bond more with the dogs here than any of the girls on the yard. what i like best about the dogs is they don't argue with everything that you say like the inmates do. >> abigail, calm down. >> you know, i'm very strong on animal cruelty. anybody that violates or abuses an

male housing units. >> these are the worst in maricopa county. get them out of gp and stuff downstairs. those are the shock collars out there. get them out there, stuff calms down for a while. >> these inmates have either committed violent attacks in the jail or have been identified as gang members. some are awaiting trial while others have been convicted and are appealing their verdicts or sentences. they are isolated in very stark cells, 23 hours a day and get one hour of rec time in an empty concrete room with a skylight located right next door to their cells. >> the rec pen is the same size as the cell so you go from one cell to another to walk in circles. it's life in solitary confinement. no cellmates, no card games, no chess, but that's life. >> without the distraction of television, radio or cellmates, even the most hardened criminals can break under the pressure. >> every 25 minutes we do our walks to check on inmates to make sure the inmates are safe. they're a greater risk to themselves than anything else. they're isolated. so thoughts

. >> located on a 400-acre lot southwest of downtown phoenix, the maricopa county jail consists of fourndoor facilities that house up to 5,700 inmates and two outdoor tent facilities that can house men and women. the fourth avenue jail houses approximately 2,000 male inmates, considered among the highest security threats. while some have actually been convicted of crimes and are awaiting transport to prison, most are still facing trial or sentencing for everything from i.d. theft to murder. maintaining order here is up to a significantly smaller staff of detention officers. >> in sheer volume, we are greatly outnumbered, so we try to reduce that by finding out who the shock callers are and going about working smarter rather than harder. >> shock callers are highly ranking members of racially segregated gangs who try to control the inmates within their housing units. in a jail system where inmates of different races are housed together, that can lead to trouble. >> prisons segregate. jail settings do not. >> we don't segregate by gangs, either. so you could have two bloods and a crip in

. >> inside the famous tent city housing complex, the maricopa county jail in phoenix, arizona, we foundne group of young women determined to tackle a common problem. >> ready, set? and one, two, three. >> just like freshmen in college dorms, many new inmates put on extra pounds. >> we don't want to get fat from the bread. >> we want to fit into size one again. >> healthy body fits a healthy mind, right? >> we walk laps around the yard. >> we do squats. >> push-ups. >> push-ups and everything. >> we just did ten. >> we did ten. >> i do eleven. >> the women also had a few unconventional routines they developed inside their tent, including something akin to driving an 18-wheeler. >> this is ridiculous. >> i saw the ladies in the tent actually doing a lot of exercise, ployometrics and calisthenics, and not much equipment, kind of making do with what they got. but at one point i think maybe they were perhaps putting me on because they showed me this workout where they were pretending to drive a big truck. i couldn't see how that was going to help them stay in shape during their time on the i

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but at the maricopa county jail in phoenix, arizona, sheriff joe arpaio personally chose the black andg with the pink underwear and socks to send a message. >> this is joe arpaio's way to express how we are pay our way back to society. the pink is his way to keep us humbled. it's a way to separate us away from regular society. >> put them in pink underwear. because they were smuggling the white underwear out of the jail. that is the official reason. the unofficial reason, they hate pink. you never give them a color they like. why would you give them things they like? >> though generally not allowed, inmates sometimes alter their uniforms to fit their own fashion sense. at the orange county jail in southern california we met a transgender inmate who prefers to be called alexis. >> myself and my celly are dressed as girls and the rest are dressed as guys. >> despite his physical appearance cortez was in fact a male inmate housed in a men's unit. >> if you are in in the process of having a sex change if you have your male genital parts you are considered a male and will be housed there, w

as you thought. ♪ >>> few jails in america receive as much media coverage as the maricopa county jailn phoenix, arizona. while many stories focus on things like the striped uniform and pink underwear that both male and female inmates are required to wear, we tried to learn more about the inmates themselves. it didn't take long before we noticed rita, who was at maricopa facing 11 charges along with various misdemeanors. >> yeah. only 11. not bad. if you're going to go, you got to go all out. right? i got an f-2, fraudulent schemes. eight f-4, forgeries. i got a dui, dui, drugs. drug paraphernalia, failure to appear. >> she proclaimed her innocence on all the charges. and none had to do with the loss of her eye. which occurred shortly before her arrest. >> for such a tragic shocking thing as losing an eye, rita had a fairly decent attitude about it. she was pretty upbeat and positive and she took it out and showed us. >> this is the part that they cut out. it's just made out of what fake nails are made out of and this is my eye. and it moves exactly with the other one or just about. th

his famous tent city housing unit to the striped uniforms and pink underwear for inmates, the maricopa countytrives hard to be america's toughest jail. it's a reputation promoted by the man who runs it all, sheriff joe arpaio. >> i'm not a social worker. i'm not a psychologist. i'm a law enforcement guy. so if they don't like the way i operate the jails, i got one answer to everybody. either get out of town or if you're here, don't violate the law, because you're not going into a hilton hotel in this county. >> get on the ground now! get on the ground now! drop down! 23, get down. >> with his wild west reputation, we didn't expect to meet two young people at maricopa who not much earlier were considered role models as opposed to felons. >> no matter where we are, we need to be serving god. right now we're all sitting in jail. i'm a very devout christian. i've gotten back to my walk with god. i was working in my church and everything before coming here. it's not jailhouse conversion or whatever. i just followed a friend and shouldn't have done that and helped him do something that i shouldn't

. ♪ oh to be free >>> when we visited the special management unit at the maricopa county jail in phoenixifferent it felt from the rest of the facility. >> this is where the killers, rapists, the most violent offenders are housed. and when you get up there, it has a very different feel than other areas of the jail, and that's because there's an eerie silence. and the reason there's an eerie silence, as opposed to other segregation units, is because the inmates are housed behind double sets of doors. this is as close to a hannibal lechter cell environment as you can get. they don't even leave for recreation. they just open one of the interior sliding doors and they walk out and they have their 45 minutes of recreation each day, and then boom. right back into the cell without ever interacting with another inmate. so it has a very ominous feel when you walk through the special management unit. and this is the path that i took when i went to meet shawn gaines. >> 29-year-old shawn gaines had spent most of the last six years in the special management unit, awaiting trial on a first-degree murd

maricopa county attorney, bill montgomery. >> the focal point is the conduct, not the color of the skin. and that allows police officers to fairly distinguish between those who, by the virtue of their conduct, then come under suspicion for investigation, and those who aren't. >> reporter: but those who came to this meeting fear they will be targets of the law and that their families will be divide. diana ramirez is with the civil rights group puente. >> we have seen in a lot of communities a lot of parents -- the punishment for being here without documents has been losing their kids and not being reunited when they are deported. >> reporter: so parents came to have documents signed and northized, turning over legal custody of their american-born children to someone they trust should deportation become a reality. >> so, were you born here? >> i don't have to answer that. >> reporter: angelica sanchez has four children aged four to 13. if she is sent back to mexico, her children will stay here. >> because my kids were born here, and i want them to go to school. i want them to have a bette

who has some sort of defined jurisdiction, but i should point out as well, you also know the maricopa county board of supervisors in california unanimously voted in favor of the health code you've been pushing for so long, and that's become law. that's where you live. i know you've had a lot to do with it. where do you go from here next some. >> i'm working with other states. i'm still very optimistic that this will be picked up on a federal level so there's a consensus across the 50 states. i really do think it's a national health concern. the data indicates such. wills no discrepancy between the states that i have been to, so i'm very, very hopeful that senators, representatives from across the country will say, hey, we recognize that this is a problem and we want to make sure that we're keeping the children in our state safe. we'll pick it up. i intend to meet people in texas next week and so on and so forth around the country and in the upcoming weeks and months. >> thank you for bringing this issue to light. i think a lot of people simply didn't know about it. it wasn't something i had

i should point out, as well, you also noted that the maricopa county board of supervisors voted unanimouslyhealth care changes you pushed for, for so long. and that has become law. where you live. i know you have had a lot to do with it. so where do you go next from here? >> i'm working with other states around the country. i am still very optimistic that this will be picked up on a federal level so that there is a consensus across the 50 states. i really think there is a concern that there is no discrepancy between the states, i am very hopeful that the senators across the country will say hey, we recognize there is a problem and we want to keep the children in our states safe. and i intend to meet with people in texas, and so on and so forth around the country in the coming months. >> we have been telling people, you're on a crusade, and you are. and thank you for bringing it to light. a lot of people were not aware of it. so thank you so much. erin carr, thank you so much. >>> and think about this, ahead, is your cell phone at risk? how do you look at the risk of radiati radiation. there

the maricopa county community colleges for understanding. the bad ohio governor john case at a romney campaign event yesterday case it was attempting to pay tribute to the wives of the republican candidates what came out of his mouth sounded more like another conservative attack on women it was. you know change for a minute karen case and in general ryan. they operate an awful lot of time in the shadows it's not easy to be a spouse of an elected official you know they're there at home doing the laundry and doing so many things while we're up here on the stage get a little bit of applause right they don't often share it there i mean there is the republican party for that matter of trying to cozy up to women voters in attempt to win some of their vote in november and make them forget about that whole war on women thing i'm not sure saying women spent all our time and home doing a laundry was the best way to do it and the very very ugly rush limbaugh we're all used to limbaugh saying pretty outrageous in mind blowing things by now so it's not o

authorities determined there wasn't enough evidence to present a case against maricopa county sheriffoe arpaio. there were charges he used his role unfairly. arpaio isn't off the hook yesterday. a federal judge hasn't cleared him of racial profiling against hispanics in the area. >>> and mitt romney his time in the spotlight. nielsen says nearly 30 million watched thursday night's coverage. it's a sub special drop compared to foump yer years ago. john mccain's speech got over 40 million viewers. >>> and talking about clean eastwood's unique speech thursday night at the republican national convention. >> what do you want me to tell romney? i can't tell him to do that. he can't do that to himself. >> romney campaign aides say the star's speech was largely scripted. at the last minute he asked for a chair and everyone assumed he was just going to sit in it. instead he spoke to an invisible president obama. a move that turned into an internet sensation. eastwooding involving talking or pointing to a chair or couch as if someone was there. thousands of tweets have gone out mocking eastwood

the protests stopped at a maricopa county jail run by sheriff joe al qaeda who is up for reelection in a member. he has been a vocal supporter of sb1070. >> i think this is a good section that has been upheld. i would like to see where we would have the authority to arrest illegal aliens, just by being here illegally, and book them into our jails, but that is not going to happen. but i think this sends a message that we will be involved in enforcing the illegal alien laws and our police officers will release be able to try to determine if they're here illegally. >> for more on the latest from arizona, return to author and journalist jeff biggers. his new book is called, "state out of the union: arizona and the final showdown over the american dream." welcome to "democracy now!" let's start with sb1070. it talked about what the show me your papers actually means -- talk about what the show me your papers actually means now that it has gone into effect mako a new chapter in one of the darkest chapters of civil rights violations we will be phasing in the future. this goes beyond just look

i'm the poster boy from the president down to maricopa county, arizona.ell me around i could make them deputy sheriffs if they want to follow me around. we do a good job. freedom of press, let them do what they want to do. >> neil: what do you think that the guys running this is an immigration editor for univision news and before that he was online editor for long island winds, non-profit organization focusing on among other things national immigration issues. he has written for a variety of magazines on this very issue. and spoken out against illegal immigration, crackdown abuses. it could be a setup. >> guest: well, i'm not worried about it. let them try to set me up and the deputies. we don't racial profile i'm not concerned. if they want to waste their time following me around, join the others who are following me around. at least they have a legitimate camera. it's not concerning me. we're going to continue to the our job. we just arrested 17 more for false identification in workplace. lyle aliens so i keep -- illegal aliens so i keep doing my job. >

. >> we met brian crist at the maricopa county jail in phoenix shortly before his conviction on a murder charge. >> origami, that's my getaway. i have a bird that flies and a frog that jumps. the champ. front flip. put him in the olympics, man. >> it's really striking and poignant to see inmates who oftentimes are in for incredibly violent crimes sitting there delicately folding this paper over hours into frogs and elephants and that kind of thing. and it really does seem to calm their nerves and almost transform them. >> nobody had a menagerie to match that of philip stroud, who was serving three life sentences for murder at the wabash valley correctional facility in indiana. >> basically making origami figures. you've got the lion, you've got the swan, you've got the rabbit, little puppy, dinosaur, flower. my niece, she loves the little goldfish. this is my favorite one because it turns into like a kaleidoscope-type thing. the hardest one to make was probably the elephant because it got a lot 6 folds. i'm an artsy fartsy type of guy, i guess you could say. it's basically a way to spend

the federal government halting the inquiry into maricopa county sheriff joe arpaio.he investigation began four years ago after local officials complained about him abusing his power. he is a republican. >>> the big headline for the seattle times reads 040 days without rain. the dry spell is 11 days from setting a rain. the last record was set in 14. all will though the city is famous for damp weather dry summers are typical. >>> in medford, oregon, he is a winner. about a white city man who received one of the biggest awards in publispublisher's cle house. he plans to buy his tad a new house. that is a good son. >>> time now for front page politics. two days later and everyone is still talking about clint eastwood's bizarre performance at the rnc. with articles on the cover of today's "washington times" and "new york times" in fact. but the more important stories out of tampa may be mitt romney's courting of women voters and new angle on the economy. joining me, joan walsh, editor at large for salon.com msnbc political analyst and all thor of the newly released "what

this is an article about the controversy will maricopa county sheriff claiming to have discovered evidencepresident of hamas birth certificate is false back in march. it's been widely debunked by you wouldn't know it from the way the story was covered. if you look at the headline in the first five paragraphs of the story you see the reporter leading out in a pretty unquestioningly the birth certificate is fecund goes through the whole case. only in the seventh paragraph is the reporter get around to saying this has been widely debunked critics of the average reader that is and reading these things like a scholar is maybe going to come away with the wrong impression and that setting aside the folks coming to this with a strong disposition against obama susceptible to these type of problems. next slide. what is a better approach? this is a cnn story on line that i like very much. this is reporting on a poll about president obama's place of birth in 2010. what i like about it is the producer that wrote the story put giant images of president obama's birth certificate and a contemporaneously a