hidden america, inside rikers island. diane d diane sawyer reporting. >> reporter: tonight come with us to rikers island, the biggest jail complex in america, a place haunted by the violent history. 8,000 inmates living in a kind of suspension, a shadow world. >> if you can survive rikers island, you can survive anything. >> i'd like to kill myself. >> this is a bad ass place. >> reporter: there's only one road in, across the bridge. >> the inmates nicknamed this the bridge of pain. on one side the new york skyline and straight ahead a world apart. our cameras will have seven days inside, 70 hours. once we enter, the first lesson of rikers island, be ready for the uninspected. >> stand by for one second. >> reporter: during our time there, nine different alarms, lockdown. >> the number deployed right now indicates something big, right? >> reporter: the question of something we came to answer, is it really possible to change this notorious explosive place. we start with the treatment of the most violent inmates. a door ope

rikers island is different.nd you could run around the hallways, do whatever, basically. >> been here about two and a half months. i'm awaiting extradition to new jersey. i got paroled in new jersey. basically, that's it. i was on the run for four and a half years from new jersey and finally got caught. >> this is phillip santiago's fourth time at rikers. he was convicted for credit card fraud and has been on board for two and a half months awaiting extradition to new jersey. >> oh, i need to be outside. i ain't been outside the last month and a half. oh! hell, yeah. >> how's it feel? >> it feels the best, it feel good. it feels very good. a beautiful feeling to come outside, especially when you're incarcerated. all the air you get is to go to court and that's it. you get on the bus. besides that, you get to look out the window. and that's it. >> everybody, place your i.d. cards on your outermost garments. put them up on your chest, please, gentlemen. keep the noise down. we're going to take it inside. we're goi

which brings us to the new man in charge at rikers. his most controversial idea -- country to get rid of solitary altogether, for the younger inmates, 18 to 21 years old. a small percentage of the population, the most difficult to control. >> doesn't that give you pause? getting rid? >> and it's not easy. i mean, these are -- these are difficult, dangerous people that we're dealing with. i'm not saying this is an easy task for us. but it's a much better hopeful outcome than what we were doing. >> reporter: you're never been taken in that belief? >> i haven't. >> he feels strongly about this. diane sawyer is here tonight. you talked to so many people inside the wall, including a 17-year-old son who had never been away from home. >> 17-year-old son. and nonviolent drug offense, so many there are. and you will get a chance to see if it's possible for the lives to change. if the commissioner's theory. >> a reminder, diane's inside rikers island airs tonight on "nig >>> there is braking news ahead involving bill cosby's wife, camille. and a

at rikers island. >> i hope the relationship can work.think it's not possible, but it really is possible because i met my wife, literally, a month prior to me being arrested. and we have been together ever since. >> ready? >> mickey and colbert, whose wedding is now two days away, have been cleared to visit one part of the jail nearly as popular as the yard, the barbershop. >> it's different. >> gray hair in the front. >> the barbers are also inmates with prior experience from the outside. they are selected by officer bryant. who strives to make the barbershop something special. >> i try to duplicate the same atmosphere that we would find in the street at any other barbershop. >> what do you get the dye for old men? he needs some of that. >> just try to keep the fellows at ease. have something to get off their chest or something to talk about, they can talk with me or the homies in here. that's what it's all about. to meet your barbershop peers. right here is barbershop three, baby. >> makes you feel a little human again because your hair

breaking out of rikers island. earlyisland.arly monday morning for coyotes were spotted running out of rikers island, possibly from over the bridge. i went in and chatted with people and they said they would have to debunk that. what actually happened is these coyotes, they live in this park behind me. and they come out every once in a while,while, roam around and take on the town like it is theirs. we spoke with a coyote expert who explained what this is all about. >> one of the reasons they can actually live in new york city, they can find pockets, places where we don't go or not frequently. >> last year i chased these urban coyotes all over the place. new york city, queens, and norwalk where i hadn't how close encounter with a coyote while i was chasing it. a rabid mother of two that had a dan in someone's backyard. i was eating in my currently coyote, maybe i wanted to be -- maybe at one of my sandwich. >> am chasing these coyotes now, but they want to know why this is happening. they seem to be appearing more and more. >>

failing thousands of veterans and cut off their benefits, congressing up mike riker, a veteran who hasdeclared deceased twice by the v.a., cutting off his benefits twice. >> and coming up, stov steve forbes. if you take multiple medications a dry mouth can be a common side effect. that's why there's biotene. it comes in oral rinse, spray or gel, so there's moisturizing relief for everyone. biotene. for people who suffer from a dry mouth. >> trump economics is a recipe for lower wages, fewer jobs more debt, he could bankrupt america like he has bankrupted his companies. david: did hillary really try to make the case this week he is better at business than donald trump? steve forbes is joining us. could hillary make that sale, somehow she is in a better position to judge good business sense as he is. >> she has as much cred bill tie there as she does on e-mail and servers, the clinton -- survived by donations, trump with real customer. david: put up numbers job creation, trump versus clinton. 22450 jobs, clinton foundation 486. no comparison. >> no comparison that is what you get with ba

. >> if you could survive rikers island, you can survive anything. >> those videos from the past.

diane sawyer, inside rikers island.'single jail complex in the country. 80% of prisoners are awaiting trial. the new jail commissioner has a radical plan to change the history of violence. >> reporter: over 415 acres, the sprawling humanity of rikers island. out of sight, often out of mind. officers. inmates. some of them kids who have walked in the door for the first time. had you been away from home before this? >> no, this is the longest i have ever been away from my mom. >> reporter: 17-year-old franklin. his father left when he was a baby. he's a child of the sprawling housing projects. the poverty. the gangs. the drugs. >> i don't want to live in the projects forever. i want to move somewhere far. someplace that nobody plans on going. >> reporter: like more than half the inmates, he's been held for a nonviolent crime, most of them involving possession and selling of drugs. what was the crossroads that got you here? >> like you said, one way, then go another way. i just went the opposite way of the good way. >> rep

which brings us to the new man in charge at rikers.o says he's come to change this notorious place. starting with solitary. commissioner joseph potts says there's no ed this kind of treatment reduces violence. and says remember, 80% of the inmates at rikers will eventually be back out on the streets. he wants everyone here to work for a different result. >> we can change people's lives. if you don't believe that, then you to say that these are throwaway people. so they're throwaways. their violent when they come in, they'll be violent when they come out. they'll be the next criminal to do 50 years for the next assault. because they're getting out. they're going to be your neighbor. >> reporter: ponte is drastically reducing the use of solitary confinement. perhaps his most radical idea, something that would be the get rid of solitary come plately for the most potentially violent population in the jail, 18 to 21-year-olds who are, by the numbers, the most difficult group to control. hasn't it been a third of the violence. >> a third of

at rikers island jail, a bakery churns out nearly 90,000 loaves of bread per week while teaching inmates how to bake. in many of the prisons profiled on "lockup," inmates have opportunities to learn skills that can help them find work on the outside. but all too many spend their time honing skills more suitable to mayhem and murder. >> i stabbed an inmate 12 times. over some dope in front of the chow hall. >> i took a knife and i stabbed him with it three or four times, until he was dead. then i butchered him with it. >> you find a piece of metal or something, file it down on the concrete. it ain't got to be sharp. it's just got to have a point. put your hand on it, do what you need to do. >> "lockup" crews are regularly exposed to the tools of a deadly trade. >> in every prison we film in, there's always a shank museum, a place where the authorities display all the weapons that are confiscated by staff. ♪ homemade weapons the inmates have made from bed springs or melted down plastic. i mean, they're truly ingenious. but they're deadly, as well. >> at california's san quentin state priso

at rikers island jail, a bakery churns out nearly 90,000 loaves

. >> rob back from have a vegacatn on rikers island. >> rob, we missed you. >> it is a prison, by the way. >> he allegedly did it. >> lucked out, huh, bro. >> why play the lottery when you can support my kids' school with this raffle.fornia we go we've , look at this, ontario, riverside and san san bernadino counties getting hammered. they saw four inches of rain in an hour, that's a lot. it caused the roof of a warehouse to collapse. in the mountains they issued a flash flood warning through tonight. this is the stuck weather pattern, this area of low pressure spin wheeling around it will move out later on today, by tonight we're looking at snow showers in the mountains and flash flooding across the northern rockies and drying out and windy conditions across wyoming. we have a severe weather threat when the systems gets into the plains, northeast colorado into western nebraska and kansas. also along the ohio river valley. later on tonight, the kentucky darby happening at 6:00 p.m., the storms should be north of that by then, the darby weather should be okay we hope. tomorrow another

you whatnot me to take care of you because my old man can't keep his ass out of rikers? that's your problem. not my problem. grab my cell and jacket and leave. i want to punch something. feel the blood pounding in my brain. got to do something. want to go somewhere. i don't go nowhere to go. >> strong, girl. [applause] >> so i'm going to read a piece of the introduction from my book, an essay collection that coors range of topics from systemic racism to why schools exist, to street harassment to what they eat, food. i put all of these things in a historical context and use my own story as the backdrop. i'm just going to read a piece of it. >> first time reading this aloud. one night i participate in a peaceful protest near downtown baltimore. my fellow protesters and i do have an immense amount of prepicket for protesters and organizers but after all the chanting and marching, darren will son, the cop who murdered brown, still went free, and cops in america still feel comfortable killing innocent black people. every time a black body falls at the hands of a rouge cop the

. >> rob back from have a vacation on rikers island. >> thank you, ron. >> which is a prison by the wayment> he allegedly did it. he allegedly did it. >> lucked out, huh, bro. >> why play the lottery when you can support my kids' school with this raffle. i want you to buy a ticket. >> how much are they? >> they're not cheap, but they're worth it. they're for the kids. california we go. we've got some rain. look at this. ontario, riverside and san bernardino county was getting hammered yesterday. there was a flash flood warning for ontario and saw nearly an inch of rain in four hours. that is a lot, even caused this roof in this warehouse to collapse, and we're still looking for the potential of flash flooding today. not so much in l.a. and san diego proper, but in the mountains they've just issued a new flash flood warning through tonight. this is the stuck weather pattern. this big area of low pressure kind of spinwheeling around. it will finally move out later today, and by tonight we're still looking for showers and some snow showers in the mountains and flash flooding maybe across parts