Louis Theroux: Behind Bars
Monday February 25 at 9.30pm
Louis investigates San Quentin, the oldest and most notorious maximum security prison in California - and the only one with a death row. Once home to serial murderer Charles Manson, San Quentin continues to bang up, and execute, the most dangerous criminals in California.
Fear of crime is an all pervading
theme in America. People sleep with guns under their pillows,
petrified that they will be the next victims of the murderers they
see daily on their TV's. California has responded to this climate
with a firm hand and as a result most state prisons hold more than
twice the capacity they were built for, forcing prisoners to
triple-bunk in open warehouse sized gymnasiums. San Quentin is no
exception.
In this 6000 strong prison full of serial murderers, rapists,
paedophiles and gang members Louis spends time getting to know the
inmates and prison guards and becomes part of the day to day of
prison life. Can Louis see beyond the crime when he meets an
inmate? Can prisoners actually change and better themselves or is
this wishful thinking?
The guards say that it's not easy to rehabilitate prisoners in
prison; that the best they can do is keep the peace, and even that
is difficult sometimes. The gang culture is too strong, the
loneliness too much to handle, and the drugs too tempting. They say
that they have seen inmates back in prison sometimes as little as
three hours after they've been released.
During his time behind bars, Louis joins the guards for cell 'shake
downs' where ingenious and terrifying deadly weapons are found. He
spends time with an inmate and his family during visitation period
- when drugs and weapons are regularly smuggled in.
Louis witnesses the arrival of a fresh new inmate, a kid who has
never been in prison before. Louis sees him taken through the
arrivals procedure with 300 other bodies that have arrived that
day. Has he lived a life of crime until now and prison is the rite
of passage he has been waiting for or was it a genuine mistake and
all he wants now is to stay on the straight and narrow and get out
as quickly as possible?
Louis walks the yard getting to know members of the notorious
Californian gangs and learns how racial and gang segregation lines
are gospel and not to be crossed. In the 'special needs' unit, as
the guards call it, Louis meets the sex offenders and gang drop
outs who would be killed immediately were they to go back to the
main section of the prison.
