"This programme contains some strong language" "Miami, Florida is home to one of the largest jails in America." "The tens of thousands of people arrested every year in the country come here to live." "They stay for a day or sometimes years while they await trial." "Since they have not yet been convicted, the inmates of jails, unlike prisons, are technically innocent." "Walk right into my magical kingdom." "You can go drive by!" "For those accused of the worst crimes or worst behaviour in the jail, their time here is considered by many to be tougher and more brutal than any other institution." "The fifth floor of the main jail is one of two maximum security floors." "It is known as one of the most violent in Miami's jail system." "Do we know the name of the inmate that was attacked?" "Erm..." "His name's Warren." "Warren Davis, I think it is." "Warren Davis?" "Yeah." "Warren Davis." "Can we talk to you?" "How long have you been in this cell?" "This cell?" "About...four days, four or five days in this cell." "I've been in the system 13 months." "There was a guy attacked last night in this cell." "Get him!" "He wasn't attacked." "It was a straight fight." "Do you know what the fight was about?" "What might it have been about?" "They got a saying, they got a saying... in the jailhouse, cos it's called "snitches get stitches", so... that tells you everything right there." "And do I infer from that, then, the guy who was beaten may have been a snitch?" "Yes, sir." "That doesn't go too well with the guys in here." "Even though he might have not been snitching on the guys in this particular cell, while somewhere throughout the facility he has a co-defender or somebody that he is snitching on and that's..." "The word comes down, and once you're labelled as a snitch, it's hard for you to live anywhere in the county jail." "He's in hospital now." "Does that surprise you?" "No, not really." "It won't be his last time being in the hospital." "Main jail's other maximum security floor is the sixth." "Corporal Harry Woodside is one of the supervisors." "This is a very old jail." "This is what's called a first-generation jail." "This type of jail setting where the inmates are alone in the cells and we basically have the outside walk." "About 95% of inmates in this jail cannot function in a third-generation jail." "And third generation is?" "Third generation is where the inmates are housed in an open type bay, everything's in the cell for them, the shower units, the TVs, everything's in there, rec room, everything." "That type of jail setting, that type of jail setting, your violent aggressive inmates can't function in those settings." "Why not?" "Because a lot of your aggressive inmates don't like the idea of an officer being in the unit with them." "They like to be alone in units so they can run the unit the way they want to run it." "When you have an officer there, we run the unit." "This type of setting, they're still in a jail cell but we're not in there, a minimum amount of time during the day, so therefore the inmates, once their door shuts, they control, whoever is the strongest person" "in the cell controls the cell, so you tend to have more fights in this setting." "When you go in, they fight to prove themselves." "Why?" "Because that's...the survival of the fittest, you know?" "It gets your ranking in the cell." "What have most of these guys done?" "I mean, most of them are awaiting trial, are they?" "Yeah, probably about 90, 95, about 99% of them are awaiting trial." "Many of them, if they haven't been convicted, they are technically innocent... innocent until proven guilty." "They're all innocent until proven guilty." "The paint is this area up here, the rec area." "This is the paint." "Why is it called the paint?" "That's just what they call it, the paint." "When a new inmate comes in the cell or they're deciding on a fight, they use this area right here." "If you don't have a good account of yourself, they'll tell you, go ahead and knock on the door, they're going to put you on the door." "They'll let you knock on the door, did you say?" "Yeah, after you lose, they're going to tell you go a-knocking on the door, get your stuff." "That means go get the officers, you have to leave." "So, explain what the paint is." "Did you say depending on how you do in the fight you get a different bunk?" "Is that what you said?" "Yeah." "If you fight hard, you go hard, you get you a bottom rack." "You ain't got to get up on the top." "But if you ain't fighting like that, your ass got to get on the top." "You got a top dog and you got smaller dogs." "Who's the top dog in this cell?" "I can't give you no names." "Why can't you give any names?" "If you come in here, you will find out who the top dog is here." "Yeah!" "That what it is." "He's Mr Pearson." "You know him a little bit?" "Just from in jail here, yes." "Do you know what Mr Pearson is in for?" "Oh, no, not off the top of my head, I don't..." "I can look it up, but I don't know off the top of my head." "Why you want to find out what I'm in for?" "He just asking questions." "No, I know, I'm saying I ain't got no problem telling," "I'm just saying, I'm trying to see what the catch is to it." "Why you're here, like what do you have to do or be accused of doing to be in this cell?" "You could be accused of anything." "You could be here for stealing a bike." "They got different levels." "Well, this is maximum." "This is maximum." "So why are you maximum?" "Because of my charges." "Which is?" "Huh?" "What are your charges?" "I got a first degree murder." "First degree..." "Murder." "How long have you been in jail?" "Oh, I've only been locked up ten months now, ten months." "I just came in off the street like y'all, and I'm going to get back out there real soon." "What size shoe do you wear?" "What he's trying to tell you is..." "What he's trying to tell you is that if you were in the cell right now, you would lose your shoes, somebody's going to take them." "Why?" "Because if you went in that cell with those shoes and they fit him, he's going to fight you for them." "When you say "What size shoes do you wear?" What did you mean by that?" "They were going to be his." "I might want them shoes, I like them shoes you got on." "You a cowboy?" "I see cowboys who wear them kind of shoes." "What if he came in the cells and..." "He'd have to fight for them." "Since most of the inmates in jail are not convicted, they exist in a kind of legal limbo, technically innocent, yet confined and deprived of many of their rights." "Main jail is the first point of entry for all new arrestees." "Here, they're booked and processed." "Most are either released on bail or sent to one of the system's four other more modern facilities." "This is also the access point for inmates with court dates and medical issues." "One of those being moved was the beaten man from the sixth floor, Warren Davis." "We just heard about you getting beaten up last night." "Can you tell us what happened?" "It was about a bunk?" "You had just got in there, is that right?" "Were you jumped or was it one guy?" "No, it was like 12 dudes, one on one though, each one." "One after another?" "Yeah." "Why?" "Over a bunk." "That's how they do it, I don't know." "You wouldn't give them the bunk they wanted?" "I was sleeping." "I was sleeping and they put their hands on me." "How many guys did you have to fight?" "About 12 of them." "Yeah, 12 dudes." "We went up there and the explanation the guys gave was that there was a rumour going around that you had cooperated with the state and that was why that went down." "Yeah?" "You know what my charge is?" "Driving with a suspended licence, so where am I cooperating with the state with it?" "That was a fluke, man, this is how the shit goes in the cell." "The fourth floor has a mixture of maximum and medium custody cells." "There are also some smaller cells for the most violent and predatory inmates." "These are the safety cells." "These are the safety cells, meaning?" "Meaning these are... a lot of these inmates, if you put them in general population, they're doing a lot of fighting." "They'll fight with others?" "So a lot of times you have to separate them." "That's why they're in red?" "Correct." "Why are you in red?" "Stabbing charge." "A stabbing charge against who?" "Another inmate." "You stabbed another inmate?" "Yeah." "For what reason?" "Discrete altercation." "What was it about?" "Respect." "How did he disrespect you?" "He throwing down my flag." "He throwing down my flag." "He disrespecting me, basically." "Are you saying that he disrespected your gang?" "Pretty much." "He bad-mouthed your gang?" "That's basically what it's about." "What did you stab him with?" "An ice pick." "In his stomach?" "Anywhere I could hit him." "How many times?" "About seven." "Seven?" "Yeah." "What happened to him?" "I don't know and I don't care, I really don't care about him." "He's not dead?" "No, he ain't dead." "Where is he?" "He probably in general population somewhere telling on somebody, I don't know..." "But to me, frankly, I don't care what happen to him, whether he live or die." "They say that the weaker inmates get preyed upon." "That's what we call marks." "Ducks." "You got you a duck." "You put your foot on his neck, you know what I'm saying?" "If he weak." "If he weak he better check in and go somewhere, you know?" "Cos it's rough in this county, man, it's rough, and you can be tricked easily like that, you know?" "Scared." "All type of stuff go on behind these walls." "In what way might someone be victimised?" "I could just extort him, have his momma sending me money." "He could be extorted... easily." "She got to pay for her son's protection." "He got to give me everything that comes through that door." "If I ain't got nothing here, he getting fed to the wolves." "That's how the weak get preyed upon." "Did you hear?" "He's talking openly about extortion that can sometimes happen, the weaker inmates would be extorted." "Yeah, that's true, that's true, yes." "Is there anything officers can do to prevent that happening?" "Well, actually, you know, if they're being extorted, they say don't then, we don't know." "If they bring it to our attention, then yes, then we're going to investigate it." "That's what we call a check-in move." "Go on." "When you run out and tell, obviously you checking in, so if you check in one way or another, somebody going to get hold soon." "There'd be repercussions?" "Yeah, there'd be repercussions for that." "For running to the authorities?" "Yeah." "Why?" "There got to be repercussions." "Why?" "He done checked in under my name." "He done checked in." "I got to have him." "You're not worried about talking about this in front of the officers?" "For what?" "They got me back here already for all this long time, why should I be?" "It ain't no secret, my charge, going to tell it anyway." "You'd be willing to extort the weaker inmates?" "Within a heartbeat, quick." "Quick." "Why?" "Cos of your mark." "One thing I'm going to leave on the camera for y'all to remember this word, right here - gabose." "The name of the game is gabose." "Game ain't based on sympathy and you got sympathy in this part, you ain't going to never make it." "Yeah." "How old are you?" "27. 27?" "27." "What's your name?" "Nianthony." "Nianthony, what are you doing here, in the jail?" "Being arrested." "Can you say what they say you did?" "Allegedly." "What it is against you?" "Allegedly." "What they allegedly say you did?" "Attempted murder." "How long have you been in jail?" "Three years now." "Three years?" "!" "Three years." "You're pre-trial?" "Mm-hm." "You haven't gone to trial yet?" "Not yet." "You've been staying mainly here at Pre-trial Detention Centre?" "This is actually my fourth day here." "Fourth?" "I was at the other jail." "Why'd they bring you here?" "Someone said I was trying to escape..." "Really?" "Which is obviously not true." "So this'll be your more permanent housing, then?" "For now." "For now." "Hopefully not." "Why do you say hopefully not?" "It's not a nice placement." "Where would you rather be if you were in jail?" "I mean, if you had the..." "Where I was before." "Right." "What's wrong with this one, the main jail?" "I mean, I'm being watched by a lot of people, so I don't want to say anything." "(Awful." "It's fucking awful.)" "Why?" "(It's a fucking shithole here." "It's terrible.)" "And now they're going to put me with 20 other crazy people here." "And you can't do anything about it..." "You know?" "I wasn't trying to get out of that other place." "I would never come out of my room, just sit there and read." "I even went down to classes in the morning to help people get their degrees cos I have college education myself." "So I would go down and, you know, help people and now I'm being put in this fucking crazy place." "Do you have a court date?" "6th December." "Next Monday." "That's when the trial starts?" "No, no, no." "You always have to have a trial date, whether or not you're ready for trial." "So mine is set for the 6th December but my case isn't ready to go to trial, so I won't be going to trial." "It's just a date necessary to be logged in the system." "So nothing's going to happen on Monday?" "No, nothing will happen." "When do you think you'll actually go to trial?" "Not for a while." "I'll allow you to film from the front with us putting him in his cell, but as far as the actual inmates seeing the camera crew, I will not, no." "That's not a good idea for him and for his safety." "We don't want all the inmates to think that he was out here talking to a camera crew and snitching all the inmates in his cell, as they claim." "You don't want him victimised..." "Not at all. ..by other inmates?" "How many people would he share with?" "Anywhere, roughly, in the cells, from 16 to 23 guys in one, so it depends on the size of the cell and with him, his size, ain't no telling what will happen once we close that door." "To what extent can you protect an inmate from the other inmates?" "I mean..." "The only means he has to alert us that something is going on in that cell is when they bang on the door or there's yelling coming from the cell, then we know something's going on in the cell." "A lot of times, as I say, if he's being victimised by ten guys... there's probably no way for us to know until we actually go in there to feed or do our head count." "We pull them out to do head counts, to physically make sure everybody's OK." "Sometimes you can get raped." "You can get stabbed." "Things of that nature do happen in jail, yes." "So we wanted to see Nianthony, is that OK?" "Correct, correct." "We don't want to compromise his safety, so we'll just walk round and see what his cell is like and talk to some of the people in there." "OK, see his environment, basically?" "Without identifying him Correct." "No problem." "We can do that?" "Yes." "How you doing in here?" "There was a fight in here last night, I heard." "There was a something, man, I don't know about it too much." "Oh, yeah, we don't like thieves." "Snitches, snitches." "You said there was a fight in here last night?" "And what did they do?" "To the guy who was stealing?" "They beat him up." "They jumped on him." "Where is he now?" "Right now, I think he's in Ward D." "He's in?" "Ward D. Our hospital facility." "He's in hospital now?" "Yeah." "How y'all can help me?" "I need society to know how y'all low ones get treated." "What did you do?" "Who, me?" "Oh, somebody broke into my house and when they broke into my house, I shot him." "He was trying to rape my daughter - I blowed his head off." "I woke up and I shot him." "When you come to this jail, when you known to be snitching, you going to get beat - bop, bop, bop, bop, bop!" "Then wherever you go," ""Oh, he hot, hot boy." "Bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop - they going to line him up." "That mean we're going to get him - bop, bop, bop, bop!" "Then when he gets out the next one get him - bop, bop, bop, bop!" "That's called line up." "They're going to line him up." "READS PHONE NUMBER ON TV" "A handful of inmates on each floor are chosen to perform menial tasks for the officers." "I was about to meet one of these trustees on the sixth floor." "What's your name?" "My name is Robert." "Are you in a special trustees' cell here on the sixth floor?" "No, I'm not, no." "A regular cell with other inmates." "Other inmates who are not trustees?" "Yes, sir." "Wouldn't that create some conflict because you get some privileges?" "Yes, as a matter of fact it does." "As you can see, my eye's still healing..." "What happened?" "Oh, I got in a fight." "Why?" "Somebody stole." "We get commissary on a weekly basis here." "We get chips and cookies and different, you know... necessities, hygiene, and somebody stole some things from me so... the way you respond to that in here, in this environment, is, you know, you have to..." "They call it strap up, tie your shoes, tighten them up." "You told him literally, "Put your shoes on"?" "Yeah, right." "There's different words for it." "Red, give me some red." "Give me a fade, a head up." "It means we want to fight." "The only way we can resolve things is through fighting." "If we wanted to meet the guy you had beef with... could we do that?" "I don't think that would be a good idea." "Why not?" "It's just not, it just..." "It wouldn't." "It wasn't even him that did it, but the way things... the rules are in here, the person that's closest to me in my vicinity, my bunk mate, is supposed to look out for me." "I'm out here seven hours a day." "If me and you are bunkies and you're out here and some of your stuff comes up missing and I'm in there all day and I'm on my bunk reading, you're going to think that I know about it, I had something to do with it, that I did it." "That's how it is." "As far as you know, he may not have done it." "Exactly." "But he should have been your lookout." "Basically, so when I got back in and found my stuff missing, I just..." "Tapped his bunk and that means put your shoes on, you know, you got to give me a fight, tighten up." "And that's what we did, so I'm not even 100% sure he did it, but I'm sure that nobody else now in the cell will do that because they know I'm not going to be pushed over." "They can just take advantage, you know?" "Of the white guy." "Did you get in trouble?" "No, I didn't get in trouble for that." "That's just a natural ongoing thing." "Fighting is normal." "I mean, stabbings are normal." "What are you in for?" "Why are you here?" "Oh...home invasion robbery, armed burglary... ..grand theft armed and I have an aggravated stopping charge." "Do you have priors?" "As a matter of fact, yes, I do." "That's why I'm in the situation that I am now." "I have a long list of crimes." "I've been in prison six times and when you say that, people are like, damn, you know?" ""You haven't learned your lesson yet?" And all I can say to that is I guess not." "But things are starting to settle in now." "I can honestly say that." "I'm ready, you know?" "I'm really ready." "The culture of constant fighting has existed in the main jail for many years." "Officers say there is little they can do to stamp it out and that the code is created by the inmates themselves." "What happened to you?" "I got jumped by some inmates." "They choked me, put me to sleep." "I was choked." "What's your last name again?" "Call the clinic." "They say he fell in the shower." "I think we both know he didn't fall in the shower." "But until I..." "You know, otherwise if he sticks to that story, I mean how..." "Can I prove otherwise?" "Strange as it was, I was about to find out that it was far from being the only predatory practice that flourishes at the jail." "Is there anyone in charge in here?" "The cell runs itself." "The cell runs itself?" "We might have some problems but this the goodest cell in..." "I guess, on the floor." "We might have some problems." "What problems?" "Fighting off and on and that's it." "You got some dudes might be gunning officers, you know, but that's it." "What is..." "You said gunning for the officers?" "That is that." "What does that mean?" "FEMALE OFFICER:" "Masturbation." "Masturbation." "Have you done that?" "I'm going to say...off and on, yeah." "I ain't going to lie." "I mean..." "People been three, four, five years without seeing a woman, so I guess that's their way of getting off." "In front of the officers?" "Yes." "I'm just giving it to you raw." "MEN LAUGH" "Can you see around there?" "No." "The director thinks maybe one of the inmates was gunning." "It happens, especially when you're female on the walk here, or new females." "They tend to, not all of them, but someone will..." "To me it's a sign of disrespect." "If you will openly do that to a female, to sit there and masturbate to her, that's a sign of disrespect to me." "Have they ever tried to gun you?" "Of course." "And what happens?" "I pull them out the cell, I counsel them and I give them a disciplinary report, so usually, if I write them up, I write them up for three different things and they catch, like, about nine days." "How often does something like that happen?" "It depends." "It used to happen to me when I first got here on the floor, two years ago, it happened a lot, but once you establish who you are and let them know what you're about, then it slows down." "SHOUTING" "All right, got your tough man." "Whoa." "How you doing?" "Were you asking if I'm tough?" "Yeah." "Why were you asking me that?" "I want them shoes." "You still want my shoes?" "Yeah." "Why?" "I could use them, sell them." "Ah!" "'Sixth floor, A wing were getting yard." "'Inmates at main jail are supposed to go outside twice a week for an hour, 'though their yard time can be revoked due to bad behaviour.'" "MUSIC: "Hustlin' " by Rick Ross" "There's another group going to come down, we separate the wings." "A and B." "We don't mix A and B. Why not?" "It gets volatile." "Enemies on different sides." "So, A'll be on one side, B'll be on one side." "All the time." "Always." "Since arriving at the jail, I'd been keen to see inside the inmates' living quarters." "With the permission of the captain, I was about to enter the cell belonging to Rodney Pearson, the inmate who'd explained the rules of the paint." "Can I introduce myself?" "I'm Louis." "Hey, how you doing, Louis." "Corporal Valdez." "Are you the Corporal on duty?" "I am." "You've kindly given us permission or arranged for us to go inside one of the cells, is that correct?" "Yes, sir." "Which is a little unusual for a media team, as I understand." "It is a safety issue." "You know, these guys are maximum security inmates and for you, this...film crew to go inside the cell, it's not something we advise." "Yes." "Yeah." "BSBG, straight drop the movement, man." "Brown Sub Blood Gang." "Straight murderers and killers." "How you doing?" "How you doing, guys?" "How you doing?" "Nice to meet you." "How's it going?" "Good to see you." "I'm Louis." "What was your name again?" "He." "Sho?" "Good to see you." "Rodney, can you show us where you stay?" "Like your little patch?" "My bed?" "Your bunk." "All right." "This is where I sleep, right here." "Right here?" "How long have you been in this cell?" "Well, I just got moved over." "I been over here like...two weeks." "Two weeks?" "Yeah." "And when you came in, did you have to prove yourself in any way?" "No, my main man right there, he right there, that my main man." "My main man were like, "Give my main man a bottom", so when I came in, he put me right here, you know, that's how it goes." "What?" "You said he's your main man." "That is my main man." "In what respect?" "You knew him on the streets?" "Yeah, from the street and we had been in time together before." "So when you came in, he kind of made sure you were OK when you came in?" "Oh, I'm OK anyway, I'm just saying he were like, "Put bro right there", so I went right there." "You didn't want to be on a top bunk?" "I ain't going on no top bunk." "Is anyone in here on a top bunk?" "Yes, a couple are." "How come you're on a top bunk?" "I choose to be right here." "You're OK with that?" "Fine with it." "Why?" "No problem." "It's considered to be the less desirable option." "No, no." "It ain't like that." "I just choose to be on the top bunk." "One thing that came up last time was the idea of the paint as a kind of arena of battle in which the different inmates have to prove themselves." "You got to prove yourself, get you in the rec and see where you at." ""See where you at"?" "What do you mean?" "You might come here, but you might be snitching on somebody's cousin, you might tell or something." "You want to know who you're with." "How you going to tell by fighting?" "You'd be scared to get out." "That's a sign something's wrong with you." "Well, uh, you could be an honest person and not want to fight." "Yeah, but they going to have to fight or you going to get done." "Why?" "Shit!" "That's the code, that's they rules, y'all." "You know you got to ask the person who made it." "The code, it the code." "I can't tell you the code, you got to know the code." "You feel me?" "You come here and you come in the cell, you got to get lined up." "If someone obviously wasn't from the streets or if they clearly weren't cut out for it..." "They in trouble." "What would happen then?" "Shit, only you know." "I don't know." "They got to get out there, though." "Are you seriously saying that if I, by some quirk of fate, if I was sent into this cell, you'd see me and presumably you would know that I was not cut out to fight and you're seriously saying..." "I ain't going to lie, you might not fight." "They might just slap the shit out of you." "Nigga might just slap you out, you might..." "Nigga might hang out or you might hang, I ain't going to lie." "You might just get the party, you might get, oh, man." "I'm just giving it to you raw." "You're saying I wouldn't have to fight?" "Oh, you going to, no, you're going to have to fight," "I'm saying the whole cell might beat you." "That what I'm trying to tell you." "The whole cell might beat you." "Why?" "Shit, that's the code." "I don't know, that's what I'm trying to tell you, you have to figure out why." "Would you be helping?" "No, I might feel sorry for you, since I know you here and you a good man, I might tell them to fall back, but you going to get one or two rounds in, you feel me?" "They going to show what kind of person you is, eventually." "And that week, that day, never know, that month go by." "Something going to show, something going to break." "You might be a rare nigga too, you feel me?" "You a rare nigga?" "What do you think?" "I don't know." "Shit." "I just met you." "How do you feel, being in jail?" "You want to get this over with, get to trial, get it over with?" "Yeah." "Why don't you speed it up, get your lawyer to..." "Shit." "Huh?" "I mean, what..." "Sometimes you can't really speed everything up, cos you see, when you speed it, you might rush and rush the wrong thing." "You got to let it play out sometimes, you feeling me?" "I want to get out, but I ain't going to speed, it'll never work when people call that until you got everything you need to know." "You got a good lawyer?" "Yeah, I got a good lawyer." "Public defender?" "Yeah." "No!" "Public defender, that's a prison." "Are you tripping?" "Public defender." "Hey, no." "Got a lawyer, paid lawyer." "Who's paying?" "Who's paying?" "Shit." "Who'd you work for, City of Miami or Metro?" "He ask who paying!" "Yeah, no, my people's paying, I got a family, yo." "How much time are they trying to give you?" "They ain't talking about time." "I had to go get the death penalty way last month, so now I'm fighting the life sentence and..." "They wanted to give you a death penalty?" "They wanted to, but that ain't necessarily what I'm going to get." "You know, they got a bluff going there, too, they got bluff." "That's what they want to do." "How old are you?" "Who, me?" "26." "You got kids?" "Yeah, I got four kids." "Wife?" "No." "Parents?" "No." "Where are they?" "Deceased." "What kind of life do you have in here?" "Huh?" "How do you feel about your life in here?" "You like your life in here?" "Do I like it I here?" "Do you like your life in here?" "Yeah." "No, I don't like it in here." "Nobody don't like it." "I hope not." "You just take each day as it comes?" "Can't do nothing." "What you going to do?" "You going to break out of here?" "You can't do nothing until they come with you, bro." "I mean, to an outsider, this seems like such a dreadful place," "I'd be curious to know, is there a part... you know, how do you deal with that?" "How do you handle that, facing that every day?" "What can you do?" "Go crazy?" "I'm saying, what you going to do?" "Oh, you going to go crazy, huh?" "Maybe." "Oh, you know." "Different strokes." "INMATES CALL OUT" "How you doing?" "I'm all right." "How are you?" "Good." "'It was the morning after Nianthony Martinez's first night 'on the fifth floor." "I'd asked the officers to pull him out.'" "When we left you, you were just about to go into your new dorm, in your new cell." "Yes." "And how did that go for you?" "It was actually not, you know...troubling." "I walked in, I just got on a mattress." "You saw..." "Mh-hm." "I think that's it." "I've just been sitting there." "Did anyone attempt to intimidate you or..." "Not really." "..or take stock of you in any way?" "Not really." "There was some concerns among the staff that you may be victimised, because you're relatively small and you look quite young." "What do you do about that?" "I try my best to avoid anything that could cause an issue, keep to myself and I don't... you know, get involved with...any of the craziness." "How?" "How do you avoid it?" "You just, you know, it's like I told you," "I've been sitting on that bed for the last 24 hours." "I got down to use the bathroom one time and went right back." "You know, you wonder, how do 25 people get along with two toilets and... just..." "It's disgusting." "The things they talk about and the things they do and say" "And..." "I mean, I don't know." "I don't know." "I don't know." "I looked on the internet about your case." "You're accused of attempting to murder your ex-girlfriend." "No." "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no." "I'm accused of attempting to murder someone while my ex-girlfriend was in the car." "My ex was not the victim." "This was a person I had an ongoing feud with for years." "Years." "I mean, I was 16 when I met this person." "I've never gotten along with him and so they say, you know," ""Oh, that had to be him who did it"." "Was it a man or a woman?" "A woman." "And it was your ex-girlfriend's new girlfriend?" "No." "That's what it said in the notes." "It says a lot of things." "It says I tried to kill her, too." "Why did you have a feud with this girl?" "We just don't get along." "Have you ever met someone you just don't get along with?" "Well, yes, but not people I have a feud with, in that sense." "Yeah, but someone that goes out of their way to bother you, for years and years and years." "I don't know." "In what way?" "Just lots of ways." "I mean... you know, I don't really want to get into details here, bro." "Do you know what your defence is?" "What your... you have an attorney?" "Yeah." "And do you know what you'll plead?" "We're going to try to plead insanity." "Are you?" "Yeah." "Why?" "Cos couple of people feel there might be something wrong with me." "Like what?" "Don't know yet." "Do you think you might be insane?" "I can't answer that." "I mean..." "I..." "I guess there might be... ..you know, a problem with being so upset with people sometimes, that you're driven to that point." "You know, it's not normal, I guess it's not normal." "But it's like I told you, I'm not really..." "I'm not a violent person, but what happened was an overtly violent thing." "Yeah, this one's going this way." "Mark Twain said if you ever want to go to the lowest of humanity, the dregs of society, go to a prison and watch the changing of the guards." "And this one's going this way." "'I was on the sixth floor, about to speak to an inmate 'whose behaviour inside had made him notorious among the officers.'" "Who are we about to meet?" "We're going to interview McCray, Frederick." "What can you tell me, based on this?" "What can you tell me about him?" "He's in here, based on assault, aggravated, on a law enforcement officer, fleeing and looting, police, robbery, car jacking, armed, attempted felony murder, twice." "Two counts." "You knew about him, obviously, you know a little bit about him." "Uh-huh." "Not really." "The only thing I know, he's a big masturbator." "He's known to be a big masturbator?" "Yes." "In public?" "At the guards?" "Yes." "At the female guards?" "Yes." "You're Frederick McCray, is that right?" "Yes, it is." "How's it going?" "I'm good." "You've been in here for more than two years now?" "Yeah." "How come so long?" "I mean, I got a serious case." "Mh-hm." "The victim in the case is a man or a woman?" "Er...both." "So a man and a woman." "Yeah." "A couple were in a car." "Do they allege that someone was hurt?" "They say someone was hurt." "They say several people was hurt." "Were shot?" "That's what they say." "Badly?" "I don't know, you know, that was the least of my concern." "You feel remorse for doing what you did?" "I don't feel any remorse." "Why not?" "Cos if I had to feed my family again and do something, you know, I'd do it again for the family." "I read some of your report before meeting you and you've been in trouble for gunning officers." "What is that?" "Masturbating at them." "Oh, oh." "OK, OK." "HE LAUGHS" "OK, I hear you." "What's..?" "Can you explain that?" "Explain what?" "Why you did that?" "There's nothing to explain." "It's just for gratification." "It relieved me." "You don't feel embarrassed or ashamed to do that?" "Embarrassed?" "No, why should I feel embarrassed?" "You don't understand why that would be shameful or embarrassing?" "Not at all." "And so do you understand that officers don't like that or members of the public don't like that?" "You know what I be telling them?" "Eat it up or write it up." "Eat it up?" "HE LAUGHS" "Eat it up, like you eat your food." "Yeah." "But all that relate to once before in a correction facility." "We was able to get magazines, we was able to get things that maintain our, you know, but, you know, the system messed up and I said, you know..." "Pornographic magazines?" "Something like that." "You feel you are entitled to some kind of stimulation?" "Of course." "Why?" "I'm human, right?" "At the end of the day, I don't mean no harm, you know," "I just do what I do, then I fall back." "He's making out that it's..." "no harm is intended." "That it's basically harmless." "That's not harmless." "That's, like, very disrespectful." "That's like, you know, you try to do everything you can for them and then for them to disrespect you on the floor out there - private parts - that's very degrading." "It's just disrespectful." "OK." "It's human to masturbate, but not at another person who's trying to do their job." "Listen, now you got serving officers who will go out, they will likely say and I, you know, they might be, they might look up your court date, give you a little free time." "They're the ones who, you know, you don't disrespect." "But when you got the ones that come in here like they're peering on, like they mad at the world and this, that and that, then OK, OK, this, I admitting." "Go get the supervisor, I do it to him, too." "You know?" "Do you think that's..." "How do you feel about that?" "Say that again." "How do you feel about masturbation?" "This is a male facility, I mean, it's going on three years." "Now, I ain't going to make no excuses, we incarcerated, we're locked down all day, 24 hours, how do you feel about that?" "Well, you know, I think you should do it in private." "In private?" "Mh-hm." "You say you recognise that it's disrespectful, so why can't you stop yourself doing it?" "It's a addiction." "This ain't something you could just stop overnight, it's a addiction." "When you used to doing something for so long, it's like..." "You know?" "Quite unusual how open he is, how unashamed he is." "But nine times out of ten, if they're a masturbator - habitual masturbator - they don't have no shame anyway." "They don't care." "Habitual masturbator - that's a new one." "Wow." "That's a new word, habitual masturbator." "BANGING" "As the weeks passed at the main jail, many of the faces were becoming familiar." "Which made it all the more baffling that they lived by a code that still seemed so alien." "Gibbs." "Crawford." "Right." "Alfredo." "Right." "Tally." "Telsta." "Robert." "Whitehead." "Torres." "I was confused about how much of the behaviour was created by the inmates, and how much by the conditions that they lived in." "'One of those I bumped into was the trustee, Robert Toaster.'" "How's it going?" "Nice to see you again." "You're on the fourth floor now, what happened?" "I'm not sure, but I didn't want to leave, I can tell you that." "I was doing all right up there on six." "They told me my custody dropped." "I've been doing what I'm supposed to do and they saw fit to bring me here to a more chaotic floor." "You see the fourth floor as more chaotic than the sixth floor?" "They both have their ins and outs, you know, the pros and the cons." "There's less people on six." "There's more respect on six." "These people here in these cells are more..." "Their charges are a lot lower, so you got more riffraff." "I mean, everybody's riffraff, I guess, but they're not as serious." "A lot of guys coming in are drug addicts, you know, and sixth floor is mainly killers." "I thought you were going to be really pleased to be off the sixth floor because you had to fight your corner on the sixth floor." "You sort of felt like you got picked on a bit, that you stuck out, as the white guy on a mainly black floor." "But what I'm hearing is that, actually, you miss the sixth floor a bit." "Yes, yeah." "It's not all that bad." "I had gained my respect already on six." "Now it's like starting all over." "Rules on the fourth floor are a bit different." "Yes, definitely." "What do you think about the way it is on the sixth floor?" "Do you approve of that whole code, that way of being?" "From the outside, it looks like savagery, meaningless savagery." "I'm just wondering if you, as a participant in it, can see more of a meaning to it." "It makes no sense at all, really." "It's nonsense, you know?" "But there's no other way." "If I steal your shoes and your sweater, what are you going to do, you know?" "What are you going to do to me?" "Ask for it back?" "Are you going to put money in my account, you know?" "Or are you going to fight me to get your stuff back?" "And then, if you do fight me, then you're going to be good." "You'll be OK." "You don't have to worry about anybody else fucking with you, because now you've gained respect." "That's just the law." "If there was someone weaker in your cell, would you extort them?" "I mean..." "God, I'm kind of slimy." "As a matter of fact, there's a guy in our cell now, he's kind of psycho, he's kind of retarded." "So..." "I mean, those people can be controlled, that's all I'm saying." "Were you just saying that you were extorting someone right now in your cell?" "HE LAUGHS" "Well, it's not..." "It's just a manipulation." "See, you call it extortion because that's what the law says." "No, it's just manipulation, you know?" "What is it?" "Just...nothing important, nothing big." "Nothing bad, nothing bad." "No tying down nobody, you know, putting a knife to their neck, "Hey, give it up!"" "You know, it's not like that." "It's a gift." "HE LAUGHS" "This guy makes me laugh." "It's a gift." "From him?" "From him." "From the big one." "Ah!" "'A few nights later, I'd heard Rodney Pearson, 'whose cell I'd visited, had also moved.'" "What are you doing in here?" "Yeah, man, I was in a fight, man!" "Who with?" "Just some guy." "Some guy, man." "Bad guy, man." "You had in a fight in the sixth floor?" "On the sixth floor, yeah." "Who with?" "Some dude, I don't know the dude." "New dude." "Who came into the cell?" "Yeah, a new dude." "'But an officer had told me Rodney had checked out of his cell, 'fearing for his own safety - 'a move usually seen as a sign of weakness among inmates.'" "SHOUTING" "Oh, Louis, what's up, bro?" "I heard Rodney got sent down." "How do you know he got moved, man?" "He checked out." "Checked out?" "How come he checked out?" "Oh, man, I don't know, man." "I don't know if he checked out, man." "I think they rolled him." "They tell him my dog checked out, man." "LAUGHTER" "'His cellmate seemed to find the idea of Hotrod checking out quite ludicrous.'" "SHOUTING AND CHANTING" "So, basically, Rodney Pearson, who we followed on the sixth floor, is now on the fifth floor, and do you know why?" "OK..." "Well, what we have is a report from the sixth floor." "According to the report, someone called in stating that they were his mother and that he was in fear of his life in the cell." "So I guess when they pulled him out he said, yes, he is in fear for his life." "They gave him the Rolodex cards with pictures of the other inmates and...he didn't identify anyone." "But, as a precaution, we moved him anyway." "So he moved from six to five." "No-one in his cell thought that he'd checked out, they thought he'd been pulled out." "Well, Mr Pearson's been around for a long time so he's not one that has a lot of problems with other inmates." "So, the reason for checking out?" "I have no idea." "You think he probably wasn't in fear of his life, is that what you're saying?" "Me, personally?" "I probably think he wasn't." "He's probably trying to get to another cell where he had more friends, maybe there was some contraband that came in, he's trying to get to that cell, and he's a well-known guy." "It could have been where someone paid him with something to put a hit on somebody else, so he's trying to get to where that person is at, so it's hard to say if he really was in fear of his life." "You never know what to believe, do you?" "No." "Not working here." "No." "I was staying late at main jail..." "'With me was Corporal Woodside and a few of the sixth floor inmates." "'It was a chance to ask some final questions.'" "SHOUTING AND BANGING" "They seem quite lively tonight." "Huh?" "They seem quite lively." "Yes." "They had their dinner." "They'll be up from now till..." "about four, five in the morning." "SHOUTING AND YELLING" "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, Lightsay, Lightsay!" "Since I've been here, one of the more shocking things is how much violence there is among the inmates, and especially here on the sixth floor and the fifth floor, and I just wonder whether there isn't more you could do to try and control that." "It's a very old jail, isn't it?" "Yes." "And it's somewhat decrepit," "I mean, it's really showing its age." "Yes." "And whether there isn't more that the county could do to try to control these inmates." "Do you..." "And to stamp out this predatory culture that exists." "Do you by chance have 600 million in your back pocket?" "Do you have 600 million?" "That's what it's going to cost to build a state of the art facility, and the county, as you know, with the way the economy is, doesn't have the money to build that right now," "so this is the best we have right now." "This is all we have, so we have to make do with what we have, make the best of what we can." "Make it rain." "'I was making a foray to the largest facility in the Miami system - Metro West." "'Relatively new and much safer than main jail, 'it is considered by most inmates to be a more desirable destination.'" "I know them, Mr Hendon." "They interviewed me once before." "So what happened to you?" "Remember I told you there was a little bit more... people in the cell from six to four?" "And because of that, there's a lot more tension, there's a lot more pressure in the cells, and..." "It was simple, it was another theft." "Remember the first incident, my eye was black?" "Well, there was an issue with some trays, some food, some snacks, that were the diet trays, and me and one of the guys got into it and, before you know, it was more than one guy that got into it." "Someone was taking your stuff?" "It was, yeah.." "It was, you know..." "Yeah." "What happened to your head?" "I got kicked in the head." "I was down." "Who kicked you?" "I don't know." "I don't know." "And your wrist?" "Yeah, I broke my thumb." "How?" "I don't know." "During the fight, throughout the fight." "My foot's swollen." "It's blue, it's purple." "How many of them were there?" "Just two." "There was just two." "But in the middle, you know, I mean, it's tiring after a few rounds, you know?" "You go a few rounds, it's not like you fight and then, "OK, it's over."" "You fight for a little while and then you take a break a minute and you fight again for another round, and you take a minute." "And if people want to cheer you on, they keep you fighting, and so it's just, you know..." "It's crazy." "It's no big deal." "It happens." "In the county it happens more often." "Here it's not as bad." "In the county it happens every day." "The happy ending is that you're here in Metro West." "If I had an option, and there's no other alternative, yes, it's a happy ending, I'm here." "No, I mean, when I go to court, that's the real ending, that's the real happy ending - the fairytale ending." "But as far as..." "As good as it gets is here." "I'm all right." "A few doors down was another transfer from main jail - the accused attempted murderer and three-year jail resident Nianthony Martinez." "So what's going on with your case now?" "Oh, guess what?" "Nothing." "Nothing." "They sent me up another four months." "Did they?" "What did your lawyer say about that?" "Doesn't he want to move it along, get it to move quicker?" "No, he wants..." "What they say, they have like a tactic called "distancing from the event", which, you know, he says the longer you're here, you know, it can't hurt." "Really?" "Yeah." "Wouldn't you rather get it over with?" "I don't know." "Why?" "Because we haven't even established, like, a number, you know?" "Maybe the longer it takes, the better it works out." "Because, you know, they say things like," ""You know, people could lose interest, tempers could settle." ""People could move away."" "You know, things like that." "Is there nothing the State can do to make it move quicker?" "Hmm..." "Not really." "Once they indict you, they're saying that they're ready for trial." "Now it's your job to mount the defence, and you're essentially the one stalling, not them." "They have to be ready from the moment they say, "Well, OK, that's the guy that did it."" "You know?" "So they've been ready this whole time, according to them." "But it's up to us to mitigate this thing down." "You're facing an attempted murder charge, is that correct?" "Two counts?" "Two." "So what does your future look like at this point?" "I've no idea." "You really don't know?" "I don't know." "I don't even know." "Do you ever look around and think, well, how did it get to this?" "You know, I was college-educated..." "All the time!" "All the time, I look around and I go, "Oh, my God." ""Wow." "I can't believe this."" "It is a lot." "It's a lot to deal with." "Many of the inmates in jail are playing a waiting game, stalling their trials in the hope of a better outcome." "The price they pay is their freedom, and for some, a prolonged stay in the most brutal conditions imaginable." "'In the weeks to come, I would be going further into the Miami jail system, 'meeting the handful of younger inmates given a chance to escape a prison sentence through boot camp.'" "Push!" "Faster!" "Let's go, push!" "'I'd also be getting to know some of the men for whom it may already be too late.'" "How you doing?" "All right." "Can we come in?" "How long could they give you?" "Really?" "Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd" "E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk"