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My answer. it may not fit you, because you're not me. but the main thing to do is face the situation, accept what it is, and try to find a reasonable, honest, positive way to get through that situation and come out improved on the other side. >> one inmate who confided in slagle over the years is stephen hughley. hughley was sentenced to life for killing his mother and given a death sentence for murdering a prison counselor. slagle knows him as something other than a cold-blooded killer. >> i discovered a side to steve, maybe no one else ever saw it. you wouldn't believe who his favorite music...

The most famous escape was made by james earl ray nine years after he killed civil rights leader martin luther king jr. ray had been an escapee from missouri state penitentiary when he assassinated king. >> the main thing he was interested in was escaping. now, when i first met him, i was interested in escaping too. we got into a couple of plots together that never worked out. one we were going to go through the roof of the old auditorium where they showed movies. we did get the hole cut but it was discovered before we had a chance to use it. we didn't get caught, we didn't get locked up over ...

>> this is a song i wrote a few years ago. every year i change the amount of years it's been since i've been in prison. ♪ it's been 18 long years ♪ in this old cold prison sometimes i feel so all alone ♪ sweet mountain of home ♪ ♪ so far away ♪ i'm lonesome and blue ♪ that's all i can say >> one of the oldest inmates in brushy mountain's permanent population is james slagle. slagle is serving a 318-year sentence for murder and has been here longer than any other inmate. >> i've been in the tennessee prison system without getting out, i started my 39th year three weeks ago today. ...

I decided, jim, you've got to become something else. and so i looked into me and saw the ugliness. i saw the hatred, the violence, the misery. and i said i'm going to be something else. i am going to become a thinking man. by the way, that's hard to do. but i spent years reading, studying, looking within myself. i'm one of the most fortunate men that ever lived. >> slagle runs the library and provides legal help to other inmates. >> where they made the error on your time, your two sentences are running concurrently, which means they run together. however, when they give you your jail credit, t...

Isolated and escape-proof prisons. >> when you came up the road, you probably noticed how it sits back in the hollow, you know? you got the bluff on one side and it's surrounded by mountains the last stop because the road ends at brushy mountain. and there's -- there's nowhere else to go. >> but that didn't stop the prison's most notorious inmate from attempting to escape. in 1977, nine years after he killed civil rights leader martin luther king jr., james earl ray went over the wall. during our shoot at brushy mountain, we met an inmate who was not only there, but tried to talk ray out of it...