. >>> on the western edge of southern indiana is the wabash valley town of carlisle where main street conjures images of a bygone era, and except for the daily passing of the csx freight line, this one-light town might be all but forgotten. just a couple miles down u.s. 41, however, is evidence that carlisle is anything but forgotten. >> it's 2 1/2 hours away from everywhere. it's just the middle of nowhere. what goes on out here? prison. that's what goes on out here. >> surrounded by little else but big skies, the wabash valley correctional facility houses more than 2,000 convicted felons, including some of the highest security prisoners in the state. it is a fortress among farms. >> we have a total of seven towers blanketing the entire facility, including one tower that's in the center of our south yard. we've got the two sets of fences all the way around the facility. the inner fence is a stun fence, it's a nonlethal stun fence. the outside fence another 14-foot fence covered with razor ribbon. shaker alarm on the motion detector. motion detector in between the fences. we think our

i'm in wabash valley.n ccu for a fight. >> beehler is at the start of a three-month stint in segregation. >> we was playing cards. got -- got and he smacked my face to the cards. so i from the back hit him a couple times. and then he is on the ground. i start kicking him. >> so what brought you to wabash in the first place? >> i wanted to see my brother, though, because he is in a juvenile block. so i got in trouble just to come here. >> you got in trouble on the outside to get arrested so you could come to wabash to see your brother who is already here? >> yeah. it didn't work out that way. they moved him. the day before i got there, he was adult block. >> what is your first memory of getting in trouble or doing something bad? do you remember how old you were? >> i was 9. i was at school. yeah. i got in a fight. i grabbed a chair and i threw it at the teacher. and he tried to grab me. and i grabbed his watch and i split his wrist open. so they locked me up. sent me to juvenile. >> when it comes to kids an

. >> with more than 2,000 inmates, the wabash valley correctional facility in southwestern indiana has a larger population and more acreage than the rest of the small town in which it's located. >> carlisle is a very small community, approximately 1,200 is their population. it's comprised of a school. it has a grocery store. it has a gas station, a couple of little restaurants, a dollar store and that's really about all that's in carlisle. >> while carlisle might be a remnant of a simpler time, inside the twin security fences of wabash is evidence of how some aspects of society have grown harder. >> we're seeing a lot more offenders coming in much younger than they were before and much more violent than in the past as well. correctional officers are the backbone of the facility. they're the ones dealing with the offenders on a daily basis. they are frontline. >> i've been hearing about the correction setting since i was 8 years old. i grew up around it. so coming in here was actually kind of easy for me. i already knew what to expect. i've heard all the war stories. >> officer jarrod m

. >>> like those at many other maximum security prisons, hundreds of inmates at indiana's wabash valley correctional facility seek to make a statement about themselves through tattoos. some might use their ink to keep other inmates at a distance, to advertise their gang affiliation or the heinous act that brought them here. 37-year-old bill abbott got two of his more prominent tattoos prior to coming to wabash. little did he know how ironic they would become. >> my horns. >> why? what did you do bad? >> it was my way of life at the time. not no evil or devil worshipping or nothing like that. i've always been told by all the christian family that i've known that if you're not serving god, you're serving the devil. i thought, that's going to be hard to do. if i can get them covered up with a halo, i would. but i don't think that will work. >> can you show me what's on your forearms? it says, am i evil? yes, i am. it's the name of a song by metallica. they've been one of my favorite groups since i can remember. >> abbott has been in and out of prison since he was 18. >> a lot of thefts. po

. >>> indiana's wabash valley correctional facility houses nearly 2200 inmates.ore than one-third of them are doing time for serious violent crimes. unless isolated in solitary confinement, the vast majority of inmates live in two-man cells. pairings are critical and avoiding a volatile mix of cell mates a constant challenge. >> we try to not put people doing life with people who are going home next year or blacks with whites or white supremist where with someone with a child molestation case just to resolve the conflict before it happens. >> but even with careful screening conflicts can still arise between cell mates. >> there is a guy in the infirmary with several injuries to his facial and head area. at this point he is saying he had a seizure. we will try to talk to him. he may have been assaulted with a hot pot. we're going to talk to him and see if he is willing to talk at all. >> the victim is curt its cash who is serving a 29-year sentence for burglary. >> cash? >> yeah. >> what's up with you, man? >> you can stay laid down if you want to? what happened?

at prisons like wabash valley correctional facility in southwestern indiana. but wabash also houses many doing time for far more serious crimes. men like jeremy blanchard. >> i have never been a drug abuser. i've never been a drunk. i knew what i done when i done it. i knew the heinous nature of what i done. i can still to this day remember nearly every blood spot that was in that house. i can remember the wallpaper, the way the bodies were laid. i can remember nearly everything that happened that night. >> blanchard has served a little more than one year of a 195-year sentence. but his facial tattoos will forever commemorate both his crime, the triple murder and the moniker the local media gave him, kokomo slayer. >> it's telling you, that's what i've done. that's who i am. that's what i'm about. yes. >> blanchard tracked down his former girlfriend, jessica berg, her mother, and her brother's boyfriend when they traveled to kokomo, indiana, to attend a funeral for jessica's grandmother. blanchard broke into the house they were staying in, hid inside until they

the wabash valley correctional facility in southwestern indiana has a larger population and more over the edge. and i want that on record. >> increased cell inspections bring bad news for a convicted sex offender. >> he wants to be here because he's still being molded. he's a kid and he's turning into something. >> delivering papers is temporary. >> but it's tough to find a job. >> i'm just glad you have aspirations. >> coming up -- two buy boyhood friends find themselves across from each other. >>> and later, leonard tries to rehab him. >> i treat him with respect but i do not trust him. @ñ >>> i recognize that i have a family out there that really needs me. and have spent a lot of time away from me. i can't say i've only been the best for them. matter of fact, their lives probably would have been a lot better without me in it. >> the wabash institution is where some of the most violent inmates are housed here and they have been known to hurt each other. james stone has been in prison for 25 years for attempted murder and has had more than a couple scrapes during that time. some inma

now he's one of more than 2,000 inmates at the wabash valley correctional facility in southwestern indiana. >> yeah, i had a great home, a great mother. you know what i mean? but by the same token, when i step outside my front door, it's the jungle. coming home from school, you may get into a fight, you may get jumped, you may get shot, you know what i mean, may get harassed by the police, but when you grow up around that, it becomes normal. you get accustomed to it, and some may make it out of the neighborhood, if you can see an alternative lifestyle. but so many get consumed in a lifestyle that leads to prison or death. the street don't give you too many bright endings, man. i ran the streets, man. i did the street life. i'm in here washing clothes by hand and eating bull [ bleep ] chicks like that on the street. i wear my white t-shirt one time and throw it away and buy a new one. you make do with what you've got in prison, you know? the things you think you'll never do out on the street is like a luxury in here. this is everything, your kitchen, your bathroom, your laundry room, your b

. >> the wabash valley correctional facility in indiana is home to 2,100 inmates. 53 of them are children under the age of 18, sentenced as adults. >> do not be judgmental. they've already been to a judge and a jury. that's not our job to be judgmental of what their crimes are. >> although the prisoners have been sentenced to crimes ranging from burglar to murder, there are some things they hold in common. many come from the same cities, and in some cases, same family. >> i think other people in society and especially around my county and stuff probably think of me as a cold-blooded murder or whatever. if they got a chance to talk to me, they would know different. my brother is hoping for forgiveness, too. >> we've always been pretty close. i feel a quiet person, stays to himself. he usually gets along with everybody. just draws and writes a lot. it's really all he does. >> two years ago, brothers blade and bennie reed were sentenced to wabash for a burglary that went awry. even though they were placed in the youth unit, they were kept separate. once bennie turned 18, he moved into the ad

 >>> at the wabash valley correctional facility in southwest indiana, prison officials allowed us tomeras to some of the inmates in order to let them record personal thoughts in the privacy of their cells. among them was carlton wright. >> time is a mother [ bleep ], man. it's nothing but you and your thoughts and these brick walls. you feel me? and if you ain't strong, man, you're going to crumble? you know what i mean? until you walk in my shoes and did this, you can't tell what it's like, man. it's hard. doing time is hard. >> during his time at wabash, wright says he's felt vulnerable because of the color of his skin. >> other prisons i've been at, it's more hispanics and blacks, you know what i mean, but this is a heavily populated white prison. it's a culture shock. >> but not every inmate at wabash is concerned with maintaining a racial divide. adrian davis and tim harris have found some common ground. particularly when it comes to personal style. davis regularly helps harris figure out what to do with his afro-like hair. >> it's harder braiding white dude's hair than black gu

. >> wabash valley has approximately 43 different gangs. approximately around 400 different gang members. that doesn't reflect all of our suspected members. those are all confirmed members. and we have approximately somewhere between 200 to 300 suspected gang members at this facility. >> most of the gangs are divide along racial lines. but the majority of gang members here belong to white supremacist gangs. but the arian brotherhood and the knights. >> prison officials suspect that a growing religion might be a front for white supremacist gangs. markus murrays with one of the leader at wabash, denies that. >> there has never been anything in my studies that says, one race is more dominant over another. one culture more dominant over another nor one religion dominant over another. the believers believer that our religion is fine. you're religion is fine. >> guy rat cliff, who has been practicing for several years here, says there's one group who is not welcome. >> if we found out that somebody in the -- was a child molestation he would be ba

when we visited indiana's wabash valley correctional facility, officers in the security housing unit the latest in a string of violent incidents involving convicted burglar, douglas mccombs. >> since he's been inside the shu, he's been on strip cell. when you see the offender coming out of his cell only wearing his underwear, he was on strip cell for resisting staff or trying to assault staff before. we have had trouble with him on about every range we've put him on so far. >> i can't get along with people too much. especially when they're evil. >> one of the people mccombs claims was evil, officer sachen. >> an average day in the shu can be pretty mundane. you have rec and showers to do. chow to serve, md sick call, so on and so forth. some days like today get a little more exciting. we had an offender who became belligerent in the shower. >> the offender was mccombs who told us he had good reason to be upset. >> try to get me to take a shower. but they don't have no soap or nothing. i said, ma'am, i just came from the other side, it was nasty where i come from. i need something to