but when it comes to contraband, we could have been in any u.s. prison. translator: the biggest problem we re dealing with are drugs and inmates bringing in cell phones. translator: we are about to witness a routine search of detention cells. two teams of security officers are conducting a search. one is directly involved in searching the cells and the items found in the cells while the other team, the so-called intervention team, provides backup. officers quickly discover what appears to be a pair of shanks, a cause for alarm in american prisons, but apparently not a big concern here. could it be used as a weapon against somebody? translator: while such incidents are rare, it does not mean it could not happen. many of them use it to cut things, such as food. a lot of these guys have food that are brought in to them by their visitors. they use it to cut up their vegetables and the meats they have. so it wasn t a big deal.
translator: it s not a privilege. it s their right. the right of every prisoner who has a spouse. translator: well, i feel good about it. but i also have cold feet. it s hard to explain. i sometime wonder if she even wants to see me again. i mean, i don t know. it s hard to put into words, but i m happy about it. finally, vladimir and alexandra are reunited. though zabela was like no prison we ve ever seen, the warden claims the unusual atmosphere here is effective. translator: it was a conscious decision. the area you ve seen didn t exist before. we renovated it. as for the park, the sports facility, we built all that to make the serving of sentences here easier. i must say that we haven t had any major problems so far. there is only sporadic violence but no large-scale problems. no large-scale violence.
on one busy downtown street is a flashpoint of warsaw s volatile past, mokotow prison. been to over 20 american prisons. they re usually located in remote areas far from cities for security reasons. so we re on these busy warsaw streets and we turn and these massive blue doors open up and we enter into this facility. and when we were inside and i was standing on prison grounds, i would look up and see apartment buildings surrounding us, businesses. the prison was built in 1904. it used to be called the place of no return. between world war ii and the fall of communism in 1989, it housed a countless number. of freedom fighters, many of whom were tortured and killed in mass executions.
rehabilitative programs. more than we have ever encountered at any prison ever profiled on lockup. translator: we have a family school right inside the prison. they learn the basics of home making, how to cook, there is gardening, exercise, music programs. but arguably the most innovative program of all is the establishment of a mother/child living unit. this special unit allows inmates with clean behavior records to live full-time with their babies between 1 and 3 years old. it holds up to 15 mothers and 20 children and is the only one of its kind in the czech republic. translator: i have a daughter here, because i have no one on the outside to take care of her. i think the best thing for vanessa is to be with her mommy. nella is serving two years for armed robbery and related drug offenses. she was pregnant at the time of her conviction.