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name is andrew hundley. he might look like a lawyer, but he's actually the first juvenile lifer in louisiana to be released because of montgomery's supreme court case. >> all right, all right. today's the day. >> oh, yes, sir. >> hundley served 19 years in prison. at age 15, hundley was out with a teenage girl when they got into an argument. he became enraged and beat her over the head with a metal rod, and then tried to get rid of her body by burning it. you committed a pretty savage crime. >> it was a horrible crime. an unexcusable crime. and there's nothing i can do that will be able to undo that. thankfully they were able to look and see how i had changed. >> so, if a parole board said that he changed after 19 years, what will it say about henry montgomery after 55 years? you're the first guy that got out and he's still here. >> yeah, there's a lot of guilt. i went to prison
so, what about violent offenders? like the juvenile lifer group i met, or the men dying in hospice. we clearly met people in that prison who don't pose a threat to society. but in your opinion, do some people simply belong in prison because what they did was just reprehensible? >> well, because what they did was reprehensible and there continues to be opposition in the community and among the victim's family. and look, whether someone continues to pose a threat to society is a factor to be considered in whether they get released. >> but not the only factor? >> correct. it can't be the determinative factor to the exclusion of all others. >> both henry montgomery and clifford hampton face opposition from their victims'families. what will happen to them when they see the parole board? montgomery is about to find out. and someone has come to support him. his
board themselves. >> do you think you should be paroled? >> i should be because i'm not the same guy as a 17 year old guy. i'm 55 years older, you know? i'm mature enough to know i ain't going to do that again. >> but that might not matter. this is montgomery's second parole hearing. he was denied last year just a year before. and it seems clear to many why montgomery is still in prison. >> you killed a cop? >> yeah. >> the man montgomery murdered was deputy sheriff charles hurt from east baton rouge. in november 1963, montgomery, then 17 years old, was playing
>> he says it is time for americans to rethink prison from simply punishment to rehabilitation. you say it is about rehabilitation, but a lot of americans think it should be punishment. this should be hell. >> sure, but we could make somebody worse. >> but as i'm about to hear, plenty of the incarcerated do believe it's just about punishment. >> another day in the field. then own it support your immune system with a potent blend of nutrients and emerge your best every day with emergen-c chevy silverado factory-lifted trucks. where will they take you? ♪ ♪ (dog barks) ♪
could go home. >> yeah. >> i got life. i'm gonna keep my mind on it until i get out. i want to get out alive. >> clifford hamptons hope remains alive. he is about to face the parole board himself. i'm realizing he has been in prison longer than i've been alive. that's -- i can't even wrap my head around it. it was a unanimous vote. parole granted. i was there moments after a surprisingly subdued hampton learned the news. so, now a new adventure begins? >> yeah. >> life on the outside. >> yeah. >> can you imagine what that might be like? >> it will be pretty exciting. >> a few days later, hampton walked free for the first time in 61 years. >> we'll stop and drop your stuff off at your apartment --
do time and die in prison. >> since coming to angola back in 2004, he says he's turned his life around by taking advantage of the prison's programs. >> i graduated with a b.a. i was selected to be a social mentor. >> at the prison, he earned a masters degree from a bible college. he even became an ordained minister. a couple of times a week, he gospel raps his former preaching to the population. >> it's hard to square the man sitting across from me with the horrible crime that he committed. >> your actions caused the death of a baby. >> yeah. >> when he was 21, he was watching his stepson. he says the child was inconsolable. he shook the baby so violently he died. now, he's serving a 60-year sentence for manslaughter. >> how do you move past that?
working the field, growing vegetables, it is something given back to the prison itself. >> smith tells me the crops not only provide the inmate population fresh food, but he says it also saves taxpayers money. it costs $1. 70 a day to feed each offender. this will be the life for many of these men for decades to come. and some have left young children behind who are among the five million kids in america who have had a parent in prison. javonte has two of them. >> you know the way it works sometimes is you're in prison because your daddy was in prison, and your kid will be in prison. are you afraid for your children? >> yeah, i definitely am. i mean, when i grew up, i didn't know my father. my father got murdered when i was three years old. i never knew him. >> it's hard to imagine knowing that you will be spending the rest of your life here, especially if you're convicted as a teenager. advocates like brian stevenson say juvenile
meet, a parole board's answer could mean the difference between a second chance at life, or growing old and dying behind bars. back to lester holt with "life inside." >> in my three days at angola, most of the men i spoke with had committed violent crimes and received long sentences. >> life without parole? >> yeah. >> but like every prison, there are also nonviolent offenders serving long sentences that might as well be life. john estein is one of them. >> i grew up in a middle class neighborhood. went to catholic schools. >> estein is a gulf war vet who says he was lost and broken when he came home. >> well, i had no direction in life. >> in 2000, he was found guilty of running a massive drug ring that moved kilos of cocaine between texas and louisiana. it was his second drug conviction.
whenever i was 15. a white kid. and got out when i was 34. henry went to prison, a black kid at 17. and he's still here after 55 years. >> big day, big day. >> big day. >> the three members of the panel must vote unanimously to free him. they were behind closed doors for more than an hour. this is the audio from that hearing. >> my vote is to grant his parole. >> my vote is to grant for the reason -- >> two "yeses" for montgomery's release. >> we hear a lot of these cases -- >> then came the third and final vote. >> for me today, unfortunately, mr. montgomery, i'm going to have to vote to deny your parole. i have a problem with -- i think you need more programs. today, your parole's been denied. >> i caught up with montgomery right after he heard the news. he told me that he had already packed his bag. you were getting ready just in case? >> yeah. >> just in case they said you
>> does it surprise you to say that? >> my mother worked here as a security guard and i used to tell her all the time, how can you work there with those people? but no one is the same person they are from when they were younger to now. >> decades in prison would change anyone. there is an aging crisis in american prisons, a gray wave as some have called it. more than 130,000 inmates older than 55 are incarcerated today. that's costing taxpayers more than $9 billion a year. the aging and the dying are the most expensive people to keep incarcerated. and yet they pose the lowest risk to society. this is what a life sentence looks like when life is running out. dying prisoners being cared for in hospice by other incarcerated men. >> 63-year-old frank has been in prison for 45 years. when he