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You Be the Judge: After a long life in and out of prison Wayne Carlson was finally a free man with a loving wife and a successful book. Five years later, he ended up in jail, again. Now he's up for parole and Carlson wants another chance.
Aired March 8,
2006 at 9pm
on CBC-TV

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REPORTER: Linden McIntyre
PRODUCER: Theresa Burke

WEB EXCLUSIVE: BOOK EXCERPT
book, Breakfast with the Devil
Read about Wayne Carlson's life in his own words, Breakfast with the Devil.
Published by Insomniac Press

WEB EXCLUSIVE: RAZOR WIRE
Listen to a song written by Wayne Carlson and Peter Mandic about his life in jail. (NOTE: This is a Real Audio file 4:06)
YOU BE THE JUDGE

Wayne Carlson
Wayne Carlson after his release from jail in 1999.
If you ever wanted to prove why some people deserve a second chance, Wayne Carlson could have been your poster boy.

The bank-robber, thief, and prison break expert was serving a combined 44-year sentence in Canada's federal prison system for his series of crimes. And he wasn't serving that time quietly. In three decades, he escaped from prison thirteen times, earning him the nickname Wayne "Houdini" Carlson.

Then, a complete reversal.

Carlson went from stealing money to saving lives. He became a Samaritan, one of a group of prisoners working among prison inmates to reduce the suicide rate. He started teaching inmates how to write. He began writing himself.

His good deeds didn't go un-noticed.

By 1999, the man who seemed destined to spend his entire life behind bars got full parole. He walked out of Drumheller Institution and into a new life in Lethbridge, Alberta.

Carlson with Mike Bullard
Wayne Carlson promotes his book on the Open Mike with Mike Bullard show.

Carlson became a poster boy for rehabilitation. He married the director of the Samaritans program who brought him into a loving family. He received a government grant to write a book about his prison career and the penitentiary system in Canada. Breakfast with the Devil, published in 2001, put Carlson on the road to celebrity. At the peak of publicity, he appeared on the Open Mike with Mike Bullard Show, and in various Canadian and U.S. newspapers.

But a confrontation with police has landed him back in prison and in front of the National Parole Board. Has he really changed? Or does he deserve to go back to prison to finish serving his sentence? Should Carlson, at age 63, get another chance at freedom or possibly spend the rest of his life behind bars?

Now, you can be the judge. Just as the fifth estate followed Wayne Carlson six years ago from a prison cell to freedom we now, with exceptional access to a parole board hearing, follow him as he enters into the fight of his life.




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