- [CO] With all
our gang violence here, it's more dangerous
now than ever. - Put the (bleep) weapon down! - [Reporter] The Albuquerque
Journal got word that three inmates were plotting to
kill secretary Gregg Marcantel. - SNM is highly involving
to where the threats are more prevalent now
than they've ever been. It makes my job even
more difficult to prepare these youngsters. - Do you understand me? - [All] Sir, yes, sir! - My name's Andrew
Martinez; I'm 18 years old. I found the corrections
department at a job fair at Harrison Middle School. - [CO] There's
some times and days where you look at somebody and
you think to yourself, you know what? This individual's just
not gonna make it. - [CO] You better step back. - [CO] You better step back. - Cuff up; cuff up. - That's actually the
first time I've ever had an altercation
with an inmate. - Me being put
in traffic, I was just stuck. Yeah, I'm small, but I
wanted to prove myself inside the facility, like
work around the inmates. - I've been here with
him 10 months so far. Here at the six, we
have the most violent inmates, murders on other
inmates, gang members. You gotta not show
that you're scared. - Let's go
guys; go into your unit. (intense music) - I don't run from
nobody; I don't run from nothing on two legs. - That's one thing
you can't be in here; you can't be afraid. - Sooner or later you've
got to go face your fear. That's what we do every day. - Either you're gonna
make it or you're not. Once you show you're
weak, you get singled out. - If you forget where you
are, you become complacent and forget that these
individuals that you work with will harm you. That's when you get hurt. - Up in
the morning 'fore dawn. - [All] Up in the
morning 'fore dawn. - Hungry
as hell before long. - [All] Hungry as
hell before long. - Pain! - [All] Pain! - In my legs. - [All] In my legs. - Pain! - [All] Pain! - In my back. - [All] In my back. - Pain! - [All] Pain! - In my head. - [All] In my head. (chanting) - You follow me, Martinez! Is that hard to do? - My name's Andrew
Martinez; I'm 18 years old. I was a pretty middle-class kid. I grew up in a
gated neighborhood. I was always interested
in law enforcement since I was little. I feel that I could have an
impact on inmates' lives and change of heart and mind to
be true and better citizens. - You're at the
position of attention. Why are we moving? Where do those hands go? Where does the hands go? Put your hands up! You know, with the heightened
gang activity we have in the state right now, the SNM
and other gangs, it makes my job even more difficult to
prepare these 18, 19 year old men and women. Why do you keep
moving, Martinez? Do not move again,
do you understand? - Yes, sir. - Cadet Martinez, great kid,
good heart, good person, but as of right now, he's
scared of his own shadow. I need to push him hard
everyday to make sure that he knows where he's going and
what he's about to deal with everyday of his life. What do we do at PT formation? What do you do at PT formation? Do you know where you're at? Or you keep messing
up, Martinez. What did I tell you
yesterday at PT formation? Squad two and four does what? - Moves to the center. - Which side? - To the right. - Why didn't you do that? - I forgot, sir. - You forgot? - Yes, sir. - Do it now. Everybody moves over one step. When you walk into a unit full
of gang members, you have to have a confidence in yourself. If you have zero confidence,
they're gonna eat him alive. They'll tear him up. (serious music) - Do you leave it open or
closed most of the time? - Okay. Come on guys, clear the hallway. - Nah, man; find
something to do, man. - You know we gotta
clear the hallway. You know we gotta
clear the hallway. I find being a CO way more
stressful than any job I ever done. - I'm from San
Diego, California. Before I was a CO, I was a DJ;
I would pick up my DJ gigs, and I would DJ at night. Bars, night clubs. That was a great job, but
you know, I was 34 years old. I feel like I wasn't
growing as a person anymore. My wife just finished college,
and she started her new job, so I was like, you know,
what am I gonna do? Where's your ID? Can you put it on? So, I applied to work
here at the penitentiary. They took a chance on me,
on somebody different. See, I feel like I need to prove
myself everyday at the job. You guys can do me a favor and
just wait inside your units for now; I'll appreciate it. Which one is this? Top one? - We got here and they
wanna shake everything down, you know. Just mind your own
business; stay out of everybody else's (bleep). They moved this guy over here
and he just barely got here. He hasn't even
been here a night. I don't respect him at all. - Whose stuff is this? - If it was mine, it wouldn't
be there; that's for sure. - Whose stuff is this? - He's cleaning his
house; it's all wet. - Is he? Oh, okay. - The new CO's, for
them to come in here, not to be confident,
and at the same time, they have to tread lightly
because we're dangerous. - I've seen CO's get smashed
a lot, get in fights. The potentiality for violence
is definitely a very real thing for them to deal
with everyday, just like it is for us. - Behind these walls, you never
know what's going to happen. I could reach out and sock
you right in your face right now, and what? - Right after I
graduated the academy, I was put on the traffic post. It is part of the job, and
it is an important post. But, it's not what I went
through the academy for. Here in Southern, today's
my first day working inside the facility; I'll be
working with the level twos. I wanna be able to prove to
not only the other officers, but to myself, that even
though I'm petite or small, I could do anything
that I wanted to do. - Hey, let's not fool ourselves. In New Mexico, every one of
our prisons experiences a gang influence, but Southern New
Mexico Correctional Facility specifically holds the greatest
majority of active gang members that we're aware of. - The SNM, they've committed
multiple homicides at this facility; just because these
inmates are walking around, they're not behind doors 23
hours a day, does not mean they're not dangerous. So, new officers that come in,
they need to learn real quick on how to talk to people. - Count time! (laughter) - These inmates have done
every crime in the book. You're six? We have murderers, gang members. I've heard a lot of stories
about female officers getting attacked, raped, but just the
fact that they're inmates, I don't want to treat them
like if they're bad people. You're 40? - Yeah. - Growing up, we were never
really close to my dad. He was in prison, but I don't
think that had a lot to do with my decision to be a CO. Working here, it's
different than I thought it would have been. I just felt
everybody's eyes on me. It is scary. - Want to help me
get this guy up here? - Hey, make sure
you guys pat 'em all down. - Over here at
level six, we do have some very high ranking SNM
members, actually. They're the guys
running the show. Killings, drug deals, you
name it, it does not get done without their blessing. - Syndicato De Nuevo Mexico. The gang's power
is fueled by drugs. In order to stop that surge
of drugs into our prisons, we need to shake 'em
down to make sure that that threat's mitigated. - You watch there and
lift your foot, bro. - You just
gotta be on your toes and check everything. - The
past 10 months, it's been a pretty rough road; I've learned a lot. I've made mistakes;
I've learned from them. - Alright Arturo, you're gonna
go to the right, alright? - I've came a long way; I now
know that I set my own limits, and I truly believe that. - Let's check, like, the
toilets 'cause sometimes they'll have like
a string inside the something attached to it. One of my most favorite things
about this job is doing the shakedowns and finding stuff. It lets me let the inmates know
like, hey, I'm watching you; I'm on my toes. You can hide stuff wherever;
I'm gointo find it. I do know there's no such
thing as a perfect officer, you know, I want to
be pretty damn close. Okay, good; clear. - STIU is the investigations
unit within the Department of Corrections. We investigate gangs inside
of prison as well as trying to find drugs in the facility. SNM is a very dangerous,
well, well, well organized, hard to break gang. In the state of New Mexico,
we have a war on our hands. - Our job just to stay on 'em
and know exactly what's going on with not only the
group, but the individuals within that group. - Cordova! - Yeah? - Did they? - Thanks, sir. Thank you. - Want to get the
target; go down range. Hold it with your strong
hand right here; never let go of the pistol grip. Alright, go ahead and
load up four rounds. Remember, you gotta hold it. No, no, no. - Men will stress
during the trainings; it's a very difficult time. - Now, move your axis back now. - During the academy, there is
a couple times it crossed my mind to just drop out. - All your rounds
are hitting here. That's a wad; more wads. You're gonna have to
concentrate every time we shoot this, alright? - Yes, sir. I'm worried about failing. This is my first time
actually using guns. My job before this, I was
working at Walmart just as a cart-pusher. Pretty basic job, you know. Just going out in the lot
picking up carts all day. - Your first course to fire
from the 15 yard line will be one round; shooter, standby. Up! (gunshot) - In this career and this
profession, not only do you have to be physically fit, but
you have to be mentally fit. Either you have the courage
to run towards danger or you don't. - Good job; 87%. - Thank you, sir. - It's hard to judge the
exterior of somebody, you know, judge the book by the cover. It's all about what
they have inside. This is not Walmart,
this is prison. (shouting) - A woman like that in this
kind of environment, you're gonna have negative
results; period. - Hey. - 'Sup. How's it going so far? - It's good; something
different finally. - You like it here
or over there better? - Here. - (laughter) Yeah, there's
too much going on here. - I was gonna ask you
about the shakedowns. If you have a chance,
can you go help me? 'Cause I haven't
really done shakedowns. - Yeah, I'll show
you how it's done. So, everybody has their
own way of, like, doing the shakedowns; I usually
just start at the top. Start here; start going
through the stuff. I found a syringe
underneath here one time. - Oh, wow. - It's crazy. - D'Angelo, I think
he's a really good CO. I mean, it seemed like he
knew what he was doing right off the back. Do they put stuff in here? - I haven't found
anything in there, but.. The first thing I thought
when I saw Lilly was, like, dang, this girl, she's
brave for coming into a career like this. - Do you usually do
these by yourself? - Yup. - Oh, wow. - I felt pretty protective
of Lilly; these guys are 200 plus pounds. Lilly's maybe 100 pounds, so
they've got some size on her. - I heard that,
and I know Spanish. - What did he say? - Pretty eyes. - Oh, write him up. - Working at Southern New
Mexico Correction Facility as a female, usually the inmates
will engage her more on a personal level. (laughter) - Need something? - Lilly, the inmates are
probably going to think right away they can intimidate her. - Can you guys go to
the day room for us? - But it's gonna be up
to Lilly to make sure she wants to do her job and
write them up and make them accountable for their actions. - He's the trouble one, huh? - This whole dorm
is troublemakers. - The inmates
see me just as a female. If I'm gonna be able to
make it, I need to make them respect me. - Whose
stuff is this? - He's cleaning his
house; it's all wet. - Is he? Oh, okay. - I don't consider myself
tough, but I'm not afraid to be tough if I need to be. Which one's your bed? Which one's your bed? - Right
here; go for it. - The top one? We'll shake yours down next. - Nah, I got it;
since I need to calm down, I'll work on yours. - What's that? - This is our house, and
they're just visitors. The rookies, they just try to
come in here and power trip. - As long as they respect
us, we'll respect them. You talk to me like I'm a
child, I'm gonna come at you with attitude. - Everyday thing; don't
even do that (bleep) on a regular shift. - What's that? - You don't
even do that when they're not even here. (laughter) - Jeremy Graves, he seems
bothered by me shaking down somebody next to him. We weren't even shaking
his stuff down, and he's starting
to get aggressive. I always remain scared
when I'm here, you know, 'cause anything could happen. We're outnumbered all day long. But as going through
a corrections stand up for myself
and speaking up. Which one's your bed? - 141, go for it; all day long. Stay there all day. Please, all day, so you can
actually say you got your paycheck worth it today. - Cuss at me again,
I'm gonna write you up. - I didn't cuss at
you; I stopped myself. - I got a job to do. - Well, then go do your job,
and leave me alone, please. - I am gonna do my
job, but stop cussing at me. I have zero tolerance for that. - Well, I got zero tolerance
for you doing this (bleep). - That's my job. - Then go do your job,
and leave me alone. - You're coming up to
me, so you need to walk away; I'm not gonna walk away. You need to walk away. - This is where I live, dude. - Okay, this is where I work,
so you gonna follow my rules. - Exactly, work, live. - Alright, let me finish
this one and we'll be writing you up next. - For what? Yeah, nothing. - My dad, he was a STIU
captain when he worked here, and that's what I want to
do when the time comes. Climbing up in the ranks. - This inmate
was probably selling meds, or trying to get high off meds. - I feel like it made me look
like I didn't know how to do my job. And here we go check this
room, and then someone goes in there 10 seconds later
and finds something. - Is that what was in there? - Yeah. - Some of these SNM members
put a hit out on staff members in the Department of
Corrections, and like, today, I would have left that room,
that guy still would have had the nail clipper and
the razor in there. Razor could be altered as a
slashing device; nail clippers can actually cut steel. You can cut out a piece of
metal out of one of the rec cages outside, and he could've
brought it in to make a shank or a sharpened instrument. - I didn't see
none of that (bleep), dog. - SNM members, they're
very dangerous. If I make mistakes like this,
it could ultimately get myself or someone else killed, so. - Okay. - Alright, gentleman, do me
a favor; make one straight line right here. I talked about every day
you show up to work, it's a job interview, right? - [All] Yes, sir. - Not only for the
administration, but They will be looking at you
today; they will engage you. They know that you're rookies. - [All] Yes, sir. - There's one week left
of this academy class; the goal is to basically show
them what they're up against on a daily basis, face to
face with these felons. This is kind of a
testing ground for them. Alright, let's go. Let me ask you a quick question;
I walked right in the same facility years ago. Who here, and be honest, is a
little bit nervous right now? For you, Mr. Martinez,
this is it; right here. This is what you'll be
walking into every day. You'll have your days,
consecutively, where things just pop off. You're gonna see people get
beat up; you're gonna see people get stabbed. You're gonna see people
do some bad things, rape. It's gonna happen. - The academy for me was very
difficult going through the mental stress that
the instructors are - You ready for this? - Yes, sir. - Alright. - There's a lot of times
that you want to give up, and you're just like, you know
what, this isn't for me. I want to go home. But, I feel that I am ready
to handle all these situations that could possibly
be thrown at me. - We got some vests coming, so
we're gonna put some vests on you real quick in the event
that there's an incident today. They will walk into
pods where inmates are out; we're outnumbered. Just the other day we had a
gang hit; an inmate here at the level five stabbed
another inmate 37 times. So, it happens daily. - We're literally days
away from graduation; I need to see if they're ready
to deal with this everyday. Alright, C Pod. This is it, ground zero. (indistinguishable shouting) Hear 'em yelling at
you, mocking you? Get used to that, alright? - The first pod that we walked
into, it was pretty loud. Everybody was going a hundred
miles an hour, banging on the doors, knocking on the doors,
just making a lot of racket. It was pretty intense. - I got a job to do. - Then go do your job,
and leave me alone. - You're coming up to me,
so you need to walk away. I'm not gonna walk away,
you need to walk away. - For what? - Let me finish this, and
we'll be writing you up next. You just keep talking;
I'll pile them up. Keep talking. Jeremy Graves, we weren't
even shaking his stuff down, and he's starting
to get aggressive. - Go do your job, please, so
I can put my (bleep) back. Just CO's trying to (bleep)
with you every chance they get, you know? Doing everything they can
to make you flip out on 'em. Get a write up, you know. Man, you're gonna disrespect
my Bible like that and throw it on the floor? Check that (bleep);
that's my Bible, man. I don't disrespect that (bleep). - That's the third time
I hear you cuss, man. So this is gonna
lead to a write up. After the shakedown, I'm
gonna on next and write him up for using foul language. There'll be disciplinary action;
they'll probably take away somebody's good time. If he has a particular job
here, they can take that away. That's up to his case manager. - You didn't find
nothing except some trash. - I did lose it for a quick
second, and to me that was defensive mechanism. - Another
lovely day at the PNM. - Fear was a big
part of my reaction; I did catch myself losing my
temper a little bit, and I didn't like that. I don't like to let
inmates get the best of me, and he almost did. He was close. - O pod! - Walking around with these
inmates unrestrained, you're just scared; your mind's
going a hundred miles an hour, so you don't really know
what to do; you're just dazed because you don't know
what could happen. These inmates are convicted
felons, and they are dangerous. (bleep) (bleep) (laughter) - Mr. Martinez, the way
that you handle yourself... If somebody's talking
to you, don't ever look down at the ground;
look 'em in the eye. They're looking at you. You have these really high-risk
inmates that will assault you; let them know
you mean business. - I'm sorry, sir. -
Let's walk through. - A lot of jobs in society,
if you make a mistake, oops, I'm sorry. You know, I don't know;
maybe a copy machine broke. You take a shortcut in this
line of work, and you do something that you're not
supposed to do, that could be your life. That's how highly emphasized
our training is at the academy to make sure they understand
this, to make sure they're mentally ready for what
they're about to embark in. - The chances of me failing are
50/50; I didn't end up doing too well, but I consider
myself optimistic. Just hope that instructors
realize that they can't judge a book by its cover,
and everybody deserves (indistinguishable
talking and shouting) - When the inmates whistle
or catcall, it makes me feel disrespected. Gentleman! - I'm a rookie, and I
may not know everything. But if there's one thing I've
learned about this job, it's when an inmate disrespects
you, you have to put your foot down and draw the line there. - Hey [beep] CO! Because if one does it, all
the other inmates are gonna start to disrespect you,
so it's kind of like a snowball effect. 10-9. I'm helping Lilly
with a shakedown. Where? (shouting and whistling) - Ooh la la! - The inmates think they
could get away with anything; it does make me feel angry
because I'm not an animal for them to be catcalling
me or anything. - You
alright there, Lilly? - I'm almost done. - They get mouthy
with you, or no? - They felt intimidating; it
feels like you're locked in prison with the inmates. I just wanted to get out of
there; it was scary knowing what they are capable of doing
and knowing they could do it again. - It what it is, though;
it's part of the job. - Today we went and
shook down Q pod. STIU had gone in and found
contraband in the high-ranking SNM member's cell. - What are
we gonna do with you? - It could be something he's
mad about, so we just gotta stay on our toes and be careful. (muffled speaking) (bleep) - Looking for what? - Hey, we have to get him out
of that cell now 'cause he just broke his whole entire
tote, and it's shattered all over the ground,
the plastic tote. See it? When he had returned from
yard, his cell obviously didn't look the way it did. Then we had to take him out
because of that tote that he broke could be used as a weapon. - Maintain the visual. - Dude,
just chill out, dude. - It could be very dangerous
extracting him because he broke that tote in his room; could
be used as a weapon towards us. He's in that element with
all his other gang members. (bleep) - The SNM, they act as one;
if one guy's gonna get crazy, they're all gonna get crazy. Before you know it, you
have everyone going off. - I can't; I've gotta keep
a visual on you since you broke your tote. hose incidences whenever
someone's getting upset, especially a gang
member, things can escalate really quickly. (bleep) - Turn around to be restrained. Come to the door to be
restrained right now! - Dude, just chill out;
this isn't gonna like fix nothing, dude. Just chill out so we you
could fix this faster. - Dude, chill out, dude. - Like, this isn't
gonna change nothing, man. (bleep) - Open four! - The lesson that I had
learned today was to be more thorough with my searches. If I have one single doubt in
my mind that there's something I missed, I'm going to check
it; regardless, I'm gonna double check it. - Corridor! - Hell,
maybe we became a little complacent today. - I am very competitive; my
competition is in the mirror. I compete with myself; I wanna
look in the mirror everyday and be proud of what
I see, not ashamed. At 10 or 11 months on the
job, I still consider myself rookie; to me, you're not
really a veteran until you've experienced certain things,
until you've passed certain points, until you've earned
certain respects from both sides, both officers
and inmates. - From the moment I moved
here, it's always a lot of self doubt. I feel uncomfortable; I don't
know what's gonna happen. Everything's a risk; you know,
my wife's waiting for me. It's just everything. I'm paying rent here;
I'm paying rent there. It's a lot. - The inmates, they pick on me. It made me realize that
I can't trust these guys for anything. What did I get myself into? - Officer
Andrew Martinez. Telling from Albuquerque,
New Mexico, going to Central New Mexico
Correctional Facility. (applause) - Oh, no, sorry. - Okay, you be safe, and
keep your eye on the ball. - Thank you, sir. - God bless you, man. - Graduating this academy is
just the tip of the ice berg, just one step. As an 18 year old man and you
got 48 inmates that you have to account for and
their lives, that's a whole different step. Whole different world. - I think the things that
I need to work on is more confidence, but I feel that I
can build my confidence with the inmates and the mental
stress to be a role model. - This is it; I was
hard on you, right? - Yes, sir. - It's gonna be 10 times
harder in there; remember that. - Yes, sir. - Good luck. - Thank you. - Fear is something
that everybody feels. Once you can get over that,
and you understand who you are, and you're confident in
yourself, you're the command presence, you can make
command decisions. You'll be successful. - Get out of my (bleep)
face, mother (bleep)! - A little boy like me with
64 convicted felons, are they gonna take me seriously? I look like I'm 12 years old. (bleep) - When I heard Timothy Yanes
coming out on tier time, I wasn't sure really what
to think 'cause he's a death row inmate. - There's a lot more women
working here, and there's a lot of pretty women that work here. - That's not trash. - What do I look
like, your maid? They want to mess with me? I can make their life just as
hard as they wanna make mine. - I want them to see me as
a CO, not just as a female. They need to respect me
just like any other CO.
