Page 20 - Exercise Yard News Today

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...

Our most popular bed sets. plus, free standard shipping - but only through march 18th! ly at the sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just $699 when an inmate arrives at san quentin, he quickly learns that he needs to find a gang or a group with whom he can affiliate himself. even if he is not a gang banger on the outside, not belonging means going it alone. and, more importantly, a serious loss of protection. on the exercise yard, there are

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 like i see them. >> by 10:00 a.m., search teams had confiscated several homemade weapons, including sharpened bed springs and blades. the searc...

>> 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. they dont want to 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 like i see them. >> by 10:00 a.m., search teams h...

Sometimes even hidden compartments. >> when inmates are released to the exercise yard, they never know if officer borrego is looking in their cell, but when they return, there will be no doubt he was there. nothing will be overlooked. >> tubes of toothpaste, try to see the integrity of it, has not been broken. a lot of times theyll stuff stuff in it, try to retrieve it later. we have speed sticks, what we have to do is look all the way through to see they didnt secrete anything in the bottom. yo...

>> warden diana butler knows the importance of communicating with inmates. shes only 1 of 11 female wardens in california. and with 22 yea0 years of servi 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 br...

Castillo has been transported from a small cell in downtown mens central jail to a large dormitory with exercise yard at north facility. this is where he will spend the rest of his 180-day sentence. >> well, ive been here, you know, since wednesday. you come out here for two hours. i think its about two hours every day except saturday and sunday. so its -- its pretty cool, man. you know, you get to see the sun and the warm heat, you know. you dont get to see any green, but -- the only green you ...

>> that aint no problem. im angry because im not with my family. im angry because 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 completed an anger management program that deputy warden tony patterson arranged for him to take in his cell. >> he needs to grow up, immaturity, hes working on it. >> i got kids, man. everybody going to change one day. >> for wilson, change is essential. most of his sentence for assaulting...

My cameraman was walking around. and then i started hearing a bing, like bing, bing, bing. literally five feet away i see this man probably in his late 50s, early 60s, and i look down and i saw these two younger hispanic guys kicking him in the head, like, repeatedly, and his head was bouncing off this pole. >> what you saw here today was actually a battery. 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 y...

>> okay, get up. >> so officer mitchell, what just happened just now? >> basically, what we had, two guys, they wanted to horseplay, get a little bit heavy. if we allowed things like that to continue, whats going to happen is theyre going to start fighting, the possibility of other people getting involved. >> though the alarm call at corcoran ended peacefully, our cameras encountered a different situation at northern californias pelican bay state prison. >> one, two, three. >> just having a rout...