(chains rattle) (door clicks) - [Aaron] Convicts. Convicts meaning they're cons, they will con you
into doing stuff. They pick up on your weaknesses, they'll use those
weaknesses against you. What's our worst nightmare inside the facility? - [Reporter] The first
convicts to break out of this maximum security
prison are on the run. [Gov. Mario Cuomo] These are
dangerous, dangerous men. -[Reporter] Did these convicted
murders get inside help? - [Reporter] Joyce Tillie
Mitchell, a prison employee, plead guilty to helping
the inmates break out. - [Reporter] She smuggled
hacksaw blades, chisels, a punch, and a screwdriver bit into the maximum
security prison. - [Aaron] All it takes is one
officer to become dirty, that's the difference
between life and death. - Cordova: That is so much
(bleep). - Captain: Yeah. - What? [Cupit] Like a real hundred
dollar bill? - [Cordova] Looks real. - [Officer] Let's go
guys, go to your unit. (intense music) - [Aaron] Mental games. That's how officers
can cross that line and become dirty staff and bring in contraband,
drugs, weapons, anything. There's a difference between
an inmate and a convict. -[Gingerbread Man] The inmate
is like a fish that we have to school. - [Aaron] The convict, they will
try to con you every day. Everyday that you
show up to work inmates are trying
to get something. -[Montoya] We're plotting and
planning our game. - [Aaron] There's definitely
a black market, highly illegal trading. That's our job to try to be
one step ahead of the inmates. -[Toovey] I can tell you
this much, the black market's thriving. (electronic music) -[Aaron] A convict will always
try to befriend you and make you feel good
about coming to work. But it's all a game. Always have a plan of action. Think about anything that
could possibly be going on. These convicted felons
have a plan of action. -[Decarlo] You do what you
got to do. Face all consequences later. -[Aaron] If you don't, more than
likely you're not going home tonight. (ominous music) - [Ariel] Good, and you? (ominous music) [Ariel] Hey, if you're not
showering go back to your unit. [Inmate] Pardon me? If you're not showering or
getting commissary, go back. If you guys aren't
showering, go back. [Inmate] Alright. I think being a girl is a
little bit difficult because inmates think they can take advantage of us
easier than guys. [Aaron] For you ladies
in this classroom, it's gonna be challenging. You're working in a man's world. What they do, they comfort you. They decide if you're solid,
they try to intimidate you. It's going to happen right away. Now you got caught
up with an inmate, you can go from one
side of that door to the other real quick. - [Reporter] A year ago,
prison officials investigated a relationship between
Sweat and Mitchell. -[Prison Official] She got in
over her head into something that she never
should have started. She's paying the price now. -[Ariel] They tell us like
not to be their friend, but they're gonna
get to know you and you're gonna be with them
every day, day and night. [Inmate] Huh? So you're gonna have some
kind of relationship with them but you don't have to have
it on a personal level, just like work. I think being a girl they
look at me as kind of weak. They think we'll give
them whatever they want, whenever they want. I don't want them to think
that they can walk on me. (ominous music) - [Cordova] B-Dorm probably
has the most contraband in the entire
facility just because all the freedom that they have. It's easier for them to get in. - [Cordova] Unit check
is basically going through each unit,
walking by every bed, making sure there's nothing
out of the ordinary. I came to visit
you, I missed you. Oh man. [Cordova] It's kind of like a
game of cat and mouse, these guys trying to deceive us. -[Aaron] Inmates hide stuff, so
we try to think like a convict, think like an inmate. (inmates laughing) -[Cordova] You wanna go ahead
and lay back down? I made the mistake
of letting these guys get in my head once. Get off your phone. - You (beep) hang up my phone
call-- - Get of your phone. Get off your (beep) phone! I'm trying not to let
them get to me now. (laughing) Are you telling me
that its here or what? You are huh? - Any luck? - Not yet. - Damn, you suck bro. - Nothing, nothing
of significance. Damn it. I may have overlooked something. But we're bound to find
something eventually. (upbeat music) (ominous music) -[Cohen] Even with all the
security here at the level six, weapons and drugs
still get in here. One of the main ways inmates
get contraband in here is using the phone. (door slams) -[Inmate] We gotta know hustles,
everybody's doing their thing. Just because we come to
prison don't mean things stop. We're doing stuff on the phone, we're doing stuff
through our people. We're doing stuff you know. (phone beeping) -[Aaron] Using the phone at
PNM is a privilege. The level six facility
is maximum security. You have 12 inmates and only
one heavily monitored phone. (electronic music) -[Officer] We have a sign
on his door saying "Do not give this
inmate the phone." -[Officer 2] OK, he just got
written up for that. -[Officer] Someone is still
giving him the phone. -[Cohen] I just want to know
how he got it yesterday. He's always asking all
the CO's to give him the phone all the time
even though knowing we're not supposed to. Every time he asks me for the
phone, I report it right away. He thinks because I'm a
rookie, he can get over on me. - [Aaron] Mental
games, con games, can anybody tell
me what that is? - It starts as something so
little as having an inmate ask you to pass something
to another, another cell. -[Officer] Alright Mr. Hawkins
you've been trying to make deals with officers
to get the phone. [Hawkins] How the hell is
that man? -[Officer] Says, inmate Hawkins
tried to make a deal with officers on 5 16
to get the phone to use. I don't know if you're
trying to make deals or if you're just trying to get
the phone from somebody that doesn't know that you're
not allowed to have it. - [Hawkins] That's not true. -[Officer] You asked him for
the phone. [Hawkins] What, what day was
that? -[Officer] Last week or two
weeks ago. [hawkins] OK, I did ask that
then. - OK. [Aaron] They're very articulate
with what they do and how they do it. They're cons on the streets,
they're cons inside. They're career criminals. Go deeper into it, peel
back the layers, that onion. [Hawkins] If he's tying to say
just the other day Monday, I didn't ask nobody. -[Officer] I didn't say Monday. [Hawkins] Okay, I asked them. - OK.
- OK. -[Officer] You know you're
not supposed to use the phone at all
til July right now? [Hawkins] Yeah, right now. -[Officer] So my question is,
how are you still using it? Who's giving you the phone? - You asked him for the phone. - What, what day was that? - Last week or two weeks ago. - Okay I did ask that then. - OK. You know you're not
supposed to use the phone at all til July right now? - Yeah, right now. - So my question is, how
are you still using it? You got nothing to say on that? - As a result of the UMT,
which we are conducting today, we're going to take two
days of yard from you, okay? - Alright. - [Cohen] Since inmate
Hawkins won't tell us how he's using it, we're going
to put him in a holding cell and then go ahead and
go through his room. (ominous music) - Shouldn't you be at work? It kind of feels
like they all just do anything over and
over again because they think they could
do what they want and some officers let
them again away with certain things and
other officers don't. - Just came back
from highway detail. - Why didn't you
take me with you? - Cause I can't
take you with me. - Why? - What are you doing right now? - Nothing. A dorm. - You wanna go do unit check? - Sure. Since I'm a girl, the inmates
think they can sweet talk me and get things over on me. Sammy walked me
through unit checks and gave me some pointers on what I should and
shouldn't let them do. - They're not allowed
to have a schedule... - They don't listen, I swear. They all just want to talk. - You're new so they're
gonna try to get to know you. This is what we do, watch. They'll come up
to me and be like, "Hey CO, what are you
doing? Where are you from?" I'm like, "What are
we friends dude?" I say, "Okay, where you from,
what bunk do you live at? "223?" I said "Okay, well
let's go visit your bunk." And I'll visit him and
flip through your stuff. "It's like if you want to be
friends, we can be friends man. "If you just want to do your
time and let me do my thing, "then lets do that cause you
don't want to be my friend." And then they won't
mess with you no more. - The guys look out
for me a little more because they know I'm a girl and I'm gonna be working
with just male inmates. - Do you live in there? - [Inmate] No. - What are you doing in there? Come here. Right? (laughs) - Sammy knows how to
handle these guys. Definitely practicing
the bitch face. (laughs) (laughing) - Are you telling me
that it's here or what? You are huh? Damn it. (electronic music) - They're going to be in my unit doing shake downs with the K-9 so I'm very fortunate to
learn from these guys. - Alright guys, this
morning we have uh, Officer Cordova here with us. He's been in B-Dorm
for about a month. We're going to take him through, kind of show him exactly
what we look for. We're gonna go hit unit six. We got a couple of guys
of interest in there. 601, 605, 611,
642, Bryce Doporto. Word has it he's
running a lot of dope and he's gang related. (ominous music) Level two is the
gangster's paradise. They are constantly
bringing in narcotics, because it's a
money-making business. We're gonna go in there,
pull them all to the front, put them up against the wall. - That way we can keep
a better track of them in case they try to throw things or make drops
something like that. - Be careful when
you're going through the waistband of their sweats. They like to hang their
syringes in there. You have any questions? - I'll be probably asking a
lot as soon as we get in there. - No problem. We'll go through, we'll kind
of show you what we do-- - OK. I'm probably going
to learn more today than I'm probably gonna
learn the whole month. - Alright, let's go hit it. - [Officer] There
is up to 48 inmates assigned to one unit. The odds are always against us. - Let's go everybody
out up front. Everybody up to the front! Get up against the wall. Up up front. - [Cordova] Hurry up. - [Officer] Wall, face the wall. - Get off your bunk and
go against the wall. - Gentlemen, everybody's
gonna be stripped searched one at a time, you understand? - Up against the wall. - Yeah. - You just start,
the way I do it is I start at one end and
work my way to the back. - The inmates are ingenious. Anytime we come up with
a way to stop them, they evolve and find new and
interesting ways to do stuff. They show you about
the peanut butter yet? A lot of these guys will keep
it and it looks brand new so its got the lid
on and everything. What they'll do is they'll
peel this back very carefully, cut a slit in it and
stick stuff in there. So always, always check
the peanut butter. - Affirmative. Bryce Doporto. Do you got a Sureno Pono? - In prison gangs
are so dangerous because their loyalty is fierce. That means that their con
games are more effective. And that increases
the amount of drugs and contraband that they
can get on the inside. - He's the one that told
me about three months back that he wasn't a Sureno. He is now. - Oh man. - Affirmative. Bryce Doporto. Do you got a Sureno Pono? - In prison gangs
are so dangerous because their loyalty is fierce. That means that their con
games are more effective. And that increases
the amount of drugs and contraband that they
can get on the inside. - [Cupit] He's the
one that told me about three months back that
he wasn't a Sureno. - [Cupit] He is now. - The Surenos it's
a vast enterprise that spans across
the United States. The assaults and
stabbings and extortion that they are known for
within the prison system makes them a dangerous
bunch of guys. - Can you send
down Bryce Doporto out of 642 back to
the unit real quick? - [Captain] Officer Cordova? - Yes sir. - If you see the three dots
with the two lines there, that is uh, Nowal
number for the number 13 which is associated
with the Surenos. So he tried to hide
it in his drawing. So Chris is talking
to him right now. He's gonna check his tattoos. Probably end up
tagging him a Sureno and moving him out of here. - Oh man. - You're a Sureno. Right? - Yeah. - If you look at the
rest of his shirts, he's blatantly flying it out
there that he is a Sureno. - We're gonna lock
you up and put you with all the other Surenos. Nah dude. Put your shirt on for
me and then tuck it in. - I learned that one of
them is a gang member. I didn't know that. I didn't even think
to look at clothing. - That obviously tells us
that he's an active member and we have to get
him out of here and get him with the
rest of the gang. (closes) - Since he has gang ties,
it probably means he has a lot more illegal
contraband in his bunk. We can't leave any
stone unturned. - Got so much (beep). I'm gonna throw
this in that bag. - We found another little note. So this guy Bryce Doporto
also had this piece of paper. - He's getting,
he's got something, he's making a living
in here somehow. - Joker owe's him 25.
Jason owes him 100. So these guys owe
him that much money for whatever drugs he provided. - Like I probably would
have overlooked that. That's something good
for me to actually know. - Yeah. - What? Like a real hundred dollar bill? - [Sergio] Yup. - I've been working
with the department for almost 10 years
and I've never found currency on an inmate. - Right now, we're
conducting a shakedown of this inmate's cell. He's not allowed
to use the phone. And contact is still being made on the phone system
by this inmate. - We're hoping we might
find something that shows us how he's
getting the phone. - See if you can
get me a flashlight, we want to go look
in the vents to see if he's stuffing anything
up under the vents there. - Here you go. (intense music) - I found one so far. Sell it, trade it, for food item, drugs, anything, in order to
have contact with their people. We've noticed some
PIN numbers on here so we're gonna see what inmates
they're corresponding to. (instrumental music) - Sit down right here. - So you're being
brought to UMT today. - You know your PIN
number's your phone. It's for you only. Nobody else. Your PIN number is being
used by another inmate. Who's giving him the phone? You have nothing to
say on that? Nothing? - As a result of that, your
PINs gonna be deactivated. Your PIN numbers are for you. You understand that? Thank you for your time. Thank you. We took the phone out of C-Pod. It's not to be used by anybody. They do not get that
phone in that pod at all. (metal music) - (beep) you man. Why the (beep) you
gonna try to penalize everybody in this pod for me? - When you're gonna act
like that, (beep) that. - It's not right for you to put my life in jeopardy like that. That's (beep). - Forget that. - (beep) the CO's. I ain't getting a (beep)
phone, so what the (beep)? - Hey, Hawkins is in there
making a big old deal so he wants to talk to you. - You keep getting
the phones somehow. We removed the
phone from the unit to keep that from happening. - For ya'll to sit there and
say you know what I'm saying that these dudes can't
get no phone calls because it's my misbehaving, because they might be
accomplices or helping me? - There was a violation in
a proper use of the phone. That's why we're
stepping in to find out how it was allowed to happen. - Ya'll can't figure
out how I'm supposedly getting the phone so
therefore we're gonna turn everybody in here against him. - It's just what it
is, one bad apple can spoil the whole damn batch. - That's bull (beep)! - Bottom line, you need to
come forward with the truth. - I, I ain't done nothing, man. - Inmates are always
playing mind games. Hawkins is trying to
say that the whole pod shouldn't be punished
for him getting the phone but he's just trying to get
the phone back into the pod so that way he could
make calls himself. - He says its not right for
you guys to be putting my life in danger by making these
(beep) pay for my mistakes. - I'm gonna go check the cameras and I'm going to see
how he got the phone. - Yeah, the cameras don't lie. (intense music) - It's med line. (laughs) Oh, you guys all mumble I
couldn't hear what you said. I was more of a
tomboy growing up and I always wanted to do
everything my brother was doing. I think that's kind
of why I'm here today. Let's go. No, let's go, come on. Being a girl, everything
is a lot tougher. I know. In high school, like,
all I hung out with was a bunch of guys because girls
are just too much drama, so here, I don't
feel like I should be treated any different. Besides like strip searches,
that's, that's all them. Are you going? Some of the inmates
didn't really grow up with a mother figure,
so they treat women a little differently. They treat me with a
little more respect because, like guys, they're
like "You can't hit women, "you can't talk
to them that way." So, I definitely get
treated differently, but I don't know if
it's better or worse. (intense music) - [Sergio] Yeah. - What? Like a real hundred dollar bill? Get out of here. - [Officer] Let me see it. - I don't have a whole
lot of them myself. - [Cupit] This is about
as real as it gets homie. - [Officer] That's a
hundred dollar bill. - He even got the
water seal in it. - [Officer] It's Doporto's? - Yup.
- Yes. - It was in this, like way
underneath all that stuff. - That's a good question. - That's his bad. - Cause it goes from
one inmate to another. I mean what's he
gonna do with it? - [Cupit] This is a possible
way to pay off guards to bring stuff in. - Wow. Yup. - Dude I'm gonna
go call the warden. - Bring him over here. - [Cordova] Where did
Doporto have the bill? - He made a holder
for his MP3 player. Had this felt here
and I lifted it up. Nothing, so I lift
up the other one. - And down there it was huh? - And it was all right there,
all nice and folded up. - That money says something,
it says that he's trying to get something that
cannot be bought here. He's either bringing stuff
in or somehow he's involved with some type of trade
which is against our rules whether its drugs, commissary, gambling, it could be anything. - This is definitely
a big red flag, we're gonna have to go
back and interview this guy and see why he has that
amount of money on him. No you're not gonna be
able to come with me just because of the fact that
if he's gonna say something he's probably not gonna say
it if other people are around. Hey Art, chain of
evidence brother. Hold onto it, put
it in that thing. Good job, dude. let's
go talk to this guy. (door closes) (ominous music) (coughs) - Since 7:16, the
phones been in C-102. I haven't seen it
leave that cell yet. I'm just trying to find out
how the phone got in cell 101. (intense music) So at this time,
Mangin is picking up the tray from cell 102, and he turned around
and the inmate from 102 throws out their laundry bag. If it's just laundry, its gonna
just fall and land you know. It like bounces, watch. The phones in there, wrapped up. Mangin comes, picks it up, goes back. (ominous music) (water leaking) - Our job is kinda
like babysitting, we have to make sure
they're not doing things they shouldn't be doing,
and flooding is usually when they need attention or
if they're just pissed off. (beep) Here. It's hard being a woman CO, because you have to be
careful with everything you do and everything you say, cause it can be
taken out of context. Yeah. (laughing) Since I'm a girl,
everybody thinks I'm flirting with everybody. (laughs) Some of the inmates
talk to me like how they shouldn't talk to me. Thank you. I've learned to just ignore it. We're trying to get
this water cleaned up so go back to your rooms so
the other guy can shower. Let's go. During the academy, Bell
told us about this guy who was in the prison and he said as soon as the
girl would smile at him, he knew he had her. I was just thinking like "Holy crap, like
all I do is smile." It's these dimples
that get me in trouble. Old enough to work here. You don't need to know my age. Just because I'm a
woman it doesn't mean I'm going to take any (beep). - Inmate from 102 throws
out their laundry bag. Mangin comes, picks it up, goes back, and hands it over to 101. The phones in there wrapped up. - This is exactly
what happened, okay? We're picking up
trays and 102 tells me I've had this laundry
bag for two days and I don't know whose it is. And I grabbed the
laundry bag, I look at it and it says Charlie 101 on
the laundry bag in sharpie. Hey, can you guys go
away for a minute please? Just go away. I said "Hawkins what's up
with your laundry bag dude?" He goes, "I haven't
had it in two days" and that's when I gave
him the laundry bag. But there was no phone
in it, I promise. - The way the bag
falls out right here, it like bounces, watch. It's like there's something
heavy or hard in there other than laundry. The phones in there wrapped up. (beep) Well he could've had a pen
or a sharpie in his cell, wrote Cell C-101 on the bag. It just shows right now
that just whatever you get and you give it
to another inmate, just look through it
and see what's in there cause they could easily hide
drugs in there, weapons, anything you pass them
over to their neighbors. These guys know how
to play con games and they know how to
get stuff you know. - Yeah. - Mental games, can anybody
tell me what that is, con games, Mangin? - It starts as something so
little as having an inmate ask you to pass something
to another, another cell. - Alright, let's go move
him back to his cell. - Everyone here
is an opportunist. What happened in this
situation is the inmates saw the opportunity to do it
because they see a new guy, he's busy, he has to
learn how to multi task. They see him struggling
and boom, it's done. - [Officer] C-Pod. - You're not going to? - An inmate is an inmate. Regardless of what
level they're at or how nice they are
and that's usually how they get the new guys. - I think it's (beep) you
threw that laundry thing right here and had the
phone in it yesterday. Yeah, I watched it on camera. It's all good. - [Sergio] Yup. - Let's go talk to this guy. (ominous music) - I found it and I kept it. I didn't think it was
that serious so... - I don't believe that one bit. Temptation is out there so
if these guys have currency and have money to tempt
officers to bring stuff in then that's what
they're gonna do. - I would like to think
and hope that our officers have more integrity
than to get paid a hundred dollars to do
something, that's not a lot. Good job, thank you.
- I tried, thank you. - Officer Cordova
did a great job. We love to train those
new officers because now they know what to look for and I think since
that was his unit, now he'll know to watch
them a little bit more and see who's talking to who. - Thank you, man. I think it was a great
learning experience and I hope that I
get to be you know part of more stuff like this. - They violated me. - Look what they did to me, man. Look what they did to
the poor gingerbread man. (drops container) They looking for contraband. They never found no
contraband on me. I'm just here to do my
time, you know what I mean? They riding people, man. Ain't no love for a convict. (ominous music) - I'm bugged because
I should have opened the laundry
bag, looked in there. Who knows that could've
been something worse and then we could
have an officer dead or an inmate dead because I
didn't check that bag properly. (closes) They're convicts, they're
trying to get over on me because I'm new but everybody makes mistakes. That's the part about being new. It's something to learn from and all I can do
is just keep doing what I'm doing to
be a better officer. - I definitely think there's
been a huge improvement as far as my knowledge. Who's doing what, who
is talking to who. It's always good for you
to keep yourself sharp and stay on your toes because
everyday we're here is a test. I just go through
everything now. Not many officers go through
the trash as thorough as I do. Just coffee. These guys can talk
as much as they want, I'm not gonna get discouraged, even if a search turns up empty, I'm still going to continue
to search as best as I can. STIU really opened my eyes. I have to stay sharp or else
I can miss something big, like that 100 dollar bill. - Now I'm going
to the level six. (beeping) (electronic music) - He's gonna be talked
to by the unit manager. Level six is the disciplinary
unit so when you mess up at any other units, this
is where you get brought and you have to deal with
whatever is coming to you. - Good morning. - Morning. - You're on PHT, so you
know you're not allowed any phone calls,
visits, no television. You're basically just idle. - And how long does it take? - PHT is usually 20 days,
but it can go over that. - Should I still be getting
out as my release date? - No, your release date
is going to be pushed back due to the fact that you're not
earning good time right now. It's a severe thing to have
money inside of prison. - He went from a level
two where he has a TV. He gets to go to a job, he
goes to bed whenever he wants, to where he comes to level six where he's not gonna
have anything at all. Unfortunately, as I've
seen again and again, it doesn't matter what
level you put an inmate in, these guys are con men and
they're just gonna keep trying to see what
they can get away with. (instrumental music) - Most of these individuals
here they want stuff and it starts very little. Because you become intimately
involved with this inmate and then you start
feeling sorry for them but things start happening,
they start bringing stuff in. - I'm a rookie, so they want
to see what I'm doing wrong so they could possibly
get over on me. They'll test you to see
if you're gonna give in to what they want you to do. - Inmates are gonna
be rough on you like Just stay in there. I think if you don't let
them walk all over you, they'll know that they're
not there to be your friend, you're not there
to be their friend, you're there to do a job. - You need to know
how they think, you have to put yourself
in that mentality. Wanna go ahead
and lay back down? It's more of a chess game. This inmate is doing this and
this to set you up for this. He might ask you
for a cigarette. A cigarette turns into weed. Weed will turn into
heroin and who knows it could eventually
turn into a gun. You don't want to be that
officer checking that guy's room and that barrels pointed at your
face and goes... (banging noise) - Behind all the walls
here, its like a lava flow. You feel the tension
and you're just waiting for it to erupt. (explosion) - Oh. (explosion) - [Voiceover] All units respond. - It's just crazy to
think what happened here. - We had a beheading. - Decapitated him with a shovel. - We're not regular inmates. - I shanked one of the CERT
team members in the neck. - We're just crazy. - When (beep) hits the fan, it's gonna go big.
