(intense music) - When somebody cross me, I'm gonna play
tic-tac-toe on they ass. - New details about
the death of an inmate at the Southern New Mexico
Correctional Facility, Javier Molina, was
attacked and murdered by fellow gang
members last night. - Knowing that the
SNMers killed that guy, it's pretty scary. - This is the actually one that they can do damage
with, okay? - I know there's no such thing as a perfect officer but I
wanna be pretty damn close. - I feel
like it made me feel like I didn't know how to do my job. - Prior to this I
was a DJ at night I've got a job to do. - This is where I live dude. - This is where I work, so
you gonna follow my rules. - Exactly, work, live. - I'm not one of
these other officers that you like to punk around. If they wanna mess with
me I can make their life just as hard as they
wanna make mine. Hey you don't [beep] tell
me to shut up, no, no! Lets go guys get back to your
units! - Violence
is increasing daily. The threats are more prevalent
now than they've ever been. - Everyone comes
to the point where they hit a boiling point they act
out, stabbing somebody or attacking a guard. - I'm trying not to
go to rock bottom but, every page on the
calendar that flips, I get closer and closer. - This job can take a toll
on a person very quickly. It's a high stress environment where one minute
you're walking around, the next minute your
responding to a life or death situation. The stress factor
pushes individuals to the point of almost breaking. - Yeah! - Nine. - Yeah, hold on. Taking a shower in,
I'll be right there - Face that way. - PNM, the penitentiary
of New Mexico, is a true predatory
management institution. It is where we assign the
very worst of the worst, our most high risk inmates. - Level 6, this is
a dangerous job. You not guaranteed
to make it home. None of us really,
you know what I mean? You know what I'm saying? Correction officers, inmates,
cause anything could happen. - The majority of the
people in here are like awe [beep] the CO's. So if he disrespects me, of course I'm gonna
handle the business and I'll stab the
[beep] out of him and that's just
what has to happen. - These inmates are the
most dangerous inmates in the entire state
of New Mexico. We're dealing with murderers,
um drug dealers, rapists. High-ranking members
of the SNM here. You don't know what these
inmates are capable of. - Anybody's capable of murder. It's just if you're
pushed to that point. My dad was not a very good dad, so I did brutally murder him. - Put the leg
shackles on you now, alright? - I got a two by four
and a butcher knife, and those were the weapons
I used in my crime. Will I ever purposely
murder again? No, but if my back
is against the wall, I might do it again. - We deal with these
inmates every single day. So when inmates threaten us,
we gotta take it seriously and take every threat
like it's the real deal and that it's going to happen. - Two! (intense music) - Would
you come up here? (mumbling) - We asked the inmate to shower and he made a smart remark
and when we asked him why he was being disrespectful he just kept being
disrespectful. - Tuck your shirt in,
tuck your shirt in. - When an inmate says
something like that, you gotta take it seriously. This inmate has assaulted staff and he did assault a lieutenant. We don't take threats lightly
when an inmates threaten us. There's a chance that
he'll try to assault or kill an officer. (intense music) - [Cohen] When you walk him
out, you can feel he's trying to walk real fast to pull you. - He's tensing up. Those are all things we
where taught in our academy that when an inmate does that, you nip it in the
butt right away. (intense music) - [Lilly] Female present. - A lot of times you can tell when there's something
suspicious going on in a pod or in a dorm. The inmates start
acting different and, right away you're alert so
you take extra precaution. - I don't know what
he did with it. I'll ask him, hold on. You said you had the mail? - No but I'll find
out right now. - Mail is a huge way for
inmates to get contraband into our facilities. Suboxone, heroin, you name it. - I'm afraid to answer that. - Gangs power is
fueled by drugs. Drugs lead to money,
money leads to influence, influence leads to greater
numbers in our gangs and with that comes greater
power, greater control over our prison system. That mail, it's an
extremely important threat that we have to look
into on a daily basis in the prison system. - If you wanna
just lay them out? - Do they have to be in order? - Na, it doesn't
have to be in order. We'll be right
back with the dog. We'll let him search it. If he shows any kind of
indication or whatever, we'll go from there and we'll
check whatever we need to. - Okay. - Alright! - STIU stands for Security
Threat Intelligence Unit. - We investigate
any gang activity, any drug activity that
goes on in the facilities. - STIU are the people
who help inform us. Who spend their time,
identifying, understanding and mitigating the
threats that come to our prison system and
I'm grateful for them. - Our primary mission is to
understand how the gangs work and to disassemble them. The gangs major source of
power would be drug money and drugs and if we can
stop the drugs from coming in the prison, then
we can stop the gangs. - Here! Close this first so
he won't run away. We allow the rookies
to help us out so that they can understand
what they're looking for, on the line. This is Jimmy, he's
pretty friendly. - [Lilly] Yeah. - He knows that where
gonna work so he's excited. See, check! Check, check! Oh, he took a second whiff. There's odor. (intense music) - Hey you too,
don't work too hard. This is my first time at
the North at the level six. I just got off a 12 hour shift
so, I'm going on 16 hours. - What you guys
gotta do right now? (mumbling) - What do you guys call it? - Yeah, cool. Let's hope I don't drop
any, this I never do. - [Purto] You'll be alright - I've done it once
but it's alright, I'll just take my time. Top tier, right? - Yeah. - It's usually ideal
to pair a rookie with a veteran,
however in this case I know this unit
pretty well already so, that surely could
help him a lot. Israel seems to be a
pretty hardworking guy. Coming from the level
two to the level six, it is a completely
different animal. - I'm not used to doing this - So yeah, it's going
to take some, some adjusting. Do you have an
extra tray on you? - I have three. Hey, can the neighbor
have his meal? - Yeah he can have it. - Okay. Level six is a lot of movement, you gotta do showers,
you gotta feed them at the same time, and you
gotta take them out to yard. And you're working a
lot around six people, or four people it
depends on the unit. It's very different versus
the level two facilities. - Level six is an extremely
dangerous facility. I've been attacked by
inmates here before. It's extremely important to
have a partner you can rely on. You are each other's life
lines when you're on the floor. You wanna know that
the cavalry is coming if something were to happen. (mumbling) (mumbling) [beep] - Inmate Phillip Latham, he has a lot of histories
for assaulting officers, he's known for that. He does have the capacity
to be able to injure and or kill somebody. (intense music) Just recently inmate
Latham has been coming out on tier time. - These programs
reducing our use of segregation are
extremely important. Our mission is to
return people back to our neighborhoods
better than when they came to this prison system. There's gonna be some reluctance
on behalf of our staff but we will not allow
it to effect our resolve on doing the right thing. - You want me just
to strip them all? I do know that Phillip
Latham does have a history of assaulting COs and I know
he's a dangerous individual. Any former gang member
or active gang member is a threat here. I treat them all equally,
they're all a threat to me. Thank you. Huh? - Okay. - How come? (distant chatter) - It's not my regular post
so I'm not familiar with him and he knows that I'm a rookie. You get tier time,
you're the only one? - I was definitely
uncomfortable with it. I don't wanna do it. (yelling on radio) - You get tier time,
you're the only one? - I was definitely
uncomfortable with it. I don't wanna do it. (voices on radio) - West pod. Some of these level six
inmates, they don't have nothing to lose, they're
doing 900 years plus. You know how easy it
is for them to hurt one of our officers? They're at a level six
facility for a reason because they're a threat. - Tier time, tier time - I just expect somebody
to at least attempt, to get your daily duties done. If you're gonna take this post, you've got to help me out. I mean, otherwise
don't take the post. - I don't care
about the program. I'm more concerned with
my safety and the safety of other officers. Being a rookie, I don't
wanna make that mistake and be too comfortable. - They're letting out a high
risk inmate in tier time. It's not up to an
officer to decide or deviate from policy. Programs are not optional. It's part of your
reform process. If a said inmate is supposed
to go to whatever program he or she needs to go to,
that inmate has to go. - As a rookie
officer its very important not to become overwhelmed. We are a reactive, not
proactive department. The officers have to allow
this inmate the opportunity to have tier time. - Check, check, check! Oh he took a second whiff. There's odor. If you wanna pull these two out. - These two? That one and this one. Put them up here. If you wan go
through some of these to see if you can see anything. Hold it up to the light. You could see that there's
nothing back there. - During the first
few weeks on the job. I have made mistakes - We need to keep
track of the metal. How many did u get? - During the inventory in
the wheelchair program. I miss counted a part, if
an inmate would have turned that into a weapon it would
have made me feel horrible. It makes me feel like I
need to be extra observant. - [Maldonado] That's
glue, can you see it? - Yeah. I've always wanted
to work with STIU because in the prison system
they're like the detectives and they also work with the FBI. - The whole reason
I picked these two, I don't know if you noticed
it, when I ran them down, he kind of went back. He kinda caught a whiff. - When I was a kid I
remember I saw this movie about an FBI agent and
she went undercover and ever since I saw
that, I loved the idea and I wanted to be an FBI agent - He didn't pin point it
because the odor's not strong. If its super strong
he'll sit down. And then that's when
you know, its here for sure but because he
did the little glace, we just check it. - Getting a chance
to work with the STIU does get me closer to my goal. It's important for me
to find something just to make a good
impression on STIU. [beep] - When you walk him out,
you can feel he's trying to walk real fast to pull
you, he's tensing up. Those are all things we
where taught in our academy, that when an inmate does that, you nip it in the
butt right away. - Hey, let me
talk to you guys real quick, front door! - [Cohen] That's why
I pulled him back 'cause I was like hey. - Anytime when you're escorting
an inmate from point A to point B and this inmate is
pushing you and pulling you, being verbally
defiant towards you. That right there, for a state
correction officer is a huge, huge indicator, that
something's about to pop off. That inmate could be
reaching his boiling point. - No sudden
or aggressive movements. [beep] - Don't
even look at me dude. - You have to keep
your composure you have to let the inmate
know who's in charge. It's huge for a rookie officer,
regardless if you're scared, not to show it. (mumbling) (voices on radio) - Anytime a inmate goes to
one of those committees, he can lose commissary,
he can lose his visits, he can lose his phone calls,
his recreation privileges. - What's going on? - You tell me, you're the
one that has a problem obviously with these officers. - Well that's why
I'm asking you, that's why you're here right
now so we can talk about it. So what's your problem? - So what was said this
morning, what happened? - Discussion, or
was it an argument, or were you being threatening,
what was going on? - Did you
threaten a staff member today? - What did you say? - That's the thing,
you're not complying. She's told you about this- - Hey, I'm talking to you. You can talk after. - I've told you, last time. So the thing about it, no,
you're not going to go to yard, especially when you're
being threatening you're not going to. I'm not going to jeopardize
anybody's safety because of you. So your call. - Well, then that
doesn't matter to us. - We'll let you know
when we're done with you. Do you understand that? You don't run, we
tell you what to do, you don't tell us what to do. - Hey, hey. - Don't be
turning towards me man. [beep] - We'll let you know
when we're done with you. Do you understand that? You don't run, we
tell you what to do, you don't tell us what to do. - Hey! - [beep] stop
right now, do you understand? Stop it right now. Get those leg irons on. Do not... no sudden movements. Don't turn towards any officers and follow every direction. Do you understand? Do you understand? - Out the door. - I can't really say I was
thinking, I just kind of acted. I just reacted to the situation. - Hold on,
hold on, hold on, hold on. - Things like that go from
zero to 100 right away. You get that gut feeling,
you know when something bad's about to happen. Once you get that gut feeling
you know you just boom on instinct. Seeing a grown person
carried out like that, that's not supposed
to be like that. When you act like to control you that's what
we have to do to control you. - Go to your
knees, go to your knees. - Quit resisting. Knock it off dude. Knock it off! - You guys step
out for a minute? [Officer] The leg one... - Hey stop, stop. - We moved this
inmate out of our pod because it's a
conflict of interest with us three having
an incident with him so we moved him out
of the incident area and put him in another
unit with other officers. - Over here
at level six if we have to use force we do,
but we don't like to. - That one inmate, when he tells
you he's gonna do something he's gonna do it, so you
gotta always be ready to go at any time, because
if you're not ready to go then you're gonna
get your jaw knocked in. That's just the way it goes. [beep] - I wanna be part of the team. I wanna be a good partner
to the people I work with, but I don't agree with
some of the policies. - Alright, just do your job. - It doesn't only put me at
risk, it puts a lot of people, that have a lot to
lose, a lot of officers, a lot of staff members and I
care for their, for them too, they're my partners. You ready for the shower? - [Israel] Yeah, yeah. - Corrections in general
is not for everybody. Even more so the level
six is not for everybody. There's a lot of
officers that really can't handle the pressure. - Yeah. - The CO brother hood is only
as strong as its weakest link. When I see other officers,
struggling to do their jobs or struggling with
the task at hand, it just motivates me
to lend a helping hand. - [Purto] We always
wanna bring each other up instead of down. - [Israel] You want me to
start with the other showers? - [Purto] You could do the top
tier and so on and so forth. - I feel like I always
have to prove myself because I am an older CO. I'm 35 years-old, this
is my second career but it feels like my first. Originally I'm from
Guadalajara, Mexico. I moved to the states in
1991 but when I moved here, my parents actually smuggled
me into the United States. So it's very uncomfortable
for me to talk about it. Everything was difficult
for me growing up, like getting a license when
you're 16, I couldn't do that, I didn't have a social
security number. I wanted to go straight
into the military, straight into law enforcement,
I couldn't do that. I definitely feel like I
got a late start on life. That's one's gonna have to wait. But I'm okay. It was important for me to go
through that difficult stage of my life and kind of
live in the shadows. Now I'm just kind of grateful. I feel like my life started
the day I became a citizen. Just having this job, it's
like my first normal job, you know? I'm grateful for the department,
I'm glad they take chances on people like me. But, you know, it's a
risky, it's a risky job. Is it worth the risk? It is worth getting paid
less than 16 bucks an hour to risk your life. I mean think about it,
what if I hand you 16 bucks in all one's right
now and I tell you, hey let me stab you
real quick, once. (eerie music) - If you don't learn
how to navigate yourself through this profession,
it will eat you alive from the inside out. You have to be disciplined. This job isn't
meant for everybody. I mean, we work, you
know, twelve hour days, sometimes sixteen hours with
very dangerous individuals. I mean it takes a toll. - Come on man,
they got two more transfers to do besides yours. You'll have to wait
till tomorrow if you - Four long years
and it ends today. - My name's Jason DeCarlo,
I got a four-year sentence for armed robbery
and kidnapping. - DeCarlo
started Heaven's Devils gang, which is a white
supremacist gang. - Heaven's Devils,
uh we have goals. Our plan is to eventually
get noticed world wide. This is more than just a prison
gang or something like this, this is a reaching
out for my future. - [Purto] He is very defiant. He's always trying to test you. He's always talking
trash you know. - You don't come up to
me, especially a rookie, I'm an inmate. That's a cop, that's a line
you don't cross with me. Things like that I'll
play into and wait till they're walking me back and
beat him up jus, justt for show. - He's not gonna be
your fine citizen. He's gonna do what he
thinks is necessary in order to feel comfortable. - That's my last
piece of prison art. I can't wait to tattoo
that on my girlfriend. Walking out after four
years is gonna be difficult, it's going to be pleasure
and pain at the same time. It's gonna be great to
be able to finally eat what I wanna eat, go where I
wanna go, do what I wanna do. And at the same time,
it's gonna be difficult because, you know, everyday
in here repeats itself. It's rec, showers,
same old, same old. Out there it's what
am I gonna do today? I'm gonna try and go legit
for my first year, two out. And you know if I cant get, you
know back on track then, I'll make what ever decision
has to be made at that point
in time in my life. (intense music) - Lets go! (mumbling) - That's it huh? The rest you guys can do. Alright, you already know. Peace, Baby! - Even on an inmate's
last day in prison, they're still here in prison, I'm still a correctional
officer, all the same rules apply. The fact of the matter
is, is this is level six and until you reach
your final destination you will be leg ironed
and belly chained and treated as a
level six inmate. - 65% of our inmates
get on to the streets. They still owe
homage to their gang. Those same gang members
that we release, they're gonna create more crime,
and do more heinous acts of violence on the streets and our young
correctional officers, these eighteen nineteen
year old men and women, have to be prepared not
only inside the prison, but outside the walls too. At any given time these inmates
may decide to assault them. Anybody that wears a badge. I don't care who you
are, you're a target. Not only do they have to worry
about driving to these gates and working inside a
prison but they have to worry about what goes on
outside on their days off. That's scary. (intense music) - That's suboxone, probably
our biggest, biggest issue. Suboxone is so little, that's why these
guys do it over here. - [Lilly] Yeah. - [Maldonado] They
replace the heroin. - The reason that we're
hyper-focused on suboxone is because it is kind
of a hyper-threat for our prison system. It upsets the balance
of power in our prisons. So our gang culture
has greater influence because they have
control of suboxone. - Do you know what
suboxone looks like? - Uh-huh, they showed
us in the Academy. - Suboxone is a
drug that is used to help wean heroin
addicts off of heroin. It comes in a pill or a little
strip underneath the tongue. You guys have all seen those little Listerine
breath mint strips that you place on your
tongue and they dissolve? Same thing with suboxone
only it's a orange in color. - Right now big thing
is probably cards. Any kind of holiday
cards those are kinda what you specifically
look for because depending on what season it is,
like around Thanksgiving, there's a lot of orange
envelopes so it's easier to for them to hide it. A lot of times what they
do is they'll double papers and then they'll either
tape it or glue it, and lot of times
you can hold them, you could see through them. They'll cut holes and
put suboxone here. - On the edge. It looks funny. Oh yeah, there ya go. - [Lilly] Wow. - [Maldonado] It's a party. - Oh yeah, there ya go. - [Lilly] Wow. - It's a party. That's a sloppy job. What's this off of? - [Lilly] This one. - He's a well-known drug
dealer, he's an SNMer. He's gonna be upset because
this is money that he lost. - Aw yeah, you can see it. - [Lilly] Yeah. - [Maldonado] That's what
happens sometimes you get lucky sometimes you don't. Oop, there it is. This is a good one,
found another piece. - It was pretty exciting to
bust suboxone in the mail. Now I know where to look for
it and what it looks like. - I'd say about
four strips total. A good one. Each strip is $100. If you break it down into
hits, they say you can get about 30 hits out of one strip. That's $20 a pop. So you do the math that's
about 600 bucks for one strip. So it's a lot of money. I mean it's a
lucrative business, there's people that pay
rent off of this stuff. - There's a lot of drugs
inside of the prison already and we can't stop all of it. But just finding a
little bit at a time, I mean it's, it's it feels good. - It's a good day today. - We are building a
case against the SNM 'cause now they've
demonstrated violence outside of prison by trying to go
after our own administration. - He's probably
already sold some of it so that's where
you have an issue. - A CO on the front line
is very important to STIU. And there's only a handful
of STIU officers so the more people that
we have eyes on this gang and can give us intelligence
on a regular basis, the better case we're going
to build against the SNM. - Thank you, I appreciate it. - Yeah, thank you. - [Maldonado] We're good. (intense music) - 10-20 minutes from leaving
and still wearing handcuffs. They always got to put those
[beep] on you one more time to remind you of
where you're at. (intense music) - My day of release, I'm
still caged up, like a animal. Look at this. Can't even put your
arms in neither way. - Decarlo seems
like the same whiny, needy inmate that
he has always been. - I always showed you respect. - Jason DeCarlo I believe
will always be Jason DeCarlo. I think he will do what he
feels is necessary in order to survive. Probably, there's a good chance
that we'll see him again. If I saw Jason DeCarlo along
down the road somewhere, in a grocery store, I
wouldn't be surprised if he tried to assault me. It's kind of
frightening, you know? It makes you realize, hey,
you I better be mindful of what I'm doing. - All right Jason,
good luck to you, alright? - So you know, that's
just one of the many risks that come with this career
and it simply are you made out to deal with that. Are you willing to accept that. - Alright Decarlo, happy trails. - Duty calls here
at the penitentiary, whether people are coming
in or being released, it's back to work. - The stress and the dangers
of the job usually gets to people. Dealing with inmates and
felons and the threats and the behavior. There's always a point where
its make and break for you to stay or go. Especially in the first year as rookie correctional officers. For some people it's
just overwhelming, and they just can't do it. - I've been through a lot of
difficult things in my life but, I mean, this job
will definitely test you on any given day. I'm from San Diego, California. I left my wife behind,
she stayed back home. I try not to tell her
too much of what goes on in my job but she
has an idea what I do and I know she's worried. See if she's awake. Hey, how you doing? - Yeah, that's good. - Uh, a little bit,
just a little bit tired. I got hit with overtime
and had to work at a unit where I didn't
really wanna work at. - They're starting
a new program where they're letting inmates out
that really shouldn't be out. But they're kinda testing
it out and it's just, it can be unsafe at times. - Little stressed
sometimes, tired. I'm doing alright
for the most part. - It is what it is for now,
gotta just make the best out of it. - Yeah, I'll give
you a call later. - Yeah, I wish I was there too. Miss you already, I
can't wait to go home. - Yeah, I'll call you later. - Okay I love you. - Bye. - I'm lucky I have
a very strong wife that drives me a
lot and pushes me. She's like if we're
gonna be together, we're gonna follow the
law and follow the steps you need to take to get legal. And if you do get legal,
she told me your ass better do something with it and I love that
about her you know. She's just like,
forced me to change and nobody's ever
done that with me. As soon as I talk to
my wife she reminds me of the goal we
need to accomplish and how everything's
gonna be okay. - Our prison system is going
through a huge transition. It makes for some very risky,
very difficult circumstances. It's not for the weak anymore
than it is for the timid. - [Israel] Doing this
job can bring you to your breaking point. I've been through
a lot in my life so I mean it takes
a lot to break me. - This job, it can get to you. It takes a very strong person
to do this, physically, mentally and I do feel
that I am one of them. So, I really don't see
myself going anywhere. - With any situation
that happens I feel like it helps me
grow, it helps me learn. Finding drugs in the
mail, it was a reminder of why I'm doing this and
why I love to do this job. - I got out and I'm
back on you know, a stupid parole violation. From level six straight
to the free world is just a rough adjustment. It's from one
extreme to another. It was just such
a quick adjustment that my thinking
wasn't there yet. You get out and you're
just like, what is this? I was just in a cell by myself and now I have the
world around me. It actually, it's like
a shock of cold water. (dramatic music) - Some guys gonna try to take
advantage of the rookies. They're gonna fall for it. - Our job is to not get caught
and do whatever we're doing. - I'm a convict, Imma' try
to get away with what I can. You can't blame me for trying. - There's a difference between
an inmate and a convict. These individuals here at the
penitentiary of New Mexico, Southern, Western, Central,
they're not inmates. They've been doing
time for a long time. They're convicts. They will con you every day - It's
like a chess game. These guys, you gotta
think two steps in advance. Are you smoking? - I'm like, I wanna
catch these guys. - I worry that I'm
gonna get conned. Do you know who has the phone? - Nobody else gets the phone
till that phone turns up - [Lilly] They probably lied
to me, just cause I'm a rookie. I should have known better. - I have a great interest
in gang suppression. Apparently there was
a hit on my life.
