this is the last stop in indiana. we spent months inside where the staff is determined to

rehabilitate this is lockup, pendleton juvenile, extended stay. >> pendleton juvenile correctional facility, one of america's largest maximum security juvenile prison. here, teens serve their time behind razor wire while after attempt to rehabilitate and educate over 300 male offendersç >> kkk! black panther! >> some are harder than others. unlike adult prisons staff here must deal with impulsive teen behavior that can escalate without warning. during our six months of shooting inside pendleton, we witnessed all this and more. >> these youngsters here when they simply get angry and go

from 0 to 60 in a second, they simply react and then they think about the consequences and how they're going to get out of it. >> lieutenant gary burke supervises the segregation unit at pendleton. when an inmate acts out in general population, he's moved to seg for the safety of offenders and staff. most kids who come here are still a long way from rehabilitation and their defiance can cause added pressure for officers. >> the challenge is bring your "a" game when you come to work. bring your "a" game. >> brown, come on up. >> they look for the immediate satisfaction of lashing out and then suffer the consequences later, but they never think about that until afterwards, of course. i have to tell them all of the time, this is fast.

just sit on your hands, keep your mouth quiet, keep your mouth shut and let it pass. and sometimes it gets through to them, sometimes it doesn't. >> [ bleep ]. >> i don't want the whole situation to escalate. it doesn't have to. no, it does not. >> there ain't no other choice. >> after three years behind bars, this troubled teen has ç landed in seg more than once. his appetite for mayhem and attention is a continuous struggle for staff, but now the situation is much more serious. >> he was you know going through steps and tying some things up like he was going to hang himself. >> superintendent mike dempsey is in charge of keeping staff safe while rehabilitating and educating even the toughest teen offenders. >> juveniles are much more challenging and much more frustrating on a daily basis. >> when i walk away, that's it. so are you choosing for me to

walk away? okay. >> they have a thought or an emotion and they will act on it immediately. and most times you can't, you don't ever see it coming. >> after he refused to come to the door and cuff up so we could get him out, we had to gather together an extraction team to get into his room so he wouldn't hurt himself. >> are you ready to cuff up? no. >> this generation of juveniles, they're a lot more reckless. they're probably ten times more reckless than an adult offender. they explode. they have their aggression moments.

there's fighting and then it'ss over. and then they'll even apologize. all within a three-minute period. >> while cell extractions at pendleton are rare, the procedure is used in extreme circumstances to guarantee the safety of offenders and staff. >> everybody's in good shape. nobody's hurt? >> after he calms down, the teen has time to reflect on what sparked his rage. >> sometimes i get stressed out and i act out and get real mad and i tell the officers that i'm about to get mad and then i will start acting up. i've been cell extracted a lot of times and it was just another time for me. the gentleman was rushing too fast. i couldn't really tell what was going on. i just get myself hyped up, get my adrenaline rushing so i can be ready, prepared to wrestle with them. >> do you know where your anger comes from? >> sometimes i just like to be angry. >> he's not the only one. program directors chris blessinger and eric courtney spend countless hours working

with teens in s.a.g. >> talk to me, what was the point of all that? >> i started hating nation. that everybody started fighting. >> where did that get you? >> right here. >> as we attempted to interview blessinger after her rounds, we got her own feel for the personalities in s.a.g. >> they go through the groups and they learn the skills but then they have to apply those skills. [ inaudible ] >> you have to have a certain kind of a personality and demeanor to be able to work in a place like this. there's never a dull moment. always things to do and offenders to help.ç >> you're facing an adult conviction. you're a danger. you've made enough threats. i can't let you out until this is all taken care of. >> i get threatened at least three times a day here. so i'm always cautious. i'm not going to put myself in a situation where something bad

could happen. these kids feed off, if you show fear, they'll eat that up and they will take advantage of it. even as a counselor, i've had to wrestle with a few kids or help put handcuffs on them. so you need to be careful. there's some dangerous kids here. >> even in their own words, it's hard to unravel the mind of a jooufy. our producers met 18-year-old stedman baird in the original lockup pendleton. >> last time we were here, it was summer and you were out in the cage. and now it's snowing and winter and where are you? >> back here. i got out, though, for a couple of months but i came back for battery. >> what made you do that? >> i don't know, just got into it with someone. >> you have seen your mom? >> not since she came to see me a couple times. i told her not to come up here. i don't really like to see my family in here. >> how do you feel about getting out? >> i'm nervous but anxious. i don't know what it will be like out there. it's been three years. i don't know what it will be like. i don't know. life one day at a time. you make mistakes, you have to

learn from your mistakes. >> he could be acting just fine while he's in school and the very next second, he could be having an outburst and be hurting somebody. and it just comes out of nowhere. you don't ever give up, because you never knowç what's going t work today that didn't work yesterday. >> the challenges are understanding what makes a kid react before he thinks. it can get to the point that when they strike out, it can go from one victim to multiple victims over a candy bar. next on "lockup: pendleton: juvenile," from teenage troublemaker to pendleton role model, can this longtime offender hold the key to keeping kids out of prison. >> one of my biggest fears is i being in prison and i'm not taking that route. ac i tried it and my body felt so right, for a change.

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for every aggressive offender behind bars at pendleton juvenile, there's a former bad boy who has spent years exsorecising the demons of his past. 18-year-old john madden is one of those kids. >> i turned 15 here, i turned 16 here. i turned 17 here and turned 18 here. i got when i was staff charged. and i feel bad about it you and these officers don't do nothing here but come and do their jobs and i was being stupid and ignorant and thought, hey, he's going to mess with me, i will mess with him and i don't even feel like talking about it. >> madden was sent here as a disciplinary disturbance from a facility in indianapolis. so came here straight to our segregation unit, he was angry. he was mad. he was noncompliant with every request. he's a good kid to work with and you could see whatever he went through in his life he decided he was going to make some changes. >> my real daddy, he's in and

out of prison. he got out last time and he's most likely back in again, because he wrote me like four letters and i haven't heard from him before that. the last time i heard from him, i was about 9. before that, i was ç6. >> for madden, peeling back the layers of angry didn't happen overnight. it might not have happened overall, but one innovative but simple program changed all of that. >> forward march! >> this has really changed my life. i came over here to our gang unit. i was a gangbanger. thought i was a tough guy. and i've learned a lot since i've been on the unit. i've got a lot of cell discipline. i've transitioned from one person to another. >> five, honor, courage, commitment. >> the future soldier program can really give the inmates hope and give them an alternative

future. rather than throwing all of these resources into the facility and throwing him back into the same environment, the idea is when they complete the future soldier program, we can release them directly into one of the military branchs. leave here and go directly into boot camp. >> housed in pendleton's echo 15 unit, 24 carefully screened offenders make up the future soldiers program. but getting their prison walking papers and marching straight to boot camp isn't so simple. there's still red tape. military requirements demand offenders be out of pendleton 30 days after their release before they can officially enlist and 30 days can be a lifetime for kids like madden, who return to drug and gang-infested neighborhoods. >> what really makes me nervous is him returning back to his old environment and the situations that got him in trouble in the first place. it's harder for them to maintain the discipline and the structure they have here onceç they're returned to the home or the streets. >> i feel like this is the most positive thing i can do.

it's either that or go back and there's not a whole lot there for me. a lot of people might not appreciate i'm trying to do something for myself, and i don't like i need to go back to that, because i don't feel like i'm going to have a whole lot of support. >> with his release day just weeks away and military recruiters in town, superintendent dempsey nervously tries to find a solution to bridge the 30-day probation period that would require madden to return to his old haunts. >> he's come a long way. he's really taken that program to heart. >> one unit! >> if we can make this happen for him so he can leave this facility and report directly to the navy, it gives him a future, it gives him the hope he needs to truly make a difference in the rest of his life. >> take care of my formation. >> fall in right! >> while dempsey searches for a solution for madden, military

officers rick johnson, duane cooley, and john mercer have their hands full interviewing other offenders who want a shot at being in the future soldier program. >> cite the pledge! >> i pledge allegiance to the flag. >> 150 of pendleton's 300 enemies have applied for the unit. currently, there is only room for three more. >> it's a tight unit. we have to be very careful who we let into the unit. today's a selection interview process. we're going to do our best to screen out any people that might be detrimental to good order and discipline in the unit,ç becau we have to protect that. >> why are you requesting to join e-15? >> i would like to get away from negative peers. there's a lot of negative peers on the unit that i'm on now, so i know that if i come here, i've got more of an opportunity to go home. >> we get up at 4:50 in the morning. is that going to be a problem? >> no, sir. >> it's a very structured

environment. there's no horseplay, absolutely no horseplay. is that going to be a problem? >> no, sir. 2100 is lights out, taps. there is no talking. if you was to be caught talking, the whole room gets up and does pt. >> pt, is that -- >> physical training. >> would you have any problems with that? >> no, sir. >> how are you going to be able to handle taking direction and orders from other guys in your position? >> well, sir, i would think to myself, if i listen to them, then maybe one day i will be able to get up there and be able to be the one -- >> great answer. >> even though this offender has all the right answers, the decision to accept him into the unit is complicated. >> these juveniles come from horrible backgrounds. i tend not to judge them, but we want to ask ourselves, do we think they're going to the learn in this unit. >> they must weigh their feelings about the offender with the events that brought him in the first place and competition to get into echo 15 is tough. >> i wouldn't say we wouldn't

let him on the unit, but we'll have to weigh him out against everybody else. he's always followed my orders, he never questioned me, and he never gave me an ounce of trouble. >> as the interviews continue, a familiar face walk through the door. >> pick your headrup, man. don't be nervous. you know us all. >> this impulsive teen was kicked out of the program once before. >> why do you want to come back to the unit? >> i can't do anything positive because of my actions and just getting mad all the time. i was never mad over here. i just didn't feel i was really ready to be over here. >> why did you get taken off the unit? >> i battered somebody. >> why did you batter him? >> i heard some stuff that he did, about me, so i just took my anger out at that time. >> you can't be out acting a fool and expect to come back into the program because it's not going to happen. >> if we bring you back in here,

are you going to batter somebody else on our unit? >> well, you might expect me to make an excuse, but i don't have any problems with nobody over here. and that's my word. >> okay. >> it's a little bit of a group of guys that we've got over there working on team building right now and it's coming along nice. >> it doesn't matter whether you get on this unit or not. eventually, you're going to have to learn how to handle your anger without fighting. whether it's here or in 14 or wherever. and once you do that, it's not going to matter what unit you're in. and you'll be where you need to be. >> by midafternoon, the last offender of the day makes his pitch to get into the program. >> why are you in juvenile this time? >> robbery. >> how long have you been in the department of corrections? >> since i was 12. >> my biggest concern isç your gang affiliation. so how are you going to convince

me that you're renouncing your gang and you're folding your flag? >> i did that before i decided to come over here. and i folded my flag, because being in a gang don't get you nowhere. and i report to you by coming over here. you won't see me throwing up no gang signs i throw up. >> i've been talking to your officers in school, i've actually been investigating on you to see if you're really serious and not just trying to, you know, play me. right now, i'm going to say yes. >> one of the first things you said when you sat down is that you felt like you were a victim of the system. what we feed you to do at all times in this unit is have accountability for yourself and for what you have done to be in the position that you're in. >> coming up, military interviews are a cakewalk compared to the stress facing john madden. >> one question for you, mr. madden. >> yes, sir? >> are you ready? >> always ready, sir. >> let's go. >> then a signal 10 alert staff

to an emergency in the segregation unit. thanks for babysitting the kids, brittany. so how much do we owe you? that'll be $973.42. ya know, your rates and fees aren't exactly competitive. who do you think i am, quicken loans? [ spokesman ] when you refinance your mortgage with quicken loans, you'll find that our rates and fees are extremely competitive.

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for 22 years. we processed on a given day about a million pieces of mail. checks, newspapers, bills. a lot of people get their medications only through the mail. small businesses depend on this processing plant. they want to shut down 3000 post offices, cut 100,000 jobs. they're gonna be putting people out of work everywhere. the american people depend on the postal service. with more than 300 teens behind bars inside pendleton juvenile, some days can be tougher than others, for

offenders and staff. when both are pushed to the limit, pendleton's c.a.r.e. team is called into action. >> the c.a.r.e. team is about bringing down the number of physical forces, and it's actually brought that down. it's random, so different people are assigned to it. so today we're both on the c.a.r.e. team and you go to wherever you're called to and talk to the kid so it doesn't escalate into physical force. >> what's up? >> i'm the biggest force to this [ bleep ] -- >> we've established that. what's going on. >> you don't know what's going on until you get there. i don't know this student, so a lot of it's like, what's going on? >> so you're hungry. >> this teacher won't let me go to school. >> initially what had happened, the student was upset and he wanted to go speak with the teacher that we have on the unit. >> why would they not want you to go to school? >> i'm supposed to work on myç gd. as soon as a white student ask,

can i go -- she's like, oh, yeah, bring him here. >> so she was pulling the race card and was wanting her to -- he wanted attention right then and there and she wasn't able to give him that right then and there so he was wanting to act out. >> so we're hungry and we're feeling some racial tension. >> racism. >> okay, racism and the teacher won't let you get educated. >> yeah. >> but what was the first established point of interest here? >> i asked. >> you told me you're the biggest threat to this facility. >> i am! >> he was kicking on this door, asking for the c.a.r.e. team and also asking for a sacked lunch. maybe he just had son anxiety issues, if you will. >> this teen was transferred to pendleton after participating in a disturbance at another facility. she quickly but carefully breaks down his issues. >> so if we get some lunch in you, is that going to help calm things down a little bit? because i'm pretty irritable when i'm hungry. >> if i can go work on my ged.

>> so you want to go work on the ged. we're not going to school today, because there's some tension, but what can we work on today? >> i need goat out to get out o. >> but it's not about the jed, you're getting stir-crazy. if you could agree that if we get you something to work on the ged here today and you chill out with the behavior, maybe we can work something different out for tomorrow. >> okay. >> they are kids, so, you know, even though they do commit crimes and some of them are violent, and some of them are aggressive, but they still are kids. so they still need that attention. they still need those things that you would think aç normal kid would need. >> one of those needs is to get an education, but in the heated environment of the pendleton segregation unit, that can can be a challenge. >> some days when these young men come in, they're going to fight with me and they're going to do everything they can to disrupt. a lot of them are so used to adult figures fighting with

them, and if you push back, they're going to push back and then you're locked in a battle, and i'm not going to win and they're not going to win. and i think a lot of it has to depend with the kids. wake up. does that lightbulb go off? >> i got your sacked lunch. >> so we've got lunch. >> it's all on presentation skills, you get that right? so how you're presenting yourself might be with a little bit of an edge, that they're giving you back an edge. >> i'm positive. >> i understand that you've been very positive right now. but if you're upset, when i'm upset, sometimes i've got a little more edge than usual, and they're hearing that and maybe giving it back. part of the underlying problem is he's going a little stir-crazy. >> okay, with well, i'll work that into my schedule. >> but you need to continue to be compliant for him to give a little bit. it's give and take here, okay? so let's get some lunch in you

and maybe storm we'll start all over. if you've got some conflict with the teacher, let that go. because you're there to get your ged, which in the end has nothing to do with her, right? because that's for down the road. >> she was the reason i got this -- this -- >> no, you need to take on the ou're here because of whatever happened to you. but you're also going to get out of here because of whatever you do. you've got the control with that. so take her out of the occasion. does that work? okay? thank you. 99% of the time, i would say they just want somebody to listen to them. they just want somebody to talk to for a minute and i think that's why the c.a.r.e. teams work in de-escalating it a little bit. because most of the time they just want to talk to somebody. >> coming up on lockup pendleton juvenile, who will fill the last spot on echo 15. >> in the past, you used to handle it with your fists and not your head. the temper's the concern. and john madden's future comes down to this.

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i'm mara schiavocampo and here's what's happening. authorities in new york are continuing their renewed search for clues in the disappearance of etan patz, who vanished in 1979. france's u.n. ambassador says the u.n. security council has reached an agreement to boost the number of cease-fire observers in syria from 30 to 300. a vote is expected saturday. and mexican authorities are telling those living near mexico's el polko volcano to have escape routes plan. the volcano has been rumbling and spewing ash for several days. now back to lockup. indiana's pendleton juvenile

correctional facility, one of america's largest maximum security juvenile prisons. pendleton is the last stop for teens in the juvenile justice system. but in this prison, education and rehabilitation areç mandatory, even for the toughest teen offenders. >> i've been doing this for six years now and i understand, you know, when you come through the door, that there are things that could happen that day. but here more so than other places, it seems that if you are afraid or if you show fear, thaen you'll be pretty much chewed up and spit out. there's actually a term called cage courage, where they tend to, you know -- because they know they're hiding behind the door and they're safe from any kind of recourse or anything. they can really act out. >> life in the segregation unit can run hot and cold on any given day.

>> people have been down here for a while, they kind of learn, you know, to get along and we don't really have that much of a problem with them. >> eventually destructive teen spirit loses out to the boredom of time in seg. no one knows this better than 18-year-old john madden. >> really wasn't a very good person. i wasn't at all. that used to be the reputation i wanted. i wanted to be a bad guy. >> a year ago, with after two years behind bars and a past he'd rather forget, madden made a choice. the military would be his future. >> i want to go. i want to serve my country. i mean, i'm becoming a little bit of a patriot and i want to fight for my country. we've got a war going on right now against terrorism and so many innocent lives have been taken. i want to fight. i want to fight for what's right. it makes me feel like i'm redeeming myself for all the bad karma that i've set up for ç myself. >> i love this program. i am a vietnam vet myself.

>> reporter: counselor frank sawyer is a corporate retiree. >> are you dealing with the physical parts of the program? >> like i've done about 250 push-ups today alone. >> good. that's excellent. >> inside pendleton, he found the work of a lifetime with kids like madness and the future soldiers of echo 15. >> the future soldiers program kind of breathes extra life into what i'm trying to do. >> attention on deck! >> we step in there, somebody's in your face. >> good morning. >> good morning, sir! >> attention! and they answer you, it's not yes, it's yes, sir. >> this bed is a train wreck. it needs to be fixed. >> yes, sir. >> when you come face to face and head on with that kind of an in-charge discipline, it really tells who wants to be in the program and who doesn't. >> where does that go? >> the trash, sir.

>> are you ready?! >> we're ready! >> we're very pleased with john's progress. his background is challenging, to say the least, but he takes time and he's thinking things through. i've seen him take charge, a take leadership and we are really hopeful that he's going to be one of our success stories. >> good job, y'all. >> success for madden is so close, he can taste it. but two major hurdles still stand in the way. getting through his final release interview to get out of prison and passing the military test to çenlist in the navy on he's out. >> i'm a little discouraged. i don't know if i can handle it right, but i'm going to try my hardest. >> hurdle number one is just around the corner. >> have a seat right there, please. >> mr. madden, can you tell us what you've learned since you've been here? >> i take group a little more seriously this time and it's helped me out a lot. i'm learning to stop and think before i do anything. that's the biggest part that's

getting me in trouble because i was hotheaded. >> so what were your committed offenses that got you here? >> originally, it was battery and violations of suspended community, and i was released on community service, and i violated that and came back. >> so what'd you learn from the control unit? >> that i'm as much prone to consequences as anybody else is. i've spent most of my life in that room because i wanted to be tough and look cool and find all my boys. >> so you don't have the gangs now. that was your family for a while, right? who's going to be your family now? >> if i get into the navy, my family is going to be my branch of the military, my recruiter, my officers, my fellow enlistees. >> what's your idea of how important education? >> getting my ged is a big step, because no one is expecting me to finish school. i didn't expect to finish school too. >> didn't you have one of the

highest scores in your class? >> i had a 692. >> that's an excellent score and i didn't hear you really brag on that to us. >> while madden's path to release seems to be on track, back in echo 15, military officers are havingç a much harder time deciding who will fill the final spots in the future soldiers program. >> we have three open spots and we've gone over about 150 applications. >> once we go through all the interviews, we'll decide who's going to be the best fit and who we want. it's a competition. i mean, we have to pick the best recruits for this program. we asked if you were with serious about coming to the military unit, if you'd cut your hair, and you did. you did it. now, did anything -- what happened over in 13 when you cut your hair? what did everybody else say? >> they didn't like it. they all think i'm trying to do something different with myself.

i came by myself and i'm going to leave by myself. >> after hours of interviews and debate, the team has narrowed its search. but there's no guarantee all three spots will be filled. >> i could see him doing good on this unit. i'm concerned about a lot of the manipulation that's in his background. >> you look at the pool of recruits that we have, you know, a general recruiter on the outside, you know, they go to high schools and recruit. we go to general population and recruit. a lot of guys that come to e-15, they really want to improve themselves. >> we want the ones that really want to change. >> the officers of echo 15 found their star soldier when madden walked through the door. before he can officially graduate from the program, he has one final step. passing his release interview with the pendleton staff. that's about to get a whole lot harder than he thought. >> is that your uniform? >> yes, sir. >> why aren't youç wearing you jump boots? >> they're on the unit, sir. >> but that still doesn't answer

my question. why aren't they on your feet? >> they're in the process of being shined when i got called down here. >> did you get in a fight recently? >> yes, sir. >> tell us about that fight. >> i guess i decided to be a little bit of a vigilante. me and mckin stri got in here and they told us to sit in chairs and not to talk and he started going off and saying "f" this and "f" that and i guess i decided to take him on and i wasn't handling it right. >> what you tried to do sounds good. you had a good reason for trying to do something positive, but you just admitted to us it wasn't the right way to do it. coming up -- >> we have all discussed your reentry and we're going to talk about what we decided. with the ability to improve roi through seo

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it's been over an hour since john madden made his case to the release committee that he should finally be a free man. >> you better go for it. >> but after three years of counseling, hard work, and a few setbacks, getting out of pendleton is never a given. >> he's one of the leaders, a squad leader, if you may, in a military, but yet he was out of military. and that was my biggest concern. why would he leave something like that out? >>ç you've got a very, very go

chance. >> they're taking an awful long time talking about it. >> he's holding others up to the bar, really? he's really trying to make them step up to the game and make them do what they're trying to be doing. >> he did a good job with his transition. he probably has more depth and understanding of, you know, where he's going and what his goals are than most the students i see. so i mean, that's in his favor. and he's bright. he seems to have a purpose. >> we have all discussed your reentry and we're going to talk about what we decided with you at this time. we have approved your reentry level with the following terms that you need to complete. >> after three long years and a total transformation, madden is

finally free. >> told you. >> in just a few weeks, he will leave pendleton, hopefully for good. >> i'm going to be nervous. this is going to make me feel weird. i'm not used to not having an officer breathing down my neck. i'm going to have a lot of leeway and it's going to feel like the best christmas gift ever. >> with madden's release from pendleton in the bag, military officers johnson, mercer, and cooley have one last mission. fillingç the final spot in the future soldier program. after denouncing his gang and cut canning his hair, this offender is one of the lucky ones. >> i told you a long time ago to cut your hair. all you had to do is is cut your hair. >> sounds like you're in. >> yeah, you're in. i'll give you a chance. you know how many people want in this program? honestly, how many people want in this program in this

facility? would you say at least have the people? >> yeah. >> at least have the people want in this. so if there's three beds and you get one of them, you need to make the most of that opportunity. >> despite the good news for this offender, not everyone will make the cut. even though there are three beds open, the officers decide only two teens are ready for the program. after being kicked out once before, this offender gets a second and final chance. >> i'm going to say yes, that it's a go for me. >> i got no problem with you. you know that. it's a go, as long as you can back up what you're selling. because you're selling a pretty good product here. i just hope you can back it up. he's either going to make us look really good or he's going to make us look really bad. >> i'm going to be optimistic, but you know -- >> that's all we can do. >> with future soldier interviews complete, staff can now concentrate on john madden's

finally step, passing the military exam to pave the way for enlistment in the navy. >> tomorrow's just basically going to be that honeymoon period where i get to stay up all nigh worrying and go to sleep at about 1:00 and wake up at 4:00 to get ready. but friday i'm going to be to the met station to take my test. if i would have never been locked up, i would still be out there doing the same stuff, running with the same crowd. i would have still been a people pleaser. i've learned a lot from this program. >> the world needs to know that at one time you will encounter these kids again, so it's my job to make sure that these kids come out of here on a different level in life, you know being respectful, law-abiding citizens, for one, and then to be able to go out in this world and make it and make something of themselves. >> are you ready? >> always ready, sir! >> we're not going to save them

all, but know this. any offender that comes into this program will be touched and will be embraced with a humble hear heart. >> i want people on the red line in five minutes this is taking entirely too long. >> after leading his pendleton unit through the morning routine, madden is ready for what's ahead. >> a little excited, a little bit. i'm going to go there and do my best. try my best. i'm nervous, a little discouraged. i haven't even been outside the fence in a little while. so it's going to be a new thing to me. i've turned myç life around 18. i think i've came a long way. i don't mean to boast or brag.

>> you ready? >> get your coat on. >> yes, sir. >> military officers duane cooley and rick johnson have waited for this day for months. >> how do you feel about >> i don't know. >> i know you've been studying so if you're prepared you'll be fine. >> it's now time to make the one-hour drive to indianapolis where madden will take his three-hour military test. >> i'm very proud of him. i'm real excited, too. i'm so excited i'm not even taking the test and so, just real big day. >> i got one question for you, mr. madden. >> yes, sir. >> are you ready? >> always ready, sir. >> let's go. coming up on "lockup

pendleton juvenile" -- >> give him a chance is what i say. give him a chance. wake up! that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8.

it's been two long days since john madden took the biggest test of his life. >> we took cadet madden to the military entrance processing station. and he took his asvab, and that's a placement exam. and he cut an 83, which is outstanding. normal is around 40. so he did twice the norm. >> i felt proud of myself. i mean, i didn't really realize the severity of it until they told me most people in indiana only score about a 35 or a 40. and i was like, wow.ç but, i mean, i don't know. it made me feel good. >> we knew he was intelligent. he's a natural leader.

if he's ever fortunate enough to get in the military, he's going to be a superstar. there's no doubt about it. >> one, two. >> unfortunately for madden, though, going straight into the military is no longer an option. superintendent mike dempsey's plan to release him directly from pendleton into the navy wasn't as easy as he had hoped. >> for the navy to pursue him, he needs to be out of department of corrections for 30 days. so what we need to do is get him out of here, get him home for 30 days and then he can go in and he can take his physical. so that's the next hurdle for him. >> despite going back to his old neighborhood, madden is determined to stay away from the landmines that got him in trouble in the first place. >> i'm not going to stay getting locked up, not follow my father's path and end up in prison somewhere. i'm not going to be pedalling drugs. i'm not going to be dealing with firearms. >> ready, front. forward, march!

>> i'm done with the little hood rates scenario. it's time to be a man. >> left. >> eyes to the front and six to the rear that's how we do it in here. >> to go back in. say good-bye to my old buddies. it will be the last time that i see most of them. i might see some of them again, but i'm glad to leave. three years is a long time to be locked up.ç i've changed myself. so i mean i'm out of here. >> what time do you go home today, john? >> 12:00, sir. >> after spending nearly all of his teenaged years in detention centers and lockups like pendleton, 18-year-old john madden is about to be a free man. >> per fission to walk the line, sir. >> walk the line. >> stay out of trouble. have fun, bro. >> have fun.

>> one, two. >> one time. >> one unit. >> request permission to walk the line, sir. >> walk the line. >> who's house is this? >> our house. >> ohh-wa. >> i'll miss you all, man. >> yes, sir. >> as madden gets ready for his final graduation ceremony, just steps away, his mom prepares to see her son for the first time in two years. >> it's very hard on your emotions. i hate to say it, but after a while you kind of get used to him being gone, but i could come across a sock that belonged to him or walk back past something that was his favorite of something and just, you know,

break down in tears because, you know, you know they're gone for a while. >> 35. one en route to visitation and ç one enroute to the dining hall from the 11. >> we've got a lot of challenges ahead of us, john. me and you. you know that? coming into a new situation, okay? i love you very much. i am so proud of you. >> thank you. >> welcome to pendleton correctional facility graduation day. i had the opportunity to work with all of these guys. i would like to point out, john madden, he has really had a lot of achievements since he's been here and i'm just glad to see this day happen. [ applause ]

>> get dressed. >> after three years in pendleton, john will now walk out a free man. >> take care. >> take care of yourself. >> all right. >> he carries with him the hopes of all those who have witnessed his transformation. >> make yourself proud, john. >> but john madden has hopes of his own. >> six months, i want you to see a successful young man. i want you to see somebody that went out and did what he was talking about. i want you all to see something good.