Page 11 - Exercise Yard News Today

Importance of communicating with inmates. shes only 1 of 11 female wardens in california, and with 20 years of service, she knows what to look for. >> one thing you develop when you work here is how to read the inmates. if you go on to an exercise yard, a lot of times they will have magazines inside of their jackets, and, of course, that is to stop any potential violence such as stab wounds or something. and if they appear nervous, then you know youd better bring some other officers over and kin...

>> i got a bad anger problem, know what im saying? angry because im in prison. im angry because i aint with my family. im angry because of the way they treat you, the things they do to you. it aint never a happy day in prison. >> at the time of our visit wilson had just completed an anger management program, that deputy warden tony patterson arranged for him to take in his cell. >> he needs to grow up. immaturity. you know. but hes working on it. >> i got kids, man. everybody going to change one...

Expected to be up at 6:00 in the morning when they go to the exercise yard together. they do exercises together in cadence. thats one of the rules. you have to. you dont have a choice. you have to participate. what theyre told to do is expect to have a fight any time the cell doors open, with their weapons readily available. you notice when the cell doors open, whatever inmates inside that cell will walk to the cell door immediately to see why the doors open. theyll look up and down the tier to ...

And, more importantly, a serious loss of protection. on the exercise yard, there are no bars keeping rival gangs apart, only a desire to carve out their own place in the sun. >> this is the lower yard. and the inmates segregate themselves out here. and the reason being that the gangs want it that way. john gladson is a veteran officer at san quentin, with 19 years of experience observing yard politics. this has helped him to fine tune his senses for predicting trouble. >> sound is a big thing in...

His weapon, he finds a clever place to hide it for quick access. >> its an old joint. you can hide stuff anywhere, like the i-beams up here. im going to check these. its just a beam. you walk under it every day. somebody is walking to the chow hall. a lot of guys know where it is. but they wont tell because they dont want to get killed, get hurt for ratting. i guess you cant reach up there, can you? ill get them. >> you had to point that out, didnt you, partner? >> i cant help it. i call them li...

Wind the group, youre expected to be up at 6:00 in the morning when they go to the exercise yard together. they do exercises together in cadence. thats one of the rules. you have to. you dont have a choice. you have to participate. what theyre told to do is expect to have a fight any time the cell doors open, with their weapons readily available. you notice when the cell doors open, whatever inmates inside that cell will walk to the cell door immediately to see why the doors open. theyll look up...

They were stomping his head. he was pretty messed up. >> the inmate who was attacked survived because of a quick response by staff on the yard. his assailants were sentenced to six months in fulsoms administration segregation unit. some of the most violent gang attacks have taken place here at california state prison corcorans security housing unit, or shu. we visited the shus now vacant exercise yard, which has been the scene of some of the prisons most brutal violence.

♪ >> i can see why fights went on in that exercise yard. because it was literally like a cage. there was nowhere for you to go. and if you really wanted to take someone out, that was the place to do it. its literally -- like the most extreme ultimate fighting thing you would see. >> correctional officers showed our cameras how they quell the violence with an arsenal of their own. one that includes nonlethal and lethal weaponry. >> get down! get down! >> the first rounds we fire are wood blocks...

If i do, yeah, ill do it. >> with a 99-year sentence hell have plenty of time to build more dollhouses. >> i can go to the parole board in 2019. will i get it? i dont know. but theres a chance. >> in the exercise yard at california state prison corcoran, we met an inmate whose art is inspired by his life. >> tell me your name. spell your last name for me. >> my name is kevin moore, m-o-o-r-e. >> what were you convicted for? >> im doing a parole violation for sales of marijuana. >> the yard is an...

>> our cameras search for any signs that the trouble is spreading outside to the exercise yard. >> so this is an actual alarm because nobody is waving us off yet. something is going on inside the building. >> what might be happening? >> probably an assault on someone coming out of their cell. some type of cell fight or slashing. >> officers subdued six inmates involved in the fight. one of them was slashed with a homemade weapon. fortunately, this incident was nothing like the deadly events of f...