. >>> 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

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

. >> when our crew walked into the most notorious housing unit at the wabash valley correctional facility in indiana, we met an officer who gave a graphic example of how brutal the relationship between offenders and corrections staff can be. >> there was a medical emergency out on one of the ranges. as i went up to the cell to inquire as to what the emergency was, i said, what's your problem? he said, you are, bitch, and then spit a mouthful of blood onto me, striking me in the eye and the nose, got in my mouth and my ear, and all down my side here. >> wabash valley's secured housing unit or shu holds the prison's most dangerous inmates. >> why did you come back after that? >> you have to. you absolutely have to. if you let something like that stop you, then they win. if some of them were out on the streets, i would pity anyone they came across. >> but some inmates feel the shu only fuels their violent tendencies. >> the shu is terrible. it is a terrible place. i wouldn't wish this place on my worst enemy. >> as a shu inmate, billy brown is confined to a solitary cell. >> 24 hours, we sit

companions left their home in vincennes, indiana, traveled north along the wabash through fields and forests amid the valleysnd over the hills until they reached the very ground on which we stand today. here they broke bread, they said their prayers, and in the words of father sorin, they established an institution with a noble mission to, in their words, become a powerful means for good. and so it has. for 175 years, the men and women who have come before you in this place and graduated from this university have gone forth to do good. the university of notre dame is special. [applause] from the arts to engineering, from politics to prose, you've been given a strong foundation of critical thought and knowledge. you've studied the textbooks of your discipline and learned the facts and figures that you'll need to succeed in your chosen field and profession. but a notre dame education doesn't end with the formation of the mind. in these halls, you've experienced the formation of the heart. your education here has prepared you for a life of service to your families, your communities and our country and the count