one is located at pelican bay. >> many of them are in here indeterminately.y'll never leave shu until a committee decides they are not a part of a gang anymore. >> this officer works at the shu. he told us a simple lapse on his part could result in gang warfare. >> if i were to pop two doors at the same time and they were, the mexican-american from los angeles and a mexican-american from sacramento, the odds are very, very good they would immediately commence to fight because that is expected of them in prison. that's the rules of the game. if word got out that they had an opportunity and didn't go after someone, they would have some explaining to do. that's just life in prison. >> they are restricted to their cell for 23 1/2 hours a day. they only get a half hour outside in their little hard yard right next to their cells and then they're right back into their cells. >> despite the restrictive conditions in the shu, gang members still find ways to make weapons, sometimes carving them right out of their own cells. >> this was made by an arian brotherhood memb

prison sentence at pelican bay is understanding the politics of the yard.ut in place by the prison's gang population. >> everyone is separated by gangs, by race. you cannot just run into a certain area. you have to be so careful about where you go, how you look at someone, what handlebars you use to do chingups or push-ups. there's a series of invisible lines that are all over that yard. and that makes for a great deal of tension. >> you feel tension in the air. when something's going to happen, you can feel the tension -- you can cut it with a knife sometimes, it's so bad. >> life here is kind of rough. you know, stabbings all the time, guys have to be real careful who he associates with. stick with your own race. i've seen people get their throat cut, i've seen people get rat packed, five guys on one, get their heads smashed in. i've seen people strangled themselves. life here is pretty treacherous. >> authorities told us that the violence is like a drug to the gangs here. >> violence for many inmates -- if the truth be known and told by them, they're add

teda boyle is a retired lieutenant from pelican bay.he was a watch commander on the day of the riot. >> the kind of people that were there were guilty of some of the most heinous crimes. murder, strong-armed robbery, rape. >> within the 275-acre penitentiary is the security housing unit known as the shoe. a prison within a prison. shoe inmates spend about 22 hours of every day in solitary confinement. locked up in an 8 x 10 windowless cement cell with little human contact. inside the shoe are about 1,000 level-four prisoners, what boyle calls the worst of the worst. inmates that other wardens don't want or can't handle. dangerous gangs founded within the penal community. >> because of their gang leadership, they have the authority to authorize other people in the community of the prison to commit these types of crimes. >> and on that day two alleged gangs go to war. it's sunday, and it's raining. 200 shoe prisoners are released into b yard for exercise. boyle says that the entire prison is on edge dating back to a smaller racially charg

that violence could be against other inmates or against officers. >> it was here in pelican bay's most secure unit that we came across perhaps the prison's most dangerous inmate. >> my name is scanvinski hymes. i got the name from my mother. she wanted me to have the name no other black man in america would have. >> hymes was originally sent to prison for possessing a weapon in a youth facility. at the time our cameras profiled him in 2000, he had been locked up for more than 12 years, almost half his life. >> everything is the same. nothing really changes too much. i mean, wake up in the morning, eat breakfast, go to the yard. when i get bored, i got -- i got to get into stuff, you know? >> the stuff hymes most frequently gets into is provoking officers to extract him from his cell. each inmate is assigned a security risk classification score based on his disciplinary record. [ bleep ] the average score ranges between 19 and 27 points. >> i probably have the highest classification score in this prison system, i'm over 2,000 points now. i have caught over 30, almost 40 felonies in pris

. >> a lot of them sleep on the moor because it's so cold at pelican bay. they don't have windows, they don't have access to the outside. >> reporter: state prison officials say the shoe is necessary to separate rival gang leaders who will organize attacks. they say they launched a pilot program last fall to reduce the estimated 3,000 inmates living in these units. >>> new at 10:00, boeing says it's 787 dream liner will soon be flying their passengers again. commercial flights should resume within weeks not months. boeing says 1/3 of their safety test on ion batteries are now complete. you will recall dream liners have been grounded since january even though the exact reason why one battery caught fire and a second started smoking is still not known. >>> there is word that president obama will visit california next month. the events will take place in san francisco and silican valley. the president is trying to help his fellow democrats recapture control of the house in the 2014 midterm elections. >>> a school district stunned. >> it is horrible. >> the sub

. >> a lot of them sleep on the moor because it's so cold at pelican bay.tside. >> reporter: state prison officials say the shoe is necessary to separate rival gang leaders who will organize attacks. they say they launched a pilot program last fall to reduce the estimated 3,000 inmates living in these units. >>> new at 10:00, boeing says it's 787 dream liner will soon be flying their passengers again. commercial flights should resume within weeks not months. boeing says 1/3 of their safety test on ion batteries are now complete. you will recall dream liners have been grounded since january even though the exact reason why one battery caught fire and a second started smoking is still not known. >>> there is word that president obama will visit california next month. the events will take place in san francisco and silican valley. the president is trying to help his fellow democrats recapture control of the house in the 2014 midterm elections. >>> a school district stunned. >> it is horrible. >> the substitute teacher arrested for child porn and the strange be

our producers first met him seven years ago inside pelican bay, california's toughest maximum securityficer, if you are the governor, if you are the president, if you do something to me, it's on. >> he's bucking right now, he's struggling. >> hymes is a career inmate with 19 of his 37 years spent behind bars. >> turn around. turn around. >> nope. you all use that force on me. >> officers in several california prisons have gotten plenty of opportunities to document his bad behavior on videotape. while most inmates try to deal with prison life the best they can, hymes has fought the system all the way. >> ha, ha, ha. going to be like starting a whole new life. i can go anywhere. i can get a passport. i can do anything, you know, if i want to. i'm not under supervision of law enforcement at all times like i have been. so basically i can do anything i want to. >> although hymes has reached the end of his sentence, the stakes are higher than ever. >> hymes has two strikes against him right now, and i think he is aware that if he commits another crime and is prosecuted for that, it could ver

. >> federal judge says that inmates held isolation for more than a decade california pelican bay state prison can proceed with a lawsuit claiming that the prolonged isolation is crucial unusual punishment. inmate held in windowless cell 8 by 10 for all but 90 minutes a day. >> judge sentenced computer hacker to the maximum prison term for illegally accessesing at&t server and stealing more than 100,000 e-mail addresses of i-pad users. andrew was sentenced in federal court in new jersey to three years and 5 months in prison. he gave the data to the web site gawker. he told the judge quote the i hope net is bigger than any law can kaichbility many, many governments that have attempted to restrict the freedom of the internet have been toppled. judge would have none of it respond thanksgiving way quote he says that's the reason we are here is because we don't like his idea. the reason that we are here is that he wrote a code and engaged in a clear trespass. >> his lawyer says he will appeal the decision. >> medical study released tonight has new guidelines for women in mammogram come on th

i spent time in california, a number of gang members ended up with the pelican bay in northern california and ran their gangs from inside the walls. >> thank you, mr. chairman. director mueller, welcome. thank you for coming before the subcommittee today and i thank you for your service to the country and for your professionalism in running the fbi. the fbi operates the national and state criminal and background check system. we have to enforece the laws that we have. even the momentary glance at the laws we have proves there are holes in our system that even with adequate enforcement would not keep guns out of the hands that seek to do us harm. i'm focused on the fact that those on the terror watch list do not raise a flag in the system. what are those on the terror watch list and not automatically denied a fire arm from licensed firearms dealer and should it person?s listing on the list be a factor in the denial of a firearm? >> the reason those on the terrorist watch list [indiscernible] one of the factors is listed in the statute. there is legislation being discussed in terms of what

. >> when we first met ivory taylor at california's pelican bay state prison, he had to be flanked byr his interview in a secure housing unit, or the shu. >> hi, guys. okay. you got it. look at our man right here. you got this rambo camera. who do you work for? >> msnbc. >> nbc? >> msnbc. >> tell us who you are. what's your name? >> they call me double life because i've got two life sentences, a life without the possibility of parole. and 25 to life. and they call me godzilla because i've got more points than anybody else in the prison system. i fight everybody. i'll fight anybody who will fight with me. and i've been in the hole 19 years straight. >> taylor spent all those years in the shu because of a list of violent infractions rivaling any inmate we've ever profiled on "lockup." >> i've had my nose broke, hip broke, shoulder broke and foot broke, all in confrontations with the police, distractions, yard distractions, hospital distractions, shower distractions. anyplace you can get in a fight, i've gotten in a fight. >> when our crew later visited taylor's cell, he felt compelled t

. >> designed to look and function like pelican bay, a maximum security prison in california, the shu is composed of windowless, concrete cells measuring 7 by 12 feet. of the 288 inmates housed here, 179 have been diagnosed by psychiatric staff as mentally ill. >> i heard the horror stories of this place back when it first opened up. >> sergeant dan haskins is a veteran of the secure housing unit. >> out of sight, out of mind. the outside world, out of sight, out of mind. they don't -- probably don't want to know what goes on in here. >> the population of the shu lives on 23-hour lockdown. leaving their cells only for showers and solitary recreation. >> some people will tell you that segregation unit is not the place for people with mental illness because we didn't design that particular unit for treatment. particularly for mental health treatment. we just didn't anticipate us having the numbers we have and going the way it's gone. >> although acute cases are referred to the psychiatric unit at a neighboring correctional institution, the staff in the shu deal with a variety of mental

i spent time in california, a number of gang members ended up with the pelican bay in northern california and ran their gangs from inside the walls. it is a phenomenon we have seen around the united states for a substantial time, and it probably has grown most recently. >> thank you, mr. chairman. director mueller, welcome. thank you for coming before the subcommittee today and i thank you for your service to the country and for your professionalism in running the fbi. as you know, the fbi operates the national and state criminal and background check system. we have to enforece the laws that we have. the the momentary glance at laws we have proves there are holes in our system that even with adequate enforcement would not keep guns out of the hands that seek to do us harm. thatocused on the fact those on the terror watch list do not raise a flag in the system. i do not understand that. what are those on the terror watch list and not automatically denied a fire arm from licensed firearms dealer and should it person's listing on the list be a factor in the denial of a firearm? >> the reason

after doing ten years of hard time at pelican bay state prison for manslaughter, he returned to l.a.awaiting trial for the very crime he claims to condemn, garofalo offers his unique perspective on the new breed of street criminal. >> jails are too full. but look at the new generation. carjacking. these kids will go out, stick a gun in someone's face to go joyriding in a car and turn a misdemeanor crime into a death penalty case because seven out of ten times they carjack, they kill the person they steal the car from. now, you've got to tell me, there is not something wrong with that? and somewhere in that confusion these kids don't know how to act like proper gangsters anymore. when my dad was a small-time mafioso back east, he used to say there's two kinds of gangsters -- there are thugs, and there are gangsters. thugs come and go. gangsters are about making money and respect. and if you're going to be a gangster in this life, there's two things you've got to know -- you don't kill cops and you don't kill innocent women and children. >> 900 max is also the home to nccf's discipline

bay. the herring attracts pelicans, seals and, of course, fishermen. filmmaker michael bouquet has been shooting the herring fishermen for years and says this season is different. >> these guys work it really hard. they had a bonanza. they had a fantastic haul. >> reporter: this year is turning out to be a very good year, but some years are different. according to the department of fish & game, the herring season peaked in 1997 with a record catch of more than 12,000 tons. in 2005 it dropped dramatically with fishermen netting only 145 tons. but in the past two seasons it's been looking up. >> we have had better-than- average water conditions in the bay. that is, the freshwater coming in during the winter and springtime. >> reporter: that higher quality water lets the herring spawn billions of gray eggs known as roe and they coat everything, birds eat them off the piers. they stick to grass and become food for just about anything else that swims or flies. the herring boats have easily reached their limits so for now they move on. with the boats gone an