when our producers traveled to alaska, they quickly realized they were about to enter a prison unlike any other. i would argue, spring creek correctional center is probably the most beautiful prison in the united states. we re located adjacent to resurrection bay. we have mountains. we have a river behind us. we have a glacier above us. the setting is just perfection. but inside the walls of spring creek, natural beauty gives way to the harsh reality of a maximum security penitentiary. we re at the end of the road for the state of alaska department of corrections the worst behaved prisoners end up here. those who pose the greatest threat to other inmates and staff are segregated in house one, the lockdown unit. basically, minimum rights. minimum, they re in their cells for 23 hours a day.
when our producers traveled to alaska, they quickly realized they were about to enter a prison unlike any other. i would argue, spring creek correctional center is probably the most beautiful prison in the united states. we re located adjacent to resurrection bay. we have mountains. we have a river behind us. we have a glacier above us. the setting is just perfection. but inside the walls of spring creek, natural beauty gives way to the harsh reality of a maximum security penitentiary. we re at the end of the road for the state of alaska department of corrections the worst behaved prisoners end up here. those who pose the greatest threat to other inmates and staff are segregated in house one, the lockdown unit. basically, minimum rights. minimum, they re in their cells for 23 hours a day.
guys that have nothing to lose, and they would rather die trying to escape than to stay here. brushy mountain has had a long history of attempted escapes. and i guess this would be the most maximum security penitentiary in the state. michael king, serving a life sentence for murder, managed to break out of another tennessee prison in 1994. i escaped from a secure compound, northeast correctional. i packed myself up in some boxes and shipped myself out. i was part of a warehouse crew. i ve taken yoga for several years, and i just squeezed myself in there. in a very cramped position. brought some water with me and everything else. about an hour and a half before they shipped me out, they put me in the back of the truck. then they took me to north carolina. they caught me while i was trying to get out of the truck. king was sent to brushy mountain s max unit. this is supposed to be the
but inside the walls of spring creek, natural beauty gives way to the harsh reality of a maximum security penitentiary. we re at the end of the road for the state of alaska department of corrections the worst behaved prisoners end up here. those who pose the greatest threat to other inmates and staff are segregated in house one, the lockdown unit. basically, minimum rights. minimum, they re in their cells for 23 hours a day. on the day we wanted to interview him, house one inmate, antonio robertson was in an especially foul mood. [ bleep ], [ bleep ]. [ bleep ]. calm down. every one of you [ bleep ], [ bleep ], i m going to start with, you guyed are [ bleep ]. we need more. what do you want to know? robertson, serving a 60-year sentence for murder has spent
in here. one of the first things i noticed walking in the yard in kentucky was something i never thought i would see in a million years on a prison yard. that s all of the cats. they were all over the place. nobody really berz exactly when dozens of stray cats began to adopt kentucky state prison as their home. and as our crew discovered the inmates were more than happy to adopt the cats as pets. pets when they re babies, watch them grow, that s your cat. it was really amazing to see all of these, the guys in the state s maximum security penitentiary, with cats climbing all over them. they had them up on their shoulders.