at the louisiana state penitentiary have volunteered to make christmas presents for needy children. the toys will be distributed by law enforcement groups to churches and other charities. the prisoners make an estimated 5,000 toys every year. thank you for watching al jazeera america, stephanie cy earth rise is next, and you can get updates throughout the day on aljazeera.com. . (footballnames.ecl) >>> i'm amanda purr row. >> i'm in the jordan valley looking at how simple principles are bringing the desert to life. >> i'm in new york, where

i am the warden at louisiana state penitentiary. we have about 4000 lifers.ave more inmates in the release out of the front gates. that is a shame. we usually have one or two a month. we use resources taking care of old men instead of having resources for school and training, preparing young men to , withk into society shorter sentences, so they do not recidivate. you create victims by not letting the older ones go. he is now the lead organizer rapp. the organization monitors conditions in state prisons. -- yound in your case started to look at aging prisoners. talk about what you found. >> based on the same circumstances that i went through, i realized it was general policy, not simply directed at me. years.d 33 in 1978, i was arrested for a series of offenses, i went to trial and i was convicted -- the controlling offense was attempted murder on a police officer. all of the others subsumed under that. . was given 15 years teal life by the 15-year mark, i had made major achievements. i had earned before you are college degrees, an associate's in business. ma

. >> reporter: in may 1999 john thompson was just weeks away from his execution at the louisiana state penitentiary is his signed death warrant. so you may be wondering, what is he doing talking to me at his office in new orleans? did you think you would die on death row? >> i knew i was going to die. i didn't have anything else to say. even executed, i didn't see no one leaving off death row for sure. >> reporter: how john thompson survived is complicated to see the least. it would be more than a decade before he learned the district attorney's office in new orleans with held evidence from his defense team that would have kept him from going to prison all together. his story begins in january 1985 when thompson was charged with the murder of a white hotel executive. back then, thompson was just 22 with two children. after thompson's picture made front page news, three white teenagers came forward accusing him of carjacking them weeks before. so prosecutors charged him with robbery and got a conviction. a month later, they used that carjacking conviction to prove he had a violent history and convin