Page 64 - Cell Block News Today

Town in america. >> each one who lives here provides some professional service, more than just his job, like medicals here, doctors are here, emts, the farm, the cows might get out. >> indeed, angola not only has its own zip code, it also has its own golf course. if the b-line is the safest part of angola, death row is the most ominous. executions have been temporarily halted, awaiting a ruling by the supreme court. in the meantime, the cells have been filling up. >> how you doing? >> im blessed...

The attacker was identified and put in administrative segregation for questioning, but now the entire cell block is about to be searched for weapons. >> keep your eyes open. keep your ears open. do your normal cell searches, handle your business and be safe. >> a large team of correctional officers will search every square inch of their cells. first, all the inmates are removed. frisked for weapons then taken out to the yard. >> step over here. >> all right. all right. >> these surprise raids ar...

Do your normal cell searches, handle your business and be safe. >> a large team of correctional officers will search every square inch of their cells. first, all the inmates are removed. first for weapons, then taken out to the yard. >> step over here. >> all right. all right. >> these surprise raids are usually successful in finding weapons. but present a unique challenge for "lockup" crews. >> it is action. its real action. and the only thing that you have to be careful of you dont want to pis...

>> it is action. its real action. and the only thing that you have to be careful of you dont want to piss off the cell block. you kind of run the risk of alienating the very guys youre trying to extract stories and cooperation from. we always hope, if there is going to be a raid, that its toward the end of our tour at the prison. >> but tv crew concerns are the last thing on the minds of these officers. what they uncover can be the difference between life and death. >> its an old joint. you can ...

Placed on his movements, he still feels the attempt was worth it. >> aside from getting caught, i dont regret it one bit. id do it again tomorrow, if i could. next on "lockup raw" -- >> these are the worst of the worst. >> its aggressive, dangerous, violent, you know. >> in one prisons most notorious cell block, a gray haired man provides an alternative to violence. >> im a pretty harmless guy. its been a pretty friendly kind of relationship.

>> i love a good ghost story. and anywhere i go that it looks like it has the potential, ill always ask, do you have any ghosts around? in new mexico they had a lot in the old prison. >> when we shot at the penitentiary of new mexico, major dean lopez took us to the old main. a now-abandoned building that used to be the heart of the prison before it was replaced with a state-of-the-art facility. >> this is where most of the murders from the riot took place, was this cell block right here. >> the...

Seen too much. >> where did you find that? >> in a male inmates cell. theres no such thing as crazy in prison. you know, i dont know, maybe you got to be crazy to work here, im not sure. we come here voluntarily every day. >> since the 2000 riot, the level of violence at pelican bay has dropped considerably, but numerous assaults still occur. when they do, the squad must respond like street detectives, carrying all the tools necessary to process the crime scene. when we last visited the prison, ...

>> in the first year that i was here, we had six suicides. which was one after another, quite stunning and quite disconcerting. and when i looked at it, i found there were things we could do to improve our performance in suicide prevention. so weve implemented a variety of procedures in that regard, and they have paid off. the number of suicides has been substantially reduced. >> female inmates who are pregnant when they are arrested are placed in the prenatal cell block at rikers. >> i got aids...

Empower themselves and empower their lives by making a change, so that when they leave here, that they have acclimated in the right mindset back into society. dont get caught up into trying to build a castle in prison. thats not what prison is about. if you build your house in prison, you aint going nowhere. up next, we revisit rikers jail within a jail. the most dangerous cell block, known as cpsu. [ male announcer ] its 7am and steve is already thinking about tomorrow. which is why hes inves...

>> get on the floor! >> sure enough, the alarm sounds. prison wide, inmates sit down according to protocol. officers catch a man attempting to conceal his homemade slashing weapon. fortunately, a violent act was avoided this time. >> all right. its okay. >> in this cell block its the officer who is at risk during meal time. inmates housed here are considered too violent to be permitted to leave their cells. so its the officers who must deliver the food cell by cell. >> this is one of the most da...