behavior but help reduce violence inside the institution. that's our report. thanks for watching. i'm john siegen that you willer. there are 2 million people behind bars in america. we open the gates, "lockup." >> the whole setting is like out of a movie, like something i'd never seen before. something i never thought i'd be part of. >> it's kind of depressing. this is prison. this is the first time i've ever seen it. i'm kind of nervous about it. >> if somebody who commits premeditated first-degree murder tells you they have remorse,

they are a liar. how are you going to be remorseful about something you intended to do? >> i lived my whole life as a criminal. i had a 12-year sentence in the northeast, and i wasn't out a month and caught new charges. >> i escaped from a secure compound. i packed myself up in boxes and shipped myself out. >> guys have nothing to lose. they would rather die trying to escape than stay her. >> keep your eyes open and all your facilities working at the same time. anything can happen at any time. >> if we say anything whatsoever funny, that inmate's not going out. we don't want what happened to one of the best officers here to happen to somebody else. >> the brushy mountain correctional complex in eastern tennessee serving a unique purpose in the state's prison system. for first-time inmates it's often a point of entry. for the most violent prisoners it's the last stuff. as a result brushy mountain has an unusual population.

young men facing a harsh reality with a life without freedom and hardened lifers who find it difficult to remember anything else. >> brushy mountain. when you you came up the road, you probably noticed how it sits back in the hollow. you have the bluff on one side and surrounded by mountains. it's the last stop, because the road ends at brushy mountain. there's no where else to go. >> when i first came up, my heart of beating hard. you can hear the people yelling and screaming in here. i'm looking at it like, what have i got myself into now. >> this ain't no playground. there's killers here. have been for years, and always will be. >> the most violent inmates are housed in the prison's maximum security unit. >> we'll take anyone from any of the other facilities. there are times when other institutions need to transfer an inmate who may be causing problems, and brushy is known as

the end of the line. if you come here, you stay with us. >> inmates in the max unit are locked up 23 hours a day with one hour of yard time. there is no physical contact with other offenders. only designated workers or rock men are allowed outside their cells at other times. >> we work seven days a week. you come out and feed and clean whatever needs to be cleaned. i have to deal with individuals that have been in a lot of troubles, and then i have to deal with the ones off in their mind a little bit. somedays they might feel they want to throw do-do on me that day or urine. that's what we have to deal with it. we do a lot of work. it's good to have the job, because we're on max and we're

locked down 23/1. it gives us an opportunity to get out of the cell, and that's what makes the job so good. >> while serving a 22-year sentence, gates was sent to the brushy mountain max unit for committing armed robbery at another facility. >> we was at enterprise. we needed to weed. they didn't want to give us weed, so we went in and took the weed. we went in with some butcher knives and stuck it to their necks and took their weed. that's how we do it. >> the inmates have exhibited extreme violence before or after arriving in prison. >> they just don't care. they would rather try to cut you as soon as look at you, because they don't care and have nothing to live for. >> i never killed anyone without warning. even my mother, i warned her and warned her trying to avoid the

situation. >> it was the cold-blooded killing of his own mother that first landed steven hughley in prison in 1986 when he was just 18 years old. >> we had had problems for years, and it just finally reached a head. a girl that i had a date with called there, and when i answered the phone, my mother, she come out of her bedroom and screamed is that another one of of those little whores calling here? it was just like i snapped, and i told the girl i had a date with, i'll be out there to get you in a little bit. i'm fixing to kill this bitch. i hung up the phone and got a rifle and shot her and i carried her and dumped her in the river and went on my date. >> hughley was given a life sentence for killing his mother, but five years later incarcer e incarcerated at a different

facility, he killed again. >> it was june 30, 1991 when i stabbed another inmate 67 times. >> after receiving a life sentence for killing the inmate, hughley committed a second prison murder. he stabbed a counselor 36 times with a homemade shank. >> i mean, it had gotten to the point of where he made so many derogatory statements toward me, so i sat down and formulated a plan. the plan was to kill him, get the death penalty, use the state of tennessee's lethal injection as a means of suicide. i was walking toward him, and i had the homemade shank in my left hand. i swung, and i hit him through his right lung. he fell off of the stool, and i was stabbing through his arms to get to his vital organs. i needed to put so many holes in him that there was no chance that he could survive. my philosophy has always been if

you put enough holes in them, they can't plug them all and the chances are they will die. >> hughley was sentenced to death for the killing of the counselor and transferred to brush where i mountain. >> hughley represents a particular challenge for the department, because not only did he kill on the outside, but he's killed on the inside. >> with his execution date looming, hughley will soon be transported to death row. >> if somebody who commits premeditated first-degree murder tells you they have remorse, they are a liar, flat. it's impossible to commit premeditated first-degree murder and then turn around and say you have remorse for it. how are you you remorseful about something you intended to do? >> coming up, inmates enter prison for the first time and confront their worst fears. >> i never thought i'd end up in any penitentiary, much less brushyntain.

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brushy mountain correctional complex serves as the initial intake center for new and returning prisoners throughout eastern tennessee. as many as 150 inmates per month arrive from county jails soon after sentencing. >> do you have a medical problem? all right. discard that, too. >> whether they will stay at brushy mountain or be transferred to another state prison depends on the results of a classification process required of each inmate upon arrival. >> whether we receive people from the county jail, we generally receive no records. we don't know who we've got, what they're capable of, whether or not they need a lot of support. can they live in the general population in the prison, or do they need special support? it's a safety issue for them. it's a safety issue for us.

>> they are evaluated to see what their educational level is, what type of skills they have. once they are classifieclassifi we try to send them to an institution that would benefit them. >> when they first come in, they're brought through the trap gate over here, which they're hair is shaved off of them. their strip-searched to make sure they don't have drugs or weapons or anything like that. they're processed in medical and then classification does what they got to do. >> this is the first time i've been to the penitentiary. i've been here before visiting, but for the first time i don't really know the emotion. i'm a little numb in my head, but i'll be already. >> 32-year-old jason rogers is about to begin a 24-year sentence for aggravated robbery. >> so you're about 171. i need you to step right here

and face the camera. >> i never thought i'd end up at any penitentiary, much less brushy mountain. that's not the type person that i am. you know, i might get thrown in jail for drinking or something. maybe a bar room fight or something like that, but not penitentiary stuff. >> once the offenders are identified and fingerprinted, they undergo an in depth psychological exam. >> i need to ask you a few routine questions to get a little history. >> okay. >> jason, how did you get yourself into something like this? can you briefly tell me what happened. >> basically, it was a drug deal that went bad. >> okay. jason, have you ever used much in the way of drugs? >> yeah, i've used drugs. >> 80% of the men i interview on intake will have either been under the influence or seeking money to be under the influence when they offend. these guys will say no, i'm not an addict. no, i'm not an alcoholic.

i can handle my liquor. i can handle my pot. >> i've tried drugs, but i'm not a drug addict. >> it's gotten you arrested this many times and you ran over somebody and you're in prison. this doesn't look like it's working to me. >> i'm just an old country boy, i go to work and come home and drink a six-pack, you know. that's basically about it. >> it's denial in the classic sense that they're not giving you the truth, but these guys have used those lines so many times they now believe those lines. >> what kind of drugs have you had experience with? >> just like painkillers. >> okay. hydrocodone? >> yeah, morphine. >> have you ever done oxycontin? >> yes, sir. >> have you ever been through any treatment for drug abuse? >> no, sir. >> do you think you might be interested in participating in something like that while you're here? >> yes, sir.

>> okay. we'll have you up here in a minute. >> all right. >> next is a counseling session designed to give new inmates a sense of what to expect in their daily lives at brushy mountain. >> trying to comfort the guys that first come in, because most of them are scared. a lot won't admit, but they are. just let them see a friendly face and tell them they're not going to be raped and beat up. >> it's a two-man cell 23 hours a day. >> i've heard of that. >> you're not going to smour with eight or ten guys. there's not 20 guys standing right there watching you. you'll be in the -- you'll go to chow hall and eat. other than that, you're pretty much in your cell. >> not only is john ckerry an i time counselor but he's locked up. >> i've sat in that same chair, and i know how much of a difference it can make if you have someone to talk to that's

on your side. >> he's serving a life sentence for a murder he committed in his early 20s. >> we were out drinking and partying having a good time, and an argument broke out. it started out i thought we was going to get it squashed. we wasn't going to. it escalated and got out of hand. the guy was stabbed to death. it was a pretty brutal murder. like i said, that's something i have to live with every day. i'd love to be out there and be with my family. the bible says you reap what you sew. >> before they can be assigned to their new cells, the men must undergo one final step. >> i got a size 10. >> what size shirt do you need? >> 1 x. >> the only thing i found out is ints like the movies. that's basically what they thought me. you don't have to go around, you know, worrying about who is going to jump out and get you

every little corner and stuff like that. >> eight hours after arriving, rogers faces his first night in the penitentiary. >> it's kind of depressing. this is prison. this is the first time i've ever seen it, so, you know, i'm kind of nervous about it. i don't know. i'm kind of in awe right now. reality. yeah, that's what i'm feeling, reality. you don't feel the same. i have to adapt to that. >> coming up -- >> guys have nothing to lose, and they would rather die trying to escape than stay here. >> inmates risk everything for a chance at freedom. >> i escaped from a secure compound in northeast correctional. i packed myself up in some boxes and shipped myself out. as part of a heart healthy diet. that's true. ...but you still have to go to the gym. ♪ the one and only, cheerios

there's a lot more going on here. who the hell is he? [ dita ] it's aaron cross. you've had alterations to two different chromosomes in your body. i'm not just a science project, doc. consider the magnitude of what we're facing. you okay? let's go. [ male announcer ] "the bourne legacy." rated pg-13. we have behavior problem inmates, high profile, escape risk and people that have tried to escape. anytime there's something like that, they send them to brushy mountain.

guys that have nothing to lose, and they would rather die trying to escape than stay here. >> brushy mountain has had a long history of attempted escapes, and i guess that this would be the most maximum security penitentiary in the state. >> michael king serving a life sentence for murder managed to break out of another tennessee prison in 1994. >> i escaped from a secure compound in northeast correctional. i pack myself up in some boxes and ship myself out. i was part of a warehouse crew. i've taken yoga for sever yeaal years and squeezed myself in a cramped position. brought some water with me and everything else. about an hour and a half before they shipped me out, they put me in the back of the truck and took me to north carolina and they caught me while i was trying to get out the truck. >> kings sent to brushy mountain's max unit.

>> this is supposed to be the most secure building in the state, and that's why they house them here. we have the wall around the outside, and between the stone wall and this building we have razor wire, chain link fence plus the fours on the walls so they don't have an avenue to go out. we have sever inmates we have to move once a month from cell to cell to make sure they're not trying to tunnel out or something of that nature. >> i guess they believe that i'm an extreme escape risk because of my military background and because of my escape attempt. they at one time i was down in nashville at river bend, and they found some homemade explosives in my cell and that kind of didn't help my case at all. i've been on max for 12 years. sometimes in my rare moments i think i'd want to go again and sometimes not. if i thought i had a chance to get back into court, maybe i'd stop thinking about it. every man wants his freedom. >> michael king could spend the

rest of his life many max, but it's far from the most notorious escapee in brushy mountain. it was made by james earl ray nine years after he killed civil rights leader martin luther king jr. ray has been an escapee from missouri state penitentiary when he assassinated king. >> the main thing that he was interested in was escaping. now, when i first met him, of course, i was interested in escaping, too. we got into a couple of plots together na never worked out. we were going to try to go through the rough of the old auditorium where they showed movies. we got the hole cut, but it was discovered before we got a chance to use it. we didn't get caught, and they just found it. >> in 1977 ray plotted another escape with james and two other inmates. the plan was to climb the outer wall using a makeshift ladder crafted from chains. they knew the tower guard closest to the wall took an a r

afternoon nap, but he feared ray's high profile would lead them to being captured. >> james, you have no pickup and no car. as soon as your foot touches down and they know it's you, there will be a million cops in in valley and no one is going to get away. i don't believe in wasting my energy on it. i sat and watched it happen. that's the corner where james and doug and spider monkey and the others went over. the fence was not here at that time. first of all, james went over. he's the number one man and then spider monkey climbed it and he was suppose to pull the chain ladder up. when he jerked he fell backward and fell off the wall. there at the horseshoe pit doug was pitching horseshoes and he's watching them go orr and no one is getting shot or seems to care. he ran over and went over. about that time a guy running laps, all he had on was running shorts and tennis shoes. he stopped and was running in

place. he just kind of shrugged and went over. >> 15 minutes later, as the seventh inmate was climbing over, a guard in another tower finally took notice and fired a shot, striking the last escapee in the shoulder. >> the way it used to work here, they had a big steam whistle. when they would have an escape, they would blow the whistle. when you hear the whistle blow, you get a shotgun and your dog and dw to the woods, because inmates there was 25 alabama may notes. >> within three days all the men were captured. james earl ray was discovered hiding in heavy brush not far from the prison. eventually new security measures were installed including razor wire and motion sensors. if the prisoner gets past these, they still must escape brushy mountain's bloodhounds. >> this is canine daisy. she's about 2 years ago d. she's the best tracking dog we

have right now. if an inmate leaves from here, especially from behind the wall, they go straight up the mountain one way or another. that's where she comes into play. that's only way to find them in these mountains, is with one of these dogs. it's so thick and everything, there's nowhere to go. you can wander around for days in these mountains just lost. they are silent trackers. a lot of people are misled by these dogs. they watch movies on tv and you see a guy with two or three dogs in hand. these dogs don't bark. they keep their nose to the ground and track. that's all they do. they will pick up on just a human scent, and she will follow it until she loses it or you find the person you're looking for. the only way they can make a clean break in my opinion with her on their trail is for them to get in a car, and that's it. >> coming up, the most dangerous job for brushy mountain's correctional officers.

>> anything can happen at any time on the road. best thing to do is keep your eyes open and all your facilities working at the same time. >> later, condemned inmate hughley leaves brushy mountain possibly for the last time.

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mountain correctional center know the importance of staying vigilant at all times. even the most routine activities can suddenly turn deadly. >> we have 47 going out on chain, and they have to be bagged and ready to go. usually xhan mornings are rush rush. >> every day a number of brushy mountain inmates are transported either to court or other state prisons. they call this transportation process going out on chain. >> what we do is we call the blocks one at a time, bring them in. they bring all their property, and then we pack all their property in a green bag that's numbered. we shake them down, and they sit there and wait until the chain bus arrives. >> these prisoner transports are one of the most dangerous times for staff. >> step right through here. >> they don't know until that morning.

that morning when we call for chain riders, then they know they're leaving, because you got security issues there. if they know the day before, they can make a phone call and say, hey, the bus will be going this route. we'll be going to morgan county. help me out, or something. >> take that and set it over in that bin. >> when it comes to transporting inmates, chain bus officers take no risks. >> follow me, follow me. >> if you notice we put leg arms and shackles on them. they're sitting behind two caged doors anyway. >> just find you one seat back there. they all recline. try not to spit on the carpet. the stewardess will be with you in a minute. i don't know what kind of movie we're showing, but i guarantee you'll like it. >> you're crazy. >> anything can happen on the road. you don't know whether you come upon a wreck or whether it's staged or whatever. the best thing to do is keep your eyes open and all your

facilities working at the same time because anything can happen at any time. >> we don't want what happened to one of the best officers here to happen to somebody else. >> prison officials believe that an advanced phone call made by a brushy mountain inmate ultimately led to the killing of veteran offer wayne cotton morgan. >> his job was to transport inmates in and out of the facilities to outside locations, to other facilities, to court, to hospital, to funeral visits, and his main function was as a transportation officer. >> one year prior to our visit, officer morgan was assigned to take the inmate to the court house. >> i knew the inmate for several years here at the institution, and wasn't your common, everyday inmate. he was very manipulative and he could get things done, and you not he was working your case unless you watched him real

close. >> for officer morgan the trip to the courthouse was uneventful. as they were exiting the court and getting in the security van to come back, the inmate's wife drove up behind the van and she jumped out with a weapon. to assist in getting her husband to escape, and she shot officer morgan and they did escape. >> not wearing awe bulletproof vest, officer morgan was killed. >> it was probably around about 9:30, quarter till 10:00, and we was listening on the radio, and a whole lot wasn't coming over. we all started realizing that there was something majorly wrong. i was shot. usually we don't show our feelings at work, but on that day, on august 9th, not too many people had control.

>> ayotte and his wife was apprehended and charged with first-degree murder. >> when he left that day with the inmate, i never thought they wouldn't come back. that's one thing that we do, our staff puts their life on the line every day. >> anything can go on. ambushes can be set up. what happened to cotton, the unexpected, can really go down at any time. >> prison officials believe he used a smuggled cell phone to orchestrate the deadly ambush. cell phones are dangerous contraband at brushy mountain. >> this is something the department has furnished us in the regions. it's an orion cell phone detector. it looks for the microprocessing circuits in all cell phones, and this will detect cell phones whether they're turned on and off. i'm getting an indication right here. unfortunately, it also picks up walkmen, things like this. so 99 times out of 100 it might

give us a false indication, but the one time we do find the cell phone, you know, it will have been worth it. >> with the death of officer morgan, brushy mountain staff are always on high alert. >> we were security minded anyway, but i look harder. i look harder. if we see anything whatsoever funny, that inmate's not going out, and everybody knows hey, there may be something up. >> morgan's fellow officers still think about him every day. >> he was a good one. you know, he's watching over all of us, and he's going to make sure that everything's all right. we loved him, and he loved all of us. so we know he's here. we can still feel him in our

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while brushy mountain's most dangerous and violent inmates are segregated from the rest of the population in one-person cells, the majority of inmates spend close to 23 hours a day in two-person cells. >> they've got two beds, a little stool for you to sit at. they have a sink, toilet facilities and some shelf to put some books. it's very close, two inmates in there don't have a lot of room to move around. >> live inning smaing in small it's essential inmates learn to

get along. >> what's theirs is theirs, they don't want them touching it. we don't do things like that. we know each other for a year now. it's not a problem. food, cigaretteses, whatever we got. both of us, it doesn't matter. we both have to live in here. there's no sense in being an ass about it. it's a lot easier to it live that way. >> sky bishop is serving time for aggravated assault which began with an argument over a parking space. >> he was smart-mouthing, so we got into a fight with a guy and ended up stabbing him and then running his buddy off of the road, off the interstate, and i got six years for it. >> bishop's cell main jason davis is serving a 17-ier sentence for attempted murder. >> two people came in to rob me, and i shot them both, one with a gun and one with a bow and arrow. in the state you cannot shoot he people in your house f-they're going to rob you, try to run or

call the law or whatever. you can't defend yourself in the stay of tennessee no mother. >> at the time he was on a eight-day high from methamphetamine and didn't realize the intruders were your friends. >> once you're up that long, you hallucinate. basically when at the came in, i have friends all the time, it was a bachelor house. i thought they were coming to rob me. when they came back, i decided they were trying to get me. that's who i was on the street. if i thought ufs trying to get me, i'd get you first. >> i've known him over a year. that's any buddy right there. i had him moved down here. he wanted to move in. >> it has been four days since jason rogers arrived at brushy mountain. despite his initial anxieties, he's adjusting to life behind bars. >> actually, i caught me on another good day. i got out of tlup out in the

smaller cell and got put into a bigger one. i had a cell mate up there. they moved me into a cell for one night last night, and now i have another cell mate today. so so far it's good. it's always good to be around somebody. you know, you can talk and communicate instead of just sitting there gathering thoughts. they said i'll be classified to maybe here, maybe to another penitentiary within 30 days. then sometimes the waiting list can be eight months, so there's really no telling how long i'll be here. >> this is my daughter. she'll be 8 next month. >> he's determined to maintain a close relationship with his daughter in spite of facing a 15-year sentence for aggravated assault and drug charges. >> she tells me on the phone with her, the first thing come out of her mouth, dad, i miss you. i want to touch her and hold her

and see her go to school and take her places, to the park, swimming. things like that. i mean, it worries me. it really do. you know, that's my world. that's the only child i have, and i love her. >> he shares a cell with another parent, ashante henry. >> i'm trying to wipe the sweat off. i tell my family i love them, and i'm still strong. i'll try to come out of this madness soon. stay strong. i love you all. i'm trying to do my time and get on back to my family. i got a business on the streets. i can be making money. i own a mobile candy truck selling coffee, candy, potatoes chips, white t-shirts. >> when henry was arrested, he was in possession of more than candy and t-shirts. >> i ended up in prison for 30

rocks of crack cocaine and 150 ectasy pills and i'm serving 14 years for it. >> another thing that keeps me going is this right here, my family. >> brushy mountain receives hundreds of letters a day addressed to inmates, but first every piece of mail is scanned for materials prohibited by the tennessee department of corrections. >> we've had panties come through. we've had letters with perfume and then pubic hair with body fluids. of course, they're allowed to have pictures, but some pictures we do have to deny if it's nudity. >> it's real graphic. >> officer gary hoff found two nude pictures. a lady in cruin colombia, tenne. oh, she writes some -- she's

missing him. she's missing him bad. real rejected. and he'll be sent a letter stating why it was rejected. and then we'll return it back to her. >> along with receiving mail, inmates also look forward to the limited time outside their cells. >> they're brought out to go to lunch, took back in and they're locked down again until that afternoon for the evening meal. they go to the yard for an hour and lock back down for the rest of the day except for ten minutes while they take a shower. >> the cold water, it's so hot. the air-conditioning and cold water is what i come down here for really. you can't be doing a lot of talking. they say you're not eating. you're talking instead of eating. >> you got to eat real fast.

i think they only give you about 20 minutes to eat. they don't allow too much talking. hurry and keep moving. >> following their meal, brushy mountain inmates spend one hour in the prison yard. with such limited freedom, inmates spend their time in a variety of ways. india mcdowell spends his team braiding oether men's hair. >> i do it for a living. >> how much does this cost? >> usually about $5. >> what about today? >> you get a discount. i'm a fellow christian myself and like to help other people out. >> i let him do the style he wants to do, stylist's choice. >> right now i'm on a difficult schedule. i have to do something easy to do it quick. we get out for the lunchtime and get the right time. we get about 30, 45 minutes. sometimes you can gets it cut even shorter. >> most inmates prefer lifting weights in the prison exercise

yard. >> some people sit around and get lazy. you want to be active when you get out. you want a perfect body when you do leave here. push, push, push. come on. do another one. let's get another one. push, push, push, push. good one. >> a lot of these guys are motivated to lift those kinds of weights. they tell me to get off the ball and come over here. come mess with the big dogs. >> get that money, man. get na money, man. yeah, man. get that money. >> you try to keep your mind on the streets and your family and things of that nature. every time you turn around, you see bars and things like that. this little hour that we get, it relieves a lot of stress, a whole lot. >> coming up, steven hughley prepares to meet his fate. >> he told me he was ready to go. he wants to die, because in his case he knows that the rest of his life would be confined every

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the brushy mountain krekal complex is one of the oldest prisons in tennessee. it its roots in this rural section of the state run deep. >> brushy mountain's in my blood. i've been around it my whole life. my father brought me up here to get a haircut when it was a full max institution. >> my grandfather, my father, and uncle and my husband have all worked here. >> i mean, you got just family members and cousins and dads and brothers and sisters, aunt and uncles. it's a part of our everyday life. >> the roots run equally as deep for some of the inmates. >> everybody in my father has been through this place. brothers, cousins, uncles, grandfathers, my father. we've all been through here. >> this is charles dikes fourth

time in prison. >> i just had a 12 kwlifr sentence in it is northeast. i wasn't out a month and caught new charges. i've lived any whole life as a criminal. most people fight with that every day. they say, i'm going to get out and do this and that. thep can't come to grips with themselves and realize what they've become is this. this is what they breathe, they eat, they feel. because they go home don't mean they leave. their mind is still here. >> today he's transferred to another state prison and has no regrets. >> what's your number? >> 75382. >> what's your birthday. >> 12177. >> told me i was leaving and come back to pack the stuff. i'm waiting to go. >> ready to get out of here? >> yeah. >> why is that? >> because this place sucks. >> xm.

>> you don't try to better yourself while you're here, then you're stuck. you don't learn nothing from coming to prison unless you put your feet in the concrete and go to work. that's all i know, i mean. this is what i know. my fate's real, you know. if i get out this time, god only knows what will happen. i'm more than likely to be back. >> because brushy mountain is an intake and processing center for tennessee's prison system, dykes transfers to other facilities. ♪ i was 18 years old >> some like brian is part of a permanent population slated to serve their entire sentences at brushy. >> i've been in prison altogether 18 years. i came in when i was 18 and got out at 24 and come back when i was 35 and now i'm 36 going on 37. >> he's serving a 90-year

sentence for armed robbery and criminal intent to commit murder. >> this is a song i wrote years ago. every year i changed the amount of years it's been since i've been in prison. ♪ it's been 18 long years in the prison ♪ ♪ sometimes i feel so all alone ♪ ♪ sweet memories of home so far away ♪ ♪ i'm loansome and blue >> one of the oldest inmates is james schlegel. he's serving a 318-year sentence for murder and has been here longer than any other inmate. >> i've spent in the tennessee prison system without being out. i started my 39th year three weeks ago today, and i've spent

24 years of that time here at brushy mountain. i decided, jim, you've the got to become something else. so i looked into me and saw the ugliness. i saw the hatred, the violence, the misery. i said i'm going to be something else. i am going to become a thinking man. by the way, that's hard to do. i spent years reading, studying, looking within myself. i'm one of the most fortunate men that ever lived. >> he runs the library and provides legal help to other inmates. >> a major error on your time. your two sentences are running concurrently, which means they run together. when they give you the jail credit, they put the jail credit on the one sentence and forth got to put on this. somehow they have mistaken me for a wise man and they think i can provide them with insight into the problems of the

possible solutions, which i try. i always tell them, this is my answer. it may not fit you, because you're not me. the main thing to do is face the situation, accept what it is and try to find a reasonable, honest, positive way to get through that situation and come out improved on the other side. >> one inmate who confided in him over the years is steven hughley. hughley was sentenced to life for killing his mother and given a death sentence for murdering a prison counselor, but he knows him as something other than a cold-blooded killer. >> i discovered a side to steve that maybe no one else ever saw it. you wouldn't believe who his favorite musician is. bar wherery manilow. the soft, sentimental love song.

his favorite actress is shirley temple. this sounds so dumb, but he's one of the gentlest, warmest, kindest human beings i've known. >> as our cameras were rolling, hughley's execution date was days away. >> i told me he's ready to go and wants to do, because in his case he knows the rest of his life is confined, you know, every minute to this one tiny little cell, and it's just time. he's tired of the loneliness and emptiness and frustration, the hopelessness. so he's -- he prefers death. >> today hughley is being transferred to tennessee's death row located at the river bend maximum security institution more than 100 miles away. >> we're getting rid of one of our most dangerous inmates. we have to make sure everything setses in motion right and no mistakes are made. when you deal with an inmate like that, mistakes cost you.

i asked him how he was feeling today, and the statement he made was i'm alive, and he jokes about that. he jokes about it all the time. >> see you later. >> all right. >> that's part of prison life. you don't get attached to inmates. steve's a likeable guy, but he's a very dangerous individual. that's part of it. you see inmates come and go every day. to me, he's just one of the inmates that's come and gone. >> one week later steve hughley was granted a stay of execution when he decided to resume the appeals process. hughley may have to wait out his appeals at another facility. in 2005 after 110 years in operation, the tennessee department of corrections announced brushy mountain will be closed. the historic prison will b