enormous inefficiency. but for the thousands of inmates incarcerated there, san quentin is home. it s where long days are spent in a small cell, where survival is as much a mental challenge as it is a physical one. there s a nine by six cell. now i can put my hand from here to here. and i can t even stretch my arms all the way up. you might say this is what criminals deserve, after all, this is prison. but for cellmates, russell johnson and christopher reid, for instance, it s hard time. it s certain ways you conduct yourself in here, too, you know what i m saying? let s say for instance someone wanted somebody wanted to talk to him, you know what i m saying, we got i ve got to sit down. you know what i m saying? or i might have to come up like this. or he can just turn to his side right here and walk this way. yeah. this is how you do it. you do your back that way.
you guys are getting too bold. my name is charles a. pelham. and i m originally from tampa, florida. you may wonder why i came to the golden state of california. well, it s like they say, you come here on vacation, and you go home on probation. charles pelham is completing a short eight month sentence for a parole violation. i m not an aryan brother. i m not a skinhead. i used to be a member of hari krishna back in the old days. the skulls let the rest of the inmates know they d better back off because i m not an easy mark. i don t hate anybody. i m too old for that nonsense. i had this put on my face when i was a youngster. i wanted to make a political statement. i also wanted to impress my girlfriend. but it impressed her the wrong way and she got rid of me. i m the bird man of san quentin. mike miller is at san quentin for commercial burglary.
here is what is happening, thousands marched in washington today in support of stricter gun control laws with many calling for a ban on military-style assault weapons. about 100 residents of newtown, connecticut, were part of that march. and six missile patriot battery weapons were there in turkey they were put there for border crossing from syria. more news later. now back to lock-up. due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. san quentin is a deteriorated penitentiary whose obsolete design is putting officers at risk and causing
talking and laughing and having a good time. if the yard goes silent, you know it s all bad. if something s going on, you ll feel it. it s just there to be felt. you can tell it and many people smiling, laughing. everybody is circulating. you know what i mean? you can honestly tell, people whispering and talking. this is how it goes. and those are the first things the signs. you come to learn in the penitentiary. inmates must be even more aware of their environment than an officer. for them, it s all about survival of the fittest. using your vibes and looking at the motions and the actions to people from a distance. something is not right. something is not right. so, we ve got to watch this here. the northern hispanics are our main gang here at san quentin. it s because they re better organized. if you look at the yard, it
inmates in cells that are stacked on tiers five high. at its best, this is an inefficient design. officers are always having to climb stairs. where are the elevators? we re the elevators. a human elevator. but at its worst, the design of san quentin s cell blocks expose officers to inmate assault. with the age of the building, the way it s set up, almost anything you do, you re in direct contact with the inmates. hey how are you doing? when it s time for the inmates to go to the showers or the dining hall, an entire tier is released simultaneously. and astonishingly only two officers are assigned to orchestrate it. fifth tier is going down right now.