(chains clinking) - I'm my own man. (inmates screaming) - [Francisco] P-pod! - [Officer] Let's go
guys, go to your unit! - That means
Syndicato, New Mexico. It's a prison gang. Hey this is the gangster
unit right here, Gangland! - We house SNM, the LC,
the Burquenos, the Surenos. These felons grew
up on the streets. - I grew up in a
gang-infested neighborhood. Followed in the big homies'
footsteps basically. - They have a different
law they live by. They will stab you and
they are told to do so. - I Shanked one of the CERT
team members in the neck. I proved myself to know
that I wasn't no punk, that I could do something. - You know I'm very Aryan,
I love what I live for. Whoever watches
this can know it. - It's a whole realm of
life that most of these rookie officers don't
even understand. It's going to take them
a while to absorb it. 90% of the violence that
these rookie officers are going to be dealing
with is gang violence. Subsequently,
they're going to get caught up in that violence. (tense instrumental music) (inmate mumbling) - My girlfriend,
she's in Oregon. And it is pretty difficult,
just her having our baby. I haven't met my child yet so we just wish we had
each other there. This job offers great benefits. I'm doing this for them. Recently we've been
getting all the guys that have been fighting
ever since I started so we get all the
misbehaved convicts. Basically, I'm a
first responder, and I've been since I started. Anytime something pops
off around this facility, around level 5, I'll be
able to respond to it. So as a first
responder, we monitor gang members at all times. - [Officer on radio] P-98
control. - [Inmate] Got nothing
better to do huh? - From up in the control room, we can see into the pods
and out into the rec yard. - See how this guy's signing? - [Francisco] Yeah. - He could be signing to them
to um, cause a diversion, then all of the sudden
these guys start fighting. So you gotta watch
stuff like that. - They're all capable of
doing something dangerous. Some guys are in here
for murdering somebody. If he had no problem hurting a
stranger what makes you think he's gonna have a
problem murdering a rival gang member you know? You always have to be
on high alert here. (inmates screaming) - [Francisco] P-Pod! (inmates screaming) (officers shouting) - [Officer] Let's go,
let's get out of here. It doesn't matter
get out of here. - [Voiceover] Get on the floor! (coughing) I just need to remember
back to my training and deal with it like
Instructor Bell told us. - I will get this all the
time, "I can't breathe, "I can't breathe, I
can't breathe" (panting). Breathe in through your
nose, out through your mouth. Just relax, calm down,
understand that it's gonna burn fight through it, all right? - So as of right now, we don't
know why the fight started, and from what I learned about
the gangs in here so far is they don't like to talk. Basically the gang members
here operate by their own set of rules, their own code
of ethics, their own laws. - It's in its own society
with its own rules, we govern ourselves. You hit me my brothers
going to kill all you guys. That's just the way it is. Correction officers,
they don't have no part of what goes on. Something's going to happen,
it's going to happen. - I came to prison
for "putting in work" for the neighborhood. You put in work for
your neighborhood, it's a sense of pride, like
you're proud of being in it. (muffled radio chatter) - Are you filming me? This is my first time in
the level 6 facility so I don't know how it's ran. So we'll figure it
out when it comes. What is this right here for? - [Sgt. Ford] Control. - Oh, they can look down? That's bad ass. - Here at the level 6,
we deal with the highest custody level inmates here
in the state of New Mexico. - I completely understand
why some of the inmates make the choice to
be part of a gang. Maybe their parents aren't
there, maybe there's no family. When I was in foster care,
I got into it with some bad people, and I almost
have been in the situation the inmates are in, I could've
been there with them. But I straightened my ass out. There's a bunch of
different guys here. Different gangs. Some white supremacists. - I'm back here right
now for staff assault. When I don't get along
with them, we fight. - Inmate Jason Decarlo
has a very long history of assaultive behavior on staff. Anytime he gets the chance,
he will assault an officer. - It puts me in a position
where I face extra time. But sometimes at the
time it feels worth it. Sometimes the rookies
they come in and "Oh well you're an
inmate, you broke the law, "so I don't have
to respect you." And that's why staff
assaults occur with rookies because they're not
taking us seriously. - So they're telling me
you're part of a gang. - Who said that? - Nobody. - Yup, that's right, nobody. - Exactly. So what do your
tattoos mean, anything? - They mean things to us,
on this side of the gate. - Can you show me
what they look like? - Iron crosses, I
have a swastika here. Schutzstaffel bolts,
SS, 100 percenter. - What tattoo shop? - (censored) Ink. - Oh I've been there,
that's where I got this. - Ink is a big thing in prison. Mine identifies me and
my ink is very Aryan. Take my shirt off, they
know, ok that's a white guy, he runs with the whites. When you guys start
working in this profession, you got to be able
to identify tattoos. Criminal lifestyle, their
tattoos all mean something. They're committed to
what they put on them. - What cell you in? - A12. - A12, we'll be there. - You don't come up to
me, especially a rookie, acting like you know me,
acting like we're cool, or we're gonna be
friends, I'm an inmate. And that's a cop, that's a
line you don't cross with me. Respect in here
is a loaded word. It's what it is out there
but 10 times deeper in here. - Right and I understand
that and you know he's lucky that uh I don't have more
time because things like that I'll play into and then wait
'til they're walking me back and beat him up
just, just for show. - [Varette] Officer
Mangin, how you doin man? How's everything goin?
- [Mangin] I love it. - Officer Mangin, he's a legacy. 'Cause his dad worked at
central, his mom worked here, I worked with his mom, those
two people are awesome. Okay, would you talk to
officer Mangin first? Would you talk to him
and see if he can get it? Officer Mangin. My grandmother actually, she
was at the women's facility. She did 37 years and
retired from corrections. So its in my family and
I just feel like it's what I'm supposed to do. - We're all brothers here. When we put this uniform on,
we gonna walk in together, we gonna walk out together. We're here for you,
I'm here for you. - Yeah I know and
I appreciate that. And I'm here for you in return. I'm anxious to cuff an
inmate for the first time due to the fact
that I almost failed that part of the academy. It almost made me lose
my chance at being a CO. - I worked with Ms.
Mangin, his mom. And I knew his dad a little bit. It's kind of a family
business for him. He's born and bred
to do this job. Everything that he does is
gonna be under a microscope. He has a lot to lose. If you have some type of
injury that you cannot participate 100%, you need to
go talk to Karen Andrew or-- - You go talk to
Karen Andrew or, get checked out. People are looking at you
coming in to be a leader. Don't ever make excuses. - We're going to break
down some gang politics. They're organized and
have bylaws and structure and have shown a
propensity for violence. - My dad was part of the
gang unit here at PNM. He let me know a lot about
the gangs that were here and what to be careful of. - Right before I came
over here to the academy, kind of a new rookie officer, taking an inmate
out of his cell, didn't put the
handcuffs on right, the inmates slipped the
handcuffs, blows were thrown. Officer got punched two or
three times in the face. You will get injured. Listen up, I'm
gonna come and grab. I'm grabbing here,
grabbing there. See how easy that was? Quick, did you get that? Today they put it all on the
mats, we give them a test. - [officer] Hook
him up over here. - And if they're not
there, they go home today. - Oh I feel great about
it, I'm ready to graduate. I feel like I can do a job
just as good as anybody else. - Go ahead and put your
hands behind your back. Bend at the waist. Chicken wing. - Did I put them on wrong or no? - [Mangin] Okay. - [Instructor] Show me again. Turn it this way. - [instructor] Which side are
you supposed to cuff from? - Huh? - [Instructor] What side are
you supposed to cuff from? - Oh [beep]! Just leave it. - [Instructor] Hey he's
gotta retest on one thing. - [Aaron] Who is it? - [Instructor] Mangin,
just his rear cuffing. - His rear cuffing? Oh we never want to
send anybody home, that's not what
we're here to do. But again we have standards, if they don't meet those
standards, we send them home. Why don't you do this. Why don't you both go
into that room in there. Go into that weight
room, review your notes, and practice and
practice and practice. - [Mangin] Failing DT,
flunking out of the academy, it's not something
I ever imagined. - Look at me, Mangin,
you've got one shot at this. One shot only. If not, you go home man. and then you're gonna come
out, and you're gonna test out, do you understand?
- [Mangin] Yeah. - Hey, relax, relax. - A little worried
that man, why, why can't I get this? My nerves are a little
bit, they're getting to me. - This week I think that you
know, just the pressure of it. Him coming up, he was just
doing a few things wrong. If you're out on the job and
you place handcuffs wrong on somebody, they slip the
cuffs, you're in a fight. Everything that we teach
in here has to be 100%. If not, things can
go bad real quick Mr. Mangin, are you
ready to do this? - [Mangin] Yes sir. - This is your last shot. All right? Let's go. (tense music) - Put your hands
behind your back. Come across. This hand right here - Put him over here. All right. You did it, congratulations. He had one chance
to do it before we actually released him. Uh he went back, he came
out, performed it perfectly When you leave here,
these tools right here, these, these are your
best friends in there. If you can become proficient
with anything Cohen, this is what you
need, all right? Congratulations, you did it. - It's all mental,
that's all it is. It's just like when we
work with the inmates it's gonna be all
mental as well. But I overcame it. - I see a lot of
different gang tattoos in the level 6 facility. I like to look at
their tattoos and figure out what they mean. Jason Decarlo has more
tattoos than anyone I've seen. How's it going man? - I'm trying to learn. - I'll be back. I think I upset him by
asking so many questions but its all part of
the learning process. I have to be very careful around the gang members
in the facility, or it could be my ass
not walking out of there. - It was good seeing
the warden there. Cause I mean he's
a very busy person. Someone's who's actually
running an entire penitentiary. - So just a 101? - Yeah, and it was between the, Romero and uh-- - [Warden] Balderama? - [Officer] Yeah. (door clanks shut) - [Keith] Like I said, I'm
gonna get you on camera. - What network is this? - Oh You guys don't want
none of this right here, man. It's going down. - Syndicato Nuevo Mexico is
that security threat group. It's one of the bigger,
more heavy hitter prison gangs that we have. We actually have it to where
all of them are together in two pods. - I'm housed strictly
with my gang. And the people that
are here with me, we're all here for each other. When you're doing time they're
also doing time with you. We're all here putting
in work for something, and there's consequences to it. You gotta pay with your life. - Stabbed him over 40 times in a tight pattern
right around his heart. And this was a high-ranking
member within the SNM. His own gang, the
SNM, took him out. Gang politics changes
with the wind. For one reason or another,
that gang will turn on you. And when they turn on you,
they're going to take your life. - Prison life, as probably
all of America knows, is [beep] up. especially this lockdown
level 6 type [beep]. 23 hours out of the
day, locked down. Its really [beep] up. I've been locked up
now going on 16 years. But you gotta live in the
moment, this is it right here. Live day for day cause you
don't know what's gonna happen an hour for
now or tomorrow. It could all just turn like
that and end up [beep] up. - Respect. You gotta be revered some way. And that's pretty
much the payoff. People could look at it and
say, "well it's not worth it". And maybe in the end it's not. But you have to do
what you have to do to survive in this environment. - Treat me like a man. Treat me the way I'm
supposed to be treated. Don't treat me like
a [beep], a punk. Or hey, if you do,
expect the worst. - Number 1 most important
part about prison gangs is, mess with them and only
god knows what can happen. My mom actually cried
when I told her I was gonna start the academy. And then the day I started
the line my wife cried. She's always wondering
if I'm going to come home at the end of the day. - Hey, New Mexico, live all
day, all right? (laughs) - I know that a lot of these
guys have the abilities to reach out and touch somebody. They have the ability
to go after my family when I'm not there. And I don't let my wife
know anything about this, I don't let my kids
know anything about it. - This is it, this is the one, it's time to shine, you heard? (laughs) - To be honest, I've actually
been kind of hoping for a promotion to one of the more
elite units around here. Coming through! I know that getting out
of harm's way here at work would put my family's
mind at rest. My philosophy right now is
just do the best that I can, continue down the
path that I'm going, and if something opens up
for me here in the future, that's what I'll do. - I'm representing ISIS in here! it is my pleasure to
introduce, class 319 (applause) Cohen Mangin from Rio
Rancho New Mexico, going to the Penitentiary
of New Mexico. (applause) - My family's very proud of me because I'm accomplishing
what they accomplished and it's my turn now. - I do believe he
has what it takes to continue his family's legacy. Now that he's at PNM, he has
a whole new family to rely on. I teach a brotherhood, a
sisterhood, a familyhood. This is your extended family. I mean your brothers
and sisters at work. Pretty much you're
walking into war everyday. And you really need to
trust your brothers and your sisters to your
left and to the right. - We're our own family,
the different gangs you have here are
families as well. So when stuff hits the fan,
they go with their guys, we go with our guys. - Small one, yup. - It is always an honor to
actually have an officer hit the line. That's gonna be the person
who's gonna have your back. In here we have a bond
that nobody else does. We'll be there for each
other through thick and thin. Even though I just met Cohen, he'll be my brother
to the death. I mean 'cause in this place
that's where they could be. So just always remember,
cuffs towards you. Being able to teach
younger officers still makes me feel
kind of awkward. I know enough to
get them by but I still don't know certain
steps that are right or what I'm doing wrong. - [Keith] So am I. - [Keith] Ooh, all right. Hey Silva, this
is gonna be a just a little bit
uncomfortable okay buddy? - I'm a rookie so the
inmates are watching me because they want to
see flaws that I have that they could
possibly get over on me. If I mess up, everybody's
gonna know that I messed up. - [Inmate] It's
good to know that. - And my family will find out, and I don't want to
let my family down, because my family's
name is big here. This is a hard job to
begin with, you know, and we all make mistakes. But messing up on a cuff can get you or your
brother and sisters killed. (tense music) - [Voiceover] Excuse
me, gentlemen. - Yesterday I responded
to a fight in P Pod. - [Voiceover] Doesn't
matter, get outta here! - [Francisco] Now I'm shadowing
disciplinary Officer Wagner. Basically getting
statements about the fight. We need to find out if
this was a random act or a gang hit and from
that we'll determine if we need to take
further action. - Mr. Valderama. We picked up a report from
that incident yesterday. So you do have a right
to remain silent. Silence could be used
against you as long as it wasn't the only
evidence of guilt. You want to make any
statements about what happened? - All right. Do you want to make any
statements about what occurred? - Well, okay. When it comes to fights, that's pretty
standard around here. Nobody wants to discuss
what the actual issue was. They don't want us to know
what the real problem was, and nobody wants to
be labeled as a rat. - This has been a huge
lesson on how hard it is to police gangs in here. They don't like to talk. Even when they fight
or do anything stupid, they'd rather go to level 6 than give out a description
of what happened. - 37 Sergeant Morris. I got a phone call
to go help out STIU, that's our security threat
unit or our gang unit here. They are the ones who find
out all the information about gangs. They're the ones
who have all the top-secret information of PNM. A little bit nervous
because they normally don't have general officers
come in to help out. Hopefully they see me as
a good officer and they'd be willing to recruit me, I
think that would be awesome. Working with them
would be a promotion because they're the most
elite group here at PNM. And most importantly, by
getting me off the tiers, I know my family
wouldn't worry as much. - Pallesen. - Oh I'm here for STIU,
or are they in two alpha? (door buzzing) - STIU is a really close
group of individuals that work in the prison. They work with outside
law enforcement, and very few COs,
especially rookies, are allowed into their group. - [Keith] Not much, you? - [Keith] Yeah, I
can shut it off. - [Cupit] STIU stands for Security Threat
Intelligence Unit. Get off your bunk and
go against the wall! We are the gang unit. We deal with all kinds
of investigations to help stop the threats. So we'll get into
everybody's business to ensure the safety
of the institution. - [Keith] Yeah, I
can shut it off. -[Officer] Doesn't
matter, get outta here! - [Cupit] Arms up real quick,
look at me, open your mouth. Look to the right,
look to your left, pick up your sack, turn
around, squat and cough. (inmate coughing) - Before I got into corrections, I've done a lot
of different jobs. I was actually into warehousing,
I was into mechanics, I worked a couple
of fast food joints. Coming through! - I always jumped around
from job to job just, just trying to find
a place to fit in. And it wasn't until I
came to corrections that I feel that I have
found my place in life. There has been a couple
of occasions where I've thought about quitting. Even in the bad times though, there's something in
the back of my mind that always keeps me driving
forward and that is, I know that I'm doing a service. I could be out there working
construction right now, but instead here I am, keeping
the people of Santa Fe safe, and the people of New Mexico
safe, makes this job worth it. - [Officer] Thank you. - Oh that was pretty cool. I picked up on some specific
ways on actually how to talk to the inmates,
what to say, you know, just to interact with
them a little bit better. I was actually interested
in joining their group, and now after I see this,
I'm even more interested. And I personally
think it went well. - Now that I'm at PNM, It's
about my work family now, and they need to know
that they can rely on me. After screwing up
the cuffs yesterday, I want to come in today
and perform my job the way that I was taught,
and the way I was born to do. After they served dinner, um I guess a couple
inmates trashed the pod. - I don't know, maybe a
bunch of disgruntled inmates. We'll see what happens. (tense music) What the hell is all this [beep]? Are you [beep] kidding me? [beep]. Man. (inmates yelling) - They passed out
Styrofoam trays last night for dinner
and decided they wanted to be lazy and not
come pick 'em up. - You leave that
food sit overnight, that little box is our
living space for years, and so it's important
that we don't have bugs, and roaches and stuff like that. So we crushed them down,
threw them under the door. That's our way of
saying "[beep] you back". Now we get the last laugh,
we get to sit back and say "How do you like that?" - Thanks for telling me how
to do my job, appreciate it. If that's what happened
those officers should have picked those trays up. But I went and
picked it up because we don't want a trashy unit,
we want our unit to be clean. Even though I
wasn't responsible, I still cleaned up the mess. I hope the other officers
see that I'm a team player, and that I respect
brotherhood here. - Hey, what's up, man? I'm going to go through
your cell real quick. I have a camera crew with me. Shake up the baby
powder, make a mess. Sometimes I clean it
up, sometimes I don't. Tattoos are illegal because
they promote gang affiliation. They put all kinds
of symbols and codes on their body
that we cannot have. What is that bad boy? Altered wires,
thumbtack, hair nets. Where are you guys getting
these hairnets from? Did you find a gun? - [Voiceover] Yeah. - What you got? Just a magazine. [beep] man, these guys
are good at hiding [beep]. I'm gonna look through
your cell real quick. - [Inmate] Step on the
bed, (mumbled arguing). Can you at least lift my
bed up if you're gonna step on my blanket
with them shoes? Walk all over the [beep]in'
unit and then step on my bed. - Hey! - [Officer] He's not
stepping on your bed. - I didn't step on your bed. - [Inmate] You're stepping
on it, I just witnessed it. - I didn't step on his bed. If he's putting up a fight, that usually means
he's hiding something. What do we got here? That's some homemade string. They make this stuff
out of garbage bags. Pretty strong stuff. Got something. I take a look in the trash can
to see a bag with soap in it. They're disinfecting
something, I thought. So I dumped it. I'm like, oh, tattoos! There's something in
this hole right here. Do you have a, you have
something to pull it out with? You have a paperclip? - [Voiceover] I there
something in there? - [Officer] Yeah there is
something in there, dude, 'cause you push it
and it gets hard. There's something in
this hole right here. Do you have a, do you have
something to pull it out with? You have a paperclip? - [Officer] Is there
something in there? - Yeah there is
something in there dude, 'cause you push it,
and it gets hard. I don't know what it is, dude. - [Officer] Did you get it? Is that the needle right there? That is the needle,
that's a needle. Hey, one of you in the
bathroom, one of you in here. You guys are gonna have
to stay back for this one. I need your socks
off, everything. Let me see your arms. Tilt it over, that's fresh. - [Inmate] That's from Roswell, I already got
written up for that. - That's fresh. In the academy we were taught fresh tattoos are gonna
be red and kind of swollen. And looking at
this guy's tattoo, it's definitely fresh. A whole bag of
contraband, homemade rope, some razor blades, stuff they were using to wipe, and the needle itself so. I'm learning that the gangs
are so prevalent here, that any dent you make in their
operation is a huge victory. - Let me see your shoes
real quick, Decarlo. One of them, he is
a level 6 inmate. Stay away from him, I'd say
about five to 10 feet back. He actually assaulted a Sgt.
and punched him in the face. All right, good. - Basically, art is my life. This is what keeps me sane. This is what keeps the
walls from closing in on me. When I'm doing this,
I'm not even in prison. Here's one of my like,
evil pieces right here. That's all pencil work. And then uh, realism,
such as portraits, animals, people,
really I have no limit. - He's uh, probably one of the
best artists I've ever seen. It's just sad to see that someone that can draw
like that and has talent goes to waste here behind
a cell 23 hours a day. - Um so, Heaven's Devils. I was laying in bed one day in Texas prison and I decided I needed
a family, a purpose. And so we went to the Aryan
brotherhood on that yard and said, hey man we wanna
raise a flag and start our own family, a
white pride family. The head there said,
"Well you know what? "you're gonna have to go to war "with another race
to raise your flag, "and you might want to
have your numbers up "before you do that." So we did that and uh, we
went to war with the Crips. We have goals, our
plan is to eventually get noticed worldwide for legal businesses, like
barber shops, tattooing. Once I leave here, this
is more than just a, a prison gang or
something like this. This is a reaching
out for my future. - I'm new here but with the
little experience that I've had, I personally think uh
that he'll be back. There's a reason why
he's a level 6 inmate. There's been a few maybe level
6 inmates, level 5 inmates, that have gotten out,
made it successful. But history tells us that
they're gonna come back. - The difference is... This officer's gonna make
it, and the other one's not. If I seen him on the street, I'd walk up to him and punch
him straight in his face. - Unfortunately, leaving a
gang is seen as a betrayal, and can be more dangerous
than staying in it. - People turn on you. - Uh there's some people
that want to, yeah. - When someone puts
a green light on you, that's because they
wanna put a hit on you. They wanted to greenlight me for something I never even did. - We're basically
done, you know? Targets. (door buzzing) - So all these are the guys
that are from the RPP program. All these inmates
actually go into RPP, there are some that do go
in with good intentions. But there are some gang members, they will lie to get into
this program so they can get at former members
just to shank them. - [Cupit] Take your
shirt off, let me see it. - There are tell-tale signs that gang members are still active. Anybody who's still loyal to
their gangs, still get tattoos. - [Cupit] We told you guys
this is your last chance man, no [beep] up. We're gonna put you back. - It's very impressive
to see how they work and how they get stuff done. To get something passed
them would be very hard. - [Cupit] You put 3 crosses
under your pillow sheet right? You're gonna give me
this bull[beep] excuse because you want to be able
to mark it as your own? What's wrong with your name? - What did I tell you when I
brought you into the program? You [beep] up,
and you're done. Right? - Hey I need you to
come out in your boxers, I need to interview
you real quick. - Gangs are a huge plague
in here, they're a cancer. If you do your job,
and those gangs, they're going to
lash out at you. But that's your job
at the end of the day. (Decarlo humming) - You know in here they all
wear their certain colors, they have certain tattoos. You know this badge
is a tattoo on us. We're COs. When stuff goes down, we
all run together as a gang. [singing]
- Check me out, I get
out there, like a one man army, this might cost me an arm
and a leg, harm's in a way, welcome the part of the play,
a new heart made of clay, left the other heart in
the grave deprived of sleep rather than just
start a new day. (door buzzing) - No matter what we do, there will always
be gangs in prison. What we're trying to do is
just give them a choice. And from my heart to
theirs, I hope that they actually are willing
to take the chance that we're willing to give them - It's important to kind of
like get them to see that eventually, even
their own gang will eventually turn on them. I mean if you cut the
head off the snake, everything will fall
apart eventually - I'm not really proud
of the stuff I've done. And that gang stuff's
not even worth it - Its not what it seems
like on the streets and the movies how
everything's all good. When you go to segregation, the gang ain't gonna
be there for you. You want to play gangster,
you can play it by yourself. (dramatic instrumental music) I thought running
with gangs was cool. And all it did was give me
a [beep] damn life sentence. - Convicts, they will
try to con you everyday - Just cause we come to
prison don't mean things stop. - An inmate is like a
fish we have to school. - [Inmate] We're plotting
and planning out here. - It's kinda like a
game of cat and mouse. - They want stuff,
drugs, weapons. - I can tell you the
black market's thriving. - A real hundred-dollar bill? This is a way to pay off guards. This has just gotten serious. - If I were to tell him,
here's $500 in cash, they're gonna want to do it. - [Cupit] Who's on
the payroll dawg? Who's dirty here? - This is exactly what happened. Hey, can you guys go
away for a minute please? Just go away. - Ain't no love for a convict.
