A British journalist has spent two weeks in one of America's most notorious prisons to uncover the brutal truth of what really goes on behind bars. Louis Theroux volunteered to be holed up in California's San Quentin Prison with convicted killers and rapists to find out about gang fights, racist beatings and gay relationships.
The brave filmmaker's shocking documentary shows him eating with inmates and visiting prisoners in their cells.
One prisoner from a gang called Barbarian Brotherhood admitted he could never accept food from a black inmate.
"All blacks are on one table and all whites on another table," he said. "If you were black and you offered me some food I couldn't take it. It's part of the rules."
The prisoner then explained what would happen to those who broke the rules.
"We'd tell you not to do it at first but then we'd get you," he said. "We'd mob you with three other dudes and attack you until the cops got there."
"It's hard to believe they could be so brutal about something so trivial," Theroux said after the shock revelation.
He then visited a trans-gender woman called Deborah, 38, who was due for release but was sad to leave behind her jailbird partner, Robert, 27. "They moved him in my cell and one thing led to another," said Deborah.
She then revealed that some inmates try to get other trans-gender 'girls' in their cell.
"These guys are starved of companionship," she said. "They get to have a relationship in here."
Another inmate who Theroux visited was David Silver - sentenced to 521 years plus 11 life sentences.
"I got convicted for 12 home invasion robberies, multiple victims brutally hurt, shot, almost drowned, I used a lot of torture tactics," he said. "In a home invasion robbery you're there to rob and if you don't feel they're giving up the information you need you got to pretty much torture someone to get the information out of them."
But Silver said he never actually killed anyone.
"Nobody died but some people wished they had died," he added. "It was pretty serious, shoot outs with police at the end, people were shaken up. There were victims with their heads held under hot tubs, some were saying they were sexually assaulted with a pistol."
Theroux visited another section of the prison for gang drop outs and learned that one inmate dropped out of a gang because he refused to stab his cellmate - just because he borrowed a black guy's dominoes.
"I didn't do it because I only had 59 days left and my mother was getting ready to pass away so I wanted to get out," he said.
A prison officer then had to usher Theroux out of the yard after shots were fired on the East Block yard.
"It's a gigantic thing you can't go there, it's death row," said one officer. "It's probably a serious assault, one inmate on another and the armed gunman has had to discharge his weapon to stop it."
Theroux then ate dinner with two other prisoners - mascara wearing homosexual Chris Mitz and a transsexual called Didi.
"I've learned that in prison, having a feminine side makes it a little bit more easier to be openly gay," said Chris. "I just think that instead of being someone that people want to beat up, if you look like a girl they won't mess with you. I'm not a girl but if I portray myself in that way then it makes things go a bit smoother."
Didi admitted it is far better to be open about your sexuality in prison. "You cause more negative attention on yourself if you try and hide being a homosexual and they find out that you're a homosexual," he said. "It's like a psychological thing, they see it like you're playing a game if you're not open, that's the way prison life is."
Chris then admitted he is Jewish and is having a relationship with fellow inmate Ronnie who not only is an ex-Nazi gang member but is also married with two kids.
"She's going to watch the programme and start tripping out," Ronnie admitted about his wife of 13 years.
Before leaving the prison Theroux visited another inmate, Playboy Nolan, who had dropped out of a gang and, for his own safety, had to spend his yard time locked in a steel cage.
"It's called a walk-alone section. Gang members consider us rats, the worst of the worst," he said. "I dropped out because of the politics - I don't like being told what to do. If they put me in a prison cell with gang members there would be big conflict, they would get me unless I got them first."
Nolan revealed he is a dead man walking after quitting his gang.
"I left the gang and now my name goes on their bad news list," he said. "And those on the list are supposed to be killed.
"It's a list written down in every single prison and the objective is to kill those people."
Theroux then spoke to an officer who has dealt with the release of prisoners for five years.
"There are 27 leaving today and I would probably see about more than half come back," he revealed. "These guys are creatures of habit, they go back to their neighbourhoods and fall in with the same gangs that disobey the law then they get called up again."
Before leaving San Quentin, Theroux made another visit to David Silver who admitted remorse for his crimes.
"The things I was convicted for I accept full responsibility for my actions," he said. "If don't feel bad then I'm just a cold-hearted person."
Silver then revealed how he has tried to make a life for himself in prison.
"It's a sad way to look at it but in reality it makes you more sane to say, "I'm always going to have food and shelter I don't have to worry about the stresses of losing a job. IÕm going to be taken care of for the rest of my life,'" he said. "I can look at it that way and ignore the other things in life that makes you smile, like riding a boat on the water. As long as that stuff doesn't exist to me then it won't bug me unless I want to torture my mind.
"The only thing that you don't have in prison is freedom to an extent and there's no women, but they are just little helps in life and you can get over that. After so long that stuff isn't important any more."
But an inmate who just started a prison term for murder said life behind bars was like a walk in the park. "This is nothing, it's like a playground in here," he revealed.
By Owen Williams, Jan 15 2008 © Copyright 2008 - Showbiz Spy
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