behind catastrophic damage. it is a delicate balance. i'm contessa brewer. that is all for this edition of "caught on camera." there are two million people behind bars in america. we open the gates, lock up. >> it was like out of a movie and something i have never seen before or thought that i would be a part of. >> kind of depressing. this isry he is son. this is the first time i have ever seen it, so, i'm kind of nervous about it. >> if somebody commits premeditated first-degree murder tells you they are remorse, they are a liar. how are you going to be

remorseful about something you intended to do. >> my whole life was criminal. i wasn't out a month and caught new charges. >> i escaped from a secure compound northeast correctional. i packed myself up in boxes and shipped myself out. >> nothing to lose and they would rather die trying to escape than to stay here. >> just keep your eyes open and all your facilities working at the same time because anything can happen in the any time. >> we don't want what happened to one of the mess of if heer s here to happen to someone else. >> the brushy mountain complex everybodies a unique purpose in the state's prison system. for first-time in mates often just a point of entry. for the most violent it is a last stop. as a result, brushy mountain has an unusual population. young men facing a harsh reality of life without freedom and hardened lifers who find it

difficult to remember anything else. >> brushy mountain. when you came up the road you probably noticed that sits back in the hollow. the bluff on one side and surrounded by mountains. the last stop because the road ends at brushy mountain and this is no where else is to go. >> when i first come up my he heart was beating hard. i mean you could see where the windows are and 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 is killers here. have been for years. always will be. >> the most violent inmates of are housed in the prison's maximum security unit. >> there are times when other institutions needs to transfer an inmate who may be causing problems and brushy is known as the end of the lien and if you come here you stay with us. >> inmates in the max unit are

locked up 23 hours a day with just you 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 7 days a week. you come here, you feed, you clean. whatever need to be cleaned. you know what i mean? i have to deal with individuals who have been in a lot of trouble but then i have to deal with the ones that are off in their mind a little bit. sometimes it might feel like that they want to throw do-do on me that day or urine. this is what we got to deal with. >> we do a lot of work, you though what i mean but it is good to have a job because we locked down are locked down if

23-1. >> while serving a 22 year sentence camera labor pain kam. >> we need the weed and they didn't want to give us the weed to we went in and took the weed. we went in with butcher thieves and stuck it to their necks and took their weed. is how we do it. >> the jen mates at brushy mountain max unit exhibited extreme violence before or after arriving in prison. >> they just don't care. you know, they would rather try to cut you than look at you because they don't care and they have thog to live for. -- they is nothing to live for. >> i never killed anyone without warning. even my mother i warned her and trying to avoid the situation. >> it was the cold blooded killing of his own mother that first landed steven in prison

in 1986 when was just 18 years old. >> we had problems for years and it 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 your little wh whores calling e and it was just like i snapped and i told the girl that i had a date with. i said i will be out there to get you in a little bit, i'm fixing to kill this bitch and i hung up on the phone. i carried her and dumped her in the river and went on my day. >> hueghely was given a life sentence for killing his mother. five years later while incarcerated at a different facility he killed again. >> june 30, 1991 when i stabbed another inmate 67 times.

>> after receiving a life sentence for killing the inmate, he committed a second prison murder. he stabbed a counselor 36 times with a homemade shank. >> i mean it had gotten to the point are where he made so many derogatory statements toward me so i sat down and formulated a plan and the plan was to kill him, get the death penalty and use the state of tennessee's lethal injection as a evens of means of suicide. i had the home made shank in my left-hand and swung and hit him through his right lung and he fell off of the stool and i was stabbing through his arms to get to his vital organs. i wanted to put so many holes in him that there was no chance he could survive. my philosophy has always been if you put enough holes in them they can't plug them up and

chances are they will die. >> he was sentenced to death for the murder of the counselor and transferred to brushy mountain. >> he represents a particular i guess challenge for the department because not only did he kill on the outside but he has killed on the inside. >> with his execution date looming, huegheley will soon be transported to death row. >> if somebody who commits premeditated first-degree murder tells you they have remorse they are a liar. it is impossible to commit premeditated first-degree murder and then turn and and say you have remorse for it. ahow are you going to be remorseful about something you intended to do? coming you up, inmates enterry son for the first time -- enter prison for the first time and confront their worst fears. >> i never thought i would end up in any penetentiary, much less brushy mountain.

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brushy mountain correctional complex serve 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. whether they will stay at brushy high temperature or be transferred to another state prison depends on the results of a classification process required of each inmate upon arrival. >> when we receive people from the county jail we generally receive no records. we don't know who we have got, what they are capable of. whether or not they will need a lot of support. can they live in the general population in the prison or need special support. it is a safety issue for them and a safety issue for us. >> they are evaluated to see what the educational level is and what type of skills they

have and once they are classified we try to send them to an institution that will benefit them. >> they are brought through the trap gate and brought over here. all of the facial hair shaved off of them. strip searched for drugs or weapons. and they are taken up to the entire classification unit and pro o setsed medical and classification does what they got to do. >> this is the first time i have been to the penitentiary. i have been here before visiting but for the first time i don't really know the emotion. maybe i'm a little numb in my head but i'll be all right. >> 32-year-old jason rogers is about to begin a 24 year sentence for aggravated robbery. >> you are about 171. i need you to step right here on the footprint. right here. >> i never thought i would end up in any penitentiary much

less brushy mountain. that is not the type of person that i am. i might get throwed in jail tore drinking or something. maybe a barroom fight or something like that but not penitentiary stuff. >> once the offenders of identified and fingerprinted they undergo an in depth psychological exam i need to ask you a few routine questions and get a little his tore i have. jason, how did you get yourself into something like that? briefly tell me what happened? >> basically a drug deal that went bad. >> okay. >> jason, have you ever used much in the way of drugs? >> yeah, i 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. they will say no i'm not an addict or alcoholic. i can handle my liquor, i can handle my pot. >> i tried drugs but i'm not a

drug addict. >> t gotten you arrested this many times and you ran over somebody and now you are in prison it doesn't look like it is working for me. >> i'm an old country boy. i go to work and come home and drink a six pack. that is basically about it. >> it is denial in the classic sense that they are 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? >> pain killers. >> like hydrocodone. >> and morphine. >> oxycontin? >> yes, sir. >> okay. have you been through any treatment for drug abuse? >> no, sir. >> okay. do you think you might be interested in participating in something like that while you are here? >> yes, sir. >> okay. we'll have you up here monday, okay. >> 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 of them won't admit it but they all are. just let them see a friendly face and tell them they are not going to get raped and beat up and things like that they have been told. >> a two man cell close to 23 hours a day. >> i heard of that. >> you are not going to shower with 8 or 10 guys and there is not 20 guys standing right there watching you. you are pretty much going to be in the cell. >> not only is john kerry an intake counselor he is also an inmate. >> a convict who has been locked up since 1982 and i sat in the same chair that that man has and i know how much difference it can make it you have someone to talk to and someone you feel like is on your side. >> he is serving a life sentence for a murder he commit the in his early 20s. >> we were out drinking.

just out partying and having a good time and an argument broke out you know. it started out i thought we were going to get it squashed. then it escalated and got out of hand. the guy was stabbed to death. it was a pretty brutal murder, you know. and i said that is something i have to live with every day. i would love to be out there and be with my family but the bible says you reap what you sow. >> before they can be assigned to new cells the men must undergo one final step. >> what size shirts you need? >> 1 x. only thing i found out it is not like the movies. that is basically what they told me that you don't have to go around worrying about who is going to jump out and get you on every little corner and stuff like that. >> eight hours after arriving rogers faces his first night in

the opinio penitentiary. >> kind of depressing. this is premeditated first-degree murder son. the this is prison. kind of nervous about it. i'm kind of in awe right now. reality. yeah. that is what i'm feeling. reality. you don't feel the same. but i have to adapt to that. coming up. >> guys have nothing to lose and they would rather die trying to escape than to stay here. >> inmates risk everything for a chance at freedom. >> i escaped from a secure compound, northeast correctional. i packed myself up in boxes and shipped myself out. money on car insurance with geico... yeah, a little bit more of the lime green love yeah... or letting them know they can reach geico 24/7 using the latest technology. go on, slather it all over. don't hold back, go on...

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we have a behavior problem. inmates, high profile. escape risk. people that tried to escape. any time there is something like that they send them to brushy mountain. guys that have nothing to lose and would rather die trying to

escape than to stay here. >> brushy mountain had a long history of attempted escapes and i guess 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 fly escaped from a secure compound northeast correctional. packed myself up in boxes and shipped myself out. i was part of the warehouse crew. i have taken yoga for several years and squeezed myself in and brought some water with me. >> about an hour and a half before they shipped me out. they took me to north carolina and caught me while i was trying to get out of the truck. >> king was sent to brushy mountain's max unit. >> this is supposed to be the most secure building in the state. and that is why they house them here. we have got the wall around the outside and between the stone

wall and this building we got razor wire and chain link fence plus the towers on the walls. don't really have an avenue to get out. we have certain inmates we to move once a month from cell to cell to make sure they are not trying to tunnel out or something of that nature. >> i guess they believe i'm an extreme escape risk because of my military background and escape attempts. at one time they found some home made explosives in my cell and that kind of didn't help my case at all. i have been on max for 12 years. sometimes in my rare moments i think i probably want to go again and sometimes not. if i thought i had a chance to get back into court maybe i would stop thinking about it. every man wants his freedom. >> michael king could spend the rest of his life in max. but he is far from the most notorious escapee at brushy

mountain. the most famous escape was made by james earl ray nine years after he killed martin luther king, jr. he had been an escapee from missouri when assassinated king. >> the main thing he was interested in was escaping. when i first met him i was interested in escaping, too. we got into a couple of plots together that never worked out. we did get a hole cut but it was discovered before we had a chance to use it. we didn't get locked up over it. they found it and tightened the security in that area. >> then in 1977, ray plotted another escape with james slagle and two other inmates. the plan was to use a makeshift ladder crafted from chains. they knew the guard closest to the wall took an afternoon lap. slagle believed that his high

profile would lead them to being picked up after the escape. >> i said there will be a million cops in the valley and no one is going to get aweigh. i said i don't believe in wasting my energy. so i just sat and watched it happen. that is 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, of course, james went over. the number one man. doug went over. spider montor monkey climbed i. when jerked he fell backwards and fell off the wall. the ladder fell back down. they were at the horseshoe pits and pitching horseshoes. he was watching the guy go over and no one seems to care and i'm serious. he run over and went over. about that time a guy running laps come around and saw dog go over and stopped and was running in place and he shrugged and he went over.

>> 15 minutes letter as the climbing over creaming over a guard in another tower took notice strikin strike firing at viking the last escapee in the shoulder. >> when they had an escape they would blow the whistle. >> when you hear the whistle blow you get a shotgun and dog and go to the woods because the inmates back then, there was a $2,500 woundty on inmates. >> within three days all of the men were captured. james earl ray discovered hiding in heavy purchase not far from the prison. eventually new security measures were installed including racer wire and motion sensors. if a prisoner gets past the deterrents they still must escape brushy mountain's bloodhounds. >> daisy is about two years old. the best tracking dog we have right how to. if an inmate leaves from behind the wall because they will go

straight up the mountain one way or another and that is where she would come into play and basically the only way you would find them in the mountains is with one of these dogs because it is so thick there is no way where to go. you could wander around days in the mountains just lost. they are silent trackers. people watch movies on tv and you see a guy with two or three dogs and chasing the inmates and all barking. they don't bark. they keep their those to the ground and track. that is all they do. shele pick up on just a human scent and follow it until she either loses it or you find the person you are 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 is it. >> coming up, the most dangerous job for brushy mountain's correctional officers. >> anything can happen at any time on the row. the best thing is keep your

eyes open and all of your facilities working at the same time. and later, condemned jen mate hueghley leaves brushy mountain for possibly the last time. and she forgot to pay her credit card bill on time. good thing she's got the citi simplicity card. it doesn't charge late fees or a penalty rate. ever. as in never ever. now about that parking ticket. [ grunting ] [ male announcer ] the citi simplicity card is the only card that never has late fees, a penalty rate, or an annual fee, ever. go to citi.com/simplicity to apply. or an annual fee, ever. [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance protects them.

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much of the west in one of the wurst the heat waves in years. expected to last through the weekend. las vegas tied a record friday of 115 degrees. president obama sunday makes a speech to the youth of south africa at the university of capetown and monday heads on the third leg of his african trip. biden asked ex-tore wan officials to turn down edward snowden's asylum request. now, back to "lockup." ♪ officers of the brushy mountain correctional facility in eastern, tennessee, know the importance of staying vigilant

at all times. though the inmates lives are tightly controlled even the most routine activities can suddenly turn deadly. >> make sure you got everything out of your pockets. we got 47 going out on chains and they all got to be back and ready to go by 9:30. usually the chain mornings are rush-rush. >> every day a number of inmates are transported either to court or to other state prisons. correctional officers call the transportation process going out on chain. >> what we do is we he call the blocks one at a time, bring them in and they bring all their property and then we pack all their property in a green bag that is numbered and we shake them down and they sit there and wait until the chain bus arrives. >> the prisoner transports are one of the most dangerous times for staff. >> step right through here are. >> they don't know until that morning. that morning when we call for chain riders then they know

they are leaving because you got security issue there's. if they know the day before they can make a phone call and say hey, the bus will be going this route and we will be going to morgan county help me out or something. >> take that and set it over in that bunk. >> when it comes to transporting inmates, chain bus officers take no risks. >> well, if you notice we put leg irons and shackles on. they are sitting back behind two caged doors anyway. >> behind you. have a seat. try not to spit on the carpet. they will be with you in a minute. i don't know what kind of hoff i have going to be shown but i guarantee you will like it. >> lordy, he's crazy. >> anything can happen at any time on the road. you don't know whether you are going to be coming up on a wreck or whether it has been staged or whatever, you know. 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 an advanced phone call made by a brushy mountain inmate ultimately led to the killing of veteran officer wayne cotton morgan. >> his job was to transport inmates in and out o of the facility to outside locations and other facilities. to court, hospital runs. funeral visits. and his main function was a transportation officer. >> one year prior to our visit, officer morgan was assigned to take inmate george hyatt to the rohn county courthouse. >> i knew the inmate for several years here at the institution and i wasn't your common every day inmate. very manipulative and could get things done and you not know that he was work the case unless you knew and watched him close. >> for officer morgan the trip

to the courthouse was uneventful. >> as they were exiting the court and getting into the security van to come back the inmates wife drove up behind the van and jumped out with a weapon and to assist in getting her husband to escape and she he shot officer morgan and they did escape. >> not wearing a bulletproof vest, officer morgan was killed. >> it was probably around 9:30, quarter 'til 10:00 and we were listening on the radio and a whole lot wasn't coming over but we all started realizing there was something majorly wrong. i was shocked. usually we don't show our feelings here at work but on that day on august 9, we not -- not too many people had control. >> hyatt and his wife jennifer were apartmen apprehended 36 hs

later. >> we never thought they wouldn't come back. this is one thing that they tortion our staff they put 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 hyatt used a smuggled cell phone to orchestrate the deadly ambush. cell phones are now considered dangerous contraband at brushy mountain. >> this is something the department has furnished us in the reason. a cell phone detector. microprocessore high crow circuits in all cell phones and detects them whether turned on or off. active or not. >> i'm getting an indication right here. unfortunately, it also picks up walkman and things like that. >> 99 times out of 100 it might

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

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♪ while brushy mountain's most dangerous and violent inmates are segregated from the rest of the poppy lease in one person cells the majority consider on lakes in one person cells the majority are in two person cells. >> the sink and toilet facility and a shelf with some books. very close. two inmates in there really doesn't have a lot of room to move around. >> living in such small quarters it is essential that inmates learn how to get along. >> a lot of people don't do it like that. a lot of people what is theirs

is theirs and they don't want anybody touching it. we known each other over a year now and done time together and we get along. not a problem. food, cigarettes whatever we got. both of us. it doesn't matter. no sense in being an ass about it. if he needs something he has got it. if i need something i have got it. >> sky bishop is serving time for aggravated assault with began with an argument over a parking place. >> got in a fight with a guy and stabbed him and i run his buddy off the road and i got 7 years for it. >> dennis is serving for attempted murder. >> shot one with a leg and one with a bow and arrow with a gut. in the state of tennessee you cannot shoot people regardless in your house or anything. if they are trying to come to rob you, run or whatever.

you cannot defend yourself in the state of tennessee any more. >> at time he was on an 8 day high from methamphetamine and didn't realize that the intruders were his friends. >> basically what i thought when they come in like i had friends running in and out of the house all the time it was a bachelor house you know what i'm saying and basically i thought they were coming to rob hoe. i done run them off and i decided they was trying to get me and that is the kind of person i was on the street. if i thought you was trying to get me i was going to get you first. >> i have known him for over a year. that is my buddy. we always get along. i had him moved down here. we wanted to move in. >> it has been four days since jason rogers arrived at brushy mountain. despite his initial anxieties he acy justing to life behind bars. >> actually you caught me on another good day. i got out up there out of the small cell and got put into a

bigger one. i had a cell mate up there and they moved me into a cell up there for another 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 your thoughts. i would be classified to maybe here, maybe another penitentiary in another 30 days. sometimes the waiting list is 8 months. no telling how long i will be here. >> this is my daughter. she will be 8 next month. >> sales is 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 when i get on the phone with her the first thing come out of her mouth dad i miss you. you know what i'm saying. i want to be out there where i can touch her and hold her and

take her places to the park, swimming and things like that. i mean it worries me. it really do. you know because that is my world. that is the only child i have. and i love her with all my heart. >> sales shares a cell with another parent, ashanti henry. >> i am going to tell my family i love them. i'm going to try to come out of this madness soon. stay strong. ray, ray stay strong. stay strong. i love you you all. i'm trying to do my time and get on back to my family. i got a bess right now on the streets. coy be making money. i own a mobile candy truck selling coffee and candy and potato chips and white t-shirts. >> when 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

pills. currently serving 14 years for it. >> another thing that keeps me going is these right here letters from 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 had panties come through. we had letters with perfume and then pubic hair with body fluids. of course, they are allowed to have pictures. but some pictures we do have to deny if there is nudity. >> is is real graphic. >> nude photos. >> a lady in columbia sent this. >> columbia. >> she writes to him. >> she is missing him.

>> okay. >> she is missing him bad. we will reject it and he will be sent a letter stating why it was rejected. and then we will return it back to her. >> along with receiving mail inmates also look forward to the limited time outside their cells. back in and locoed down again until that afternoon when they have the evening meal and then go to the yard for an hour and locked back down for the rest of the day except for ten minutes where they take a shower. >> you can't be doing a lot of talking and they will say you are not eating. you are talking instead of eating. >> you got to eat real fast. i think they only give you about 20 minutes to eat.

only allow so much. hurry up. keep them moving. >> following their meal, brushy mountain inmates get to spend one hour in the prison yard. with such limited freedom, inmates spend their time in a variety of ways. india mcdowell spends his time braiding other men's hair. >> i do it for a living. sometime i might do it -- >> usually five dol dollars. >> i give a discount. i'm a fellow cristhian and i like to help people out. >> i let him do the style he wants to do. >> that is cool. >> stylist's choice. >> right now, i'm on a difficult schedule. i got to do something easy that i know i can get through it quick. when we get out for the lunch time on the right time, but we get like 30-45 minutes. sometimes get cut even shorter. >> most inmates prefer lefting weights in the prison exercise yard. >> some people sit around and

get lazy. want to go out there and be active when you get out. you want to work out and have a perfect body when you do leave here. >> push, push, push. come on. get another one in. push, push, push. push, push. good one. >> a the lovely afternoon of these guys motivated to lift those kind of weights. get off the bar and come over here and mess with the big dogs. >> get that money, man. get that money. >> you know, you try to keep your mind off the streets and your family and things of that nature. every time you turn around you see bars and things like that. so you know this little hour that we get relieves a lot of stress. a whole lot. are. >> coming up, stephen 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 he will be confined every minute to this one tiny

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the brushy mountain correctional complex is one of the oldest prisons in tennessee. its roots in this rural section of the state run deep. >> brushy mountain is in my blood. i've been around it my whole life. my father used to bring me up here at 4 or 5 years old to get a haircut back when it was a full max institution. >> my grandfather, father and uncle and my husband have all worked here. >> i mean, you've got just family members and cousins and dads and brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles. it's a part of our everyday life. >> the roots run equally as deep for some of the inmates. >> everybody in my family has been through this place. brothers, cousins, uncles, grandfathers, fathers. they have all been through here. >> this is charles dikes' fourth time in prison. he's facing five years for auto theft.

>> i just finished a 12 year sentence in the northeast. i wasn't out a month and caught my charges. i lived my whole life as a criminal. most people, they fight with that every day. they say i'm going to get out, i'm going to do this. i'm going to get out and do that. they can't come to grips with themselves and realize what they have become is this. this is what they breathe, they eat, they feel. just because they go home, don't mean they leave. their mind is still here. >> today dikes is being transferred to another state prison and has no regrets. >> what's your number? 75832. >> what's your birthday? >> 1/21/77. i'm packed up and ready to go. >> ready to get out of here? >> yeah. >> why is that? >> this place sucks. >> exit. >> 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'll more than likely be back. >> because brushy mountain is an intake and processing center for tennessee's prison system, dikes, like most of the inmates, eventually transfers to other facilities. ♪ i was 18 years old >> some, like brian lautenslager, are part of a permanent population slated to serve their entire sentences at brushy. >> i've been in prison all together 18 years. i come in when i was 18, got out at 24, came back at 25, now i'm 36. going on 37. >> lautenslager is serving a

90-year sentence for armed robbery and criminal intent to commit murder. >> this is a song called "snow-covered crime," a song i wrote years ago, and every year, i changed the amount of years it's been since i've been in prison. ♪ it's been 18 long years ♪ in this old cold prison ♪ sometimes i feel so all alone ♪ ♪ sweet mountain of home ♪ so far away ♪ i'm lonesome and blue >> one of the oldest inmates in brushy mountain's permanent population is james slagle. slagle is serving a 318-year sentence for murder and has been here longer than any other inmate. >> i've been in the tennessee prison system without getting out, i started my 39th year three weeks ago today. and i spent 24 years of that

time here at brushy mountain. i decided, jim, you've got to become something else. and so i looked into me and saw the ugliness. i saw the hatred, the violence, the misery. and 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. but i spent years reading, studying, looking within myself. i'm one of the most fortunate men that ever lived. >> slagle runs the library and provides legal help to other inmates. >> where they made the error on your time, your two sentences are running concurrently, which means they run together. however, when they give you your jail credit, they only put the jail credit on the one sentence and forgot to put it on there. somehow they have mistaken me for a wise man and think i can provide them insight into their problems and possible solutions, which i try. but i always tell them, this is

my answer. it may not fit you, because you're not me. but 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 slagle over the years is stephen hughley. hughley was sentenced to life for killing his mother and given a death sentence for murdering a prison counselor. slagle knows him as something other than a cold-blooded killer. >> i discovered a side to steve, maybe no one else ever saw it. you wouldn't believe who his favorite musician is. barry manilow. i mean, the music, the soft, sentimental love songs. that's his favorite music. his favorite actress is shirley

temple. this sounds so dumb, but he's one of the gentlest, warmest, kindest human beings. >> as our cameras were rolling, hughley's execution date was only days away. >> he told me he's ready to go. he wants to die because in his case he knows the rest of his life would be confined, you know, every minute to this one tiny little cell. and he's just tired. he's tired of the loneliness, the emptiness, the frustration, the hopelessness, so he prefers death. >> today hughley is being transferred to tennessee's death row located at river bend maximum security institution more than 100 miles away. >> we're getting rid of one of our most dangerous inmates. we just have to make sure everything sets in motion right and no mistakes are made. because 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, you know, he jokes about that. he jokes about it all the time. >> my life fits in two bags. >> see you later. all right. all right. that's part of prison life. you don't get attached to inmates. steve's a likable guy, but he's a very dangerous individual, and that's just part of it. you know, you see inmates come and go every day. and to me he's just one of the inmates that's come and gone. >> one week later, stephen was hughley was granted a stay of execution when he decided to resume the appeals process. he may have to wait out his appeals at another facility. in 2005, after 110 years in operation, the tennessee department of corrections announced that brushy mountain will be closed. the historic prison will be replaced by a more modern and

cost efficient facility, one designed to house more than 2,500 inmates. that's our report. thanks for watching. i'm john seigenthaler. msnbc takes you behind the walls of america's most notorious prisons, into a world of chaos and danger. now, the scenes you've never seen, "lockup: raw." when you come to prison you have to join a gang. you have no choice.