bailed out comes to us. >> get arrested in the big apple and you're almost assured of a trip to rikers island. a 400-acre penal colony on the east river, directly under the flight path of the laguardia airport. the island is home to an average of 14,000 inmates in ten different facilities. >> we patrol the meanest precincts in america. when our officers go to work, everyday, they know everyone they run into is going to be a criminal. every criminal who has committed the worst act -- >> bring all your property with you. >> is coming through here if they're coming from new york city. >> they come off of the streets. they're tired, they're dirty, they're hungry. and you saw everything there, whether it was somebody who was from wall street who was charged with fraud or whether it was the lowest of the low of the drug dealers. >> we get between 80 to 90 admissions a day, around the clock, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 356 days a year. >> what size you wear? >> 8 1/2. >> guess what, 10 is your lucky number. these are air giulianis. you can have them, my brother. >> the city never sleeps. >> don y

. >> in the heart of new york city is one of the country's most notorious jails, riker's island. its history has been filled with violence, its facilities overcrowded and deadly. we first visited riker's back in 1999, when the commissioner of the new york department of correction was bernard kerik. his get-tough on crime policies have continued today. the new york city department of corrections says the result is a remarkable 90% decrease in violence at riker's, which has led to a substantial reduction in the inmate population. five years later, our cameras went back inside rikers to see how this once infamous jail has re-invented itself. >> i've got friends here. i have acquaintances. you don't come here to make friends. >> i know i should have at least 80 something arrests, close to 100 arrests, and i've been here at least about 30 or 40 times. >> it is not a pleasant living space. we're not comfortable. we make ourselves feel comfortable to ease the fact that we're in jail. >> the inmates call rikers the rock. the penal colony. iraq island. the guards call it the meanest precin

. >>> a brawl last night at a new york city riker's island jail complex, four guards injured along witheveral inmates, we're not sure what started the fight. >>> and would you want to buy items once owned by former boston crime boss james "whitey" bulger? you may be able to soon. the u.s. marshal service planning to auction jewelry and other items taken from bulger's beautiful santa monica apartment after his bust. wasn't that beautiful, actually. >>> as the holiday shopping season kicks into high gear millions of people are struggling with shopping for health insurance on the obama care website. health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius, though, putting out her version of consumer-friendly tips for individuals, trying to navigate the problem-plagued site, just how truthful are these tips? jamie weinstein is the senior editor for "the daily caller" and joins us to talk about it. tip number one, let's put this up on the screen, it says the product is popular so avoid the lines and shop healthcare.gov during off-peak hours, morning, nights and weekend, gee, i don't know, last

next thing you know, you'll be doing life in rikers island. - well, that's better than looking like the bing island. - that place doesn't exist. it's not a documented island. cartograph much? - [whistles] - how do i look? - actually... you look great. they steered you right. i guess it does make sense buying from a father-son team. you know what? i'll take one too. - everyone, now that we have all this energy, why don't we move the copier into the annex like we've always wanted to? - whoo! - frickin' a! - so long, noise! - one, two, three! [rip] - oh! - and we have torn up the carpet. oh, we're gonna be in so much trouble! - wait! it's beautiful. hardwood. i always knew it was down here. i just never dreamed that i would actually see it. - tear up the carpet! - whoo! - kill their fish, and they still hire me. that's how you do that, baby. y'all ready for this? ♪ uh uh-uh-uh ♪ uh uh-uh-uh ♪ uh uh-uh-uh - ♪ everybody dance now - yeah! ♪ uh uh-uh-uh ♪ uh uh-uh-uh - kevin, move. i can't pull up the rug if you're standing on it with your rhinoceros feet. - well, i can't stand here if you pul

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 stabbed him with it three or four times until he was dead. and 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 handle on it and do what you need to do. >> "lockup" crews are regularly exposed to the tools of a deadly trade. >> every prison we film in, there's always a shank museum, a place where the authorities display all of the weapons that are confiscated by staff. homemade weapons the inmates have made from bed springs or melted down plastic. they're truly ingenious but deadly as well. >> at california's san quentin state prison, we saw how s

so he spent three years in the rikers island correctional facility here in new york before the chargesf lbj, instead of existing in the true state of equality, many of rus living in a police state where brutality and violence are committed against american bodies conveying that some of those bodies still don't belong. joining me from washington, d.c., is eugene o'donnell, a professor of law and police study at john jay college, also a former officer at the nypd. at the table, alan jenkins, the executive director of the opportunity agenda, also raul, valerie, and maya are still with us. officer, these stories, they do begin to feel like they're indicative of a set of police forces around the country who just seem incapable of doing the work of protecting and serving and instead are in this almost military relationship with communals. am i get eing that wrong? >> you're not. i think the police are just overused in america. the criminal justice stm is too broad, too much power, too many crimes, too many offenses, punishments are too harsh and bluntly police departments are not as aggressi

at rikers island jail, a bakery churns out 90,000 loaves of bread a week while teaching inmates how to bake. in many prisons profiled on lockup, inmates have opportunities to learn skills that can help them fiend work on the outside. all too many spend time on skills leading to mayhem and murder. >> i stabbed an inmate. >> i took a knife and stabbed him with it. three, four times. until he was dead. and then i butchered him with it. a piece of metal. it doesn't have to be sharp. it has to have a point. put a handle on it. do what you need how to do. >> lockup crews are leg rarly exposed to the tools of a deadly trade. you know in every prison we film in there is always a shank museum, a place where the authorities display all the weapons confiscated by staff. home made weapons from bed springs or melted down plastic. they're truly ingenious. but they're deadly as well. >> at california's san quentin prison, we saw how sophisticated some inmate weaponry scan b rry. >> this is formed by ground up match heads. inmates insert a wick. the inmate takes a plunger, pokes shrapnel in the open e

county, miami-dade and new york's rikers island. they represent a real cross section of lif

while in riker's island are plotting to kill several people that they thought were witnesses in the money laundering case against them. so they been indicted on those new charges. so did i think this is an interesting example of the opportunity that can be prevented by the criminal conduct, again, sort traditional criminal conduct that is often used by people who either are or have ties to, may be related to terrorist operations. that's it. >> douglas, thank you very much. [applause] >> our final panelist is luz estella nagle who is a professor of law at stetson university college of law in st. petersburg, florida. she specializes in international law, international criminal law and national security law. prior to assuming or teaching responsibility she was a judge in colombia. when she came to the united states she served, i'm delighted to say, as one from university of virginia, as a law clerk to the supreme court of virginia. she has an extraordinary background, including working as an undercover agent, and in addition to that she is currently an external researcher in the strategic st

as head of the notorious rikers island jail, he ran one of the largest jails in the country, and he'sited with turning it around. kerik went on to lead the new york city police department during 9/11, and with his career on the rise in 2004, then president george w. bush nominated him to be secretary of homeland security, but that came to an abrupt halt when kerik pled guilty to tax evasion and lying to the white house. he served three years in a federal minimum security prison in maryland, and he was released back in may. we spoke to kerik exclusively earlier this week, just days after his home confinement ended, and i began by asking how he's doing. >> i feel pretty good. it's all a transition. it's a pretty intense transition to come home. >> talk to me a little bit about daily life. what was it like for you? >> there isn't much you can do in prison. my daily life consisted of reading. i think i read over 300 books while i was there. i did a lot of writing. i exercised a lot. >> you thought a lot, i would imagine. >> you do a lot of thinking. >> did you mix with the other inmates?