during shane bauer's investigation, winn was run by the corrections corporation of america, the nation'second-largest private prison operator. in one of the videos in the mother jones series, bauer explains how he landed the job, using his own name and personal information, despite his years as an award-winning journalist. for prison guard jobs. a week later, start getting calls. i was surprised how quickly it happened. how long i'm going to be doing this. i don't know where it is going to take me. i don't know what my job will entail. 20 14, shane bauer applied to be a guard at corrections corporation of america, the nation's largest -- the largest private prison company and used israel name and personal information. their kind of notoriously secretive. >> began around 1983. >> cca operate more than 130 facilities nationwide. >> the combined revenues of these two companies reached $3.3 billion in 2014. amy: shane bauer's story offers a never-before-seen look at the for-profit-prison industry, exposing conditions that include violence among prisoners poor , medical and mental health care

shane bauer spent two years in prison in iran accused of espionage. a facility in louisiana. we're talking with shane about what he saw firsthand inside the prison. shane bauer liz with us right now -- is with us right now. thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> nine dollars per hour, you moved from california all the way to louisiana for what many consider a very dangerous job. why? why do this? why was it so important to you to find out what was actually happening behind those walls? >> i had been reporting on prisons for a few years and it was constantly -- i was constantly coming up against walls. it was difficult to get information. we have public assess -- access laws. a lot of times prison so respond to this. this is especially true with private prisons run by companies . company records are applying the same way because they are not public institutions. i've seen reports occasionally of riots and violence, issues with staffing and medical care. in the 30 years that these prisons have existed, we haven't really seen a close