Life in Solitary This World

This programme contains some violent scenes, strong language

and scenes which some viewers might find disturbing.

In America, 80,000 prisoners are locked up in solitary confinement.

They spend months, sometimes years, alone.

This place is like an insane asylum.

Thoughts of suicide come a lot.

This film goes inside the punishment wing of a maximum security prison.

You can't get yourself wound up, cos you can't leave that room.

It's home to violent criminals

and to young prisoners on the brink of madness.

It's like being buried alive.

But this prison has a new boss

who thinks solitary confinement is making inmates more dangerous.

Most people would say if you punish 'em, you make 'em better.

The reality is the exact opposite happens.

I will kill one of your inmates.

This is the story of one man's effort

to reform a supermax prison...

'You can have them do their whole time in segregation.'

But I don't want them living next to me when you release them.

..and to rehabilitate some of America's most dangerous criminals.

I'll try to be normal again.

In the state of Maine, on America's north-east coast,

is a maximum security prison.

It's home to the worst prisoners in the state.

It's a dangerous place.

Four inmates have been murdered here in the last five years,

and assaults on prison staff are frequent.

The segregation unit is the prison within the prison.

Inmates here spend 23 hours a day in their cells.

They get an hour of exercise in a cage.

Some are here long term

because they're judged too dangerous to be around other people.

Some are here for their own protection.

And some are here as punishment for disruptive behaviour.

I'm Adam Brulotte, 102817.

I've been in prison since November 28th of 2012.

I broke a kid's jaw in seven places with one punch.

That landed me an aggravated assault.

That one punch landed me in here.

Adam Brulotte is 21.

His crimes on the outside are low-level.

He's doing 18 months for assault after a fight at a party.

But in prison, he's a disruptive and volatile inmate.

He's just tried to attack an officer,

so he's been sent to segregation, or "seg", as the inmates call it.

'I just went overboard,

'freaked out, starting punching stuff, threw chairs, screaming,

'and I got Maced and tackled.'

And they're trying to say I started a riot.

'I've been down here two days now.'

Well, it's good to my standards!

And I'm always at this window, so I like the window to be clean.

My face touches it and my hands touch it.

'I like seg.

'I can handle being locked down 23 hours a day,

'cos I can read, I can write, I can do push-ups. Most time I just chill.'

You got to relax.

You can't get yourself wound up, cos you can't leave that room.

Yeah, it sucks.

But I think I'm doing good.

Brulotte faces three months in solitary.

It promises to be a gruelling experience.

HOWLING

LAUGHTER

BANGING, SCREECHING

It's Friday night on the solitary unit.

Some of these inmates have been locked up in here for months,

even years.

Almost every night, they mount a protest.

They've flooded their cells

and poured bodily fluids under the doors.

Some have managed to smuggle in razor blades.

Now one inmate has covered his window so the officers can't see in.

Kidd?

Kidd, you need to cuff up.

The officers think the inmate may have been self-harming,

cutting himself.

I have three windows covered. One of them appears to be self-abusive.

'I attempted to look through the tray slot

'to see if I could get a visual on him,

'and he's got it covered with a mattress.'

If I can't see him from the back window, we have to go in

and take him out for his own safety.

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

They could be bleeding to death,

or it could be a trick to lure the officers in and assault them.

He's got it all covered.

So now we have to pull him out.

Right, gents, we better get ready to rock'n'roll.

611 A2, do you have a large fox?

The officers often have to forcibly extract inmates from their cells.

Any questions at this time?

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

BANGING

SCREAMING

All cell extractions are filmed, in case prisoners later try to sue.

Monsters!

This is what they create in here, monsters.

And then they drop you into society

and tell you, "Go ahead, be a good boy".

You can't conduct yourself like a human being

when they treat you like an animal.

Nights like this are routine in the solitary unit.

Officers regularly use pepper spray

to extract self-harming inmates from their cells.

This place is like an insane asylum.

I don't know how many times I've seen this tier filled with blood

from these guys cutting their arms and their necks,

all types of crazy...craziness,

and that's because they're stuck in here with nothing to do.

Gordon Perry is doing life without parole

for murdering a police officer.

He's in solitary for stabbing another inmate with a screwdriver.

He's been here for more than a year,

longer than any other prisoner in the unit.

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

A lot of guys, they don't have reasons why, they just snap out.

That's what this place does to you, it makes you mean,

makes you violent, and it fucks a lot of people's heads up.

'This is solitary confinement.'

I've seen a number of inmates become extremely self-abusive

during their time in segregation.

They have no control of anything else,

so they'll cut, they'll smear faeces,

they'll attempt to hang themselves.

For the normal person who doesn't work in a facility like this,

they're going to be thinking

if you punish 'em, you're going to make 'em better.

And the reality is the exact opposite happens.

Maine is one of a few American states

trying to reform its prisons by cutting down the use of solitary.

The prison has a new warden who has a radical plan.

I want you out on the other side of that door,

cos that's good for you, to be on this side of the door

and not that side, and you can hold me accountable.

LOUD BANGING

It's really dangerous, OK?

If I have somebody that comes in with a five-year commitment,

you could have them do their whole time in segregation.

But I don't want them living next to me when you release them.

The warden can't just let everyone out.

The inmates in solitary are unpredictable and dangerous.

What's going to happen when they release you in five months?

-You going to come right back?

-Hopefully not, no.

Well, if you act like that, you're going to.

Instead, he wants to reform them

and return them to the main part of the prison,

known as "general population".

I think we need to make every attempt

at moving them out of those cells

and moving them into general population.

On the surface, it might look crazy,

but the reality is that 80% of these inmates

are going to be hitting the street. OK?

So we can either make them worse

and create more victims when they go on the street

or we can rehabilitate them.

I have a young man down there right now. He's leaving in January.

Do we want him to leave from segregation

to go into the community? That's crazy. That's crazy.

Steven Kirkley is doing a two-year sentence for robbery

and will be released to the street in just six months.

He's one of the most disruptive inmates in the prison.

When he's around other prisoners in the general population wing,

he gets into fights.

When he's in solitary, he cuts himself with razor blades.

I got about ten, eleven more of those...

..placed throughout my cell.

I brought them down for everybody,

but I might use one tomorrow for my birthday.

Tie my arm off and just...

..cut the vein.

I don't do it to hurt myself but...

..I do it and...

..basically...

..just to let them know I'm capable of doing it.

The officers know that Kirkley is a "cutter",

so they do regular shakedowns on his cell.

This time they don't find his razors.

But Kirkley mounts a protest about the invasion of his space.

Can you uncover your window and talk to me?

If you don't uncover, chemical agents are going to be applied.

What are you planning to do?

-Get extracted.

-Why?

Cos...I woke up this morning and I went to medical...

and I came back and everything in my room was messed up.

Plus today is my birthday, and this is a way of celebrating.

For Kirkley, life in solitary has become a game.

He provokes the officers into extracting him almost every day.

GAS HISSES

Let us know when you want to cuff up through the window.

Inmates told me

as soon as I left my cell they was in there fucking my shit up.

As soon as I left.

Like I said, if I feel disrespected, I'm going to do what I got to do.

The new warden tries to deal with disruptive inmates like Kirkley

in person.

So, what have we got to do to move you ahead?

-I don't know.

-How old are you?

21.

So what do you think you need to do to go back into general population?

I'm not even going to try.

It doesn't matter if I get released from here or out there,

I'm still getting released from prison.

-You're going to stay in your cell?

-If that's what it's going to take

for my shit not to get ripped apart, I'm not going nowhere.

I'm not going to no programmes.

I'm not doing no programmes. I won't go to rec. It doesn't matter to me.

OK, that's a choice that you're going to make.

We done?

'With Kirkley, he's a challenge.

'The onus is on us to find the right approach

'to figure out how we're going to change him.'

Somehow we're missing something.

We're missing the way to get to that young man.

'And if we don't get to that young man and do what we need to do,

'we're going to make him worse

'before he goes back into the community.'

Next door to Kirkley

is an inmate who's been in and out of solitary confinement

for more than 20 years, Peter Gibbs.

How long have I been standing here asking to speak with the warden?

I'll talk to him, OK? I'll talk to him, all right, Peter?

You need to stay calm and I'll talk to him.

See how easy it is to get upset? See that?

'I've strangled a correctional officer'

and hid him under my bed,

and then another one came in the pod and I knocked him out

and dragged him into a utility closet

and beat his head in with a mop wringer, and I got...

So I've been in prison a long time.

That was when I was 16.

The officers survived Gibbs' attack but he's still regarded

as one of the most dangerous inmates in the solitary unit.

He's currently serving a 20-year sentence

for a string of armed robberies.

Now he's demanding a transfer to another prison

to be closer to his family,

and he's threatened to murder the warden if he doesn't get it.

We've met before. I explained my situation.

I will assault, attack, stab,

do whatever I have to do to get out of your facility.

I will kill one of your inmates. I don't have nothing to lose.

I want out of here. My children can't come see me.

I'm not rich. We're not rich, so they don't have the money to come here.

You know?

So, Mr Gibbs,

what do we need to do to get out of this hole that we're in?

-OK?

-I need to be medicated.

-OK.

-That makes me sociable.

OK, I'm going to follow that up.

You can't keep on threatening to kill me.

If you threaten to kill me,

I probably won't let you out of this room,

and if you threaten to kill anybody...

One thing about you, Mr Gibbs, that I know

is you're good for your word. All right?

I thought it would get me back to New Hampshire.

If you tell them, "We don't want Mr Gibbs here,"

-they have to take me back.

-They don't have to take you back.

Then I'll homicide one of your inmates!

What they'll do - let me finish - is they will make arrangements

for you to go from here to another state.

New Jersey, Maryland.

New Jersey's refused me,

Rhode Island's refused me cos of my mental health issues.

Well, it seems to me that you'd like to see your wife and daughters.

And it seems to me you'd like to get back out in general population.

As long as somewhere down the road we can convince New Hampshire

Mr Gibbs is doing unreal, he's changed and maybe take me back.

-Look, what

-I

-can control is what I'm going to talk about.

I can't control New Hampshire.

What I can control is how do I move Mr Gibbs out of the seg unit,

how can I get Mr Gibbs an opportunity to make money

to send his wife so she can come visit him,

how can we work together

so that Mr Gibbs can move out of the seg unit so he can get his TV, OK?

You start with baby steps, right?

Well, what are you looking at for a time period?

Can you start giving me some stuff in my cell maybe?

That crochet programme was very important to me.

I'm not ready to put a crochet hook in your hand right now.

You know what I'm saying?

Nice chatting with you.

The senior prison staff are concerned about the idea

of ever moving Gibbs out of solitary.

He's a long way, from my perspective,

cos I have to be in a pod.

Any one of us can be in general population with this guy.

So I don't want to see someone die, an officer die,

because we're trying to kinda get him settled

-as we wait for New Hampshire.

-It's just going to be a process.

The US has a higher percentage of its population in prison

than any country in the world,

almost five times that of England and Wales.

Solitary confinement was first introduced here in the 1800s

as an experiment to see if isolation would reform criminals.

It was soon abandoned, because prisoners didn't reform.

They lost their minds.

You get to go home and I got to stay in fucking here!

But the practice was re-introduced in the 1980s

in an effort to reduce widespread prison violence.

Now America has 80,000 inmates in isolation,

more than any other country.

Research suggests that prisoners in solitary

are six times more likely to kill themselves than other inmates

and seven times more likely to self-harm.

21-year-old Adam Brulotte

has been in solitary confinement for four weeks now.

He was confident he could handle it,

but he's started to fixate

about what will happen when he leaves prison.

Yeah, I got hardcore ADD, and I'm about to leave in five months.

I don't know where I'm going to go, I don't know where I'm going to work.

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

I still got 1,000 to pay with no car, no job.

When you settle down in your room and you really just start thinking,

it's just "bang-bang-bang-bang" all at once.

This really kind of fucks with my head.

I'm just trying to get some medication to slow that down for now.

Brulotte has now begun to cause trouble in the unit.

Why are you pissed off?

Cos they're fucking with people's portions!

Ohhh! LAUGHTER

-Scumbag!

-That's a million-dollar shot!

Oh, it's war.

LOUD BANGING

That night, the unrest escalates.

What is all this stuff on the floor?

It's probably urine and toilet paper and food.

Brulotte is planning to flood the unit.

In about half an hour, I'm going to let that loose

and it'll be in the hallway.

-What's going on?

-Nothing.

-Nothing?

Oh, shit! There it goes!

Yeah!

The punishment for flooding out will be more time in solitary.

Inmates in solitary are deprived of all physical contact.

But they've found ways of reaching one another

when the officers aren't looking.

They call this "fishing".

Prisoners use threads from their sheets

to send contraband from cell to cell.

The solitary unit has its own underground economy.

The packages contain messages, drugs and razor blades.

# We have a bleeder!

# We have a bleeder! #

-Another day on the job?

-Another day on the job.

Barely a day goes by in the solitary unit without an inmate self-harming.

This is a real clean-up right here.

And when they do, other prisoners are paid to clean up the mess.

We probably average about 20 of these a month, so... Yeah.

In the last year, I've become an expert on blood, I guess.

And it doesn't just mop up, does it?

No, it doesn't. It coagulates, and it's...

Generally, I try to saturate it with a germicide

and then I use a sheet to mop it up

and then afterwards I try to scrub it down.

My heart goes out to everybody down here. I've been behind these doors,

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

Being behind these walls gets to everybody,

and everybody deals with it in their own particular way.

As you can imagine,

someone being 17, 18 years old in a setting like this,

you know, it's not really... It does a lot with your mind.

I cut because it's my only way to escape.

Obviously, being locked up, you don't have control of nothing.

And...cutting myself makes me feel in control.

Sam Caison is a regular visitor to the solitary unit

and a prolific cutter.

He's been in and out of prison his whole adult life.

When his previous sentence ended,

he was released from solitary straight to the street.

I tried to tell my mom and everybody I didn't want anybody around

and tried explaining why.

When I got released, I got home and there was five people there,

and I felt like there was 5,000 people there.

Ultimately, for my first couple of months

I pretty much locked myself in my camper

until my mom and everybody...

..tried to explain to me

I'm not in prison, I shouldn't live like that.

'I ultimately tried to force myself to live like I was still in seg,

'because I didn't know what to do.'

I went from the most restrictive place I've ever been

to...no restrictions at all.

Ultimately, I ended up shooting somebody and coming back.

Do you think your time in seg has made you more dangerous?

Yeah.

Steven Kirkley has become a frequent cutter

since coming to solitary.

He's due to be released from prison in just four months.

Now the warden has decided on a radical step

to try to improve his behaviour before he's set free.

He's moved him to the prison's mental health wing.

The mental health wing

is a very different place from the solitary unit.

Most of the inmates here have serious mental illnesses.

Many have come from solitary.

Prison psychologist Dr Dan Bannish runs the wing.

'It's... It's different.

'Instead of the depressing clank of the prison,

'it's trying to create something a little different.

'Every breath, every movement, every portion,

'everything in there is clinical.

'There isn't a non-clinical thing we do.

'Everything is geared towards skill developments,

'relationship building, appropriate interactions.'

'So everything about it is becoming social.'

They're used to coming from

environments where people hurt each other and are antisocial,

and this is a whole build-up of how you relate to people,

and you have to practise it every single day.

Dr Bannish will now try to prepare Steven Kirkley

for his imminent release.

I'm worried about you, the future Mr Kirkley out here.

Your life post-this is what matters.

So that's what I work with you on, what I hold people accountable for.

I say, "I want to see a plan for this man."

I'm done, I'm done with all that.

To be honest, I don't care, I don't care about any of that.

-Then where are you going to go?

-I'm going to do my own thing.

But what is that? You're going to walk out the door to what?

I'm going to walk out the door

and I'm going to fucking pick up some cocaine

and I'm going to fucking stand on the corner and I'm going to hustle.

So that's like being here.

That's all I know how to do, that's what I was brought up to do.

That's all I know how to do.

So that basically says you're going to live your life in here.

If... If that's what it is, cos no...

No, not IF it is, that's what it is.

Nobody's helping me, though.

I'm about to try to get a plan, because right now you got nothing.

In all honesty, Mr Kirkley,

all this stuff that's happening now is like white noise.

The big thing is April, he walks out the door.

and if he starts on day one out the door picking up your first rock,

all this stuff,

you're back to... you might as well stay.

I might as well give you a gun, cos everybody's got one within a day.

Shit, I got a couple buried!

Yeah, I figured. Y'know? And I'm trying to be kind on this!

Where are you actually physically going to be in April?

Where are you going to get your money?

You know HOW to get money, but that's part of the problem!

The number one factor that brings people back to prison,

you know what it is? Peers.

If you're going to hang around with a bad group, you're coming back.

If you hang around with a bad group, you'll stay,

and you'll all be back here together.

And when you're 45, you're going to be looking back,

saying that was probably not a good idea.

I'm going to tell you what you'll be thinking at 45,

even though you don't believe me. OK?

Sorry. I find myself lecturing. It's not anything...

It helps, though!

A lot of people tell me to shut up, so...

I can honestly say that out of everybody I talk to in here,

you're the smartest.

And your lectures are good.

It doesn't go in one ear and out the other.

I can say you're probably one of the only people that cares, though.

Well, I don't think I'm the only one, but I do care.

I don't like the fact that you would be sent out to nothing.

It's a waste of money, it's a waste of taxpayer dollars,

it's a waste of a human being.

And it doesn't mean giving you everything, either.

It means setting things up so you have a chance to succeed.

Right now, just to let you go, hoping...?

All right? All right, take care, Mr Kirkley.

I need to get a guy out.

Get up and fight the team!

The warden's effort to help Kirkley

has created a new problem back on the solitary unit.

The other inmates think prisoners who self-harm

are getting preferential treatment.

There might be some cookies and milk.

Peter Gibbs is now threatening to start cutting himself

if he doesn't get the prison transfer he wants.

This is what I have to start doing.

People have done stuff. They've gotten rewarded for it.

I sit in my cell, I mind my own business, but there's no rewards!

Hey, Gibbs!

Gordon?

Gibbs is not the only inmate causing trouble.

Hey, how are you feeling about not getting that meeting today?

After a year in solitary,

Gordon Perry is also running out of patience.

They told me the same thing. He was going to see me this week.

If I don't get some answers by three o'clock, I'm covering my window.

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

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

It's unreal how they force people's hands here.

I want to give them a little bit more time,

because when I cover that window up, I'm serious.

This ain't my first rodeo.

I got a pretty good setup,

and we're going to fucking hopefully fight the team!

Come and get me!

Now the warden and his staff

have to talk down two of the most dangerous inmates in the unit.

The only way you ever get anything round here is to act up.

Sitting back being good for a year ain't fucking working.

All I'm getting is smoke blown up my fucking ass every which way I look.

This is going to disqualify you from New Hampshire.

If you do this kind of shit, it's not going to happen.

Of course it's going to happen!

I've seen him make deals, like, left and right with people

for putting this fucking shit up in the window.

You got a couple of assaults in 17 years.

How hard is it to move me? So I got to be out of here pretty soon.

Because of what you've done here,

we're going to move you out very slowly.

What I need to know is when I move you out there,

are you going to be safe?

-Am

-I

-going to be safe?

I need to know the other inmates are going to be safe as well.

It ain't happening. You guys got me down here for a year.

I'm all set with the stabbings, I'm ready to go out

and try to enjoy myself a little bit.

I'm willing to look at moving you along.

But it's going to be a while. We've got to work the process.

And I'm not interested in burying you.

I'm already buried, though. I've already been down here a year.

I want to be Maced.

I don't want to Mace you, Gibbs.

-I need to be Maced.

-You don't need to be Maced.

-I have to be.

-No, you don't. There's no reason for this shit.

If I cut up, will you Mace me?

No. There's no reason for any of that stuff.

You can't give me a little blast, just a little burst?

I'm not going to give you a blast.

-I understand you're frustrated, OK?

-No, you don't understand.

-I do. We had that conversation.

-You have no clue.

Don't think it's lost on me

that you're locked in a box for 23 hours a day.

I don't care about that.

This is like being... This, to me, is nothing.

That's what's so sad about segregation

is after years and years and years,

-you become retarded to it.

-You're smarter than that.

-I'm all fucked up.

-But you're smarter than that, Gibbs.

I'm fucked up from it.

You're smarter than that.

OK, so we'll evaluate it and we'll look at moving you along,

and we'll talk next week. OK?

OK. Have a good weekend.

I can't even get fucking Maced in this place!

Frozen, frozen, frozen, frozen, frozen!

DOOR BUZZER

Adam Brulotte thought he could cope with solitary,

but after six weeks, his mental state is deteriorating fast.

Last night, he covered his window and got extracted from his cell.

Mr Brulotte, how are you feeling today?

-Better.

-That's good to hear.

All I really want to do is go to school and not go to C pod.

He's due to be released from prison in four months

and is increasingly anxious

about what he's going to do on the outside.

He's desperate to take the basic education exam called the GED

to give himself a chance of getting a job when he's released.

I want you guys to know, I need fucking shit to do.

-I need to go to school.

-OK.

-And I want my GED.

That's all I ask.

I'm not going to go out there

and scram for another job selling drugs and shit

because I don't have no education.

I told you at your door yesterday, give me a shot, give me a chance.

If I fill you full of shit,

you do what you think you got to do and we'll do what we got to do.

We'll do our best to get you the help you need.

But I need you to do your part.

You need to keep your head screwed on straight. OK?

I got one for you, Kirkley and Griffin.

I'm going to each give you something to do. I think you'll enjoy this.

Now it's puzzles time. Oh, my God, it's puzzles!

Back in the mental health unit,

Dr Bannish is setting the inmates puzzles.

It's part of the therapy designed to constructively engage the prisoners.

You see how enjoyable these guys are?

They don't want to be grumpy, they don't want to be upset,

they want contact that's meaningful.

There we go.

-HE LAUGHS

-This is a good one.

No conferring with each other, either.

We'll see if you got that by Monday.

So you can't take it...

The idea is to see if there's a way to keep mental health in their cell

without having to be there,

so we use a transitional object, something that represents me.

I didn't just hand them pieces of paper,

I made contact with each of them

and reconnected with them, engaged with them.

Then I'll be there to follow up with this piece,

and they'll be all excited,

especially if they've accomplished this thing.

The other thing that they're unaware of,

the actual thing that they're working on

has clinical components attached to it

that I'll be using the next time I meet them,

because literally the solution has to do

with other ways of looking at problems.

That's another big hint I gave you.

-Really? Oh, right!

-So you got to give me another big hint.

It's very healthy to struggle. There's nothing wrong with struggle.

And that's why it's a struggle. I don't mind a struggle.

Steven Kirkley used to be the most disruptive inmate in solitary.

Since Dr Bannish started working with him,

his behaviour has improved.

I like to figure it out on my own. It's a challenge.

That's why I do the New York Times crossword puzzle.

Sometimes it takes me hours,

but when you finally get it, it feels good.

Did you ever do the New York Times crossword?

Really?

HE LAUGHS

I walked into that one. OK.

THEY LAUGH

Sometimes you just have to think outside of yourself.

-Huge clue. Huge clue!

-HE LAUGHS

Mr White!

'We can't just bury these guys.

'As a psychologist, I'm looking into what's effective,'

what works,

why do we keep doing things that don't work or make things worse,

why don't we figure something else out.

So every time I meet with him,

it's much more of an uplifting kind of thing.

We'll goof with each other, and he knows I'm not there to judge him.

And I don't have him just as being this nasty kid,

but I also know that he doesn't want to end up

where he knows he's going to end up.

He's a kid.

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

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

And tell us why. There's always a reason, so let us know.

Just, like, cos I'm a criminal

and I don't like the rules that you guys have.

Besides that!

After more than a year in solitary, Gordon Perry is out of his cell.

The last time he was in a room with other prisoners,

he stabbed one with a screwdriver.

Now he's joined a new programme

being offered to inmates in the segregation unit.

All you have to do is make the choice

at the time that something is presented to you.

"Am I going to push poop on my window? Am I going to cut myself?"

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

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

Adam Brulotte is doing the programme too.

I show pride, I try to go too far, and I start to get hard-headed.

Doing what everybody wants.

Yeah, "I'll be so much cooler if I break this guy's eye socket."

If your pride's good, if you don't back down on shit,

people give you respect, so that's a positive of that.

What's the negative with the pride?

If you're a bitch then people treat you like a bitch,

-so they don't get no respect.

-But that's no pride.

Let's talk about having pride.

Oh, the negative of it is coming to SMU,

because you've got to bank somebody out

because they put you in that situation.

'That programme is bullshit. Everybody knows it.

'I don't want to do this programme. I just want to get out of seg.'

Do you want to change?

Change for what? Change into what?

I'm here for ever. There's nothing for me to ch...

I'm a criminal, I'm not going to jump on the other side or anything.

So I am what I am.

'I think my character's pretty good overall.

'Unless you're my enemy, it's pretty good, I think.

'So that programme has nothing for me.'

Most of the inmates in the solitary unit

think the new classes are a waste of time.

But the warden is encouraging them all to take part

and work their way back into the prison's general population.

What we're looking for as we're doing this programming

is that we see a difference, we see a slow, incremental shift.

'When you initiate these kinds of programmes, you get resistance.

'It's not only inmates that are resisting us right now.

'We still have some staff

'that really don't believe that this stuff is going to work.'

But I've seen it work. I'm an absolute believer in it working.

Everything just went downhill from being a no-trouble-at-all inmate

to all of a sudden just going right to the bottom of the ladder.

'Most people would say, well, these people need to come into prison,

'they need to be punished.

'The punishment for the most part is they've lost their civil right,

'they're behind these walls.

'Once we get them behind these walls,

'it is our job to rehabilitate them so they can become

'successful, productive citizens in the community.

'If we truly rehabilitate the inmates,

'when we put them into society, we will create less victims,

'and ultimately that's the goal.'

I'm leaving in four and a half months,

and they put me on the fucking bottom of the list.

-They didn't...

-I'm about to freak out!

There's little evidence

that the classes are improving Brulotte's behaviour.

I don't give a fuck.

He's angry that he still hasn't been able to take his GED exam.

You're going to be getting your GED, OK?

Well, I want to fucking do some testing tomorrow.

-Absolutely.

-Or I'll snap.

You know what? That's a legitimate request,

but you snapping isn't going to get it to you.

Give me a shot at trying to fucking help you out with the GED bit.

Yeah, and that's been two weeks! I'm this close!

-OK.

-I'm fucking close!

Believe that bullshit, you'll believe any fucking thing!

I'm not fucking believing nothing.

Big house of lies!

With no more information about his exam,

Brulotte has decided to cover his window.

You treat us like animals, we will act like animals!

Do you want to come out

-and talk about all this stuff that's going on?

-I will after I fight!

Brulotte pushes faeces under the door

and threatens to cut himself next.

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

The warden has now been in the job for six months.

He faces some tough choices.

I truly don't see him as significantly mentally ill.

The longer he leaves inmates in solitary,

the more disturbed they could become.

When he's completed that programme, then he can go to general pop.

But moving them out too soon could endanger staff and other prisoners.

Gordon Perry...

Now he's ready to take a risk

with one of the prison's most dangerous inmates.

If he's showing he's behaving

and doing what he needs to do, we're gonna move him along.

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

All right, let's do it.

Friday. That's the day when it's set in stone?

I wouldn't say it's 100% set in stone.

You already promised me, it has to be.

-No, no.

-You gave your word.

-You're going out. We'll get you out.

Friday morning.

Friday morning?

More than a year after he arrived, Gordon Perry is leaving solitary.

He's heading for a step-down unit

for prisoners transitioning out of solitary.

Inmates here are allowed out of their cells

for a few hours each day, and required to take more classes.

If Perry does well,

he will eventually move to a unit with fewer restrictions.

You know, he's a very dangerous individual

but essentially I still believe that we can change him.

Our obligation is to continue to provide him

with the opportunity to change.

I don't hesitate on the decision at all.

I'm just hanging out, that's what I'm doing.

My realistic, honest plan is to live as good as I can in here.

But it's a fantasy to think you're going to change somebody

that doesn't want to change.

Open up at 2.10, please, Alpha, 2.10.

Did they say 2.11 before?

Perry is not the only inmate to leave solitary.

Adam Brulotte is also being given a chance out in general population.

Others follow.

The number of inmates in solitary has now dropped by more than half

and the number of inmates doing programmes has doubled.

Frankly, I'm absolutely convinced what we're doing is going to work

and it is working.

I can tell you that the number of fights have dropped,

the number of use of weapons has dropped,

transports to the emergency room have dropped.

So, overall, it's had a positive impact, but we're just beginning.

Listen, this is me.

This is how I express myself.

It's either this, or this...

After two weeks of good behaviour in the mental health unit,

Steven Kirkley has also been moved back to general population.

I like you and shit, but I don't like you

so fucking much that I want you coming back here

and hanging out with me, you know...

He's been paired up with another inmate,

who will act as a mentor to try to keep him out of trouble.

There will be a time when you get out of here

that someone's going to hand you a blunt and say, "Yo, smoke up."

There will be a time when someone says, "Hey, yo, I know how we can make a quick buck."

So what you need to do is understand

that doesn't make them pieces of shit,

they're not where they need to be, they're not in a healthy place,

so they got nothing to offer you.

So you got to be ready in your mind how to answer those questions

right off the rip. "Hey, yo, I recognise this is a test

"and that I can't fall for this

"because I'm jeopardising this, this and this."

He's real good, he's real good.

Knowing that there's people in this facility that actually care.

I can't give them my back, you know what I mean?

I got to do my part, basically.

That's the difference between guys that successfully do time,

and guys that don't successfully do time.

Back in the segregation unit, there's a familiar face.

After threatening a prison officer,

Adam Brulotte has been sent back to solitary.

I tried to be good but I only lasted ten days.

I'm done trying to be good. I'm going home in 90 days.

All I have to do is 90 more and I'm done, I'm going home.

Yeah, my mental health diminished.

Slowly but surely, it would do it to anybody,

I lasted a while, now I just think, "fuck it".

They put me in the coldest cell in this whole prison as punishment.

It's supposed to be like a certain...

I don't know, this is America, not Russia,

it's just fucking cold in here.

BANGING AND SCREAMING

10-4, primary and secondary.

HE SHOUTS AND SCREAMS

Fuck you, I want a fucking warmer room!

Fucking shit of an icebox!

Put your hands up here and I'll cuff you up.

Fuck you, I want a fucking warmer room! This is bullshit!

Brulotte has cut himself with a razor blade.

Stop!

-Calm down.

-I've been fucking calm, I've been asking you all day,

I'm not going to sleep in a fucking cold room!

BANGING

-PRISONER:

-That blood is pouring out of him at the back, you need to bring him to medical, man.

This is bullshit, fucking bullshit. Shouldn't have to fucking do this.

Put him in something and bring him to medical.

-How do you feel?

-Fucking dead!

Fucking put me in a fucking ice box.

Brulotte sums up the dilemma faced by the prison.

Out in the general population, he's a threat.

In solitary, he gets worse.

We've seen Adam Brulotte deteriorate since he arrived in seg.

From someone who'd never hurt himself before, he cut up very badly,

put faeces out of the door, did some pretty strange stuff.

Was segregation the right place for a person like Adam?

You just defined why we don't like to use segregation.

But sometimes it's necessary.

Mr Brulotte was engaged in some very, very serious behaviour

while he was in general population.

So, without a doubt, it was the right place for him.

Did he spend too long in seg?

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

There's a lot of grey area in some of the decisions that we make.

There's no exact science to any one of these guys,

you have to try to figure them out as we go along.

But ultimately, when we're moving him back into general population,

we have to be certain that the staff are going to be safe,

the other inmates are going to be safe, and he's going to be safe.

Before you went to seg, did you ever imagine

you would cut yourself like that?

No, never. I didn't even know what it was.

And I seen a couple of people doing it, so then I started doing it.

Do you think it's changed you for ever?

I don't know, have to find out.

I'm going to try to be normal again.

Just the routine every day gets to you.

I've been down here four months

and I've gotten in trouble like 30 times...

..and been extracted umpteen times,

flooded my whole room out, couple of times.

Just stuff to pass the time away.

And I guess they don't like that, they think I'm crazy for it, but...

You got to do something.

A year after the warden arrived at the Maine State Prison,

his new regime is seeing results.

Violence at the prison is falling.

The number of inmates in isolation is falling.

And almost uniquely for an American supermax prison,

the warden remains focused on rehabilitating even his most dangerous prisoners.

It's not easy, OK, this is tough work,

there are some inmates down there right now, it's going to be

a long time before they make it from the segregation unit

back into general population.

So I do believe that segregation has a place,

particularly in a supermax, but I think to keep people there

and have them languish, you're making them worse,

you're making them angrier

and when you do in fact release them to the community,

the likelihood of creating more victims is increased significantly.

After filming finished,

Steven Kirkley was sent back to the segregation unit

for assaulting an officer.

He was ultimately released straight from solitary to the street.

Adam Brulotte was sent back to general population

from the mental health unit.

He's since been released from prison.

Gordon Perry was caught with contraband

and sent back to solitary.

Within hours, he cut open a vein.

Peter Gibbs is still in solitary.

Right on the edge of having a complete nervous breakdown.

There are no plans to release him.