I had so many thoughts leading up to this assignment as of what it was going to be like.

Trying to imagine going down this road, knowing it's a one-way trip.

You know, this moment where you get your last glimpse at the world around you, but that glimpse

is through steel mesh.

Louisiana's Highway 66, its beautiful countryside, is undoubtedly not lost on the countless

men driven to the place where they'll most likely die.

That road ends here.

The Louisiana State Penitentiary, a former plantation, the size of Manhattan, 28 square miles.

Most people call it Angola, named after the African

country that was home to the slaves who once worked these very fields. Now, Angola is the largest

maximum security prison in the country, confining about 5,500 men.

Today, I'm heading into ground zero of mass incarceration.

There's certainly a heightened awareness as I walk through here with no guards.

For the next couple of days, I'll be staying here, exploring key issues of the prison reform debate,

juveniles sentenced to life without parole.

We were children.

We got incarcerated.

Elastic effects of the war on drugs.

My sentence was 150 years.

The power of rehabilitation.

You know that you've done something, your life is worthwhile.

And the demand by many for punishment.

...