Behind the Scenes of a Maximum Security Jail

This is a partial transcript from "On the Record," July 3, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.

UMA PEMMARAJU, GUEST HOST: It's a place that could hold some of the country's most violent offenders locked away and out of sight. Recently Greta took a road trip to California to find out what's it like inside a maximum security jail. Right now, gang members and accused murderers are living in a maximum security wing of (INAUDIBLE) Detention Center. Greta's behind the bars tour of the jail began by checking in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Alright. We have given our driver's license, we have gotten our I.D. now where are we headed.

CAPT. GREGORY JOHNSON, NOTH COUNTY CORRECTIONAL FACILITY: Well we're headed down a main hallway which will take us to the different housing units. And you can see when you walk this facility the hallways are quite long. So back from one end to another it's a quarter of a mile. Right here on the outside is the yard area.

VAN SUSTEREN: Here is the yard?

JOHNSON: Go out and have recreation and play basketball. We allow them out three hours per week.

VAN SUSTEREN: Do you have murderers here, people who are charged with murder?

JOHNSON: Yes. We have every range of crime. Murderers, hard core gang members. It's a maximum security facility, so we get a high classification of inmates.

VAN SUSTEREN: What is this? I mean this almost looks like an airport.

JOHNSON: This is hallway patrol. They monitor the traffic. The inmate traffic coming back and forth as deputies escort inmates to various housing locations. They monitor the hallways, its security. You are on videotape everywhere you go in here.

VAN SUSTEREN: I take it that there's one magic button that would shut all of these doors if we wanted them shut right?

JOHNSON: Yes. There is a special control that monitors all of the hallways via video cameras and they can open or close any of the doors and the hallways and at perimeter gates as well.

VAN SUSTEREN: Alright we're entering a different part of the facility obviously right now. This is very different than where we have been. This is the dorm area, right?

JOHNSON: Yes. This is what your average dorm looks like. The count in one of these dorms is probably averaging at this time of year maybe 68 inmates per dorm. Actually these dorms were designed to hold 32 inmates so we certainly have some overcrowding conditions here and throughout our entire jail system that we have to deal with. But your average count, I don't know what the count is in here right now but generally speaking it's probably in the 60's. Sometimes in the summertime when our count gets real high throughout the jail system, we'll house as many as 72 inmates in these dorms and this is what your dorm environment looks like.

VAN SUSTEREN: There were some problems here in February?

JOHNSON: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: Which part of the facility were the problems?

JOHNSON: The entire facility.

VAN SUSTEREN: Explain what happened.

JOHNSON: Well, basically what happened is we had a group of inmates known as southsider gang members. Southsider gang members targeted a specific black gang for an assault. And on February 4th, all of the southsider gang members assaulted what they thought were just an isolated black gang but they ended up attacking all of the blacks. And so that erupted into a large-scale fighting of inmates, disturbances throughout this entire facility where we had over 2,000 inmates fighting each other. We had about 72 deputy sheriffs on duty to try and put it down.

VAN SUSTEREN: How about shanks? Do you see any of these?

JOHNSON: All the time.

VAN SUSTEREN: Really?

JOHNSON: All the time.

VAN SUSTEREN: What do they make them with?

JOHNSON: I can give you statistics on the numbers of weapons that we've found. But as I recall, in fact I just reviewed them. For 2005, I believe the numbers of weapons that we recovered for that year was about 13,000 and some change. That's a lot of weapons.

VAN SUSTEREN: So this is the kitchen area?

JOHNSON: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: What are you making?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're making rice.

VAN SUSTEREN: Rice. How much rice? Any idea?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 400 pounds, we cook it for 15 minutes.

VAN SUSTEREN: 200 pounds? Do you have any idea how many servings that is?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's about 500 servings.

VAN SUSTEREN: What are the containers you put it in?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right here.

VAN SUSTEREN: Oh I see. You put it in these containers?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put in these containers. These containers can hold hot food for 10 hours.

VAN SUSTEREN: And then this goes down to the dorms.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take it to the dorm.

VAN SUSTEREN: And so they individually serve themselves?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have serving utensils, ladles, spoons.

VAN SUSTEREN: What if you have a big appetite, can you get twice as much?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They do doubles only for the trustees. The trustees have the right to clean the dorms, they have special privilege.

VAN SUSTEREN: So if you are lucky, somebody gives you a little extra, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

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