(doors slamming)
(metal clanking) - I wanna go to rec! - Well, you weren't
following policies. It's a confident feeling for
me, be able to come here, and enforce these
rules on these people. - You get the new guys,
they think they Superman behind these prison
walls, they wonder why they got no respect. (gate slamming) - I am gaining my confidence,
but a lot of these level three inmates think
they can't be touched. - The cops think
they're hard core. He just doesn't know any
better, he's just a dumb kid. - Check, check. Oh yeah, that's Suboxone,
about 600 bucks a strip. - Finding drugs,
it was a reminder why I love to do this job. (intense rock music) - [CO] Let's go
guys, go into your unit! - [Man] Left, right, left! - [Group] Uh uh. - [Man] Your left! - [Group] Uh uh. - [Man] Your left! - [Group] Uh uh. - Right here ladies
and gentlemen, in approximately 25 minutes, all those doors open
together, and you have 700 plus inmates come out. We have assaults
over here daily, and class, this is no BS,
give the right circumstances, and the tools in their hands, these inmates will kill you. - My name's Charles
Miller, I'm 23 years old, law enforcement has been
in my family forever, since my Grandpa. My uncle was a unit
manager at Southern, my dad, he works at the prison
as well, he's a lieutenant, he's been here for 18 years. - All this training leads
up to this day right here. This is ground zero. (dramatic dark music) All right, squad one
and squad two, fall out. We're walking all the
way around to the 300, they start at the 300. - [Woman] Ready, go! - [Man] Remember your times! - I'm very competitive, my
dad was always telling me you gotta be better,
you gotta practice, you gotta do this, I just
wanna try to beat everyone. - 48, 49. - As a kid growing up, I was
kind of obnoxious sometimes. I would always play pranks,
or not take much seriously, I was always just
trying to have fun. But my dad would put
me in check real quick. He was pretty strict
on grades or sports, or pretty much anything
I was involved in. - What's Miller? - 46, sir. - Mr. Miller's one of
those cadets that are born and bred for this industry. - One, two, three. - [Everyone]
(shouts) - He's good physically,
but the physical aspect is only one fraction of it. His father is a person with
a very good reputation, so now it's up to him to
live up to that level, and it's very demanding. 59, I'm gonna miss you man. - Yeah, dude. - You're like a little
Aaron, you know that. - I'll be someday man. It's a lot of
pressure having family that has succeeded
in corrections, but I wanna make my dad
proud, that's mainly my goal. - Everybody come around real
quick, come in, come in. (everyone clapping) Clap it in, come
on, right there! Everybody come in here. First week at the academy,
real hard on you, right? Some of you probably thinking, "What the hell is this
crap going on around here." We're hard on you
because we want only the best behind these
walls, and right here, we have some solid individuals. You guys did it, I told you
the first week of the academy, that you had to earn my
respect, did I or did I not? - [Group] Sir, yes Sir. - Welcome to my family. You've all earned my
respect, good job class! Clap it out! - [Announcer] Ladies
and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to
introduce class 323! (audience applauding) - [Male] Right, face! - [Charles] My dad, he has a
lot of respect in the facility. He's known as the legend. I've always heard stories about, like, he was just the monster. He's super old school, he really does not
put up with anything. - [Announcer] Officer
Charles Miller. (audience cheering) - I'm trying to
uphold his standard, I just get real nervous. I don't want to do anything
that's gonna jeopardize the Miller reputation, I
wanna make my dad proud. What's up? - Congratulations! You happy it's over? - Yes. - Another new day begins. - Monday. (exciting rhythmic music) - When the rookie CEO's come in, most people are trying
to take advantage of them because they don't really
know what's going on in here, you know what I mean? - It's like a cat and
mouse game in here. You know, you gotta
do what you gotta do to get away with [beep] you're
not supposed to be doing. - There's a difference between
an inmate and a convict. These individuals here at the
Penitentiary of New Mexico, Southern, Western,
they're not inmates, they've been doing time for a
long time, they're convicts, they will con you everyday. - Just because we're in
prison doesn't really stop us. - Not only do you have to be
physically fit for this career, but you have to be mentally fit. It's all about the mental
toughness that person has. If you're not mentally prepared, you're ultimately gonna
fail at this career. (dramatic drumming) - From day one to
where I am right now, I've learned a great deal. I've absolutely found my
identity as an officer. I'm very firm, very consistent. I follow the policy, I
follow the procedures. - [Man] That's guys
a [beep], man. He's a super cop we call
him, you know what I mean. - Those are the guys that
believe it's their job to keep us in prison longer,
they tend to get hurt more often, by us. (man yelling) - We were nearly to his
cell door when I just saw something flying down at me. (people yelling) I didn't have time to
panic, it happened so fast. This makes, literally,
the first time we've made contact since the incident. Joshua Martinez is a
very violent individual, he's a soulless
individual, pure evil. I knew that once he had seen me, he was gonna try to
play the tough guy game. You know, you saw
how he looked at me. I mean, obviously, he
still has beef with me, that's not gonna
change my approach on the way I enforce
rules and regulations. If anything, it just makes me
more committed to what I do, it's important to
hold your composure, stay professional, because
that's what they want anyway, they want a reaction out of you. (dramatic building music) This job gets very
mentally exhausting. If you can really handle
yourself around an inmate like that, mentally,
even more so, your range of expertise
can go pretty far. I would like to make
my way to one of the more elite units,
and learn more mind games that inmates try to play. (intense rock music) (speaker on radio) - 1B We have been sent
for, thank you. When I first started, I
didn't know what I had gotten myself into,
but as time goes by, I'm learning more, and
I'm being more confident. But the inmates try
to push your buttons. (light tapping) Let me see your face. Thank you. Today, I will be working in
1B, the segregation unit. (loud pounding) The inmates here,
they're trouble makers. It's my first time working here, it's gonna be a
different experience, it's probably gonna
be scary at first, but I'm eager to learn. Are we starting over here? - Yes we is. - Shower? (intense fast music) - [Man] Yeah. - Because this is
a segregation unit, their privileges are depending
on the inmate status, he can get two to four
phone calls a week. - Do you have a phone? He doesn't have it. [beep] So we're missing one. (exciting rhythmic music) - Not yet. As a rookie officer,
inmates are always trying to push you to your limit. (men laughing) Some of the older officers
have explained to me that the inmates like
to play mind games and not to let them
mess with you too much. (man laughing) But it's kind of a hard
situation to deal with, I wanna be known as the
guy who knew what to do, when to do it, and lieutenants
and captains can rely on me. But I have not
found anything, yet. - It's overwhelming
for young officers, when they get thrusted
into this environment, they're walking into
an environment to where individuals have probably
doing this con game for years and years and years. People are looking at you,
people are grading you, people are sizing you up. - Our job is to not get caught, and do whatever we're doing. - I'm a convict, I'm gonna try
to get away with what I can. You can't blame me for trying. - You're good. - Thank you sir, it
was a pleasure doing - It's super frustrating
when I can't find drugs. It's almost like
they're teasing you, like the joke's on you. You just know that they
were up to no good. (laughing) - Recently we had a big
issue here, at this facility, with spice, synthetic marijuana. We had had seven under
the influence found. Having an inmate under the
influence in your dormitory can set everything off,
from a staff assault, to an inmate assault. D'Angelo, he has a lot to learn, he hasn't gained
that experience yet, to make those busts,
to make those finds. He needs to take
it upon himself to keep up with the
other officers here. - 10 four. Hurry, hurry, hurry. Oh, he's gonna
call aguas, watch. Hurry, hurry, hurry. - [Man] Whoop, that's
the sound of the police. - Hurry, hurry, hurry. - [Man] Whoop, that's
the sound of the police. - Hold on, hold on. So you guys were... - [Radio Chatter] - Go to your waist band. - I'm here, are you serious? Come on man, are you serious? - Take your shoe off,
take your shoe off, take your shoe off. (men screaming) Which bed were they on? - Found a pen!
(man laughing) - You wanna smell them for me? - Something wrong? He just likes to run his mouth. - I want to improve myself,
just in case something does hit the fan, and people
know they can count on me. (intense fast music) But I shook it down, and
I didn't find anything. (people clapping) I'm like, ugh, I want
to catch these guys, like, right now, so yeah. (men screaming) The lieutenant I know
is pissed off at me. He didn't have anything! Really? [beep] Oh man. I don't want to
disappoint my lieutenant, it makes you want to
get on your game more. I just want the other
officers and supervisors know that when I'm here, stuff's
gonna be taken care of. (intense energetic music) - What's up Purto? - What's going on
Davis, how you doing? - I'm good. - Being attacked by an
inmate, Joshua Martinez, if anything, it just makes me
more committed to what I do, it gave me motivation
to come back stronger, mentally and physically. I've learned how manipulative
these inmates can be, so I'm hoping to be able
to team up with SCIU, just start dealing
with investigations, You're kind of tapping
more into the psychological part of your personality to
understand the mind games. STIU is one of the more elite
units within this department. - STIU stands for Security
Threat Intelligence Unit, we are a gang unit. (dramatic rock music) We are dealing with criminals, so we have to have that
criminal mentality. - We do everything
from monitoring mail, monitoring phone calls, these
guys in here conduct hits, from inside of prison,
onto the streets. - A green light
could be on anybody, even the secretary
of corrections. - [Female Newscaster] The
Albuquerque Journal got word that three inmates
were plotting to kill Secretary Gregg Marcantel. - Right now, it's such a
dangerous environment out there, dealing with the gangs, they're
getting bigger and stronger. - These guys get locked
up, murdering doesn't stop, drug sales doesn't
stop, it never stops. It's a cat and mouse game, and we just wanna be able
to stay on top of them, so that way, we're winning
more often than they are. - I was gonna take you with me on those threat assessments. - All right, cool. - Today, I'm gonna take
Aaron with me to level five, to the south facility,
at PNM, and we'll actually do an
interview with an inmate. On this one particular
inmate, he was locked up maximum security for a
good number of years, and now he's gonna be coming
out in general population. (fast paced energetic music) What we have here,
as you notice here, on this one particular inmate,
assault, assault, assault, multiple assaults on
both staff and inmates. We don't want to put him
in general population with the people who might still be his enemies from his past. - All right. - So let's go down,
and we'll talk to him. See if he's good to come out. - All right, sounds good. - All right. The skills to
effectively do this job, versus just being a
correctional officer, consists of understanding what the mentality is of an inmate. With Aaron, I hope he
has the mindset for it, and understands why
we do what we do. That's one thing you're
gonna have to learn to brush up on too,
your interview skills. Interview skills
are important here. You have to keep calm,
know what I'm saying? - Yeah. I won't lie, I've had a
weakness of being a little impatient, and I am still
learning to be more finessful, I mean, nobody's perfect. I use my discretion a lot. - So what we'll do now,
is we'll go down there, we'll pull this guy out. - What did he do to obtain
the charges that he has? - He was already in jail. He was on active Sureño. - Wow. He killed an officer? - Yes. - Oh, [beep]. (dramatic music) - So what we'll do now,
is we'll go down there, we'll pull this guy out. - What did he do to obtain
the charges that he has? - He was already in jail. He was on active Sureño. - Killed an officer? - Yes. - Oh, [beep]. The most significant experience
that I've had so far, with gangs, is with the Sureños. (men yelling) I was working housing in 3A,
when I showed up to my unit and that entire pod was
completely separated. They sent inmates
to other facilities, they sent inmates to other
units, and I was told that there was a hit on my life
with the California Sureños. And it's mainly due to
the fact that they just didn't like the way
I enforced rules. The way I look at it though
is if an inmate likes you, then you're really
not doing your job. You know what, I don't
think you can ever be sure, so it's very scary. So, in this
particular situation, do you think I'd be able to
sit in on this interview. - I don't think so, I'll
go ahead and interview him, because I don't know what
he's going to say yet. - Right. - And I don't, being that
you're not STIU and stuff, I want him to feel more
comfortable to tell me whatever he feels
he needs to tell me. - Right. - If you will do me a favor,
and bring me Mr. [beep]. (buzzer buzzing) (intense rhythmic music) - This particular inmate
is a former Sureño, which is the gang that
put a hit on my life. Seeing this guy makes
me wanna put this guy face first into the ground. (intense beat music) - What's goin' on? Today's my first day, I
will walk into prison. I had like butterflies
in the stomach, you know, like in a bad way. - Welcome to
Western Corrections. This is where the rubber
meets the road gentlemen. Let's start off with
our badges, Major. First one is Chaz Miller. Your lifeline and your badge. - It's nice knowing
that I have my dad here, and it's a little difficult,
because he's intimidating. - I have a good legacy here. (laughing) I've been through a lot. Chaz, I'm proud to be having
him work here with me, knowing I taught him
the right way, my way. And I think he's gonna
be a great officer. - Having my dad in corrections,
the pressure to be like him, pretty rough trying to
uphold his standard, because he doesn't bitch
out, you know what I mean? So, I can't bitch out. - The majority of the
inmates here are a handful. It is nerve racking, trying
to learn the inmates. - This is my first time
interacting with inmates. I don't know what to expect. - Go in, you're gonna announce
count, get to your cells. (dramatic dark music) - Do you have the phone? [beep], so we're missing one. - We need to find the phone. If they're keeping
that phone hostage, you don't know what that
inmate could be doing with it. - There's a lot of
gangs in prison, and there's a lot of
hustling going on daily. You know what I mean? There's only two
phones in the pod, if we're trying to
get something done, we have to sometimes
take the phone hostage. And these vatos,
they don't play, they're gonna do what
they're gonna do. - Who's got the phone? - Do you know who has the phone? Just the fact that the inmates, I don't want to treat them
like they're bad people. I mean, my dad was in prison, so I try to give them a chance. Do you have the phone. - Do you have the phone? - That means it's really bad. Do you know who There's some inmates that aren't
allowed to have the phone. They could be trying to make
deals outside of the prison, so it's important to find it. 109? The day shift officers said
109 had the phone last, but he had gone into the shower. - The con games inmates play,
it's an ongoing evolution of cat and mouse, between
officer and inmate. One of the biggest
parts of this job, is to make sure that
they're mentally prepared, if you forget where you
are, you become complacent. They can get one over on
you, you make that mistake, guess what, you may not go home. - [Lilly] I didn't see it. - Nobody else get's the phone,
until that phone turns up. We need to disconnect
all the phone lines. (intense deep music) - Go in, you're gonna announce
count, get to your cells. - [Man] Rookie! - Walking in, it's pretty scary. I guess it was just an
eye opening, this is real. My dad told me the inmates just mess with your
mind a little bit. [beep] - Name and number,
you can ask them. - Sir, name and number. - [Inmate] 37, [beep]. - (Laughing). - Thank you sir. (light knocking) Name and number. - Count, what we
call formal count. Probably one, if not the most,
important aspects of the job that these young correctional
officers have to do. That's where we indicate if
somebody's missing or not, and if somebody's missing,
somebody didn't do their job. We have to have
control and custody of our inmates at all times. And if we do not do our
job, or do our due diligence everyday, and somebody's
able to break out, then guess what, somebody
else is gonna get hurt. - What is it? - [Man] Seven [beep]. - Thank you. - It was pretty difficult
for me to follow the number, and then follow their
number on the count sheet. Sometimes I thought, oh,
they're giving me fake numbers, or you know, they're
trying to mess with me. Number please? So they're all,
should be 4? - Hmm? - He just said 5753, (bleeps). - They're just giving you half. [beep]
[laughter] It's very important to
succeed in this job. My dad does expect
more out of me, so I do get anxious or
nervous to do a good job. Chavez, name and number please. - [Man] [beep]. - Oh, [beep], there. [beep] up. - Put in present, just make-- - Right here? - No. (men laughing) - (Mumbles). - Hey, let's clear it up guys! (men laughing) It's important that you don't
disappoint your superiors, because if you're an officer
who is always making mistakes, you can lose respect
from staff and people won't like
to work with you. - The majority of
the drug deals will go down in that dormitory,
so I better not go into that unit, and find a syringe,
or find someone smoking, or find someone doing drugs. - All right. When the Lieutenant comes
in, when he does his round, and he suspects inmates are
high, I do get stressed out. - Right now this inmates
out in the corridor, right now there's
inmates walking around, inmates trying to approach
me in order to distract me from whatever is
going on in the dorm. (intense rhythmic music) They watch everything we do. I smell smoke. - Jacob Segura. - Jacob Segura! I'm a little nervous,
a little frustrated, because I couldn't catch it
before the Lieutenant caught it. 10-4. - Ooh, you're in trouble. - Whenever an officer
doesn't come across as doing their
searches properly, we'll bring them
in and notify them of what my expectations are. Those issues need to be
addressed immediately. (intense drumming music) There should be no
reasons for these guys to be smoking
while on shift. - [D'Angelo] So with the dorms,
what can I do differently? - [Lieutenant] Walking into
a dorm to do my shake down. I look for who
avoids eye contact, who will go out of their
way to confront me, in order to distract
me from whatever is going on in the
other side of the dorm. That should be a
dead giveaway for me. - [D'Angelo] Oh,
that frustrates me. - [Lieutenant] You need
to make those busts, and establish that rapport
with those inmates, to where they're gonna at
least show that respect. They're gonna know that
when D'Angelo's on shift, he means business. - [D'Angelo] Awesome. (exciting rhythmic music) - D'Angelo's very
apologetic about it. He knew he had taken
a step backwards. I need to trust that he
can do his job on his own. I shouldn't have to hold
his hand every single time. I'm in charge of
a facility here, I can't supervise
D'Angelo solely. (dramatic drumming music) - I [beep] up. - Put in present, just make-- - Right here? - Just, no. - Okay. I [beep] up, oh,
that threw me off. - You get nervous,
follow your room numbers, they're posted up there. - [Chaz] When you mess up, you
have to redo the count sheet, so then count takes longer,
and they get mad at you. - You'll get the hang. - Knowing that I
have my dad here, if you do something
wrong, they hear about it. Then that folds back
on me not living up to his expectations of me. Chavez, name and number please. Made a mistake man. - Coming in as a rookie
officer and having family that has done this
job, that's great. But on the downside of
that is there's always that expectation
that you have to live up to what your parents did. When the only thing
they're concerned about is trying to prove themselves,
it could be distracting. If you're not mentally prepared, you're ultimately gonna
fail at this career. - There's days where
you get it perfect, there's days you're just
gonna have a bad day, and you're gonna need
five count sheets. They want it so perfect,
you get nervous. (intense fast music) - [Purto] That dude has
criminal written up and down. - You can sit down right there. - Davis is
interviewing an inmate to determine if he's
still dangerous. I had to hang back because
I'm not an STIU member, but Aerial is in
charge of the unit, so she can help
with the interview. I really would like
to be in there, it would be very
interesting to me. But I believe that day
will come eventually. - [Davis] I'm doing
an assessment here, I'm gonna determine
how good you are to come out in public here. All right. The gist of this program
is that everybody here is at the end of the line. They're done with the
gang [beep], they're not good with
their gang no more, whatever the case is, this
is the end of the their line. So I need everybody here
to be on the same page. Which is come out, get along in a general population setting. I need to know there's
not someone here that's gonna [beep] that up. Do you understand
that you're gonna be coming out in this population, with people who are
in active gangs still? You feel good about that, you gonna have an
issue with that? What I'm more concerned about is where you're gonna be
and where you're heads at if they put another
Sureño in the pod. Do you have an issue with
active gang members as it is? You don't? (laughing) Then you have a [beep] issue! You planning on
assaulting anyone? You planning on
assaulting anyone? Come on. - This inmate seems to be
pretty worked up and agitated. - [Davis] No active
Sureño's, no nothing. No nothing, I'm gonna
roll his cap back, why would you say something
so [beep] stupid? - Wait. - [Davis] If I could
smack you with this book, I would do it. You planning on
assaulting anyone? You planning on
assaulting anyone? Come on! - This inmate seems to be
pretty worked up and agitated. - [Lieutenant] If I
could smack you with this book, I would do it. Sarg, this [beep]
vato's acting aggressive. - [Lieutenant] I'm gonna roll
his cap back, come on man. That's an issue. (intense drumming) Ah, you're killing me Purto. I haven't been able
to do my job at all today because of you. - I was just looking out
for your safety, bro. - I was hoping you
wouldn't have done that. Purto, he wants to go out
there and get the bad guy. But as far as the
STIU is concerned, the super cop mentality,
it could be a hindrance. I wanted the inmate to feel
like he could talk to me, about anything, I didn't
want him to feel pressured, as far as who was in
there, or anything else. When he sent the Sergeant
in, he broke up the dynamic. To be part of this group,
you have to be able to use your head, you
have to have a certain demeanor that keeps you calm. That's a growing
experience for him. (intense dark music) - Nobody else gets the phone
until that phone turns up. - [Man] Who's got the phone? - Just collect all of them
until that one shows up. I advise the officers to
disconnect all the phone lines. So that way none of the
inmates can use the phones until that phone comes up. - Hey, who's got the phone? (fast paced dramatic music) - We're still missing one. (whistling) - Thank you. I asked him straight
up if he had the phone, and he said no. I didn't see it. It frustrated me
that he lied to me. He had no reason to lie, I wish I wouldn't
have believed him. - Hey, I got the other phone. Yeah. Yeah, I know. - I looked in there
and I didn't see it. He probably lied to me
just because I'm a rookie. And I should've known better. Now I know where I
can look next time. - The new rookie officers, the
first time they get played, they finally realize, wow,
these guys are inmates, and they're in
here for a reason. It's a transitional period
from being a rookie officer to saying hey, I
know where I'm at, I know who I'm dealing with now. - Why are you holding
on to the phone? Why'd you keep it
in your mattress? You knew we were looking
for the phone though. I switched your phone calls
for you, plenty of times, then you go and do
this to my officers. - It made me realize that
I can't trust these guys. (intense scary music) - I thought that I
was equipped mentally to go in there and deal
with these individuals, however, it was an eye
opener how to handle them, how to deal with them,
what the games are, the approach t tt it requires. I hope one day I'll be
able to prove that I have what it takes to
become an STIU member. (exciting fast music) - The hardest part for
me, it's just little lies that these inmates tell me. Do I worry that I'm
gonna get conned? Yes, and I'm pretty sure
it will happen again. - Yeah, it's very important
to succeed in this job. The pressure to be my like
my dad, it is distracting. I just want to try
to stay as focused, and do the job 100% as possible. I don't want to fail at the
career I have, you know. - Everyday you're getting
tested mentally and physically. It's very frustrating
when you suspect an inmate of doing something and
you can't catch them. It's like a chess game. These guys, they're thinking
about what your next move is, so you gotta think
two steps in advance, which is kind of hard for me. - Come to the food port
and be restrained! I'm the first guy to go in,
you gotta get real serious. You don't wanna make a mistake, because that could
get someone hurt. - [Inmate] (mumbles)
[beep] let me out! - Prison systems, they're
very difficult, dangerous, and unforgiving environments. - Any mistake here,
and any situation could be a large mistake. You saw that it
was positive before you even walked out
of the bathroom. - The line was there man,
what's the big secret. [beep] Come on, man. - I don't think so,
where is this guy? I accidentally left a gate open, and that makes me
feel so unsafe. I feel like I didn't do my
job to the best of my ability, and that's when
somebody will get hurt. - [Man] C1! - You don't really think
anything of it until it happens. - Take a shortcut in
this line of work, you go left when you
should have went right, that could be your life. - [Woman] I'm scared.
