>> brangham: the grim details of ashley wilson's life give you a sense of the huge challenges she's going to face when she gets out. >> i was like a really good student and all that. so perfect poster child right? but i had some traumas in my childhood and some problems within me. >> brangham: like three out of four incarcerated adults, ashley has a history of substance abuse. she was ten when she started stealing her parents' vodka. she left home at 15. a year later, she was shooting heroin. >> first time i had someone inject it to me. and from there it was just off to the races. >> brangham: she began having sex for money to pay for her habit, and she overdosed, twice, in between stints in rehab. pregnant at 18, she tried to stay clean for the baby, but she relapsed again. >> i had a young infant, no job, behind on rent, very little support. >> brangham: police caught her in a sting at 19 and a judge sentenced her to 18 months in jail. ashley's incarceration was part of the nation's war on drugs. an unprecedented, ten-fold increase in arrests and prosecutions for non-violent drug crimes

the past several months, we've been following jordan and two other prisoners, carlos colon and ashley wilson they transition from a life behind bars to a life outside them. will they fall back into a life of crime, or will they manage to start over? this isn't an idle question, because, as the number of people behind bars in the u.s. has skyrocketed from 500,000 in 1980 to more than 2.2 million today, so has the cost of incarcerating them, which now costs taxpayers roughly $80 billion a year. now, there's a strong, bipartisan push to do something about this trend. and one of the key efforts is to reduce recidivism. right now, two-thirds of convicts end up getting re- arrested within three years of their release. so the goal is to somehow stop that revolving prison door from spinning. unlike a lot of newly-released prisoners, jordan taylor has a pretty big welcome mat laid out for him. he's back home in gaithersburg, maryland with his mom and dad. they've been married 26 years. his longtime girlfriend, shawna, also is thrilled to have him back. ex-prisoners with strong support systems do bett

. >> big stone gap is in theaters right now, it has an all-star cast, ashley judd, patrick wilson, just to name a few. it's based on the novel by adriana that janney. she has a new book out called all the stars in the heavens. she lives in new york city, and york. >> no, no. >> i didn't realize -- >> but it was my dream to be a new york italian. here i i am. >> you live in the city, you write about the country a lot. >> i grew up in big stone gap, the town, and had the privilege of writing and directing that movie based on the novel, and then i wrote a book about making movies, the golden age of hollywood. >> so this is a true story? >> it's a true story. >> but you take literary license? [laughter] historical fiction, so i made it up -- [laughter] it's basically the story of loretta young and clark gable and a young innovate nun that comes over from -- novice nun that comes over from italy, so it takes place over the whole last century. this book is the curl-up, winter read you've gotta have. >> i'm so excited. >> it just hit "the new york times" bestseller list, i thought i'd throw th