Prison Gangs:
A Santa Rosa police detective illustrates the brutality of the Nuestra Familia gang through photos of the murder of Michael Castillo in Salinas during a presentation to state officials and the FBI in the hopes of gaining backing for their "Black Widow" investigation.

Prison Gangs:
Salinas Police Violence Suppression Unit officers arrest a suspected sureno gang member for possession of methamphetamine. Backed by a $1 million federal grant in 1995, Salinas police began patrolling the streets every night in search of armed gang members.

Set in an idyllic forest near the Orgegon border, Pelican Bay State Prison houses California's most dangerous criminals. The moon sets behind one of the 11 guard towers surrounding the 275-acre maximum-security facility.

Prison Gang
Thirteen years ago Pelican Bay State Prison was cut out of a dense forest near Crescent City, CA. The highlight of the new super-max prison was the Security Housing Unit (SHU), the X-shaped builing at front, where 1,300 of the state's most hardened criminals are kept in near isolation.

Pelicaneye:
An inmate stares through perforated holes from a pod of cells in the Security Housing Unit at Pelican Bay State Prison, where California's most-hardened criminals are imprisoned.

Prison Gangs:
Chained inmates make their way to the library at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, near the California-Oregon border. This is the only time rival gang members are chained together since none wants to lose his library privileges. Not disclosing inmates' identities was a condition of access to the prison.

Prison Gangs:
A message smuggled into Pelican Bay State Prison in the rectal cavity of a Nuestra Familia gang member reports on the activity of the gang at the prison he was transferred from. The tiny writing, 5 lines per one regular line of paper, is rolled up and 'keestered'.

Prison Gangs:
An inmate in the Security Housing Unit at Pelican Bay State Prison removes all his clothing, spreads his toes and buttocks and is handcuffed without coming into physical contact with prison guards before a visit to the prison dentist.

Prison Gangs:
The collection of confiscated knives, spears and points grows daily at Pelican Bay State Prison. Prisoners, alone in their cells 23-hours a day, have plenty of time to contruct weapons from rudimentary materials.

Prison Gangs:
Inmates in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison spend 23 hours a day in their cells with only 1 hour a day to spend in the 10' X 20' cement room for exercise.

Prison Gangs:
Pelican Bay Prison Guard George Sherman carries a rifle in the control room of the ultra-maximum Security Housing Unit, known as the SHU, whenever a guard enters one of the groups of 10 cells.