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

robert cohen is a former medical director at rikers island. he now sits on the new york city board of corrections. >> they need to exercise and run around. we can't lock them up all day long and expect them to behave like anything approaching a model citizen or to be repenitent. it's hard to imagine that response being facilitated and enhanced by being treated buying a log. >> reporter: last year the board of correction issued two scathing report, rikers use of solitary confinement as punishment for teens and the mentally ill. they are locked in six foot by eight foo cells for 23 hours a day. they wake up at 6:00 a.m. you can sign up to exercise for an hour alone in this chain link cage. adult suicides among detained juveniles happen while they're in isolation. the educational programs which they have allowed the media to cover. but during the past year, the senate for investigative reporting made dozens of requests to make the adolescent solitary confinement units. officials would not let us see those units and defined to speak with us on cam

also ahead tonight, a story about life in prison, and in isolation, at new york city's rikers island,where teen inmates are regularly held in solitary confinement. >> there's so many people that have been in that cell and screamed on that same gate, it smells like a bunch of breath and drool. i can not make this up. >> woodruff: and it's friday. mark shields and david bro

you looked at rikers island in new york, and you're looking at other cities to see who they're doingight perhaps. what are you finding out? >> well, you know, one of the things that's interesting about the department of justice weighing in is that one of the biggest studies that they've done is that they found that the juveniles who were detained in juvenile facility, half of the suicide that's occur in the facilities happen while they are in isolation. so there have been studies done on adults that find that when you put them in isolation, deprive them, they come out and are more violent. it actually doesn't help the jail system. it actually makes things worse because you don't -- you're not actually -- it's not lake a time-out. and i think a lot of people tend to think, well, what's a little time in your room. it's just -- you can cool down. and you know, but most facilities -- what we're finding is that because there's nothing federally that exists, very few states have -- only six states have some kind of ban when it comes to juveniles and juvenile facilities. other than that --

county, miami-dade and new york's rikers island. unique se

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. >> you know, in 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. i mean, they're truly ingenious but they're deadly as well. >> at california's san quent

we report on teens prosecuted as adults, then sent to solitary confinement at new york's tough riker's island. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. we'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks. for all of us here at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> this is "bbc world news america." >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation, giving all profits to charity and pursuing the common good for over 30 years, nd unio