(eerie music) - You see this right here? This is what we live for. - With the heightened
gang activity we have in this state right now, it's
more dangerous now than ever. - Him coming out, make sure
you pat him down you know. - We're reducing
our use of segregation. - It's getting
more dangerous now. That means more
assaults on staff. - The COs they don't know really
what's going on round here, so some inmates take
advantage of that. - When you're
positioned attention, where should you be? - [Voiceover]
Facing forward, sir. - Why are
you looking at me? - No excuses, sir. - When you walk into
a unit, you have to have a confidence
in yourself. If you have zero confidence
they're gonna eat him alive. - Count time! There going around just free. It's a little intimidating. - I just wanted to
get out of there. - Let's go
guys, go into your unit! (upbeat music) - What you
have to know about prison, you have a lot of people
that are vultures and snakes. They prey on the weak. - If somebody see's you
as prey, you wanna handle that right away 'cause you don't want other inmates seeing
you as a punk or a bitch. - You got the weak in here
and you got the strong. It doesn't matter who you, CO, inmate, they gotta
be made for this (bleep). - Prison is a very
alpha male environment. You know the biggest and
the best may win, right? - Prime time here. I'm alpha male. I'm the biggest dude here. You step to me, you
better step real. - When somebody cross me,
I'm gonna play tic tac toe on they ass. - It's a predator-prey environment inside
these prisons. One of the biggest challenges for a young correctional officer is figuring out
how to achieve that necessary level of authority. - We're throwing them
into the lions' den. You have to be the
alpha and omega. You have to have the ability to make people do what
you want them to do. - I don't have keys. This is awful. (prison chatter) - Negative. - I don't have keys,
so I need to find them. On my way to work this morning, there was just a million
things running through my mind. How are the inmates
gonna treat me? Are they gonna
take me seriously? I look like I'm
twelve years old. I wouldn't take me seriously. Do you have the 35s
for four control? - 10-4,they're
up here with me now. - 10-4 (mumbles). In high school, towards my
senior year, I was thinking, well, what am I gonna
do after high school? Am I gonna go to college? Am I gonna start working? My older brother
Derek works here. I was talking to my brother
about it for a while and he recommended the prison. I was like that's insane,
I'm not gonna go there. I don't wanna die. But we've been
everywhere together, we do everything together. Here I am working in a
prison as a little kid pretty much straight
out of high school. - Let's go, hurry up! First day at the academy,
I'm looking at Fabian. He comes across as a
little bit overwhelmed, a little bit unsure of himself. You forget where your car's at? - What do you mean you
don't have your keys? Why in the hell would you
go run all the way out to your car without
your damn car keys? I don't know maybe you're
not supposed to be here yet. Maybe you need to go back
home with mommy and daddy. He's trying to fit
in to a man's world. Some of these individuals
behind these walls have been around longer
than Fabian's been alive. So, he's gonna have to
take the bull by the horns and make sure he does
the job professionally, and goes home safely. (chatter) - Sign in - Listen up! - We had a fight today, about 9:18 this morning. Dirk Lee was involved in it. He got two stitches out of it. - Thing you guys gotta realize, violence has gone
up in this facility within the last week, two weeks. We've been having a
lot more assaults. - If you feel threatened,
call a response. - They're in a hostile mood. These guys are not playing
around with us anymore. - [Lt. Charles] Just
be careful guys. Go to work. - [radio]
87-I.D. for verification. - Because what work
that we're doing to dismantle organized
prison gangs, we've seen more incidents
of group driven violence. And the Western New Mexico
Corrections Facility is no different than
any of the others. The Western is a
medium-custody level prison. Because they have more
opportunity to move about, it comes for us and our
staff with greater risk. (dramatic music) - What the (bleep),
mother (bleep) wassup? - Let's go. - (bleep) wassup! (mumbles) - Face
mother (bleep)! (intense music) - Perp walk. (doors buzzing loudly) - This the last guy? - I love corrections. I love being a part
of what we like to call the thin blue line. Ever since I was a
little kid, you know, I'd always been fascinated with you know the
television show Cops. You know, I'd watch it ritually. It started to really, really
capture my interest then. And I just knew, you know,
I was like, wow, I need to, I need to be a
correctional officer. This is what I really wanna do. I take pride in putting
this uniform on every day. I'm able to come here and insure that these people stay in
prison are following policy and procedure, you know,
that's one of the main things that they hate, you know. It's a comforting
feeling for me to be able to come here and enforce
these rules on these people. So this particular
morning two weeks ago this inmate Joshua
Martinez, he is one of our more dangerous
inmates here. We were nearly to his cell door when I just saw something
flying down at me. (yelling) I didn't have time to panic,
you know, it happened so fast. If those two officers
weren't there and it was just me I probably could have sustained
more injuries than I did. After the first responders
came and I was able to get up, I was like wow something
is wrong with my arm. I sustained a partial tear
to the left side of my chest. (intense music) - Being attacked by
an inmate it really makes you take a step
back and do a little bit of soul searching. It just reminds you that
anything could happen at any given time, and
that you need to be alert. Just know what
you're dealing with. Yeah, these people
are human beings, however they are
here for a reason and they are vicious predators. (door buzzing) (chatter) - This is for you. - There's inmates
at the state pin that wanna to harm themselves,
which amplifies the risk of them harming you, another
inmates and support staff. Regardless of how violent it
is, the correctional officers and staff here has to be
able to maintain, you know, the well being and
health of the inmate. That's our first
and foremost job. (yelling) - Since the attack, my
guard has been very high. - Close the door! - It's even higher than before. - It's here in the unit still. - Okay, you're only
allowed one book so being as though
it's religion, let me check with lieutenant. - Relax. Just relax. (intense music) - Let me talk to
lieutenant real quick. Just calm down, we'll get
this squared away okay? - So his main gripe
was the Quran? If there's nothing in there
go ahead and give it to him. If he's got paper and envelopes
in there too, go ahead and give him those. - Rookie officers
dealing with an inmate who harms himself don't
understand the gravity or the situation based
on the special needs that this inmate may have. - [Purto] Alright, we
will see how this goes. - They're going to deal with it as just a disciplinary
inmate trying to act out for attention. - Here's a pen, here's a pen. We'll get you some
paper and envelopes so you can write. - I got my own paper I'm
not a (bleep) little kid. I don't need you guys
special (bleep) paper. - Okay okay, so here
is your Quran book. Okay? And this is the one he is
allowing you to have okay. - No you're not. - Just take this stuff
right here and just relax. - What do I look
like, your maid? Today is my very first
day since the incident about two and a half weeks ago. So, you know what? I'm not gonna play his games. (calm music) - I think some people
are a little surprised I made it this far. But, I'm still here so. I've been working at PNM for 10 months now
as a rookie officer. I was really nervous when I
first walked into the prison. I've never been around
convicted felons all day long, so I didn't really know
what to expect from them. Let's go. - Old enough to work here. - You don't need to know my age. I think being a girl, they
look at me as kind of weak. I don't want them to think
that they can walk on me. The last 10 months has
been a little rough because I had to prove
myself, I'm a lot stronger than I was when I first started. Housing unit 3A definitely
kicks your butt sometimes. When I first got here, I was
told if you could survive in the level six, then
you can survive anywhere in the prison because
of the inmates 'cause they literally are
the worst of the worst. With the APA, there's a lot
of schizophrenic people, diagnosed with mental illness
and violent tendencies. They're in here for murder
or assaulting a staff member. These guys can flip a
switch at any second and if they wanna hurt
you or kill you they will. - Most everyone who goes to
prison, they're gonna return back to our neighborhoods
and they're gonna join our families and
our grocery lines. We're reducing our
use of segregation. Segregation is more difficult
for those with mental illness. So for these predatory
mentally-ill inmates, if we're not careful
we will exacerbate that mental illness and
just simply made it worse. - I'm Tim Allen, I've
been in prison 20 years. I'm on death row. - When I heard Timothy
Allen is coming out on tier time I wasn't
really sure what to think because he's
a death row inmate. And he's already
murdered someone. I don't trust him at all. He's not scared to hurt
anybody or kill somebody. (eerie music) - You too. The first few weeks on the line, it was harder than I expected. I did get inmates
trying to flirt with me. - [Lilly] Whistling at me
or being disrespectful. - There were times where
I thought about quitting but I didn't, this is
the profession I chose. So I have to try at least. I'm not just gonna quit. I'm gonna be
working in 5B today. - Southern houses the majority of the prison gang
members in the state. Syndicato Nuevo Mexico brought
the most dangerous ones you have to watch out for. They have green lights on
our administrative staff. But we have the
California Surenos. Those are two rival prison
gangs that cannot cross paths. [bleep] let me out!
(banging on the door) - The Surenos, they are
a very well known gang here in prison. They are dangerous. COs do get attacked. (yelling)
Esse! - Anything could happen. (inmate chatter) The level fours
they have tier time, guys roaming around just
free, you have to go in there, you have to watch
what they're doing, you have to make sure
they're not doing anything they're not supposed to,
you have to make sure they're not fighting or
doing drugs, or who knows. - Open
the back door. - It is scary going
in there by yourself. They all look alike they
all have a lot of tattoo's, they just looked
very intimidating. - Cruces baby! - She's a rookie. - Everybody's just
staring at you and you feel their eyes on you. When that happens you
pretty much freeze, you don't know what to do. - In an alpha male
environment like a prison. The challenges for a young
female correctional officer are 10 fold that of
a young male officer. - I could honestly say,
I thought to myself, what the hell am I doing here? (loud whistling) (calm music) (inmate chatter) - Hey, it's Abeyta, are
they starting the searches? Okay. The security level in
Unit two is pretty low. There's about 60 inmates
that I constantly have to be watching. There's guys inside, there's
guys outside the unit, and I have to go
do security checks to make sure they're
not getting into fights. I have to do perimeter
checks to make sure the fence that's keeping them
in is not broken. I have to do cell searches. I have to hand out
mail to the inmates. Things like that. There's a million
things going on at once and it makes it stressful. Can't hide in the
control forever. Where's my keys? - Security checks are very
important at the Level twos to make sure that
contraband, drugs, weapons, whatever it may be is not
able to get into the facility. But, if you show up to a
prison with predatory inmates and you have no command presence
and don't show authority, yes they will bully you. They're gonna push
you all around. - When I first walked in, I
was like, I was just scared. You're so close to the inmates that they're pretty much
breathing, breathing on your neck. The pods inside
Unit two are small and cramped and I just get
claustrophobic in there. I'm pretty sure this is broken. I'm just gonna
have to go around. A little boy like me
with 64 convicted felons. I'm new, I'm an 18-year-old kid, I don't know what I'm doing. It can get stressful. - Yellow, por favor. Count time. Count time. - Ms. Rodriquez or
officer Rodriquez. - Officer! - It frustrates me,
I want them to see me as a CO not just as a female and they need to respect
me just like any other CO. - The gang members
once they see Lily and her physical stature
they're gonna probably think right away that
they can intimidate her, it's gonna really be up
to Lily to do her job and write them up and
make them accountable for their actions. - [Lilly] Count! - Not yet, I guess I should
have written some people up. But knowing what they're capable of I just don't want
them to try anything. I do get more careful with them. - No. - Just take this stuff
right here, and just relax. - When an inmate starts
threatening to harm themselves, pretty much the only thing that comes to mind
is please do it, I'd love to just gas
you and stop the action. - This individual
was threatening to 'cause he's not happy
with the accommodations. - [Lt. Salazar]
What's going on Davis? - [Davis] I want my stuff! - You got your stuff. We gave you your Qur'an, uh,
we're giving you envelopes and paper and a pen to
contact your family, what more do you want,
other than to complain? - All of the stuff that I have
should be permitted to me! - You can't have
any more than that. And you know that. What else? - Here's the deal Davis, we
don't want you to hurt yourself. We don't want you to go off. - But look, but then
I'm gonna continue doing what I'm gonna do until I
get [beep] done here. - Send it. - 10-4. Alright Ruben, you ready
to be restrained, okay. - If an inmate is
threatening to harm himself, I don't necessarily
have to stay there. Our policy states
that as long as we provide these inmates with a
welfare check every 30 minutes, then that's all I
really need to do. I'm doing my job
and I'm doing it the way it's
supposed to be done. (prison chatter) Level six. I have an inmate in
W106 harming himself. A laceration on his left arm. (on radio)
- Stop that action! - I was recently attacked
by inmate Joshua Martinez today's my first day back. What in my right
mind made me think, Oh Rueben's coming back, it'll
be cool, put him in his cell and call it a day. - Certain inmates
have special needs. They may decide not to
take their medication. They do certain things,
they cut themselves to relieve pain,
whatever that is. - I just need some
tissue to wrap it, you know what I mean? Just give me some tissue. - The way that you deal
with that goes a long way in the inmate population
and also with staff. Alright. - Let me have your arm. Surrender your arm. Okay this is my directive. - Watch out for the
blood on the ground. Move your stuff. - Just stay right
there, stay right there. - Watch out for
his arm, look at the cut. Watch the blood. I'm not trying to kill myself. I'm smarter than that and
I know how to stop my [beep], you read me? - Yeah it is. They can't stop me. - [Purto] Dealing with inmates
can be mentally exhausting. Today's my first day back. Inmate Ruben Davis isn't
exactly a welcome back cake. Just one thing after
another though. It never ends. (calm music) - Timothy Allen really
has nothing to lose, you don't know
what's gonna happen, you don't know if he's
gonna assault you. Killing one of us
or another inmate wouldn't really add
on to his sentence 'cause he's here for life. - She's pretty and she's
young and she's smart. There's a lot more women
working here then there used to be and there's a lot of
pretty women that work here. - When he opened my door
today to pat search me and let me out, I
restrained myself. - That'll be alright, huh? - Yeah
that'll be alright. - These programs are
extremely important but there's gonna be
some reluctance on behalf of our staff. Some natural fear and
opposition to these programs and, the reality is,
we could lose a few. - Even though there's only
one lock door between me and timothy Allen my
guard is still high up. Letting these high risk
inmates out can make you feel a little uncomfortable. Obviously I know
how to do my job and can do it well
but this is making an already difficult
job even harder. I don't plan on
staying at Level six. (upbeat music) - [Lilly] Nope. - [Lilly] Pat down, right? - We're gonna
pat you guys down real quick. Yeah. Thank you. It was just two for you guys. - Denise is a tough girl
and she's a very good CO. She has been here longer than
I have so, I look up to her. - Let's go gentlemen I've been here just
under two years now, it's a little intimidating
when you first come in. Right away when I first saw
Lilly I was like oh man, I know what she's gonna go
through, all the same things. You basically just have
to show that you're here, you're taking
charge essentially. You can do ports and
I'll carry trays. Make sure you take
down your cover, man. Can't have that up right now. Nah, no newspaper today. - Denise, whenever she
would walk in the pods, she was confident in her
job and they treated her with respect. - What's up? - It's already passed. - Alright. - There's nobody in there. - But she also made it clear
that there was boundaries. That's how I want the
inmates to see me. - Count time, gentleman! - [Lilly] You're acting up. Can you take off
your window cover? We're doing count. I can't hear you. - Okay that's all I needed,
I needed to see your face. If I don't set
boundaries the inmates they'll think they can
get away with anything - [Denise] You're liking it? - Yeah, it's alright. I mean, it's a good job. We're so outnumbered. - None of them give
you issues or anything? - The sweet talking went on. - Being a female you have
to find your own voice. It's a matter of just keeping that same demeanor of
you're here to do a job. You just don't
let it get to you. You do feel that
pressure of, you know, everyone's watching
and they wanna see what kind of person
you're gonna be, cause you are a female and there's not a
lot of females here. It's just a matter
of just establishing who you are as an officer. But, I mean, it's a matter,
you just gotta be consistent. You can't go in one
day saying, you know, don't do any of that stuff,
and then the next day they do it and you
just let it pass by. Just be consistent
and you'll be alright. (calm music) (upbeat music) - I have a name, Abeyta. Okay? - (bleep)
you, (bleep) outta here. - The inmates have
been awful today. - They taunt me,
they call me names, they call me Rookie,
all this stuff. - I do find it hard
to show my authority because I am so young. They look at me as
just a little kid because I kind of
am a little kid. - It's easy to tell the
difference between a rookie CO and an old-school CO because
the rookie will come in, he'll be kind of timid,
might be a little fidgety. - Sometimes they have
a little shaky voice you can shake him with loud. What you doing get out of here! They back up. Yeah you can shake them. You're supposed to test
them see where they're at. You got to teach them
like we get taught. - [Fabian] These guys
are being annoying. Inmates are not allowed
to enter your control. Because we do have stuff
in there that they can't get ahold of. Like the paper work
on there is kinds of sensitive information because
those are state documents. - Operating a control
center within a unit, that's a post you can never
ever take for granted. February of 1980,
New Mexico witnessed one of the most violent prison
riots of American history - The small
group of inmates were able to gain control
of master control - The
rioters got into records. Found the names of
prison informers, then the orgy of killing began - Its sobering
to think of the life that was lost here and how
quick it could happen again - Oh! (bleep bleep) (bleep bleep) - Alright.
- Alright. We're helping out,
took your job. - My control room,
a group of inmates just started going
through my paperwork and I really didn't
know how to react. I started to panic. Luckily, they didn't get
into anything dangerous. - If you're a control
center officer, you have to be on
your toes 24/7. If you're not doing
your job guess what, you're gonna get
fired, once someone's not going home that night. - It could've been a lot worse
but it's a lesson learned. I just gotta remember that I can't let these
guys run over me. - Hey brother. - Okay yeah so once
we returned him to his cell from
suicide watch you know he was requesting all
of this property of his. He was telling me what
to do with his property whenever he was
shoving it back out of the food port and you know
what do I look like your maid? You know, I mean. - Okay, I know its really
frustrating when you've got a guy that
you're having to deal with constantly repetitive
negative behavior. I know you're thinking
in your head man I'm here I'm helping right now and here you're treating
me like this or whatever. I can see where that would be
extremely frustrating for you. But, even though it's
difficult to deal with, we also have to be
there to help him. Because, if we let him slide
further into depression, it doesn't work for any of us. Remember, that he is injuring
himself and he's gonna have to deal with the
repercussions of that in terms of the pain he's
created for himself, the trouble that he's
getting in 'cause he is getting write-ups you
know for this kind of stuff. Regardless of how much of a
pain in the butt they are, our job is to not
only protect them from other inmates
but to protect them from themselves as well
and sometimes it takes and requires a different
approach a lot of patience, self-control, a lot of maturity and a lot of professionalism. Aaron has a lot of strengths. He is truly dedicated to his job he's got a really good heart. A job like this requires
finesse at times and those are the things you
learn as the years go by. You know what I'm
glad you're back. I'm glad you're here with us. Umm I wish you a speedy
recovery I know you wanna be a 100%, but uh
its good to have you. - Yeah I appreciate
that lieutenant. - Lieutenant Salazar
is a great lieutenant. He definitely knows how
to deal with these people. And I learn a lot from him. In life there are two
different types of people there are your wolves and
there are your sheep. You have a lot of inmates here
that given the opportunity, will harm you. I thought I was
mentally prepared. - Imma go head and
cut my wrist again. - I wasn't. It was a big eye opener. - Coming in as a rookie, I didn't know what I
was getting myself into. A lot of guys tease
me 'cause my size. They say you're so little
and stuff like that. - You can be writing these
inmates up for this right. Sexual misconduct or however
they are engaging you on that. - Just learning from
not only Denise, but I've seen other
great COs, it has helped. - You should be alright. You're still here and
I am very proud of you. Its very hard to be
the alpha, omega. But in here, there's no excuses, if you're not able dominate,
the inmates will dominate you. - I think the inmates
think I'm scared of them, so even if these guys
are bigger than me, they're crazier than me,
I have to control them. And that's all I can do. - A lot of people don't make
it as far as I've made it. I'm not as scared
as I used to be. I'm leaving level six
starting a new post. I'm pretty glad to be
done with level six. - Regardless if you
work in Level five, Level six, or a Level
one, two, and three every day you show up to work,
it's a battle for survival. - New details tonight
about the death of an inmate at Southern New
Mexico correctional facility. Javier Molina was
attacked and murdered by fellow gang
members last night. - Knowing that the Surenos
killed that guy is pretty scary. - They see the opportunity
they'll take it and they'll try to kill you. - Walking around
with these inmates unrestrained is definitely
a nerve wracker for me. - I'm still on the phase of finding my own
identity as an officer. No! But if they wanna mess with me I can make their
life just as hard as they wanna make mine. Hey you don't (bleep)
tell me to shut up! - You get the new guys
they think they're superman behind these prison walls - Just hope he doesn't run
out to me in the streets, you know what I mean. Smash a meter man
you get 15 years. You smash one of these
guys you get 18 months.
