>> yes, sir. >> look here at the camera for me. >> the orange county jail is comprised of five separateails. the largest of these is the theo lacy jail with an average daily population of 2,800 male inmates. theo lacy, alum to many of our state prisons. . >> i have an assistant sheriff at theo lacy. he always likes to say we don't have andy of mayberry. we don't have otis coming into the jail tank. that's not the county jail we have. we have 400 people in custody for murder. we don't have people in jail for simple possession of marijuana like some might think. we have very serious felony inmates in our custody >> narrator: unlike prison inmates, all convicted of crimes, most jail inmates are being accused and awaiting trial or resolution of their charges. still, violence can suddenly break out if jail just as it does in prison. >> when you are dealing with a jail full of predators. there will be prey. inmates cause disturbances to cause big situations to occur. what happens is the deputies on scene will try to control it. they do a great job. once they start to lose a little bit of cont

. >> day-to-day management of the orange county jail in southern california is up to sheriff's deputies. some work permanently at the jail while most others rotate through, then return to street patrol. >> all right. let's line up. let's do a gear check. let's line up on the wall right here. >> a select group of deputies make up the emergency response team, a s.w.a.t.-like unit called to action when inmates refuse orders or cause an imminent threat. >> hang left. >> watch out, watch out, watch out. >> wielding a broken mop stick and other cleaning supplies, joseph etima, who has pled not guilty to a murder charge and is awaiting trial, has refused to return to his cell. >> he's upset because the hispanic inmates think he's black. he's saying he's not. he's saying he's hispanic. they don't want to program with him, so he wants out of there, and this is his way of doing it. we don't know what's going to happen once we get inside there. we don't know what the other inmates are going to do. when you go inside there, watch each other's back. handle any situation that arises. our job is not t

county's other side. the theo lacy jail is the largest of five jail facilities in the orange county system. it sits on 11 acres and has a capacity of more than 3,000 inmates. >> let's go. hands behind your back. back row go to the house. >> marc gonzales is one of them, and except for his jail-issued t-shirt and scrubs, he could easily be mistaken for any other fun-loving oc teenager. >> i love surfing. i love the ocean. it's the best. the promised land here. nothing could go wrong except for robbing a weed store and getting arrested. my mom is in a lot of shock right now. it's the first offense. my baby is robbing weed stores? what does he need that for? >> unlike most inmates in the orange county jail system who have not been convicted but are awaiting trial, gonzales pled guilty to robbery and received a one-year sentence. with good behavior he could be out in nine months, and if his family gets its way back in minnesota. >> i have a bunch of newspapers under my bed because my mom sent me a subscription because i wanted to stay updated with what was going on in minnesota, concert-wise an

housewives of orange county. >> few people know that better than orange county sheriff sandra hutchins. among other things, she runs orange county's other gated community. the orange county jail>> it is dynamic. every day is a bit different. so you constantly have to be re-evaluating that and the folks work in the housing areas are very astute at identifying problems early on and that's the key. you're dealing with a population that doesn't want to be there, they're not necessarily there with people they like, they're probably facing some very challenging times in their lives. >> the greatest challenge for many inmates in the orange county jail is uncertainty. unlike prison inmates, who have already been convicted and sentenced for crimes they have committed, most jail inmates stand charged with crimes, and are still working their cases through the court system. the process can take years. so some try to make their jail cells home. >> this is the living room right here. we keep the books and the magazines and trash. this is the kitchen where we eat and everything. this is the bathroom, the washing machine/shower, bird bath. >> with such close quarters, deputies constantly mon

on our first day of filming "extended stay" inside orange county jail in california, we covered the trauma of a young man's first day in jail. >> i'm in the orange county jail. i'm like in a room with no windows, no nothing. nobody -- i don't know what's going on. i don't know. >> when we met 20-year-old richard ruiz, he had already completed the booking process and his first court arraignment and was now engaged in another jailhouse ritual, the first call home. >> so i'm just sitting in a room. i don't know if it's light or daylight. i lose track of time. i get woken up by all of the slamming doors and stuff. like i don't know what's going on in here. i skip all meals because i don't want to eat. >> ruiz had been arrested 48 hours earlier for the first time in his life, charged with intent to sell narcotics. he hoped his father would be able and willing to bail him out. >> it's $2500. 10% of $25,000 bail. thank you, dad. all right. yep. i love you. bye. he doesn't deserve a phone call from here. but it's all my fault that i'm here. it's no one's fault but myself. >> there's a term that pe

the time of our shoot in orange county, shanholtzer was appealing her six-year sentence, and requesting that if she did have to serve the time, she do so at the orange county jailwhere she felt more protected. >> that's one of my saints. with my name. st. therese. >> very nifty. >> she also made a few good friends in the jail and developed a constructive daily routine. >> i'm not surprised that people that can't necessarily get it together out in the real world come in here and function very well in a controlled environment. many people do in here. >> hey there, handsome. thank you. >> i am still learning life because i didn't know life. i'm 30 years old, just learning how to drive. but you know what, i'm doing it. i'm learning it. there's a lot of girls in here that don't know how. and i'm going to school, and i have dreams now, and i can help people. that's what i want to do. >> coming up -- >> hi, boys. >> peaches was one of those inmates that stands out in your mind years after you leave a prison. he's very flamboyant. very forthright. very honest. >> one inmate's independence is put to the test by the convict code. in the nation, sometimes bad things happe

. >> we met miramontes at the orange county jail. a member of a los angeles street gang and a meth addict. it seemed out of sorts with the young man who enjoyed reading novels and writing poetry. >> i like to read a lot. i like nicolas sparks. "walk to remember." "notebook." >> oh, so like romantics? >> oh, yeah, i'm a sucker for that. >> even cry when you read the sad part? >> yeah. most of the guys don't want to admit that because, hey, we're in jail. you know. but i don't care. >> but miramontes was facing the possibility of a lifetime in prison. >> been almost two years. my charges are special circumstance murder. big case. big case. >> miramontes had entered a not guilty plea and was still awaiting trial when we met him. the night of the murder, he says he was visiting friends in an orange county gang and that they were all drinking and high on drugs. while driving around their neighborhood, his friend stopped to confront a 19-year-old man who had allegedly flashed a rival gang sign. >> what ended up happening was the orange cou