teda boyle is a retired lieutenant from pelican bay.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 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 charged riot six month

and 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

be sending a flamboyant homosexual, is pelican bay. >> adolph green was on the pelican bay yard when our producer noticed him and asked for an impromptu interview. >> i'm a flamboyant homosexual. and we call each other girls. you understand. some of the dudes call you girl, call me girl this and that. then you have those that smile in your face and laugh at you behind your back. you walk around the track, somebody say look at that punk, that [ bleep ], a bunch of disrespect day in and day out. >> green told us that those who are open about their sexuality face retribution from inmates. >> you have people that are undercover. you have people that are hiding in the closet. that are doing each other. but the minute they see somebody that is flamboyant that's out they don't understand then they have something against that. and they go through their fever day, every day, a bunch of people telling you what you can, and can't do, who you can live with and can't live with, it's wrong. half of all the ones who are telling you not to do it are doing it in the closet. >> in this environment, se

i think that's what pelican bay is about. only the strongest are the ones that are going to make it, you know. >> while leon refuses to disavow loyalty to his gang, the prison sees a slow but steady flow of inmates who do through a process called debriefing. they not only break the code, they smash it to bits. >> it's basically when existing gang members want to get out of a gang inside a prison. and in order to do that, there's a whole debriefing process they have to go through. and it basically entails the inmate coming in and confessing everything's he's done with the gang and sometimes even, you know, throwing some people under the bus and confessing against other people. so it's really a deadly thing for someone to do inside a prison. >> when inmates debrief, they must write a lengthy account of their criminal history both in and out of prison. the review process can take months. but if accepted, the inmates will be allowed to live in the safety of a protective custody unit and be granted many more privileges than they w

ben wallace wells takes us inside california's pelican bay prison. it's got 1080p video, three times zoom, and a twenty-megapixel sensor. it's got the brightest display, so i can see what i'm shooting -- even outdoors, and 4 mics that capture incredible sound. plus, it has apps like vine -- and free cloud storage. my new lumia icon is so great, even our wipeouts look amazing. ♪ honestly, i want to see you be brave ♪ ♪ iwe don't back down. we only know one direction: up so we're up early. up late. thinking up game-changing ideas, like this: dozens of tax free zones across new york state. move here. expand here. or start a new business here... and pay no taxes for 10 years. with new jobs, new opportunities and a new tax free plan. there's only one way for your business to go. up. find out if your business can qualify at start-upny.com but one is so clever that your skin looks better even after you take it off. neutrogena healthy skin liquid makeup. 98% saw improved skin. does your makeup do that? neutrogena® cosmetics. >>> from legitimate rape to uncle

. >> at pelican bay we saw a hand drawn illustration in a cell search. >> i found that in an inmate'sain to people how to manufacturer pure alcohol, that's what they are making, it is ever clear, 150 proof is not your regular pruno. >> this is the final result. this here is about the ee equivalent as grain alcohol. >> it takes like whiskey without any cut. some guys in prison would cut it with cool aid or something because it is too strong, and then we have other inmate that's just down it just raw and a lot of these dudes that make this, they don't realize the bacteria that they are drinking could give them tb and other things. >> but since dunken inmates could lead in big trouble officers are constantly on the inmate. >> they will find it and three days later same cell they're making alcohol again. we have over 3,000 inmates doing this. >> coming up on lock up raw. >> one of the items that he makes the most of, spiders it says here that the confiscated art work of america's most infamous inmate. helps reduce the risk of heart disease. keep heart-healthy. live long. eat the 100% good

. >> at pelican bay, we saw the definitive guide to distilling white lightning, a hand drawn illustrationfiscated in a cell search. >> i found that in an inmate's cell. it explained to the people on the tier how to manufacture one, you know, pure alcohol. but they're actually making 150 proof. that's not your regular pruno. a little more sophisticated. >> this is the final result. this here is about the equivalent of grain alcohol. extremely potent. >> how does this taste? >> white lightning tastes exactly like whiskey without any cut. some guys in prison will cut it with, say, something like kool-aid or something because it's too strong. then you have other guys that just down it just raw. and a lot of these dudes that make this stuff, they don't realize that the bacteria in the stuff they're drinking doesn't do anything but give them tuberculosis and other diseases because it is nothing but rotten food that it's made from. >> since drunken inmates can lead to big trouble, correctional officers are constantly on the lookout. >> they're out there searching. they'll find it. three days lat

but we have a pretty good following and the chino and pelican bay, even on the gp yards, there are gay gangsters that are not on the sny yard. we're just a group of people that are gay and pretty much stand for our own. you know? that's our car is gay and then pretty much we're -- that's our car. >> while clements says the gbg is not a violent gang, some members can't leave their violent lifestyles in the past. >> i usually go by the nickname demon. i'm a gay boy gangster. >> they call us gbgs. you have to be able to fight to get in the gay boy gangsters. most gay boy gangsters are previous gang members that dropped out or kicked out because of their sexual orientation. on the mainline i ran as a skin head. i just tried to be that guy, the tough guy. someone needed to get beat up i raised my hand. anybody that tries to forcefully take property, rape or in any way hurt a homosexual that can't defend themselves, that's where we step in. we come in and tell them, check this out. this in your one and only warning. leave our people alone. do not put hands on our people. do not try to hurt t

our producers first met him seven years ago inside pelican bay, california's toughest maximum securityofficer, 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 v

. >> when we first met ivory taylor at california's pelican bay state prison, he had to be flanked bys interview in the security housing unit or the shu. >> hi, guys. okay. you got it. look at our man right here. you got this rambo camera. where he say he from? >> 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. so 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 extractions. anyplace you can get in a fight, i've gotten in a fight. >> when our crew later visited taylor's cell, he felt compelled