Yo, welcome to episode number 47 of In A Minute with Evan Lovett, brought to you by the good folks at Serridos Auto Square and we are live here in the I am studios Who is Mike Knox? Mike was a correctional officer at the only Supermax prison in Los Angeles County, California State Prison in Lancaster.

And to tell you the truth, I didn't realize we had a super max here in LA, and he discusses the prison's place in the Los Angeles community, which I find really fascinating.

But the personal stories Mike shares about how he balanced life on the inside and outside for five years are eye opening.

Five years takes thick skin and a steely resolve and Mike conveys both of those traits in this interview.

He shares firsthand experiences about life on the inside,

relationships with inmates and colleagues,

and what made him get into this vocation in the first place?

And as always, stay tuned for your one thing to do in LA this week.

I'm sending you to jail. But this is a jail with some serious LA history, including

Al Capone. Except in this jail, you're not going to get locked up.

All right y'all let's get into it. Now Mr Mike Knox, I want to thank you for being here and I want to get straight to the crux of the show and talk about the fact that LA has a prison on par with San Quentin, Pelican Bay, some of the more notorious prisons in the world.

But first I got to give a little bit of background.

It's LA County Prison of California.

Is that correct?

Is that what it's called Mike?

What's the technical name?

It would Lancaster State Prison.

Lancaster State Prison. Lancaster State Prison.

So there you go.

And it opened in 1993.

Prior to that, LA County did not have any State Prisons, but accounted for 40% of California state prison inmates.

It was a huge deal to build as it would be in many neighborhoods and the community fought the construction,

...