[ laughter ] >> scott shafer sat down with frank to reminisce about robin williams and the golden era and comedy of the city. >> it's clear from the outpouring of emotion this week in the bay area how robin williams touched so many people's lives. nowhere more than in the world of comedy. >> that's right. >> take us back to the 19 80s when you were producing comedy tonight right here on kqed and how did he fit in? >> during that period in the '80s all comedians seemed to migrate to san francisco whether from boston, from the midwest, you had bobby slaten from new york. everybody came here to get their chops together because the audience here in san francisco would welcome them, open up to them, and you could do anything you wanted to do. >> what role did robin williams have in creating that, because he obviously found that here, as well? >> right, he was a local. so he did anything he wanted and saw that, whether he worked at the boardinghouse with david -- for david allen or even there is a couple north beach places that he performed at that are no longer there, the inner section. bu

scott shafer takes a look at a no program aimed at addressing the growing number of lifers getting out. >> reporter: hundreds of inmates mere at solano prison in vacaville are hoping for a second chance, and officials think the key is rehabilitation. >> hurt people. >> reporter: these prisoners are doing sentences like 25 years to life, some for the most heinous crimes imaginable. >> the hurt that we carry, we take it out on somebody else. >> reporter: they don't know if they'll ever get out. still, they're trying to understand what went wrong and how they ended up here. >> i see your hands up. >> one of my biggest fears in the past was rejection, right? and communication skills were lacking, to say the least, because of my alcohol and drug abuse. >> in my family, a lot of it always went back to, you know, quit complaining. i'll give you something to cry about. >> reporter: some of these inmates are trained to work as mentors to fellow offenders. take jose hernandez. >> we can't do nothing to change the past of what we did because it's written in permanent ink. but we do have a choice