For two weeks, Theroux visits the San Quentin State Prison and talks with the guards and the inmates. The guards escort him, tell him what their job is all about and how the prison is subdivided while the inmates tell him there's a segregation of races that can't be undone. Theroux talks to David Silva, who's serving 521 years and 11 life sentences and to two gay couples. He also visits a group of inmates who are kept apart from the other inmates for their own safety.