$6250 for each of his 28 years behind bars. from 2016 to 2020, 374 people wrongfully convicted of murder, 61% african-americans, have reunited with their families together they spent over 6000 years in prison. years. years they will never get back. that's all for this edition of dateline. i am craig melvin. thank you for watching. i am craig melvin and this is dateline. leading up to this assign what it was going to be like. >> i had so many thoughts leading to this assignment as

to what it would be like. trying to imagine going down isoad, knowing it's a one- way trip. this moment where you get your last glimpse of the world around you, but that glimpse is through steelman mesh. >> louisiana highway 66. it's beautiful countryside and undoubtedly not lost on the countless men driven to the place where they will most likely die. that road ends here. the louisiana state penitentiary, a former plantation. the size of manhattan. 28 square miles. most people call it angola named after the african country that was home to the slaves who once worked these very fields. now, angola is the largest

maximum-security prison in the country where today, i will be housed with about 5500 men. i am heading into ground zero of mass incarceration. there is a heightened awareness as i walked through here with no guards. for the next couple of days, i will be staying here, exploring key issues of the person reform debate. juveniles sentenced to life without parole. >> we were children when we got incarcerated. >> the lasting effect of the war on drugs. the power of rehabilitation. >> your life is worthwhile. >> the demand by many for punishment. >> i think he's where he needs to be. >> i will stay in a cell to better understand the purpose

and experience of prison all from the inside. >> hello and welcome to dateline. we have all heard the saying, lock him up and throw away the key. critics say that has been our country's approach for crime for two we long. they question whether mass incarceration is keeping a safer and what lengthy prison terms mean for many of the more than 2 million americans behind bars. lester holt spent three days in one of the nation mesquite toughest penitentiary and this is what he witnessed. here is his special report. life inside. >> life it angola prison is not what you might imagine. the vast majority live like

this. more than 80 men and open dorms, sleeping on bunkbeds. i will be staying in a unit next to death row for high risk offenders are in my case, a high-profile guest. >> we will go down here. >> my home will be on a tier called ccr a closed cell restriction. the men here are locked in their cells 23 hours a day. i am given sheets, slippers, and toiletries and shown to my cell. >> cell 11. go in here, please. go ahead and close. >> naturally, phones are not allowed. all i have is my journal, a pen, a novel, my watch, and am/fm radio. i have cameras around me installed by our crew to record my experience and my thoughts. as journalists, we note to get to the heart of something have

to get inside it. the closer you are to something, the more is revealed to you. i soon meet my neighbor, william curtis who is serving a life sentence for second-degree murder. he tells me he is locked in ccr because he has tried to escape multiple times. how far did you get? >> not very. >> he's only allowed out one hour a day. do you go out? >> not very often. the last time was probably four years ago. >> you haven't seen the sun in four years? i just want to get through the night. take care of yourself. we will be here a couple of days. i quickly learned the falling asleep in prison is challenging. the toilets flush loudly and often. cell to cell chatter that lasts well into the night.

my bed is attached to the wall to curtis is so when he moves around, i feel it. the bed is not much for comfort. it's kind of a plastic mattress, but it did the trick. i slept okay. breakfast arrives at 5:30 a.m., delivered by a prisoner. in case you are wondering, it's scrambled eggs, grits and biscuits to the sound of a flushing toilet. no country on earth locks up more of its citizens than the united states. while we make less than 5% of the world's population, we lock up more than 20% of the world's prisoners. politicians, academics, and activists say mass incarceration is an american crisis. >> we've gone from $6 billion in spending to $80 billion

today. >> a civil rights lawyer brian stevenson is one of the nation's leading prison reform advocates. >> we have hundreds of thousands of people in prison who are not a threat. >> is it about safety or punishment? >> we created a culture that makes it entirely about punishment. >> you might be surprised to us thanks mass incarceration is a problem. the people who run louisiana's prison system. >> nationwide, we lock up people too long and too many of them. >> smith is the director of operations for louisiana's department of corrections. >> it's not working and not giving the results it wants. it's costing a lot of money. we key people that their time of danger is over. >> he says it's time for americans to rethink the purpose of prison from simply punishment to rehabilitation.

you say it's about rehabilitation but a lot of americans think it is about punishment. this should be hell. >> they've done awful things. we can make somebody worse. >> plenty of the incarcerated to believe it is just about punishment. >> another day in the field. watch it make soap scum here... disappear... and sprays can leave grime like that ultra foamy melts it on contact. magic. new ultra foamy magic eraser. (rebecca) it wasn't until after they had done the surgery to remove all the toes that it really hit me. you see the commercials. you never put yourself in that person's shoes

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lester holt: much of angola prison is farmland.

thousands of cattle are raised here to be sold on the open market, and a variety of crops much of angola prison is farmland. thousands of cattle are raised here to be sold on the open market. a variety of crops are grown here as well. all of it happening with inmate labor. one of the many hot button issues and mass incarceration debate. i am on my way to the fields riding on this truck. many of the men are convicted killers including the ones sitting on either side of me. jovan t sanders beat a woman to death and stole her car. what is your sentence? >> life. without parole. >> terry mays shot a man in the neck during a drug deal. you've been here how many years? >> 30. >> like prisons everywhere in america, most inmates get paid

pennies per hour. how much do you get paid? >> two cents an hour. >> this job is not one of the more desired once? >> it is the bottom of the barrel. nobody want to be in the field. >> angola is not like any other maximum-security prison i've ever been to. all of this is angola. a series of prisons. they call them camps. you are from camp d? >> yes, sir. today to >> today we are picking carrots. should i be worried about my safety? >> well, if use an inmate, most definitely. >> a majority of the inmates are people of color. in fact, black men in america are six times as likely to be incarcerated as white men.

i certainly cannot escape the optics. look around, mostly black men working on a former slave plantation under the watch of armed guards on horseback. it is unsettling to many. i know it's a sensitive subject and it troubled me a little bit. it made me uncomfortable talking to the guys. most of them look like me. african american. the history of this land as a slave plantation. do you see that as an issue? >> i can see how someone would have an issue with the. every land in louisiana was a slave plantation. growing vegetables, it's something given back to the prison itself. >> smith said the crops provide the inmate population fresh food but he says it saves taxpayers money. it costs $1.70 a day to feed each offender. this will be the life for many of these men for decades to

come. some have left young children behind who are among the 5 million kids in america who have had a parent in prison. jovan t has two of them. >> you know the way it works. you are in prison, your dad in prison, your kids and children. are you afraid for your children? >> i definitely am. my father got murdered when i was three years old. i never knew him. >> it is hard to imagine knowing you will spend the rest of your life here. especially if you are convicted as a teenager. advocates like brian stevenson say juvenile offenders should never be treated the same as an adult. >> we put thousands of kids and adult jails and start prosecuting the kids and states with no minimum age being tried as an adult. we should never put children

and adult jails. >> what about one commit violent crimes like murder? >> we were children and we got incarcerated. >> i'm sitting in on a support room -- support group. they committed crimes before adults and given sentences of life without the possibility of parole. they are called juvenile lifers. >> i was 16. >> i was 17. >> i committed my crime at the age of 16. >> 2000 juvenile lifers like them and presented a. i was different at 17 then i am at 60 now. at 17, i knew right from wrong. how do you reconcile that? >> you have to be accountable. there's no excuse for what i did or what any of us done. >> they tell me they are no longer the boys they once were and are no longer a threat to society. how do i know they are not

conning me? >> when we got the opportunity to show we are different, people could see. >> in the past few years, they have gotten new hope to make their case for a second chance. what gives you hope? >> right there. that's our man right there. state of louisiana. >> montgomery versus state of louisiana is a landmark supreme court ruling named after the oldest and longest serving member of this group. henry montgomery who is 72 years old when i met him. you were 17 years old when your sentence. do you remember what it was like to be 17? >> yeah. young and stupid. >> montgomery was indicted for murder in november 1963. the same month jfk was assassinated. he has been at angola for 55 years. >> i am behind 55 years. technology, i am 150 years

behind. >> in 2012, the u.s. supreme court ruled mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles are unconstitutional, pointing to science that says it's clear that adolescent brains are not yet fully mature. that ruling did not apply to people like henry montgomery who had already been sent away as a juvenile. that is why montgomery took his case to the supreme court and in 2016, he won. now, all juvenile lifers, no matter how long ago they were locked up can make a case that they deserve parole. mostly older guys over here? this 70-year-old clifford is one of them. i went to see him in the dorm where he lives. >> this is my bed right here. >> he has been locked up 61 years. since you have been here we have landed a man on the moon. think about that.

>> there have been a lot of changes. >> six decades in prison have changed him and thanks to the man sitting next to him, hampton, he will have a chance at freedom. why do you think you deserve parole? >> i would not say i deserve parole. i would not use that word deserve because i took someone 's life. i could say that i have earned parole. >> and faked, hampton and montgomery will see the parole board the same day and i will be there. how are you feeling? u feeling?

lester holt (voiceover): one of the things that struck me while walking around angola was how many men i met who seemed to be focused one of the things that struck onme while walking aroun angola was how many men i met who seemed to be focused on changing their lives. one of them is dalton. >> i knew i had to do something different than just do time and die in prison. >> since coming to angola in 2004, he says he has turned his life around by taking advantage of the person's programs. >> i graduated with a ba, 3.91 average. >> he earned a masters degree from a bible college. he became an ordained minister.

a couple of times a week, gospel raps his former preaching to the population. >> ♪ >> it is hard to square the man sitting across with me with the horrible crime he committed. your actions caused the death of a baby. >> yeah. >> when he was 21, he was watching a stepson. the child was inconsolable. he shook the baby so violently he died. now he is serving a 60 year sentence for manslaughter. how do you move past that? how do you become a different person? >> at first, i didn't know what i was going to do. it was sickening to my heart that i would have done something like that. >> prejean said he was filled with anger which had its roots in his childhood. this is a picture of prejean and his father shortly before

he was executed in the electric chair in 1990 in this very prison for killing a louisiana state trooper. >> kids watch television and they are like, your daddy is about to be fried chicken. by me have been the same name, people would call my name, i would put my head down because i was ashamed of what i believed that name had meant. >> over the years, he said programs at angola helped change him. opportunities that were not available when his father was here and still not available at most prisons across the country. >> there is a movement to try to provide the rehabilitation that was abandoned. people locked up with nothing to do and we know education is transformative. >> education and programs have proven to reduce violence inside prison. angola was once known as the bloodiest prison in america.

things began to change in the 1990s when the prison began to focus on more than simply locking up people and feeding them. now, in addition to his popular annual inmate rodeo, there are a variety of programs. these men are training service dogs for veterans. there's even a radio station run by incarcerated men. >> the station that kicks behind the bricks. >> we give them more freedom depending on your behavior. we have a lot of programs led by other guys serving life sentences. it gives them purpose. >> it looks like an auto shop. i talked with john, a master mechanic at the prison's auto shop. >> i did not know how to change a spark plug before he came to prison. >> he has been incarcerated here since 1988 for killing his

wife with a shotgun. even though he was sentenced to life without parole, he mentors nonviolent offenders and a reentry program. >> when you can come in here and change his life and go back out and stay out, you know you done something. your life is worthwhile. >> many graduates of the program work in a car dealership outside of new orleans. it turns out his life has been changed as well. 2022, louisiana governor john bell edwards commuted his sentence, making them eligible for parole. he was released in february 2023 after nearly 35 years in prison. but there are other offenders at angola who might never get a second chance. this man, sentenced to more than a lifetime. >> 150 years. >> you will hear his dramatic story, next. story, next. and it was the worst day.

mom was crying. i was sad. colton: i was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma. brett: once we got the first initial hit, it was just straight tears, sickness in your stomach, just don't want to get up out of bed. joe: there's always that saying, well, you've got to look on the bright side of things. tell me what the bright side of childhood cancer is. lakesha: it's a long road. it's hard. but saint jude has gotten us through it. narrator: saint jude children's research hospital works day after day to find cures and save the lives of children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. thanks to generous donors like you, families never receive a bill from saint jude for treatment, travel, housing, or food, so they can focus on helping their child live. ashley: without all of those donations,

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former president trump is set to virtually meet with a probation officer later today. becomes a little over week after his conviction on 34 felony counts in his hush money trial. the sentencing is set for july 11. police in madison, wisconsin, are investigating after a early morning shooting that left 10 injured. none of the injuries are considered life-threatening and no suspect or motive has been identified. i'm craig melvin. does the punishment fit the crime? welcome back to dateline. i am craig melvin. does the punishment fit the crime? it is a question at the heart of the prisoner debate especially when it comes to drug-related offenses. for the man you are about to make, parole board answer could mean the difference between a second chance at life or growing old and dying behind

bars. back to lester holt with life inside. >> and my three days at angola, most of the men i spoke with had committed violent crimes and received long sentences. life without parole. >> yeah. >> like every person, there are nonviolent offenders serving laws sentences that might as well be life. john is one of them. >> i grew up in a middle-class neighborhood. >> he's a war vet that said he was lost and broken when he came home. >> i had no direction in life. >> in 2000, he was found guilty of running a massive drug ring that moved kilos of cocaine between texas and louisiana. it was his second drug conviction. >> my sentence was 150 years. >> that's right. 150 years and he is served 20 so far as.

's case is a prime example of harsh sentencing laws for drug dealers and users the legacy of the government's decades long war on drugs. more than 450,000 people in america are locked up for a drug offense. brian said criminalizing drug addiction is misguided. >> we said this people are criminals and we did not have to say that. we could of said drug addiction is a health problem. >> is that why jails are so full? >> absolutely. this misguided war on drugs is at the top of the list. >> things have been changing. the first step act which was signed into law by former president trump in 2018 had been projected to reduce the sentences of thousands of nonviolent offenders in federal prisons. that does not affect more than 90% of the u.s. prison population which is locked up in state and local facilities.

some states had already been relaxing sentencing guidelines like in louisiana which started in 2001. epstein was sentenced under the older and harsher laws so he sued the state and one co-which earned him a date with the parole board. now, he is just hours away. >> i am not a troublemaker. it's about debilitation. i'm a little nervous. >> thinking about things. trying to get my mind that the possibility of me being released. >> you are making a way for all of us here. be blessed. >> his 31-year-old son, a law school graduate, came to surprise him. a three-member panel must vote unanimously to grant parole.

our cameras were not allowed inside the parole hearing room. about an hour later, his family walked out first. >> he made it. >> i made it. i made it. >> we were there for his first steps as a free man in 20 years. >> oh, have mercy. [ crying ] >> two other people are eager to follow him out that gate. henry montgomery and clay after -- clifford hampton who served a combined 116 years are about to face the parole board themselves. do you think you should be paroled? >> i should be.

i'm 55 years older. i am mature enough to know i ain't going to do that again. >> that might not matter. this is his second parole hearing. he was denied a year before and it seems clear to many why armory is still in prison. you killed a cop. >> yeah. >> the man he murder was deputy sheriff charles from east baton rouge. in november 1963, montgomery then 17 years old was playing hooky when the deputy and plainclothes approached him. montgomery said as a black teenager living in the segregated south, he was startled and scared and was carrying a gun and he shot him. >> i had the gun in my hand and i shot him. i did it and i am sorry.

>> they say it doesn't matter how montgomery feels. what does matter is he stays behind bars. >> attack on a police officer's attack on the very fabric of society. >> he is the victim in grandson and today he is a police officer himself. >> there is no parole for charles. his life sentences permanent. my mom, my aunt, my uncle, our belief in the system is its equal justice. >> the family of clifford's victim did not want to speak to us on camera but they told us they do not think he should get out either. in 1958, when he was 17, he got in an argument with his 18-year- old neighbor. he flew into a rage and brutally stabbed her to death. >> i realize what i had did, i

walked to the home of the deputy sheriff and turned myself in ski. >> he has another hurdle to overcome. in 1961, at age 20, he killed another inmate. he told me it was self-defense. >> angola was like a jungle. that's what you had to do. kill or go under. >> hampton and montgomery will soon find out if they will be granted parole, but if they are tonight, they could eventually end up where i am heading next. the hospice word. when i want to feel my most powerful, it starts with venus. with five ultra-sharp blades and water-activated serums for incredible glide. i feel the difference with every stroke. feel the power of smooth. (ethan) i smoked and have had multiple strokes. now, it's hard for me to remember things. my tip is, if you need to remember something,

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lester holt: like every maximum security prison, angola can be a dangerous place. let every maximum-security prison, angola can be a dangerous place. on this morning, knife is found and when that happens, this is the response. a shakedown. >> this appears to be crushed and medication. >> we've seen a couple shakedowns, what do you find? >> weapons, drugs. >> they along with assistant warden said being a corrections officer is among the toughest jobs in the world. you've had things that have raised anxiety. >> absolutely.

>> i'm 34 and on anxiety medicine. >> studies have shown corrections officers have a higher suicide rate than the general population. can you give me some specific anecdotes of things that have happened to you? >> i had human waste thrown at me. what can you do? he already has life. >> the institution is understaffed and the officers say they are underpaid. >> we start people off at $14 an hour. people in the free world can go to home depot and make the same amount of money and not get feces thrown at them. >> poor behavior is often the result of hopeless men. the assistant warden said one of the things that is help to something i was surprised to learn that the majority of the officers here are women. >> there is value in the female

officers. we can sometimes talk an offender down a lot quicker. just because we have a calming ability. >> something else i did not expect to hear. they believe that life without parole sentences makes person less safer everyone. >> if a man has life he has nothing to lose. he knows there's no chance of going home. >> i heard the same from many who work your. tonya works in the hospice unit. >> i would love to see these guys get a second chance. i worry about backlash i would get from that. i know the outside public perception is they are supposed to be here. >> was there a period in your life you would've been on the other side? >> absolutely. my mother worked here as a security guard and i said how can you work with those people? when you get here and you hear

some of the stories, no one is the same person from when they were younger to now. >> decades in prison would change anyone. there is an aging crisis in american prisons. more than 130,000 inmates older than 55 are incarcerated today. that is costing taxpayers more than $9 billion a year. experts say the aging and dying are the most expensive people to keep incarcerated and yet they pose the lowest risk to society. this is what a life sentence looks like when life is running out. dying prisoners being cared for in hospice by other incarcerated men. 63-year-old frank has been in prison for 45 years. when he was 19, he and his younger brother robbed a store, crime that ended with the

murder of the owner. now, dying of cancer, he has asked for a compassionate release. the vast majority of petitioners for compassionate release are denied and so was frank. how are you feeling? lester holt. >> oh, yeah. we are going to have a nice conversation. >> do you think you should go home? >> can you give me -- >> a candy? >> it helps my throat. >> there you go. all right. i will let you rest.

>> he is a human being. i am not here to judge him. but, i don't know how you don't have compassion. a few weeks later, i learned that frank died in his hospice bed alone. back in my cell, i had a lot of time to reflect about everything i have seen. i wrestle with the question of his prison punishment? if it's punishment, it's pretty bad. is it a place of reform? you can see efforts to reform here. i cannot help thinking as we are talking to men incarcerated when they were teenagers, and i think of myself at 16, 17 years

old, it's very complicated. and now, the two man i met who committed murders as teenagers, henry montgomery, and clifford hampton are about to find out if they will finally get parole and walked back out into the world. world. mommy, what do you love to do? (chuckling) i love to be your mom. ( ♪♪ ) hey, what's your name? lukie! this is luke, and he has cerebral palsy. are we going to pt? yes, we are. luke's mom: without easterseals, my luke would be a very different luke. i'm gonna say hi. okay! let's say hi. hi! he wouldn't have got the help that he desperately needed. easterseals offers important disability and community services that can change a life forever. and your monthly support is critical for these kids' future.

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her uncle's unhappy. please join easterseals i'm sensing an underlying issue. it's t-mobile. it started when we tried to get him under a new plan. but they they unexpectedly unraveled their “price lock” guarantee. which has made him, a bit... unruly. you called yourself the “un-carrier”. you sing about “price lock” on those commercials. “the price lock, the price lock...” so, if you could change the price, change the name! it's not a lock, i know a lock. so how can we undo the damage? we could all unsubscribe and switch to xfinity. their connection is unreal. and we could all un-experience this whole session. okay, that's uncalled for. lester holt: if there is one state that defines mass incarceration, it's louisiana,

known for decades as the prison capital of the world. if there is one state that defines his incarceration, it's louisiana. known for decades as the prison capitol of the world. 2019, the state's governor john bell edwards said tough on crime approach had not been working. let's talk about mass incarceration. i suppose there was a time it was a good thing. >> i don't know it was ever a good thing but we know now it was counterproductive. we had the highest incarceration rate in the nation for the last couple of decades but our crime rate was not better for it and recidivism was not better. we were not safer. it was costing a $700 million a year just in louisiana. that's third only to education and health care so we could not afford it. >> in 2017, edwards, democrat in the deep south signed bipartisan criminal justice

reform legislation. the most ambitious in the state's history. you reduced your prison population. >> we have but we are number 2 at prison. it's a process. >> to see this happen in a deep red state. law and order south is pretty stunning. >> it's counterintuitive that you can over incarcerate and be less safe because of it. >> the reforms are projected to reduce department of corrections spending by more than $260 million over the next decade. some of the money will be invested in reentry programs for those coming home. an important investment because every week an average of 12,000 permanent prisoners in america release back to society. >> 95% of inmates will get out. when you do next to nothing for successful reentry, you are creating a future that is more riddled with crime. >> louisiana's reforms focus on

nonviolent offenders. what about violent offenders like the juvenile lifer group i are the men dying in hospice. we met people in that person who do not pose a threat to society, but in your opinion, do some people belong in person because what they did was reprehensible? >> because what they did was reprehensible and there continues to be opposition among the victim's family. whether someone continues to pose a threat to society is a factor to be considered and whether they get released. it cannot be the determinant factor to the -- of all others. >> henry montgomery and clifford hampton face opposition from the victim's families. what will happen to them when they see the parole board? montgomery is about to find out. someone has come to support him.

his name is andrew. he might look like a lawyer but he is actually the first juvenile lifer to be released because of montgomery's supreme court case. >> all right. today is the day. >> he served 19 years in prison. at age 15, he was out with a teenage girl when i got into an argument. he became enraged and peter over the head with a metal rod and try to get rid of her body by burning it. you committed a pretty savage crime. >> it was a horrible crime and on excusable there's nothing i can do to undo it. they were able to see how i had changed. >> the parole board said he changed after 19 years, what will it say about henry montgomery after 55 years? you are the first guy who got out and he is still here. >> there is a lot of guilt.

i went to prison when i was 15, a white kid, and got out when i was 34. henry went to prison, a black kid at 17 and he is still here after 55 years. >> big day. >> the panel must vote unanimously to free him. they were behind closed doors for more than an hour. this is the audio from that hearing. >> my vote is to grant parole. >> my vote is to grant. >> two yes for his release. then came the third and final vote. >> for me, unfortunately, mr. montgomery i'm going to have to deny your parole. i have a problem -- i think you need more programs. today your parole has been denied. >> i caught up with montgomery after he heard the news. he told me he had already packed his bag.

you were getting ready in case. in case they said you could go home. >> yeah. >> you were holding together. >> i got life. i will keep my mind on trying to get out. you have to keep hope alive. >> clifford hampton's hope remains alive. he is about to face the parole board himself. i am realizing he has been in prison longer than i have been alive. i can't wrap my head around that. it was a unanimous vote. parole granted. i was there moments after a surprisingly subdued hampton learned the news. a new adventure begins. >> yeah. >> life on the outside. can you imagine what that might be like? >> excitement. >> a few days later, he walked free for the first time in 61 years. >> we will drop your stuff off

at your apartment. >> andrew is here to help him because in 2016, he started a nonprofit called the parole project. by 2020, it had helped more than 40 juvenile lifer's reenter society. his first taste of the outside world, a fast food hamburger with everything on it. >> first apartment. >> his temporary apartment painted with bright colors to remind him he is no longer in prison. >> i am seeing so much that's new to me. i am excited about it all. >> 2.5 years later, he had the honor of assisting another juvenile lifer in his first moments as a free man. in november 2021, 75-year-old henry montgomery, the man who

paved the way to freedom for andrew and hundreds of others was granted parole after serving nearly 58 years behind bars. >> in all honesty, henry should've been the first one of us to come home. however, he is home today. >> you are going to do great. >> montgomery and clifford hampton left behind thousands of others who will never go home. they are today's filled with only yesterday's. something my neighbor curtis know all too well. >> this is my son he was killed in a motorcycle crash. >> in my short time here, i learned a lot about the human ability to cope.

to accept. to survive. good night. as i wrote in the journal i kept, it's too easy to look away from prison and prisoners. dignity is earned. hope is essential. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. >> that is all for this edition of dateline. i am craig melvin. thank you for watching.