LOCKDOWN

With the highest homicide rate in the nation, the streets of Detroit are rampant with violent crimes, drug abuse and prostitution. But at the citys Wayne County Jail, female offenders are offered one last chance to clean up their lives.

In this episode of Lockdown, we'll go behind jail walls of Cuyahoga County Jail to meet some of Cleveland's most dangerous men - and the officers who risk their lives to keep them in line.

Some of the most violent criminals in Colorado have a new home. And they seem to love it. Ten years ago, Colorado opened a massive new penitentiary called Sterling Correctional Facility (SCF) and poured more than 2000 inmates into it, including some of the toughest and most disruptive felons in the state.

Nuevo Laredo lies just a few miles south of the US-Mexico border, across the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas. It's a major hot spot in the drug war - a border town known for its chilling violence and rampant corruption. And it's the perfect home for a notorious Mexican prison known as Cedes.

Forget Midwestern hospitality at the St Louis County Jail. Built in 1998 and rededicated in 2004, this downtown facility processes over 30,000 arrestees each year. From drunk drivers and drug dealers to petty thieves and killers, they all pass through this municipal high-rise on their way to facing a judge

Nuevo Laredo is a major hot spot in the drug war - a border town known for its chilling violence and rampant corruption. And it's the perfect home for a notorious Mexican prison known as Cedes.

Nuevo Laredo lies just a few miles south of the US-Mexico border, across the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas. It's a major hot spot in the drug war - a border town known for its chilling violence and rampant corruption. And it's the perfect home for a notorious Mexican prison known as Cedes.

Forget Midwestern hospitality at the St Louis County Jail. Built in 1998 and rededicated in 2004, this downtown facility processes over 30,000 arrestees each year. From drunk drivers and drug dealers to petty thieves and killers, they all pass through this municipal high-rise on their way to facing a judge

In this episode of Lockdown, we'll go behind jail walls of Cuyahoga County Jail to meet some of Cleveland's most dangerous men - and the officers who risk their lives to keep them in line.

Lockdown takes viewers inside the closed world of maximum-security U.S. prisons to observe violent clashes, covert rules and secret codes of justice.

Lockdown takes viewers inside the closed world of maximum-security U.S. prisons to observe violent clashes, covert rules and secret codes of justice.

Lockdown takes viewers inside the closed world of maximum-security U.S. prisons to observe violent clashes, covert rules and secret codes of justice.

Lockdown takes viewers inside the closed world of three maximum-security U.S. prisons to observe violent clashes, covert rules and secret codes of justice.

Lockdown takes viewers inside the closed world of maximum-security U.S. prisons to observe violent clashes, covert rules and secret codes of justice.

Lockdown takes viewers inside the closed world of maximum-security U.S. prisons to observe violent clashes, covert rules and secret codes of justice.

Lockdown takes viewers inside the closed world of maximum-security U.S. prisons to observe violent clashes, covert rules and secret codes of justice.

Lockdown takes viewers inside the closed world of three maximum-security U.S. prisons to observe violent clashes, covert rules and secret codes of justice.

The city with the highest murder rate in America. At the Wayne County Jail, committed officers and counsellors struggle to rehabilitate female offenders, including thieves, drug addicts and prostitutes, with innovative new programmes to stop the vicious cycle of crime, jail and more crime. Angry and violent, many of these women have been sexually abused or abandoned as children, and almost all have been incarcerated multiple times. In the downtown jail, we follow the most audacious program Fresh Start which works exclusively with drug-addicted prostitutes.

There’s one thing harder than being inside one of America’s toughest prisons – being on the outside.

Violent, underage felons are put through Colorado's gruelling Youthful Offender System to break down their criminal habits and gang mentalities, preparing them for reintegration into society.

Half of Colorado's sex offenders are housed in Fremont Correctional Facility. Fremont faces the challenge of protecting these potential victims and readying them for life in a society that shuns them.

Life inside Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet, Ill., one of the country's most dangerous maximum-security prisons, is examined.