We need help, help for the overcrowding, help for sedentary purposes.

We need to release some of these people.

That's a message from a prison inmate in Alabama.

CNN obtained this video which was taken inside one of Alabama's state prisons, and it

shows just how dangerous and potentially life-threatening conditions are in the facilities.

Across the country, prisons and jails have become hotbeds for coronavirus, and prisoners are

fearing for their lives.

Today, we go inside America's prison system and witness how those who are living and

working there are battling the disease.

We also talked to criminal reform experts about why convicted criminals are just as important

to protect as those outside the prison walls.

I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, and this is coronavirus, fact,

versus fiction.

The safety measures that they are taking are very low.

Some promotional staff members don't even wear protective face masks at all times or gloves

and still coming into contact with inmates.

This is Elijah McDowell, who's incarcerated at Willard's Ibozky Correctional Institute,

a level two security prison in Connecticut.

This is how he describes the conditions there.

I'm in a dormitory.

We're around each other 24-7.

I'm housed in a six-man cubicle.

...