The Worst Episodes of Hard Time

Life at one of the most scenic lockups in the world, Alaska’s Spring Creek Correctional Center, where the inmates are surround by one of the countries most breathtaking national parks. But that tranquility is just a sharp contrast to the crimes committed by those jailed inside.

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Hays State Prison is one of the toughest facilities in the state of Georgia for prisoners and guards alike. In this episode, we'll meet Stephen Crane and 18 other inmates who are being transferred here. They'll be forced to learn the ropes and face the hurdles that come with entering a new prison. Then, we'll meet Elgin Tracy, a 23-year-old Iraq War veteran. Now he is on a different front line as a corrections officer, level one, starting his first day on the job.

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At his home overlooking Hays State Prison, deputy warden for security Cedric Taylor is up early and has called in the head of his special forces, the CERT Team and its K-9 unit, for a surprise shakedown of inmates. This is one of the largest actions the prison can take more than 30 officers blanket the cell house, searching for smuggled contraband, such as drugs, homemade alcohol, and even pets.

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In an extreme world, 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.

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See the Hi-Max -- the most extreme prison environment allowed under American law, and at the other end of the spectrum, Georgia has "shock incarceration" for nonviolent first-time offenders: 90 days of intense, military-style boot camp.

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Follow the intense manhunt for escaped convicts Johnny Mack Brown and Michael Tweedell. Inmates go into lockdown, tactical squads assemble and K-9 units scour the countryside looking for clues.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Life in prison is marked by power and those who have it one day can lose it the next.

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Clark County Detention Center serves as a revolving door for repeat offenders and career criminals.

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The woman's units at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas offer up a world of treacherous contrasts.

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A visit to Las Vegas' main jail; Clark County Detention Center.

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At the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas, inmates are forces to choose whether to continue on their current path or mend their ways.

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Inmates at the Clark County Detention Center await their day in court.

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The Clark County Detention Center receives scores of repeat offenders, many hooked on drugs and alcohol.

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The Gang Special Investigations Unit is responsible for monitoring gang activity and disrupting their programs.

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Inmates who are also victims of mental illness or drug addiction.

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Not fitting in with the crowd can be a dangerous option in jail.

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