Lockdown was one of the National Geographic Channel’s most consistently highest rated shows. The series, which ventures into some of the most secure prisons in the US, is back for a second run of three programmes, all in HD.
Salinas Valley State Prison in California comes under the camera’s scrutiny in the first episode, Gang War, premiering on June 4. Although it is a state-of-the-art, maximum security building, the facility is one of the state’s most notorious prisons, with about 800 violent incidents taking place each year.
It is filled to beyond capacity with some of the penal system’s most dangerous prisoners. Staff are given expert training, but there are simply not enough of them.
The documentary looks at the gangs formed by the inmates and the technology used by the prison to control them. Gangs used to hang out in the yard of C cellblock, but after a brutal stabbing, a lock-down is in progress. When they are eventually allowed back into the open air, how long will it be until the next incident?
Related story: National Geographic looks at much smaller nasty specimens in Bug Brother.
Anyone watching this program should realize that it total propaganda by the California Department of Corrections. They would never have allowed National Geographic into their prison to do real news coverage as the media is banned in California.
Think about it. Would they put all those gangs in the same room knowing they would be sued for not protecting the prisoners which is their legal obligation to do so if someone was hurt? The only part that you can believe is the constant abusive strip searches
Salinas Valley is the home of the Green Wall gang of prison guards. I visit there every weekend and have a loved one caged up there living worse than an animal. All of this inhumanity so law enforcement labor unions can make double and triple salaries of what our teachers earn. The blame should be put on greedy politicians and apathetic voters.