the day we met james randall, we heard a jaw-dropping story. >> originally i came to jail february 21st, 1981, convicted in san bernardino county for murder/robbery. >> given a sentence of 34 years to life, randall was 18 at the time of his conviction. but his rap sheet started much earlier. >> i have been gang banging since i was 9 years old. coming from an impoverished neighborhood in southern california, my mother and father tried to move to pomona to establish a better life for us. by the time we moved there, it's mostly a middle-to-upper class neighborhood, being already bit by the gang bug, we just exported the gang life out there. >> randall's gang activity led to his incarceration at the youth facility and soon after, prison. there he joined a militant gang called the black guerrilla family. >> ended up in 15 years solitary confinement. tried to get back into the main line, but it was kind of hard. after facing walls for 15 years and handcuffs everywhere i went, i didn't adjust too well. i still became more assaultive, more combative, more violent. >> after 25 years of incarcera