Inside a Maximum Security Prison’s Isolation Unit | Solitary Nation (full documentary) | FRONTLINE

0:00 Tonight on Front Line.

0:06 It's like being buried alive.

0:09 This place is like an insane asylum.

0:12 Thoughts of suicide come along.

0:16 Solitary confinement.

0:18 You can't get yourself wound up cuz you can't leave that room.

0:23 For decades, it's been used to keep order in America's prisons.

0:26 makes you mean, makes you violent, and it a lot of people's heads up.

0:30 He severely assaulted one of our staff members.

0:32 Now, prisons across the nation are asking, "Is it backfiring?

0:37 You can have them do their whole time in segregation.

0:39 I don't want him living next to me when you release him."

0:42 Tonight, [music] the story of one prison

0:45 and a warden who wants to reform his isolation unit.

0:48 I'm not interested in burying you.

0:50 I'm already buried, though.

0:52 The story of 6 months [music] in solitary.

0:58 Try to be normal again.

1:23 My name is Todd Michael Fckett.

1:26 I'm here for arson in prison for arson.

1:32 Down here, it's like being buried alive.

1:35 You're like, you're someplace alive, but you're no place anybody wants you.

1:43 Todd Fett has just assaulted a prison officer.

1:47 He's been put in an isolation cell as punishment.

1:53 My my me my my mental state will probably go downhill like it did last time.

2:00 I start I I go pretty crazy.

2:08 Todd is facing 6 months alone in his cell.

2:13 He's one of an estimated 80,000 inmates

2:16 across [music] the United States in solitary confinement.

2:46 [screaming]

2:58 Friday night in the segregation unit at the main state prison.

3:04 All the inmates here are in solitary confinement.

3:14 Here it is.

3:17 Almost every day, the prisoners act out against the officers who work the unit.

3:27 They flood their cells.

3:30 They pour bodily fluids under their doors.

3:35 And they cut themselves with razor blades.

3:43 Kid, I think you pass out.

3:45 Kid, cough out.

3:47 You might as well talk to me now cuz you're going to talk to me sooner or later.

3:52 I have three windows covered right now

3:53 and one of them appears to be self abusive.

3:56 I'm tempted to look through the tray slot.

3:58 See if I can get a visual on him and he's got it covered with a mattress.

4:01 If I can't see him from the back window,

4:03 we're going to have to go in and take him out for his own safety.

4:08 Inmates are forbidden from covering their windows in the solitary unit.

4:12 They could be bleeding to death or it could be a trick to lure the officers in.

4:19 He's got it all covered.

4:21 So now we have to pull him out.

4:25 Maybe you're ready to rock and roll.

4:27 61 A2.

4:28 You have a large box.

4:31 Get the shield to go.

4:32 [groaning] If I say go, rip that door open so these men can go in.

4:36 Okay.

4:36 If I say hold, just hold it with a crack.

4:39 Any questions at this time?

4:40 We're ready to go and do a cell extraction.

4:48 We know you got to come out.

4:50 There's a smart way to do this.

4:52 This is not it.

4:57 The officers sometimes have to use mace on inmates who won't comply.

5:06 Monsters.

5:06 This is what they create in here.

5:08 Monsters.

5:09 And then they drop you into society and tell you, "Go ahead,

5:14 be a good boy." You can't conduct yourself like

5:21 a human being when they treat you like an animal.

5:32 In the solitary unit, nights like this are routine.

5:36 Officers regularly have to remove self-abusive inmates from their cells.

5:47 This place is like an insane asylum.

5:50 I don't even know how many times I've seen this tear filled

5:52 with blood from these guys cutting their arms and their necks and their balls,

5:57 cutting their ball sacks out.

5:59 All types of crazy craziness.

6:01 And uh it's because they're stuck in here with nothing to do.

6:05 Gordon Perry, a convicted murderer, has been here for more than a year,

6:11 longer than any other inmate in the unit.

6:13 If you don't have a strong mind, this place can break you quick.

6:18 A lot of guys, they don't even have reasons why.

6:20 They just snap out.

6:21 That's what this place does to you.

6:22 Makes you mean, makes you violent, and it a lot of people's heads up.

6:28 This is solitary confinement.

6:41 [music] The maximum security main state prison holds around 900 inmates.

6:47 It's home to the most dangerous prisoners in the state.

6:53 Most of them live in general population.

6:56 They're allowed out of their cells each day and can interact with other inmates.

7:03 The solitary unit is the prison within the prison.

7:12 Inmates here spend 23 hours a day in their cells.

7:17 They get an hour of exercise in a cage.

7:27 Some are here longterm because they're judged

7:29 too dangerous to [music] be around other people.

7:34 Some are here for their own protection.

7:37 And others are here as punishment for disruptive behavior.

7:45 I just went overboard, freaked out, started punching stuff through chairs,

7:49 screaming, and I got maed and tackled.

7:51 They're trying to say I started a riot and they brought me down here.

7:55 I've been down here two days now.

7:59 21-year-old Adam Bruot is serving a 4-year

8:02 sentence for breaking someone's jaw in a fight.

8:05 Now he's in segregation or SEG as the inmates call it for starting a riot.

8:11 I like Seg.

8:13 I can handle being locked down 23 hours a day cuz I can read,

8:17 I can write, I can do push-ups.

8:19 Most time I just chill.

8:20 You got to relax.

8:22 You can't get yourself wound up cuz you can't leave that room.

8:25 Well, it's good to my standards and I'm always at this window.

8:29 So, I like the window to be clean.

8:31 My face touches it, my hands touch it.

8:35 Yeah, it sucks.

8:36 But I think I'm doing good.

8:41 Adam faces two months in solitary.

8:54 Todd Ficket is one week into his six-month stay [music] in the solitary unit.

9:01 Last night, he cut open a vein in his arm.

9:05 Officers found him [music] passed out in his cell.

9:12 Self harm is a punishable offense.

9:16 His punishment is more time in solitary.

9:20 They gave me a class A bodily injury charge for um trying to kill myself

9:27 pretty much or trying to punish me for bullying cuz on their floor they don't

9:32 want they want me to suffer for and that's going to put me in a more

9:37 depression spot considering I already have to do enough of it as it is.

9:45 The officers say he's faking mental illness

9:48 in an attempt to get moved out of solitary.

9:52 He's just trying to get what he wants.

9:54 He knows he's going to spend a lot of time down

9:56 in our segregation unit uh just for the fact that he severely assaulted one

10:00 of our staff members [snorts] and he is trying to manipulate his way

10:05 out of dealing with the consequences that come with u assaulting a staff member.

10:14 Todd is allowed almost nothing in his cell

10:16 in case he tries to cut himself again.

10:21 But in solitary there are ways of outsmarting the officers.

11:04 Oh.

11:26 Please,

11:36 what's going Look, you got to believe us.

11:42 Pick it.

11:43 Hey, pick it.

11:45 Talk to me, man.

11:46 I can't do that.

11:48 How come?

11:48 I got six others talking.

11:50 My head's smile at us.

11:54 Okay.

11:54 One of the inmates has smuggled Todd a razor blade.

11:58 Can you grab a camera?

11:59 Come in here, please.

12:02 Come on, pick it.

12:03 Why don't you take this stuff down?

12:06 Queen.

12:14 The officers can't go into his cell to give

12:17 him first aid until they're sure he can't attack them.

12:20 They need to handcuff him through the tray slot on his door.

12:23 Hey, Fig, do me a favor.

12:24 Put your that towel over there on your arm.

12:27 Okay, let's just at least slow that bleeding down.

12:30 Put it on your arm.

12:31 I'll slow it down.

12:35 I need to get medical.

12:38 Yeah.

12:37 Medical like a lot.

12:38 No.

12:39 Hey, are you willing to cough up?

12:42 You want to come out?

12:51 Listen, you need to cough so I can come in and fix that.

13:02 Tri your blood.

13:04 Come on, pick it.

13:05 Come on.

13:06 We're going to help you, right?

13:13 Come on, pick it.

13:14 Go right to the classroom.

13:16 Okay.

13:24 So, another another day on the job.

13:27 Another day on the job.

13:29 Some real clean up right here.

13:33 Real probably average about 20 of these a month.

13:35 So,

13:40 yeah.

13:40 Last uh year, I become an expert on uh on blood.

13:44 does.

13:48 It doesn't just mop up, does it?

13:51 No, it doesn't.

13:51 It It coagulates and it's generally I try

13:56 to saturate it with a with a germicide and then

13:59 uh I use a sheet to mop it up and then afterwards I try to scrub it down.

14:12 My heart goes out to everybody down here.

14:14 I've been I've been behind these doors,

14:15 so I know what it's like to stay down here for years.

14:22 You know, being behind these walls,

14:23 they get to everybody and everybody deals with it in their own particular way.

14:29 As you can imagine, someone being 17,

14:31 18 years old in a setting like this, you know,

14:33 it's not really it does a lot with your mind.

14:52 Adam thought he could handle solitary.

14:57 Now he's not so sure.

15:04 Yeah, I got hardcore ADD and I'm about to leave in 5 months.

15:08 I don't know where I'm going to go.

15:10 I don't know where I'm going to work.

15:12 I don't know how I'm going to get a car.

15:14 I still got $1,000 to pay with no car and no job.

15:17 When you settle down in your room and you really just

15:20 start thinking just bang bang bang bang bang all at once.

15:24 This really kind of my head.

15:27 Just trying to get some medication to slow that down for now.

15:30 But it's lunchtime in the solitary unit.

15:49 Why are you pissed off?

15:50 Is that with people's portions?

15:56 Scum man.

15:57 That's a million dollar shot.

15:59 Oh, it's what?

16:02 The unrest soon escalates into a full-blown protest.

16:06 So, what is all this stuff on the floor?

16:09 Probably urine and toilet paper and food.

16:21 Well, half an hour.

16:22 I'm going to let that illusion be in the homeland.

16:30 What's going on?

16:36 There he goes.

16:48 Adam's punishment for flooding the unit will be more time in solitary.

17:04 Solitary confinement began in the United States [music] in the 1800s

17:09 as a progressive experiment to see if isolation would reform criminals.

17:21 [music] It was soon largely abandoned because prisoners didn't reform.

17:27 They lost their minds.

17:28 Nothing but what goes on in here.

17:31 You run to go home.

17:32 [screaming] I just

17:38 But in the 1980s, solitary reemerged as a way to stamp out prison violence.

17:46 The United [music] States now has more

17:47 inmates in isolation than any other western country.

17:50 [music] The use of segregation has its

17:59 place when you have real dangerous prisoners.

18:02 But from my perspective,

18:04 um it is overused probably throughout throughout the United States.

18:09 It's really dangerous.

18:10 Okay.

18:11 If I have somebody um that comes in with a 5-year commitment,

18:14 you can have them do their whole time in segregation,

18:17 but I don't want them living next to me when you release them.

18:21 The normal person, they're going to be thinking if you punish them,

18:24 you're going to make them better.

18:25 And the reality is the exact opposite happens.

18:32 States across the country are now starting to rethink their use of segregation.

18:37 Three years [music] ago,

18:39 Maine began to send fewer inmates into solitary and moved

18:43 prisoners with serious mental illness out of the unit.

18:48 Now, the prison's new warden is trying to take the reforms even further.

18:52 I want you out on the other side of that door cuz that's

18:55 good for you to be on this side of the door, not that side.

18:58 And you can hold me accountable.

19:00 I want you to be in there.

19:01 We need to make every attempt [music] at moving them

19:04 out of of those cells and moving them into general population.

19:11 On the surface, it might look crazy.

19:12 Uh but the reality is 80% of these inmates are going to be hitting the street.

19:17 Okay?

19:17 So, we can either make them worse, okay, and create more victims when they go

19:21 on [music] the street or we can rehabilitate them.

19:30 But the warden can't simply release violent,

19:33 unstable prisoners back into general population.

19:38 Adam [music] started a riot.

19:42 Todd assaulted an officer.

19:44 [music] Gordon stabbed another inmate with a screwdriver.

19:51 And some of the prisoners in solitary are even more dangerous.

19:56 I've strangled the correctional officer and hit him under my bed and and then

20:00 another one came in the pod and I knocked him out and dragged

20:04 him into a utility closet and beat his head in with a a mop

20:07 ringer and I got so I've been in prison [clears throat] a long time.

20:11 That was that was when I was 16.

20:14 Peter Gibbs has been in and out of solitary for over 30 years.

20:20 He wants to be transferred to a prison in his home

20:22 state and has threatened to murder the warden if it doesn't happen.

20:26 I will assault, attack, stab,

20:28 do whatever I have to do to get out of your facility.

20:32 In most prisons, he could expect to be stuck in solitary indefinitely.

20:36 I will kill one of your inmates.

20:37 I would I don't have nothing to lose.

20:39 But the warden wants his team to consider

20:41 moving even Peter Gibbs back to general population.

20:44 I want out of here.

20:45 My children can't come see me.

20:47 I'm not rich.

20:48 We're not rich, you know, so they don't have the money to come here, you know.

20:53 So So Mr.

20:53 Gibbs, what do we need to do to get out of this hole that we're in?

20:58 Okay.

20:59 I I need to be medicated.

21:01 Okay.

21:01 And what did I say?

21:02 That that makes me sociable.

21:03 Okay.

21:04 And I'm going to follow that up.

21:05 You can't keep on threatening to kill me.

21:06 If you're threatening to kill me, huh?

21:08 You know, I'm probably not going to let you out of this room.

21:10 And if you threaten to kill anybody, one thing about you, Mr.

21:14 Gibbs, that I know is you're good for your word.

21:17 I thought it would get me back to New Hampshire.

21:19 I thought if you tell them we don't want Mr.

21:21 Gibbs here, they have to take me back.

21:23 They don't have to take me back.

21:24 Then I'll homicide one of your inmates and then you guys can do what you

21:27 do, let me finish, is they'll make arrangements from you

21:30 for you to go from here to another state.

21:32 New Jersey, Maryland.

21:34 New Jerseys refused me.

21:35 Rhode Island's refused me because of my mental health issues.

21:38 It seems to me that you'd like to see your wife and your two daughters.

21:42 That's true.

21:42 It seems to me that you'd like to get back out in general population.

21:45 what we're going to do.

21:46 As long as somewhere down the road we can convince New Hampshire Mr.

21:50 Gibbs is doing unreal, he's changed and maybe take me back.

21:53 Look, what I can control is how do I move Mr.

21:57 Gibbs out of the segue?

21:59 Okay.

22:00 Gibbs will have to prove he is no

22:02 longer a threat before he's moved out of solitary.

22:05 You know, you start with baby steps, right?

22:07 Well, what are you looking at for like a time period?

22:09 Can you start giving me some stuff in my cell maybe like to do?

22:12 But the senior prison staff are concerned.

22:17 I don't He He's a long way from my perspective cuz I have to be in that pot.

22:23 Any one of us can be a general population with this guy.

22:25 So I don't want to see someone die,

22:26 an officer die because we're trying to kind

22:30 of get him settled as we wait from New Hampshire.

22:32 This is going to be a process.

22:35 Yep.

22:41 [music] It's been 24 hours since Todd Fett cut open a vein.

22:48 Rather than punish him,

22:50 the warden has moved him to the prison's

22:51 mental health unit for the next 3 months.

22:55 When that time is up, he'll have to return to solitary.

23:00 But for now, he'll be treated by the prison psychologist.

23:03 this weekend.

23:04 So, next is to figure out how you're doing and plan our next steps.

23:08 So, fill me in.

23:09 Still feel still don't feel very good.

23:13 Can you tell me a little bit more about uh you feel like what does that mean?

23:18 Still want to go.

23:19 You still want to what?

23:22 Still want to kill myself.

23:23 All right.

23:24 [snorts] All right.

23:25 Um, so that started when because I'm

23:29 without even knowing the guy very well.

23:30 I don't um I can tell you he doesn't enjoy this.

23:33 The intent isn't to to engender any sympathy.

23:36 It's in the intent many times is to make an officer do things.

23:41 A couple of months

23:42 they feel totally controlled and this is what they learn

23:44 and it's a learned behavior is that the you can

23:47 control others with this but it it is kind

23:50 of a pathological way of control because it doesn't gain them anything.

23:53 Just for the briefest of time,

23:55 they feel some sense of control and then then

23:57 they're left stuck again and usually in worse physical shape.

24:09 The mental health wing is a [music] very different place from the solitary unit.

24:16 Most of the inmates [music] here have serious mental illness.

24:22 Before Maine [music] began its reforms, many of them were in solitary.

24:26 But this unit is about treatment, [music] not punishment.

24:33 It's it's different.

24:35 It's instead of the depressing clank of the prison,

24:38 trying to create something a little different.

24:42 Every breath, every movement, every person,

24:45 every everything in there is clinical.

24:47 There isn't a nonclinical thing we do.

24:49 Everything is geared towards skill development,

24:52 uh, relationship building, appropriate interactions.

24:56 One, good again.

24:58 So, everything about it is becoming social.

25:00 There used to be coming from environments where people

25:03 hurt each other and are antisocial and and this is

25:06 a whole buildup of how you relate to people

25:08 and you have to practice it every single day.

25:15 [music]

25:15 Todd will still be kept separate from other inmates,

25:18 but he'll have frequent meetings [music] with Dr.

25:20 Banish.

25:23 He's uh we're just at the beginning.

25:26 He's still struggling.

25:27 He's still going to have to do his seg time and he doesn't want to do it.

25:32 So, there's that kid side of him that just doesn't want

25:35 to have to and you can't make me kind of thing.

25:37 I'd like to help him through that process.

25:51 fight the machine.

25:55 The warden's [music] effort to help Todd has

25:57 created a new problem back on the solitary unit.

26:04 The other inmates think it isn't fair.

26:06 You guys are running out of time.

26:07 I told you I'm trying to do it the easy [music] way,

26:09 but I've been down here too long to keep playing their games.

26:17 Soon, I need some cookies and milk.

26:20 Peter Gibbs is still threatening to kill prison staff [music] and inmates

26:23 and now says he will cut himself if he doesn't get what he wants.

26:28 This is what I have to start doing.

26:30 People have done stuff.

26:32 They've gotten rewarded for it.

26:34 I sit in myself.

26:35 I mind my own business, but there's no rewards.

26:45 Hey, Gibbs.

26:47 Got it.

26:49 Peter [music] is not the only inmate causing trouble.

26:53 Hey, how you feeling about not getting that meeting today?

26:57 After a year in solitary, Gordon Perry is also running out of patience.

27:03 He told me the same thing.

27:04 He was going to see me this week.

27:06 If I don't get some answers by 3:00, I'm covering my window.

27:11 And if I don't get good enough answers, they're extracting me.

27:14 It'll be a miracle if I don't get extracted today.

27:18 It's unreal how people's hands here.

27:23 I want to give them a little bit more

27:24 time because when I cover that window up, I'm serious.

27:28 I just This ain't my first rodeo.

27:31 I got a pretty good setup and we're going to hopefully fight the team.

27:42 Coming.

27:47 Now the warden and his staff have to talk

27:49 down two of the most dangerous inmates on the unit.

27:52 The only way you ever get anything around here is to act up.

27:55 I sit back being good for a year.

27:56 Ain't working.

27:57 while I'm getting smoke blowing up my ass every which way I look.

28:01 This is going to disqualify for you from going in the if

28:04 you do this kind of it's not going to happen.

28:07 Of course it's going to happen.

28:08 I've seen him make deals like left and right

28:11 with people for putting this up in the window.

28:14 You got a couple of assaults in 17 years.

28:17 How hard is it to move me?

28:18 So I got to be out of here pretty soon

28:21 because of what you've done here.

28:22 We're going to move you out very slowly.

28:24 What I need to know is when I move you out there, are you going to be safe?

28:29 Am I going to be safe?

28:30 I need to know that the other inmates are going to be safe as well.

28:34 It ain't happening.

28:35 You guys got me down here for a year.

28:37 I'm all set with the stabbings.

28:39 I'm ready to go out and try to enjoy myself a little bit.

28:42 I'm willing to look at moving you along,

28:44 but it's going to be it's going to be a while.

28:46 We got to work the process.

28:48 And I'm not interested in burying you.

28:51 I'm already I'm already buried, though.

28:53 I already been down here a year.

28:55 I want to be macaed.

28:57 I won't mace you, Gibbs.

28:59 I need to be ma.

29:00 You don't need to be maed.

29:01 I have to be.

29:02 No, you don't.

29:04 There's no reason for

29:05 up.

29:05 Will you mace me?

29:06 No, there's no reason for any of that stuff.

29:08 You can't give me a little blast.

29:10 Like a little Mr.

29:11 Burst.

29:11 I'm not going to give you blast.

29:12 All right.

29:13 I understand you're frustrated.

29:14 No, you don't understand.

29:15 I do.

29:16 We had that conversation.

29:17 Don't think it's lost on me that you're locked in a box for 23 hours.

29:20 I don't care about that.

29:22 This is like being this this to me is nothing.

29:26 That's what's so sad about segregation.

29:30 Yeah.

29:29 Is after years and years and years, you become to it.

29:34 I'm all up.

29:35 Yeah.

29:35 But you're smarter than that kids.

29:37 I'm up from it.

29:38 You're smarter than that.

29:41 Okay.

29:41 So, we'll evaluate it and we'll look

29:43 at moving you along and we'll talk next week.

29:46 Okay.

29:52 Um Okay.

29:51 Have a good weekend.

29:56 [music]

30:00 I can't even get based in this place.

30:04 [music] Thousand, thousand thousands thousand

31:06 Adam is becoming increasingly unstable.

31:10 101 roulette.

31:11 Last night, he covered his window and threatened to cut himself.

31:15 Because of his behavior,

31:17 his original 60 days of solitary has increased to more than 100 days.

31:23 Uh, Mr.

31:24 Belot, how you feeling today?

31:27 Better.

31:27 That's good to hear.

31:28 All I really want to do is go to school and not go to CEO, do my own time.

31:34 Mhm.

31:33 Leaving in like 170 days.

31:35 Adam is anxious about life after prison.

31:38 Do all I can to keep busy.

31:39 desperate to take his GED

31:41 to give himself a chance of employment when he's released.

31:44 I want you guys to know I need to do.

31:47 I need to go to school,

31:50 okay?

31:48 And I want my GED.

31:50 It's all I ask,

31:53 okay?

31:53 I'm not going to go out there and scram for another job

31:56 selling drugs and cuz I don't have no education.

31:59 I told you at your door yesterday, give me a shot.

32:02 Give me a chance.

32:02 If I fill you full of then you do what you think you got to do, okay?

32:06 And we'll do what we got to do.

32:07 We'll do our best to get you the help you need,

32:09 but I need I need you to do your part.

32:10 You need to keep your head on screwed on straight.

32:13 Okay.

32:17 I'm just I still want to try to figure out

32:20 Todd has been in the mental health unit for a month.

32:24 Okay.

32:23 He's starting to open up about his family.

32:26 Why do you think I'm asking for the court to make sure I'm the father?

32:29 So, if you're not If I'm not, I'm still going to love my kid.

32:33 It's my kid either way.

32:34 Okay.

32:34 And in some ways that that's very that's noble.

32:36 A lot of people wouldn't.

32:38 So where's that come from?

32:39 Where's this nobility come from?

32:41 It comes from the fact that I didn't have a father.

32:44 My dad committed suicide, which the date's coming up.

32:49 Okay.

32:48 It's the 24th.

32:50 Okay.

32:50 So Christmas Eve you.

32:52 He's really uh he's somebody who tries to elicit that he's

32:56 not not helpable and he's [snorts] just into being a nasty guy,

33:00 but I don't believe that.

33:01 And I've told him that.

33:01 Do you want me to tell you or do you want to try to figure it out?

33:05 Oh, I I always want to try to figure it out.

33:06 I'm I'm I like puzzles.

33:08 You figure it out.

33:09 I'll ask you on Oh, you asked me about that.

33:11 Yeah.

33:11 He had gotten some goodness somewhere cuz he has some

33:15 some nice things about him that he doesn't show very often.

33:18 We will see if he's willing to do the work necessary,

33:21 but he's too young to throw away.

33:24 I got one for you, Kirkley and Griffin.

33:26 Dr.

33:26 Banish uses unorthodox methods to engage the inmates.

33:29 I think you're you're going to enjoy this

33:31 today.

33:31 He's giving them puzzles to solve.

33:34 You see how enjoyable these guys are?

33:36 I mean, they really are.

33:38 They They are They don't want to be grumpy.

33:40 They don't want to be upset.

33:41 They want contact.

33:42 That's meaningful.

33:44 This is a good one.

33:45 We'll see if you got that by Monday.

33:47 No conferring with each other either.

33:52 You can't take it.

33:55 I'm leaving in 4 and 1/2 months, but put me on the bottom of the lip.

33:59 They didn't freak out.

34:01 They didn't come down and and it was addressed.

34:04 Okay.

34:04 So, two weeks have passed since Adam was told he'd be able to take his GED.

34:09 Yes, they do.

34:10 You're going to be getting your GED.

34:12 Okay.

34:12 Well, I want to do some testing tomorrow.

34:16 Absolutely.

34:18 Snap.

34:17 You know what?

34:18 That's that's that's a legitimate request,

34:20 but you snapping isn't going to get it to you.

34:23 Give me a shot at trying to help you out with the GED gate.

34:26 It's been too close.

34:29 Okay.

34:35 Believe in nothing of like animal.

34:51 Do you want to come out and talk roulette about all the stuff that's going on?

34:54 I will after I fight.

35:00 Adam pushes feces under the door.

35:04 The punishment will be yet more time in solitary.

35:13 Well, my fault would be trying to go by the rules.

35:16 I don't have too much open-mindedness for the rules in here.

35:19 and tell us why.

35:20 There's always a reason.

35:22 So, let us know.

35:23 Obviously, because I'm a criminal and I don't like the rules that you guys have.

35:26 Besides that, we don't want to make After more than a year in solitary,

35:30 Gordon Perry is in a room with other prisoners.

35:34 He and Adam have joined a new program

35:36 being offered to inmates in the segregation unit.

35:39 All you have to do is make the choice

35:43 at the time that something is presented to you.

35:46 Am I gonna push poop on my window?

35:49 Am I gonna cut?

35:50 Prisoners are asked to talk honestly about how they make decisions.

35:54 The weekly classes are supposed to help them become less violent.

35:57 If I show pride, I try to go like too far.

36:00 And I start to get hard-headed.

36:02 Doing what everybody wants.

36:03 Like, oh yeah, I'll be so much cooler if I break this guy's eye socket.

36:07 If your pride's good,

36:08 if you don't back down on, people are going to give you respect.

36:11 So, that's a positive of that.

36:12 All right.

36:12 What's the negative with the pride?

36:14 So if you're ever a and people are going to treat

36:16 you like a so then you don't get no respect.

36:18 But that's no pride.

36:18 Let's talk about actually having pride.

36:21 Oh, the negative of it.

36:22 Coming to SMU cuz you got to bang

36:24 somebody out because they put you in that situation.

36:28 Consequences.

36:27 That program is bull.

36:29 Everybody knows that I don't even want to do this program.

36:32 I just want to get out of SEG.

36:34 Do you want to change?

36:37 Change for what?

36:38 What do you change into what?

36:40 I'm here forever.

36:41 There's nothing for me to I'm a criminal.

36:43 I mean, I'm not going to jump on the other side or anything.

36:46 So, I am what I am.

36:48 I think my character is pretty good overall, you know,

36:51 unless you're my enemy is pretty is pretty good, I think.

36:54 So, that program has nothing for me.

37:08 You got an iPhone.

37:10 That's some [music] sick stuff.

37:13 Todd has six weeks left in the mental

37:15 health unit before he must return to solitary.

37:19 Got to get going.

37:20 He's been allowed to call his family

37:22 and even got [music] to speak to his 2-year-old daughter.

37:24 Why wouldn't it?

37:26 I love you.

37:31 Yes, that's the first time I've ever stolen.

37:35 How'd you How'd it made you feel?

37:38 It made me feel like a new guy.

37:41 I kind of feel that I want to go in the right

37:45 direction so I can do what I need to do.

37:49 That way I can create a better future for me and my kids.

37:52 How are you going to cope with Seg this time?

37:55 Hopefully better.

37:55 I'm on this nice new medication that makes me feel good.

38:09 If we go down through it, I'd like to take a look at who we would be consider.

38:13 The warden has been in the job for 6 months.

38:16 He faces some tough choices.

38:19 I truly don't see him as somebody significantly mentally ill.

38:23 The longer he leaves inmates in solitary,

38:25 the [music] more disturbed they could become.

38:27 When he's completed that program, then he can go to General Pop.

38:31 We got to jump on a discharge.

38:32 But moving them out too soon could endanger [music] staff and other prisoners.

38:36 Gordon Perry.

38:38 Now he's ready to take a risk with one of the prison's most dangerous inmates.

38:42 If he's showing that he's behaving and do what he needs to do,

38:45 we're going to move him along.

38:46 At some point, you got to give somebody a second chance.

38:49 All right, let's do it.

38:58 Friday.

39:00 That's a day where it's all set in stone.

39:02 I wouldn't say it's 100% set in stone, but

39:04 Oh, you already promised me.

39:05 It has to be.

39:06 No, no, you already gave me a word.

39:08 You're going out.

39:08 You're going out.

39:09 We'll get you out.

39:10 Friday morning.

39:12 Friday morning.

39:13 I got to get that.

39:18 Last week, Adam was let out of solitary to study for his GED.

39:23 But within days, he was sent back after starting another riot.

39:27 Now he's in more trouble for pushing feces out of his door again.

39:34 Yeah, my mental health diminished.

39:36 Slowly but surely, it'll do it to anybody.

39:39 I lasted a while.

39:42 Now I just say put me in the coldest cell of this whole prison as punishment.

39:50 It's supposed to be like a certain I don't know.

39:53 This is America, not Russia.

39:54 This cold here.

40:07 [music] Gordon Perry is leaving solitary.

40:12 It's a reward for doing the classes and a month of good behavior in his cell.

40:29 He's headed for a step down unit for prisoners transitioning out of solitary.

40:36 Inmates here are allowed out of their cells for a few

40:38 hours each day and required to take more classes.

40:43 If Gordon does well, he will eventually move to a unit with fewer restrictions.

40:56 You know, he's a very dangerous individual,

40:58 but essentially I still believe that that we can change him.

41:03 Our obligation is to continue to provide him with the opportunity to change.

41:09 I don't hesitate on that decision at all.

41:14 I'm just hanging out.

41:15 That's what I'm doing.

41:18 My realistic honest plan is to live as good as I can in here.

41:24 But it's a fantasy to think you're going

41:26 to change somebody that doesn't want to change.

41:35 Time is running out for Todd [music] Fickett.

41:37 He has just one week left on the mental health unit.

41:41 The prospect [music] of returning to solitary is taking its toll.

41:46 I'm

41:48 aggravated again.

41:48 [music] Why you aggravated?

41:49 I'm aggravated cuz the plan I'm on I seem to try

41:52 to follow and nobody else is following it right now.

41:54 What do you mean?

41:55 Halfway through the 50.

41:56 He's just found out he has even more solitary time to serve than he thought.

42:01 That is 50 days.

42:02 You have 100 days of D time.

42:03 Yeah, we were cutting it in half to 50.

42:06 No.

42:06 So halfway through 50 was 20.

42:08 No, we weren't.

42:09 It's 50 days here.

42:11 And then we will meet then we will meet and discuss where you go from there.

42:16 How the hell am I going through 100?

42:19 That's not what it says before.

42:20 You have a 100 days.

42:21 It says half.

42:22 You still have quite a bit of D time to do

42:24 and you're going to have to serve that D time.

42:27 Yeah.

42:27 15 days, two weeks.

42:30 No.

42:29 Don't put me back in my room.

42:30 I don't need Listen.

42:36 No.

42:35 No.

42:35 Hang on to him for a second.

42:38 I would think twice about doing anything though.

42:47 Yeah.

42:51 Todd, you all right?

42:52 You going to keep hitting that for a little while or what?

42:55 Huh?

42:55 You going to keep hitting that for a little while?

42:57 Probably end up hitting the wall soon.

42:59 Don't do that.

43:00 I can't let you do that.

43:01 You know that.

43:09 I'm going to sag anyways.

43:11 They want to over my plan.

43:13 Put me in damn set.

43:14 I'll hit every cop that come through that door and I'm going to miss that day.

43:18 I don't give a We don't want you doing that.

43:23 You going to be all right.

43:47 for primary and secondary.

43:59 Put your hands out here and I'll pick you up.

44:02 on the roof.

44:10 Four months ago, Adam Bruot thought he could handle solitary confinement.

44:15 Now he's cut open a vein on his arm

44:17 and poured blood all over himself and his cell.

44:21 Stop.

44:21 Calm down.

44:22 I've been I've been asking you all day.

44:24 I'm not going to sleep in a cold room.

44:28 And blood is pouring out of him in the back.

44:30 You need to to medical.

44:32 This is bull.

44:33 I need to stop the bull immediately.

44:35 Shouldn't have to do this.

44:37 Just put me in something and bring him to medical.

44:40 Batman, how you feel?

44:45 Okay.

44:45 [music] We've seen Adam Bruot deteriorate since he arrived in SEG.

45:13 He from someone who'd never hurt himself before.

45:15 He cut up very badly feces out of the door.

45:18 Did some pretty strange stuff.

45:20 Was segregation the right place for a person like Adam?

45:22 Well, you just defined why we don't like to use segregation.

45:26 Uh but sometimes it's necessary.

45:29 Mr.

45:29 Bruot was engaged in some very very

45:32 serious behavior while he's in general population.

45:35 Um so without a doubt it was the right place for him.

45:42 Did he spend too long in safe?

45:45 You know that's a real hard question to answer.

45:49 There's a lot of grayer in some of the decisions that we make.

45:52 There's no exact science to any one of these guys.

45:55 You have to try to figure them out as we go along.

45:59 But ultimately, when we're moving him

46:01 back into the general population, you know,

46:03 [music] we have to be certain that the staff are going to be safe,

46:07 that the other inmates are going to be safe,

46:09 [music] and that he's going to be safe.

46:18 [music] Before you went to SE,

46:30 did you ever imagine that you would cut yourself like that?

46:36 No, never.

46:36 I didn't even know what it was.

46:38 I seen a couple people doing it.

46:40 So then I started doing it.

46:43 Do you think it's changed [music] you forever?

46:46 I don't know.

46:47 Have to find out.

46:49 Try to be normal again.

46:54 [music] Just the routine every day gets to you.

46:59 I've been down here 4 months and I've gotten in trouble like 30 times.

47:07 Been extracted on teen times.

47:09 It's flooded my whole room out [music] couple times.

47:13 Just stuff to pass the time away.

47:16 And I guess they don't like that.

47:18 They think I'm crazy for it, but got to do something.

47:34 I am moving back to Sag.

47:38 This ought to be fun.

47:42 Kind of excited for some reason.

47:45 Go ahead.

47:45 611.

47:47 Open Alpha 210, please.

47:48 Alpha 210.

47:55 He has made a lot of progress over there.

47:57 Uh, he does have his setbacks where he does make

48:01 threats that he's going to do something to [music] himself,

48:04 but overall, we've gotten quite a bit of good behavior.

48:07 We haven't had any self-abusive behavior.

48:10 What I'm hoping is that when he does [music] go to spike,

48:13 the coping skills that we've worked with mental health,

48:15 he's going to ease up and maybe we can we'll level

48:18 it off just like we've [music] had a couple occasions over a Yeah, Mr.

48:32 Fick's case is a dilemma but be assaulted someone very

48:36 seriously within a correctional setting you have to have a consequence

48:39 for that somehow even if it even if it doesn't benefit

48:42 the uh the inmate so much you have a staff here.

48:46 Um so it is a sensitive issue that has has to do not only with the treatment

48:51 of the inmates but with the management

48:54 of an institution and the people who work within it.

49:08 Todd faces at least three more months of solitary.

49:11 [music] [music] After filming finished,

49:23 Adam Bruot was moved back to general population.

49:27 He was released from prison in March 2014.

49:33 After 3 [music] months in the step down unit,

49:36 Gordon Perry was caught with contraband and sent back to solitary.

49:42 Within hours, [music] he cut open a vein.

49:50 Peter Gibbs [music] is still in solitary,

49:52 right on the edge of having a complete nervous breakdown.

49:57 There are no plans [music] to release him.

50:44 Heat.

50:44 Heat.

51:06 I'm activating IDF.

51:07 I have an inmate that has started self abusive behavior.

51:11 I need a responder.

51:12 Here we go again.

51:15 Todd Fett lasted just 3 hours.

51:21 Hopefully next time His wounds will be stitched up.

51:35 Then he'll be [music] back in solitary.

52:01 [music] Heat.

52:10 Heat.

52:13 [music] [music] For more on this and other Frontline programs,

52:28 visit our website at pbs.org/frontline.

52:40 Front lines solitary nation is available on DVD.

52:44 To order, visit shoppbs.org or call 1 800play PBS.

52:51 Frontline is also available for download on iTunes.

53:01 [music] [music]