National Geographic follows new inmates and correctional officer cadets as they first enter the treacherous world of Georgia's prisons - embarking on a yearlong journey behind bars.
Follow new inmates as they learn the ropes and face the hurdles that come with entering Hays State Prison, one of the toughest facilities in the state of Georgia.
Step inside Hays State Prison where a war is underway between inmates and officers.National Geographic follows inmates and prison officials as they struggle to set the rules inside these walls.
Step into the extreme world of a state correctional system, where transformation often occurs and starts physically, sometimes in the form of an illegal prison tattoo, sometimes becoming what some call "the female gender" behind bars.
Go inside Hi-Max - the most extreme prison environment allowed in Georgia - and at the other end of the spectrum "shock incarceration," an intense boot camp for non-violent first-time offenders.
Follow the intense manhunt for two escaped convicts from Hays State Prison as inmates go into lockdown, tactical squads assemble and K-9 units scour the countryside looking for clues.
Go inside the underground prison economy at Ohio's Ross Correctional Institution and see inmates try their hands at different money-making strategies. A "jailhouse thief" brings his street ways within jailhouse walls, brutally robbing inmates and selling their possessions. A drug dealer on a 27-year sentence for attempted murder struggles to stay "clean" after getting caught up selling contraband at the orientation prison.
Ross Correctional Institution is a gated city. Every inmate must make a choice: Use his sentence to prepare for a life on the outside, or fall prey to the convict mentality which on the inside is called getting institutionalized.
A high-stakes game of cat and mouse plays out at Ross Correctional Institution in Ohio. On one side, you have the inmates: men who've spent a lifetime breaking the rules and outwitting the system. On the other is a team of officers who monitor every corner of the prison and work to catch the offenders red-handed. There are rule breakers: a drug hustler trying to run his game behind bars, an old-school inmate, a jailhouse lawyer subverting the system and a lone wolf with one too many strikes.
Forget what you thought you knew about women behind bars: theyre the fastest growing prison population in America, and one of the toughest to manage. At the Ohio Reformatory for Women, the system is tested daily by every kind of female offender: from capital murderers, to nursery mothers - and everything in between. Behind these bars, there are "pseudo-families" instead of gangs, infants being raised by inmates, and a complicated web of contraband trades and power plays. This is a world of women unlike any youve ever seen.
Enter the locked-down world of Ohio's intake prison. For the newly convicted, the Correctional Reception Center (CRC) in Orient, Ohio, is their last view of the free world. More than 14,000 inmates are sized up each year at CRC and moved on to serve out their sentences. From robbers to murders and rapists, CRC sees it all. And while most follow the rules and do their time peacefully, some inmates come in with their own agenda, ready to make trouble.
In prison, every day is a fight for survival. An inmate's most important weapon may not be a shank or a razor, but instead a gang membership. With more than 1,400 classified gangs in the Ohio prison system, inmates are joining up in alarming numbers.
Almost all of the inmates in Ohio's Ross Correctional Institution for drugs, robbery or murder will be released back into the community someday. But withdrawing from the temptations of gang life, gambling and dark hustles is a steep challenge. After years behind bars, prison can seem more like home than the outside world. The last few months of an inmate's sentence are a time for him to unlearn the prison mentality. Follow inmates nearing the end of weeks, months or years of imprisonment
With more attacks on inmates and staff than any other facility in Ohio, Lucasville is the jail within the prison system. Fight, extort, run contraband or break the rules in any other prison in the state and you could be sent here. With some of the strictest controls of any prison, new arrivals at Lucasville spend 23 hours a day on lockdown with little movement and even fewer privileges. But even in such a restricted setting, the hustles and gambles of prison life continue.
Georgia's Smith State Prison goes into lockdown following a large, bloody fight.
Georgia's largest female facility, Lee Arrendale State Prison.
Three inmates, a first-timer, a career criminal, and a murderer with a life sentence attempt to adjust to the pitfalls and challenges of Georgia's toughest women's prison.
The Metro State Prison in Atlanta is where female offenders in Georgia begin their jail term.
Officers battle a flood of contraband cellphones at Georgia's Smith State Prison, where access to a mobile device means power on the inside..
Hays State Prison is challenged by an inmate sit-in.
The Hays State Prison in Georgia is a disciplinary camp with closed security and is home to 1,500 inmates.
The Jackson and Coastal prisons, both in Georgia absorb a flood of new inmates.
Get picked up on the Vegas strip and you'll end up in Clark County Detention Center -- the jail where many of the inmates arrive drunk or high.
Meet the jail mom. Older, wiser, steeped in the ways of the convict, the jail mom's influence can be benevolent or vengeful, nurturing or violent.
At Las Vegas's main jail, Clark County Detention Center, inmates try as hard as possible to retain a sense of normalcy. And for many, that means keeping up their gang lifestyle. Well go inside one of CCDCs most difficult dormsan open housing unit filled with high-security inmates, repeat offenders, felons and gang members where life on the inside can be just as tough as life on the outside.
Life, lust, and love continue on even after arrest.
At the Clark County Detention Center (CCDC) in Las Vegas, inmates all have one thing in common: They are waiting for their day in court.
The Clark County Detention Center (CCDC) receives scores of repeat offenders, most hooked on drugs and alcohol.
Las Vegas is a crossroads for the major gangs of California and the Southwest. And at the Clark County Detention Center, inmates and officers are constantly under pressure from gang activity.
The number of addicts and mentally ill people in prisons and jails is an issue throughout the country and Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas is no exception.
Las Vegas, Nevada draws in people from all walks of life, and its jail is no different.
Las Vegas can be full of vices - both legal and illegal. Break the law and you're hauled into the Clark County Detention Center.
Just like Sin City, the Clark County Detention Center never sleeps. It's a round the clock operation, where challenges come daily.
For the officers that handle the inmates on a daily basis at Last Vegas's Clark County Detention Center it can be hard to tell who is lying and who is telling the truth.
At Alaska's Spring Creek Correctional Center, inmates are surrounded by one of the nation's most breathtaking national parks. But the tranquility of the location is in sharp contrast to the heinous crimes perpetrated by the prison's inmates.
