Lockup - Season 8 (2010)

A female housing unit inmates call a party house will turn a new inmates life upside down.

Located on the top floor of Maricopa County's Fourth Avenue Jail Facility, are the highest-security male housing units. These inmates have either committed violent acts in the jail or have been identified as gang members. And like all inmates at Maricopa, some are awaiting trial while others have been convicted and are appealing their verdicts or sentences. They are isolated in very stark cells 23 hours a day and get one hour of rec time in an empty concrete room with a skylight located right next door to their cells. Without the distraction of television, radio or a cellmate, even the most hardened criminals can break under the pressure. One gang member makes a desperate cry for help by putting a noose around his neck, then says, "I just need somebody to talk to." And on the other side of the jail, completely isolated from other inmates, Maricopa's four most dangerous women form a notorious sisterhood

Behind the bars of Maricopa County Jail in Phoenix, run by controversial figure in the immigration battle.

In one of Maricopa's primary men's facilities, the Fourth Avenue Jail, when inmates are not in their small, two-person cells, they can work out in an indoor rec room, or in the common area between their cells. But every afternoon, many of the inmates shift focus from their bodies to their bank accounts. Since inmates are not allowed access to cash, they have another way to pay gambling debts. The losers must purchase snacks or other items from the jail canteen for the winners. They pay for canteen through debit accounts that friends or relatives on the outside deposit money into. But a losing hand can bring serious consequences.

No matter the circumstances that brought them there, Maricopa County Jail in Phoenix, Arizona, will have a profound effect on who the inmates will become. And for some, their time in jail will reveal their true nature.

A world where tensions run high especially for a mother and son who were accused of a heinous murder.

Producers take the time to get to know dozens of inmates, following the action and watching the story unfold in from of their eyes.

Sometimes life has other plans, like when the ex leader of a gang faces a whole new reality he discovers the price for coming clean.

No escaping the consequences of one's actions behind bars.

Sometimes life has other plans, like when the ex-leader of a white supremacist gang faces a whole new reality, and discovers the price for coming clean.

Relationships on the inside can be more complicated than on the outside.

In prison time can be an inmates worst enemy.

America's Toughest Jail where we find stories that ranged from the unexpected to horrifying.

For some prison might be hell and it can be even worse for the sex offenders.