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tv   Lockup Pendleton  MSNBC  August 7, 2011 3:00am-4:00am PDT

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impulsive teens, who are often angry and violent. this is "lockup, pendleton juvenile: extended stay."
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on any given day, inside the razor-wire fences of pendleton juvenile correctional facility, anything can happen. during our six months inside, we learned some days can be more chaotic than most. >> shift supervisor, be advised similar 2100 at 249. >> they call a signal 2000 which is attempted escape. they decided he was going to run for it until the sergeant took off out of the unit. >> i think by 7:30 in the morning, we had a signal jam, which means an officer needs assistance and we had two signal
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2000s, which means escapes. >> go back to the cell. turn around, turn around. take your cuff off and put your hands on your head. take your shoes. stay like that until we exit the cell. >> it was a pretty half-hearted attempt. i think he gave them a little bit of a struggle. and then they brought him here and he acts relieved now that he is here. as a matter of fact i believe it is his second time trying to escape in the last two weeks, because he's having such a problem getting back admitted with the other offenders out in gp. >> i was just mad, so i wasn't trying to listen to the officers here. the officers, they be getting on my nerves, i guess i got fed up. i don't listen to them no more. >> did you have anger before you came here, before you got locked up? >> yeah, family problems.
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you know, me living on the streets. that gave me anger right there. >> i ain't going nowhere. >> yesterday, we had about eight slots that weren't full. and since last night, about 9:30, when we brought another young offender down here, the a went full tilt and we went from 17 to 24 and we are now full. it's just one of those days, when it rains, we don't have enough buckets. >> just two cell doors down from this teenaged flight risk is 18-year-old kenneth howell. >> trying to find some way of getting out. >> howell made his first move to scale the pendleton fences at the crack of down. >> i hit the fence last saturday, too. almost made it over that time. i'm not scared to get cut.
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it wouldn't have been my first time. i've cut myself before on the fence. i'm used to so much pain from early on in my childhood, it's just a small scratch to me. i could have a gouge from here in my arm down to here and i'm just going to look at it like, wow. >> as one of the largest max security juvenile prisons in the country, pendleton is responsible for educating and rehabilitating teenaged gang members, sex offenders and juveniles with mental health issues for the indiana department of correction. >> in our jurisdiction, in our state, the department of corrections really has become a solution to a very aggressive, difficult child to handle. truly those kids who are seen as public threats. >> i spent from age 10 to 12 in a state hospital for mental
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problems. and i end up getting locked up at age 13. from there i messed up by getting in a lot of fights at school while i was at placement. which got me terminated from there. threatened my case worker. they kicked me out for that and now i'm here for the past three years. >> the number one issue offenders approach me on, on daily basis has to do with place. s. it could just be because of their history of behavior. they've been in community placements before and they've been kicked out. very frustrating. >> they can't find a placement for you? >> all my mental history from the past. no placement will accept me now. >> finding placements for offenders isn't the only challenge pendleton staff
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members face. director mia black has to deal with a different set of issues in d complex. >> all the offenders in our intensive treatment unit are low functioning through education or behavior. a lot of these kids are so used to beating up someone or cussing out someone to prove a point. instead of just simply talking and discussing their issues. because they weren't raised to be that way. and i try to get them to be in their mindsets. >> most of the teens who arrive at pendleton bring a mindset of their own. 18-year-old edgar munoz has been locked up for ten months. today he finds out he won't be promoted to his next level. >> i'm in level 2 and i want to be in level one and did you know i was in level 4. >> i'll let you know who you need to talk to.
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>> yeah. >> what's wrong? >> they told me i'm level 1. >> don't worry. i'll talk to sawyer, see what he has so say and we'll go from there. so just stay in here. cool out for a little bit. >> okay. >> instead of running from their problems, they need to face them and address them. but they need to do it in an effective way. >> coming up on "lockup: pendleton juvenile," has this gang member really reformed? >> how do you do with your frustration when you leave here? >> ignore them and go to school. >> no. >> did it work last time? transfer! transfer! transfer! transfer! transfer!
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while some days inside
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pendleton juvenile can be endless drama for inmates and staff, today brings tension of a different kind. for 18-year-old offenders andrew huff and able viegas. review hearings to be determined if they'll be released from prison. >> arson, breaking and entering and resisting arrest and i got probation violation for threatening to kill three girls. >> i'm nervous, this determines that i'm going sent home or not. i got future plans to go to college and play football. i got my g.e.d., so hopefully i'll make it. >> it's an opportunity forred oh fender to come before a panel. to come before the parole board to convince us as a panel, as a board that he's changed, he made
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a difference and he deserves an opportunity for release. >> before getting locked up, able was a member of a gang known for aligning itself with the mexican mafia. >> it was kind of fun to me, because back in the day i loved violence, when i was little. >> i never had a father so that's probably where i didn't have enough discipline, so i love fighting and that's just me. >> gangs weren't a problem for andrew huff. anger was. >> it's like when you build up stress, it's like a bomb exploding. as soon as somebody gets you to a certain point, you just explode. and that, i fall down in tears and realize what you've done. >> we don't ever want to send anybody back into the community who we don't feel can be successful. that's the ultimate goal. sometimes we're successful and other times we just fail.
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>> andrew, are you ready? >> yeah. >> you're nervous? >> why don't you go ahead and talk to us why you're in prison. >> i'm here for arson, breaking and entering and theft and resisting arrest and probation violation. >> relax, okay? what we're doing here today is all about you. and you said that you have some anger issues. you know that boil up inside of you and that's what happened. that's what happened in the community. now that's why you set a fire. that's why you threatened those girls. you need to convince us that you've got a handle on that and that you understand what it is that boils up inside of you and causes you to want to be so angry that you might hurt somebody, okay? so look at us and think about it. and remember that we have confidence that you've got the
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answer. >> i let anger build up inside of me so much before i let it out that stress, plus lately i've been trying to go home. and i've been getting frustrated ever since. and i just keep looking at my, thinking about my family. my mom wants me home. my nieces and nephew needs me. i already got a brother that's locked up. i try to help him. and now i got a little sister who's aiming for it. i can't let them see that i'm the same person. i got to change. >> while andrew huff's marathon interview continues, able viegas watches from his holding cell just steps away. his turn is just around the corner. >> i want them to know that i need to go home. i need to take care of my
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family, my little brother and i want to go to college and play football. hopefully that will encourage them to set me on release. >> it's something that we all take quite seriously and we hope we've done everything we can to influence that particular juvenile in a positive direction so he can return back to the family, back to the community and make a positive difference. and that's essentially what everybody is here for. >> yeah, i do have one question. what changed in november? up until november, you got two, three, four conduct reports a month. every month, just like clockwork. what changed? >> the fact that i was tired of being here. that i had grown up and i said, it's time to go. i think in the way i did things, i would say that's what changed.
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i did a lot more thinking after i did all that and i came up with a solution. >> you probably came up with the right solution. now your problem is going to be, you have to think before you act. >> while the review committee considers andrew huff's release from pendleton prison, in the segregation unit, 18-year-old marcus branch is facing the possibility of spending several more years behind bars. >> probably end up going to court from here. and they say i could face six to 20 years in prison for what i did. >> what happened was, this staff member, he's kind of big and stuff like that, he always like talks like -- crazy to me. i forgot what he said. but basically i was like, you
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know, [ bleep ] your family. and he said, well [ bleep ] your family. i don't know, i always wanted to fight him. i got to, swinging on him and stuff and i thought he was going to swing back, but he didn't. so i just kept swinging on him. >> most of the offenders here are very loud. they put themselves out there and they try to act really, really rough and tough and try to sound it. he's really quiet and he can snap in a moment. >> he hit the ground and i was thinking about something in space and i was like, no, i'll show him mercy. so i just left him alone. >> we talk about that with the staff a lot. i call it a total awareness thing. that they have to constantly pay attention to everything that's going on at every given minute. you never know where those outbursts are going to come from. >> while marcus branch sits in seg, calculating his fate,
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across the compound, the future of able viegas lies in the hands of the review committee. >> i'm afraid of them saying no, but i don't know. i'm going to make it, i know i'm going to make it. >> are you ready? >> yes, sir. >> why are you here? >> violation of parole. i violated, i had a pistol while i was on parole. so i got possession of firearms. >> while you were out, how long when that happened? >> about a month. >> tog to me about your sgd ties? >> i was tagging stuff like my clothes and my shoes, shower shoes and a blue chair in gp. i had tagged it up, so i got wrote up for it, so they sent me over here. >> by tagging it up, do you mean you were destroying property by
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writing gang graffiti on it. >> gang are you affiliated with? >> g-13. >> how are you going to deal with that. >> just ignore them and go to school. >> did it work last time? >> last time i got out, i didn't have no further plans. i got out, got my g.e.d. i didn't have no future plans. now i do i got my g.e.d. here. i'm going to go to college, play football. >> what was your intent with the gun, why did you have it? >> protection. >> from? >> other gang members. >> let me ask you this. if i sent one of my sergeants to shake your room down right now and your release was dependant on whether or not there was sdg
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material in your room, are you leaving or not? >> coming up on lockup: pendleton juvenile -- >> you were just talking about your victim, you were smiling. why were you smiling? >> tension-filled hours for andrew huff and able viegas. and there's no guarantee either will go home. and later, we find out what happened to the officer. ever wonder what this costs u as a taxpayer? millions? tens of millions? hundreds of millions? not a single cent. the united states postal service doesn't run on your tax dollars. it's funded solely by stamps and postage. brought to you by the men and women of the american postal workers union. ♪ finally, there's aan choice for my patients. with an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation, or afib, that's not caused
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it takes a unique set of skills to work with the teen offenders inside pendleton juvenile. >> keys. >> "d" complex presents some of the prison's biggest challenges for program director mia black. >> is it frustrating? absolutely. is it rewarding? absolutely. i've had offenders that you want to shake and say snap out of it, grow up, you need to go home, and they just don't grasp it. i have had a lot of success stories.
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so although the rewards can be few and far between, when you see them, it gives you a purpose to be here. what's up you guys? >> it's up to mia to dissect the issues between edgar muniz's meltdown. he was transferred to "d" complex a month ago. since then, he's had trouble passing the five levels for release. earlier in the day, he was told he was back to level one. >> i'm on level one. >> don't cry. don't cry. don't cry. why are you crying? >> cause i talked to my mom and sawyer, he told my mom i was going to get out probably in four weeks. >> don't cry.
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don't cry. hold on. i'm going to make my best effort to get kids to trust me and believe that you are here for them. >> i haven't seen my mom for one year and two months. i write letters to my mom. i want to see my mom. >> they are so used to nobody caring. i want to show them that i care, i want to be there for you. here is what we are going to do. >> my family is in mexico. i got in america only my mom, my sister, and my grandpa and me. i was in level three. she told me i was going to make level four. i was being good. she told my mom i'm in level four. he don't really care about what he said. >> he cares. he cares. he cares because nobody knows
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you guys like mr. sawyer. he's here with you guys all day every day in those units. let me see what he has to say and we'll go from there. okay? stay in here, cool out for a little bit, but don't worry. all right. >> you're saying he's a level two and he's thinking -- >> he is now for sure. >> cool reports were good, unit reportsy good. what did you do, demote him or continue him? >> mia and the counselor find a solution for edgar. they compromise and place him on level three. back in his unit, he seems satisfied with the outcome. >> you have to believe that you are making a change. you may not see it today, you
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may not see it tomorrow, but somewhere along the line you have made a change or a difference in somebody's life. >> even when a teen is close to getting out of pendleton, there's rarely lack of drama inside the walls. 18-year-old andrew huff has been locked up 14 months. today, he is facing one of the biggest days of his life. his release interview. >> what's different with you, personally, that's going to keep you focused and keep you from getting angry when you are out of this environment? >> i learned to talk to people. once my anger comes up, i have to go to time out or walk away from that, talk to them in
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person or talk to somebody else. >> who have you hurt through all of this? >> my mother, my little sister. my nieces and nephews. >> that's it? was it an apartment that you burned down? >> the arson, yeah. >> what about the people impacted by that? coming up -- will andrew huff convince the review committee he's realized the error of his ways? and the pressure is on for abel villegas. >> are you remorseful for the things that you did? >> and -- >> they say you have a broken jaw and a broken eye socket. >> a conversation with the victim of marcus branch's attack. supervisor is genius...i transfer. transfer! transfer! transfer! transfer! transfer!
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here's what's happening now, 30 u.s. servicemen are dead after a helicopter crash in afghanistan. that includes 20 navy s.e.a.l.s.
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pentagon sources say it appears the helicopter was shot down. scotland yard now says one police officer is hospitalized, another seven received injuries in a riot in north london. protesters are angry over the police response to the deadly shooting of a father of four and set cars and a double-decker bus on fire. the area has a history of racial tension. and now, back to "lockup." >> inmates in pendleton juvenile correction facility participate in a five-step program of rehabilitation. then they have to prove to the committee they have ready to be released. today, the burden falls on andrew huff. >> was it an apartment you burned down? >> in the arson, yes. >> what about all the people that were impacted by that?
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>> it was an apartment. >> it was an abandoned building? what about the place that you burglarized? how do you think it made him feel for you to go in and burglarize his place of business? >> probably upset him. and probably made him mad. >> what about the three people you threatened to hurt? kill, was it? who were they? >> one was my ex, one was my brother's ex, and one was my cousin's ex. >> do you think they were impacted by that at all? >> i don't know. i know one of them was. >> how were they impacted? >> upset, scared, worried. >> how do you feel about that?
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>> i feel bad for what i done. but, i know i can't change it, so -- but, i think that it would help to apologize to them and make things right with them. make them not be scared of me no more. >> it's up to you to make a difference. you need to recognize the fact that you victimized people and the things you have done hurt people, and you need to make some reparations for that. okay? >> yes, sir. >> andrew, right now, i am very proud of you. do you know why? because you have been honest with us. because you have spoken from the heart, and because there's no doubt in my mind that you mean what you are saying right now. the real key for your future and
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those people you really care about is whether or not you can keep that honesty and sincerity right out in front of you as you walk out this door. >> before i got here, when i was locked up before, i made a plan before i was released that i was going to try to help others. i got locked up and realized i didn't do much of anything. i made things worse. that's what i want to continue to do when i go home. >> okay. at this time we'll ask for a vote of the committee on the recommendation of promotion of andrew to a release date. >> i agree. >> i support also. >> i do, too. >> i agree. >> i support it. >> congratulations, you're promoted to release. >> don't forget everything you learned. >> you're free now. >> thank you. i'm a little shocked.
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i know it could have gotten denied. i'm impressed. >> andrew huff is lucky. he's on his way home. but cell mate abel might not be so fortunate. >> good that he made it. he needs to go home. we all do. >> while andrew huff celebrates his victory, many at pendleton are still looking down a long road to release. >> get your hands back. listen to what i'm telling you. get your hands back. >> offender marcus branch may end up in adult prison for his violent attack on an officer. >> i always wanted to fight him. i got to like swinging on him and stuff. i thought he was going to swing back, but he didn't. so i kept on swinging on him. then, he hit the ground and i was thinking about his face,
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then i said no, i'll show him mercy. so, i left him alone. >> how did you feel after? >> i felt bad because he didn't swing back. so i kind of felt bad for beating him up, yeah. >> do you know what happened to him? >> they say he got a broken jaw and a broken eye socket. they say i could face 6 to 20 years in prison for what i did. i'm a little nervous to go to prison. but, like, if i have to do it, that's something i have to deal with. >> the reality is funny for him. i don't think he understands everything he does. he's one you really, really have to worry about. >> which led us to think about the officer branch attacked, the one branch said was a tough guy. as it turned out, marcus branch beat up a woman. >> i'm not sure exactly what all happened.
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it was time for dining hall. i informed the kids it's dime for dining hall. get your coats and shoes on. walked up to shut the tv off. one of the inmates blind-sided me, hit me in the face. next thing i know, i'm picking myself up off the floor about five feet away. >> the spontaneity of incidents like that, and they tend to come from nowhere. i think it goes back to the core of the person and they have no hope. they truly believe with the soul of every fiber of their being is that their future is to end up in an adult facility. >> the average length of stay is one year for teens inside the walls of pendleton juvenile correctional facility. abel has been here for ten months. today is his shot to convince the release committee he's ready to go home.
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>> we review their packet, and we know that they're essentially eligible to come to the release committee for review, but we don't ever talk about it in advance. you had how many counts of battery? >> four. >> what were the batteries about? >> racism. >> racism? tell me what that means. >> when i was going to school, when i just came up here, there were a bunch of kids calling me names, so back in the day, i would react to any stupid stuff. somebody call me a name, i would react and start fighting right away. >> that's how i mostly got all my batteries from, people calling me names. >> was any of that gang related? >> no, sir. >> talk to me about your victims. >> victims? they were rivalry gang members,
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so we don't get along with them for certain reasons. >> you just told me a few minutes ago that those were not gang related. >> what victims are you talking about? >> any. >> any? well come gang members and some were racist. >> probably the number one thing i'm looking for is sincerity, that they truly have reflected on what they have done and harm they cased to victims, to the community. >> when you were just talking about your victims, you were smiling. why were you smiling? >> cause, i don't know if i -- i didn't get the question. like victims? i didn't know what victims he was talking about. >> do you know what the word victim is? do you know what we're talking about? the people that you've hurt. okay?
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so, do you think about that? are you remorseful for the things you did? >> no. >> do you feel bad for what you did? >> no, because of what they were doing to me. they were hurting me, so i felt that i had to to hurt them, too. >> are you going to continue with your gang involvement once you leave the facility? >> no, ma'am. >> i don't believe that. i don't believe that you can walk out these doors and not have any more ties with your gang. i don't even believe that you don't want to have contact with your gang. >> let me ask you this, if i sent one of my sergeants to shake your room down right now and your release was dependent on whether there was stg material in your room, are you leaving or not? >> yes, sir. i had a folder that had stg material, but i marked it off with a marker.
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other than that i don't have -- >> they told you to do it? you didn't choose to do it? >> why don't you have a seat for me. >> abel will have to sweat out the decision of the review committee, waiting in a holding cell. coming up, on pendleton juvenile. >> why? what was going on in his head when he did it? >> judgment day for abel. >> i guarantee you he will walk out of this facility and the first thing he's going to do is go back to meet up with his gang buddies. whatever your what if is, the new sprint biz 360 has custom solutions to make it happen, including mobile payment processing, instant hot spots, and 4g devices like the motorola photon. so let's all keep asking the big what ifs. sprint business specialists can help you find the answers.
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it's been nearly half an hour since 18-year-old abel made his pitch to the review
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committee that he should be released from pendleton. >> the number one thing i'm looking for is sincerity. >> while staff debate if he's ready for life on the outside, his counselor weighs in before the final decision is made. >> i've talked to him quite extensively for the last couple days, he seemed fine to me. we talked about changing behavior because there will be a lot of temptation when he's released. >> i'm kind of mad because i don't think i'm going to make it because they said i'm not ready to go home. >> he's not remorseful. he doesn't understand that concept whatsoever. i don't believe for a second that he is done with the gang. i don't believe that for any -- with any fiber of my being. i guarantee, he will walk out of
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this facility and the first thing he's going to do is go back and meet up with his gang buddies, guaranteed. >> i was just being honest. every time i answered, i was just being honest. >> my biggest concern is the lack of remorse for victims. he refused to advance him anywhere until he makes headway in that regard. >> yeah. >> okay. at this point, we are going to send you back and get you to refocus on some other issues, primarily victim empathy, victim impact programming. i said it before and i'll say it again, i don't believe for a second you had any commitment to not being involved in your gang
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anymore. because of that, my decision is no, you're not going to be advanced at this point in time, and you've got some work to do. >> do you have any questions? >> okay? okay. >> i'll walk him back. >> he definitely has no concern whatsoever about any of his victims. it was clear, just through his interactions and talking with him there and making him discuss his gang related ties and things like that, he is a clear example of the type of juveniles and kids and offenders that we
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struggle with every day. >> i know you're upset. okay. we're going to help you. we'll bring in a mentor and work together and sit down, one-on-one, okay? we'll talk more when we get back okay? >> it's a chance we take, too. some kids are ready to go and, you know, we have to make that determination that they are ready or not ready. >> today? >> he wasn't ready. >> as abel looks at least another month behind bars, marcus branch wonders if beating up officer linda smock will get him waived to adult court. >> okay, i am a little nervous to go to prison, but, if i had
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to do it, then that's something i have to deal with. >> there was no indication it was coming. it was an explosion of violence that came from nowhere. it's typical with a juvenile facility. >> he just snapped. rumor had it he was mad at another kid, and i was in the way. he hit the side of my face. next thick i know, i'm on the floor. the kids pulled him off me. the staff got there to help lock everybody down. i went to the e.r. ended up with the white part of my right eye cut and my jaw was sprung. and he actually walked up to the sergeant when he walked in the unit and put his hands behind him and said, i did it. i don't know why i did it, but i did it. >> despite the aggressive outbursts common with juveniles, superintendent mike dempsey is still required to educate and rehabilitate all teens behind bars. pendleton, dempsey got rid of long term seg in favor of a
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short-term segregation policy. >> in some cases, you have to segregate an offender in the best interests of everybody else, to keep people safe and keep people from getting hurt. you have to find a balance between keeping people safe, yet also finding a way to offer treatment programs that will make a difference to turn that particular kid around. what are the options out there? what new ideas and creative programming can we come up with? you have to think outside the box and take risks, unfortunately. >> coming up, abel villegas struggles to come to grips with more time behind bars. >> it makes you miss your family a lot. you don't have that much freedom in here. you have people telling when you to eat, when to go to the restroom, when to sleep. it is not right. it is not nice. well i always worry about what's in the food
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abel villegas came face to face with superintendent mike dempsey and the pendleton release committee to prove he was ready to go home. >> you need to be truly committed to do away with those gang affiliations that you have. i don't believe that you're anywhere near that. >> unfortunately for him, though, they weren't convinced. >> when it comes to looking at harm you caused to others and your victims, it seriously concerns me. >> it's like parole board for juveniles, and so it's a high stakes process where the juvenile offender has to convince the board thatter ready to go back into society. that they've completed their program and that they've learned something that they can use when
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they leave. >> they have absolutely no empathy in regards to them that i can detect. even in the most minute trace, there isn't any. >> and as you saw, as we went through that, there were some concerns. >> back in his unit villegas contemplates another month at pendleton. >> it makes you miss your family a lot and you just -- you don't have that much freedom in here. you always -- you have people telling you when to eat, when to go to the rest room, when to sleep. just -- it's not right. it's not nice. >> across the compound in segregation, marcus branch's future lies in the hands of a county prosecutor. >> for the most part, all of them are good kids.
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they've got their problems but for the most part i think that they're all good kids. only thing i can say is watch who is behind you. >> on the day he snapped, branch was only two weeks away from being released. we tried to find out why he would risk everything when freedom was so close. >> like, i kind of blame it on the neighborhood i was raised in. i can't really blame it on my family. i have to say where i'm from, the neighborhood. >> so if somebody let you out of here, put you in a great neighborhood and big house, gave you a job, do you think that would keep you on the straight and narrow? if it was all handed to you tomorrow, could you stay on the straight and narrow? >> it would be hard because i'm just so used to doing the same things i did. come back here and, like, i don't know. it would be hard. i don't think i could.
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>> it's been four weeks since abel got the bad news he wasn't being released from pendleton. since then he's been spending time in his cell pod working with a mentor and getting one-on-one counseling. >> i was born on my grandma's birthday. so i'm grandma's boy. so i've lived with her most of my life. i'll go back out, help her out. just do good. stop giving her problems and stuff. >> the hard work has paid off. later today he'll finally see freedom and be released to his grandparents. >> for every juvenile delinquent that you see in the newspapers who's done some horrendous thing, there are ten more who
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learn from the system and went back out to be good adults as they grow up. we see those stories and it warms your heart and you can't not want to do this because you know that you've had something know that you've had something to play in that.

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