1 00:00:02,880 --> 00:00:04,960 I'm on another huge journey. 2 00:00:04,960 --> 00:00:08,160 This time, I'm travelling the length of the Americas. 3 00:00:10,360 --> 00:00:14,160 It's a journey down through two vast continents 4 00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:17,000 that cover a quarter of the world's land surface. 5 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:22,280 It'll take me to places of myth and wonder. 6 00:00:22,280 --> 00:00:26,560 Feels like stumbling upon a secret kingdom. 7 00:00:26,560 --> 00:00:29,360 From the frozen beauty of the Arctic... 8 00:00:29,360 --> 00:00:30,600 HE LAUGHS 9 00:00:30,600 --> 00:00:33,440 ..I'm travelling to some of the world's great cities... 10 00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:37,280 This is completely breathtaking. 11 00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:40,760 SHOUTING IN OWN LANGUAGE 12 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:44,080 ..then on into the beautiful and blighted tropics... 13 00:00:44,080 --> 00:00:46,240 We're with armed conservationists. 14 00:00:46,240 --> 00:00:49,240 ..to the heart of the battle to save the planet. 15 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:50,680 GUNSHOT 16 00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:55,000 GUNSHOTS 17 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:57,560 On this part of my journey through the Americas, 18 00:00:57,560 --> 00:01:00,640 I'm in the United States, travelling down the Rocky Mountains 19 00:01:00,640 --> 00:01:03,280 from Montana to Colorado. 20 00:01:05,120 --> 00:01:07,520 In a town with 11 different prisons, 21 00:01:07,520 --> 00:01:10,600 I meet inmates getting ready for a life on the outside. 22 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:15,320 I'd like an orange cream soda, please. 23 00:01:15,320 --> 00:01:19,360 I visit a huge rewilding project out on the vast prairies, 24 00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:23,000 encountering some of America's ancient inhabitants... 25 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:24,960 By the time they reached us, 26 00:01:24,960 --> 00:01:27,880 they would be at full ramming speed, wouldn't they? 27 00:01:27,880 --> 00:01:30,600 ..and I hear about a long and tortured history. 28 00:01:30,600 --> 00:01:34,760 See, me, I'd push the white guy down and roll under the pick-up. 29 00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:36,200 THEY LAUGH 30 00:01:52,680 --> 00:01:55,600 I was in the far north of the United States, 31 00:01:55,600 --> 00:01:58,120 taking one of the great American railway journeys 32 00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:00,600 on the Amtrak Empire Builder train, 33 00:02:00,600 --> 00:02:02,960 travelling through the most spectacular mountain range 34 00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:05,240 on the continent - the Rockies. 35 00:02:05,240 --> 00:02:06,880 It's stunning. 36 00:02:06,880 --> 00:02:09,720 The Rockies stretch more than 3,000 miles, 37 00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:14,320 from the frozen forests of Canada to the parched deserts of New Mexico. 38 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:18,880 They separate the Pacific Ocean in the west 39 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:21,160 from America's vast plains to the east. 40 00:02:26,720 --> 00:02:31,160 We just went for a cup of tea and we've come out of the mountains 41 00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:34,680 and we're now out onto the prairie. 42 00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:39,280 We are now in Big Sky Country - 43 00:02:39,280 --> 00:02:40,560 Montana. 44 00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:46,080 The state of Montana is larger than Germany, 45 00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:48,920 but with a population less than Birmingham, 46 00:02:48,920 --> 00:02:51,960 and it's most definitely frontier country. 47 00:02:57,040 --> 00:02:58,920 Man in cowboy hat. 48 00:02:58,920 --> 00:03:03,160 Would you be Rich? I am. You must be Simon. I am. 49 00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:06,480 Thank you so much indeed. How are ya? Rich Roth. Nice to meet you. 50 00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:09,960 Lovely to meet you. Simon Reeve. Hello. Hello. Welcome to Montana. 51 00:03:09,960 --> 00:03:12,800 I got a big truck, I got lots of room. Let's get that sucker in here. 52 00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:16,960 Thank you. Let's head to the ranch. Thank you, Rich. Thank you. 53 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:22,640 This is one of the least populated parts of the US, isn't it? 54 00:03:22,640 --> 00:03:24,520 There is more cows than people. 55 00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:27,520 Rich runs the IX Ranch. 56 00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:31,880 We're not talking some small farm - it's about 200 square miles. 57 00:03:31,880 --> 00:03:36,080 My grandfather, he understood the land almost better than the cattle, 58 00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:39,440 I think, because he said, "No matter what you do, 59 00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:42,600 "you take care of the land first, the cattle are second. 60 00:03:42,600 --> 00:03:45,600 "The cattle are the product of what you do on the land." 61 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:49,080 So, if you overgraze, if you don't sell down your cows 62 00:03:49,080 --> 00:03:53,080 on a drought year, you will not be there the next year to do that. 63 00:03:55,160 --> 00:03:58,480 The ranch has more than 4,000 cattle. 64 00:03:58,480 --> 00:04:02,520 They're spread over a huge area and they can sometimes be elusive. 65 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:05,080 So there's heifers over there. 66 00:04:05,080 --> 00:04:08,560 You see 'em up there grazing, the dark... Looks like bushes to me. 67 00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:12,000 We've had a few of those, as we get older. We're like, "I swear..." 68 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:16,520 And we get up there, "It's a bush cow! Dang it." 69 00:04:16,520 --> 00:04:19,120 This is a fairly classic western scene. 70 00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:21,120 It was spring round-up time. 71 00:04:21,120 --> 00:04:23,120 There's a gate just off that ridge. 72 00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:26,240 We're going to drop into that stubble, make a right. 73 00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:28,840 In an era of industrial farming, 74 00:04:28,840 --> 00:04:32,080 they still use cowboys and horses here to minimise the impact 75 00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:33,960 on the land and the cattle. 76 00:04:33,960 --> 00:04:37,800 But Rich wasn't entirely confident about my riding skills. 77 00:04:37,800 --> 00:04:40,280 ENGINE STARTS 78 00:04:40,280 --> 00:04:41,880 What could go wrong? 79 00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:50,040 Across the US, the agricultural industry 80 00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:52,840 is switching to intensive livestock farming, 81 00:04:52,840 --> 00:04:56,080 with thousands of vast sheds and feedlots often housing 82 00:04:56,080 --> 00:04:58,120 tens of thousands of animals. 83 00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:04,960 Here at the IX, the cattle are out under the big Montana sky. 84 00:05:04,960 --> 00:05:08,800 600 cattle in just one part of the ranch needed to be found, 85 00:05:08,800 --> 00:05:11,720 then rounded up and moved to fresh pasture. 86 00:05:12,960 --> 00:05:17,760 Porcupine quill. So these are porcupine quills 87 00:05:17,760 --> 00:05:21,080 that this poor heifer has got its face into. 88 00:05:21,080 --> 00:05:24,720 Try to get them as close to the base as you can and pull hard. 89 00:05:24,720 --> 00:05:26,120 Thataway. 90 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:29,600 Quite astonishingly sharp. They walk up, "What is this thing?" 91 00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:32,440 And they whack 'em with their tail and that's how it happens. 92 00:05:32,440 --> 00:05:35,960 So, OK, we're going to... Shane, are you ready in a second? Yep. 93 00:05:39,160 --> 00:05:40,880 All better. 94 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:44,440 They've been ranching here on this land for more than a century. 95 00:05:44,440 --> 00:05:47,880 But in the wilds of Montana, it's still a precarious business, 96 00:05:47,880 --> 00:05:51,400 subject to the whims of the market in the extreme weather. 97 00:05:51,400 --> 00:05:54,000 We're up against the clock. That's the one thing about Montana 98 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:58,040 that I don't think a lot of people realise, that we're only about 99 00:05:58,040 --> 00:06:00,480 six months away from when it snows again. 100 00:06:00,480 --> 00:06:04,000 It is tough to farm and ranch out here, isn't it? 101 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:05,960 You've got life and death parts of it, 102 00:06:05,960 --> 00:06:09,120 you've got financial parts of it. You know, we can adapt. 103 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:11,360 I mean, look at... You were out with me today 104 00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:13,280 and we were on motorised vehicles. 105 00:06:13,280 --> 00:06:15,520 My grandfather is probably turning over in his grave. 106 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:18,160 He's actually buried right on that mountain, over there. 107 00:06:18,160 --> 00:06:20,400 He's up there and he's watching. He's watching now. 108 00:06:20,400 --> 00:06:22,400 And I probably assume that he's, like, 109 00:06:22,400 --> 00:06:26,200 "Rich, I don't know about you." But we're making it work. 110 00:06:26,200 --> 00:06:29,200 CATTLE MOO 111 00:06:34,640 --> 00:06:37,840 This life can be tough for the cowboys but, of course, 112 00:06:37,840 --> 00:06:39,840 it's much tougher for the cattle. 113 00:06:51,280 --> 00:06:53,720 This isn't a sanitised version of cattle ranching, 114 00:06:53,720 --> 00:06:57,120 this is... This is the real deal, the reality. 115 00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:01,000 What's with the branding? So, the brand, 116 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:04,840 it's a law in our state and it's to identify your cattle, 117 00:07:04,840 --> 00:07:07,840 so they're not rustled or stole. It's the law in Montana 118 00:07:07,840 --> 00:07:10,720 that all cattle have to be branded? That is correct. 119 00:07:10,720 --> 00:07:13,200 Is cattle rustling still an issue for you? 120 00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:16,040 It is cos we're out in this big country. 121 00:07:16,040 --> 00:07:18,600 You don't know who is around and people can do it. 122 00:07:18,600 --> 00:07:21,760 It still happens today, believe it or not. 123 00:07:21,760 --> 00:07:23,720 And he's out of here. 124 00:07:23,720 --> 00:07:26,400 She's gone. Aw! 125 00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:29,000 The cool thing about how we do this is we brand 'em 126 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:31,280 in the same pasture they go back into. Right. 127 00:07:31,280 --> 00:07:33,520 So the calves go back to where they last were, 128 00:07:33,520 --> 00:07:35,960 the mothers find them, they instinctually know that, 129 00:07:35,960 --> 00:07:38,480 and by tomorrow it's all good. 130 00:07:43,080 --> 00:07:46,400 So much of America's identity has been built around the rugged 131 00:07:46,400 --> 00:07:48,680 independence of the cowboy, 132 00:07:48,680 --> 00:07:51,760 but that entire way of life is now increasingly under threat. 133 00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:57,880 Dozens of farms and ranches in the US are disappearing every week. 134 00:07:57,880 --> 00:08:01,920 Some of Rich's neighbours have already sold up or been forced out. 135 00:08:03,720 --> 00:08:07,960 What are the challenges? What are the issues you face? 136 00:08:07,960 --> 00:08:10,800 You've got land like this that's worth more for recreation 137 00:08:10,800 --> 00:08:14,560 than it is for farming or ranching, 138 00:08:14,560 --> 00:08:17,800 so the elevated price of... What do you mean by that? 139 00:08:17,800 --> 00:08:20,800 Well, like, so, example, if someone from out of state 140 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:23,480 or out of country were to come and look at this ranch, they might say, 141 00:08:23,480 --> 00:08:26,480 Wow, look at the great scenery," or, "I want a giant house over there. 142 00:08:26,480 --> 00:08:28,560 "Look at the wildlife out there." 143 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:30,840 And say, "I don't need cows, I just..." 144 00:08:30,840 --> 00:08:35,480 And they have the money to do it. For me, seeing this vastness 145 00:08:35,480 --> 00:08:39,120 and recognising, actually, there's relatively few people in Montana, 146 00:08:39,120 --> 00:08:43,600 it's hard to imagine there is great competition for the land here. 147 00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:46,440 But that's to misunderstand the situation, really, isn't it? Right. 148 00:08:46,440 --> 00:08:49,280 It's a crowded planet... Right. ..apart from anything else. Right. 149 00:08:49,280 --> 00:08:53,440 And you can see that, if you went on any, you know, property site, 150 00:08:53,440 --> 00:08:56,080 you see what the value of the land is, 151 00:08:56,080 --> 00:08:59,000 but then you try to make a cow pay for that, 152 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:01,320 what that value is, you can't do it. 153 00:09:03,720 --> 00:09:07,320 American farmers are dealing with the worst agricultural downturn 154 00:09:07,320 --> 00:09:09,160 since the 1980s. 155 00:09:09,160 --> 00:09:11,320 Incomes have fallen dramatically, 156 00:09:11,320 --> 00:09:14,760 yet horsepower, manpower and equipment don't come cheap. 157 00:09:14,760 --> 00:09:19,000 A combine harvester for a wheat farmer can cost more than £300,000. 158 00:09:20,360 --> 00:09:23,080 And Montana's ranchers are also getting old - 159 00:09:23,080 --> 00:09:25,280 their average age is more than 60 - 160 00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:28,680 and youngsters are less willing to follow in their footsteps. 161 00:09:28,680 --> 00:09:32,560 The future of ranching on the prairies is uncertain. 162 00:09:32,560 --> 00:09:35,800 It's part of a crisis in rural communities across the country. 163 00:09:42,080 --> 00:09:43,880 It's completely idyllic here... 164 00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:48,760 ..but it is also almost ludicrously large. 165 00:09:49,800 --> 00:09:54,080 The distances are endless, the space is...enormous 166 00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:57,400 and it can be overwhelming for some people. This is one of the 167 00:09:57,400 --> 00:10:01,520 remotest, least populated parts of the United States 168 00:10:01,520 --> 00:10:04,080 and that can put a lot of pressure on people... 169 00:10:05,640 --> 00:10:09,400 ..particularly farmers, who are often struggling to survive out here. 170 00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:14,760 Perhaps for too long men here have been told to cowboy up 171 00:10:14,760 --> 00:10:17,240 and bottle their emotions. 172 00:10:17,240 --> 00:10:20,560 Montana has the highest suicide rate in the United States, 173 00:10:20,560 --> 00:10:23,120 nearly twice the national average. 174 00:10:23,120 --> 00:10:26,360 Isolation and lack of mental health care are partly to blame, 175 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:28,480 but so is the stress of farming. 176 00:10:30,920 --> 00:10:35,360 This area feels like it's facing a long decline, 177 00:10:35,360 --> 00:10:39,000 in many ways. It doesn't sound like a very happy future 178 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:40,800 for the American prairie, 179 00:10:40,800 --> 00:10:45,320 but one guy thinks he's got a better solution. 180 00:10:50,920 --> 00:10:52,920 All right. 181 00:10:52,920 --> 00:10:54,640 Tarmac turns to dirt. 182 00:10:56,000 --> 00:10:58,880 And it all gets a bit more remote. 183 00:10:58,880 --> 00:11:02,440 I travelled across Montana to meet a man who sees the prairie not as 184 00:11:02,440 --> 00:11:05,000 farmland but in a completely different light. 185 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:09,840 Someone with a spectacular vision for the future 186 00:11:09,840 --> 00:11:13,080 and ambition as vast as the Montana sky. 187 00:11:13,080 --> 00:11:14,800 We're here. 188 00:11:16,760 --> 00:11:19,000 Sean? You made it. 189 00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:23,560 We made it. Simon Reeve. Good to see you. Sean Garrity. 190 00:11:23,560 --> 00:11:25,280 Look at that view! 191 00:11:26,480 --> 00:11:28,720 Absolutely stunning. 192 00:11:28,720 --> 00:11:31,600 There's four places in the world like this, of this scale, 193 00:11:31,600 --> 00:11:35,200 and we're standing in one of them. Four places in the world. Yeah. 194 00:11:35,200 --> 00:11:38,720 The Kazakh Steppe, the Patagonia Steppe, the Mongolian Steppe 195 00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:41,080 and the northern Great Plains in North America. 196 00:11:41,080 --> 00:11:45,160 It fits alongside those epic areas of wilderness. 197 00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:47,240 Absolutely. 198 00:11:47,240 --> 00:11:50,760 This is the American Prairie Reserve. 199 00:11:50,760 --> 00:11:52,920 It's one of the biggest and most ambitious 200 00:11:52,920 --> 00:11:55,000 rewilding projects on Earth. 201 00:11:56,560 --> 00:11:59,800 Sean Garrity, the former Silicon Valley businessman behind it, 202 00:11:59,800 --> 00:12:02,800 has been raising millions of dollars to buy up land here 203 00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:05,320 and turn it back to the wild. 204 00:12:05,320 --> 00:12:07,600 The American Prairie Reserve, or APR, 205 00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:10,600 could one day cover three and a half million acres - 206 00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:13,440 that's the size of much of southwest England. 207 00:12:13,440 --> 00:12:17,120 Are we inside the APR now? We are in it. 208 00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:18,520 We are absolutely in it. 209 00:12:18,520 --> 00:12:22,400 This is what it looks like and this is native prairie. As you can see, 210 00:12:22,400 --> 00:12:24,720 as you look out over this landscape, 211 00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:27,520 there is not much to tell you what era you're in. 212 00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:29,880 Is this the era of the Vikings? 213 00:12:29,880 --> 00:12:33,120 Yes. This is what it looked like during the Viking times. 214 00:12:33,120 --> 00:12:36,200 How about, you know, the Egyptians? Yeah. 215 00:12:36,200 --> 00:12:39,480 During that time, when they were just discovering metal alloys 216 00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:41,800 and things, this is what this looked like. 217 00:12:41,800 --> 00:12:45,920 What you've identified here is a bit of a jewel... 218 00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:49,800 Yeah. ..that is ripe for protection. 219 00:12:49,800 --> 00:12:55,280 All the pieces are still intact and that's extremely rare. 220 00:12:55,280 --> 00:12:58,240 If this landscape is destroyed through ploughing up 221 00:12:58,240 --> 00:13:00,720 to grow a monoculture crop, that sort of thing, 222 00:13:00,720 --> 00:13:02,800 putting this back together... 223 00:13:02,800 --> 00:13:05,560 That sagebrush right there is 70 to 80 years old 224 00:13:05,560 --> 00:13:08,280 and they're very difficult to get going again. 225 00:13:08,280 --> 00:13:11,280 It's really complex, not unlike a rainforest, 226 00:13:11,280 --> 00:13:15,880 and so to have this as the jewel, is to have the habitat to deal with, 227 00:13:15,880 --> 00:13:17,920 and there's not much left in the world. 228 00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:21,520 I don't want us to stop, let's carry on. I want to see more. 229 00:13:21,520 --> 00:13:23,480 It's just brilliant. Look at it! 230 00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:28,360 Prairies, savannahs, steppes - they're all grasslands 231 00:13:28,360 --> 00:13:30,400 and one of our richest ecosystems, 232 00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:32,640 but they're often grazed or ploughed. 233 00:13:32,640 --> 00:13:35,680 Less than 10% of the world's grasslands are protected. 234 00:13:35,680 --> 00:13:37,520 Instead of cattle grazing, 235 00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:41,200 Sean wants to rewild the land and return it to its natural state. 236 00:13:41,200 --> 00:13:44,560 They left them for us. This is too good to be true. 237 00:13:46,760 --> 00:13:50,360 It's just wonderful. It's the Missouri River. 238 00:13:50,360 --> 00:13:53,120 Come on, let's get out on it. All right. 239 00:13:57,480 --> 00:14:03,920 As so often on the journeys I've been on, I've found examples... 240 00:14:05,280 --> 00:14:07,960 ..where people are doing something wonderful and worthy to try 241 00:14:07,960 --> 00:14:11,560 and restore or save a landscape or an ecosystem, 242 00:14:11,560 --> 00:14:14,440 but usually they're really small-scale. 243 00:14:15,880 --> 00:14:18,160 This is not. 244 00:14:18,160 --> 00:14:21,600 This is a country-sized attempt 245 00:14:21,600 --> 00:14:25,280 to rewild a huge area of land. 246 00:14:26,880 --> 00:14:29,920 And for it to be here, in the United States, 247 00:14:29,920 --> 00:14:32,520 I'm completely stunned. 248 00:14:32,520 --> 00:14:35,600 Rewilding is all about rebuilding natural ecosystems 249 00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:38,120 and reintroducing key species. 250 00:14:38,120 --> 00:14:42,080 It's about restoring and protecting wild landscapes. 251 00:14:42,080 --> 00:14:45,320 Sean wants to reverse the huge decline in America's wildlife, 252 00:14:45,320 --> 00:14:48,640 ultimately helping apex predators like bears, mountain lions 253 00:14:48,640 --> 00:14:52,360 and wolves, and more humble citizens of the prairie. 254 00:14:52,360 --> 00:14:55,920 Sean, how much has been lost in the United States? 255 00:14:55,920 --> 00:14:59,480 In species, we don't think as much in terms of numbers of animals 256 00:14:59,480 --> 00:15:02,280 but we think in terms of the animal's range. 257 00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:06,000 So prairie dogs, they're down to less than 1% 258 00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:08,320 of their original range in the lower 48 states. 259 00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:11,520 They've been trapped, shot and poisoned 260 00:15:11,520 --> 00:15:14,720 from their original millions upon millions of acres 261 00:15:14,720 --> 00:15:17,640 down to very small spots here and there. 262 00:15:19,920 --> 00:15:22,920 Prairie dogs are actually little burrowing rodents. 263 00:15:22,920 --> 00:15:24,760 HE GASPS 264 00:15:24,760 --> 00:15:28,920 SQUEAKING 265 00:15:28,920 --> 00:15:30,440 Hear that? 266 00:15:30,440 --> 00:15:33,200 That's an alarm call 267 00:15:33,200 --> 00:15:36,040 and they're saying, "Get to your hole." So all the ones that weren't 268 00:15:36,040 --> 00:15:38,800 by their holes are running to their holes. 269 00:15:38,800 --> 00:15:41,240 And then the ones that look like white posts, 270 00:15:41,240 --> 00:15:43,680 they've arrived at their holes, they've turned around, 271 00:15:43,680 --> 00:15:46,080 they're starting to look at us to assess the threat. 272 00:15:46,080 --> 00:15:47,680 What is the level of threat? 273 00:15:49,080 --> 00:15:52,200 Where do they fit into the ecosystem? 274 00:15:52,200 --> 00:15:55,320 Prairie dogs, when they wake up in the morning, their entire day 275 00:15:55,320 --> 00:15:57,680 is trying to figure out how to not be eaten. 276 00:15:57,680 --> 00:16:00,440 That's their job in life. 277 00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:02,960 So we think of them like plankton in the ocean. 278 00:16:02,960 --> 00:16:07,240 If you have a lot of prairie dogs, you have a lot of badgers, coyotes, 279 00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:11,480 bullsnakes, rattlesnakes, black-footed ferrets, 280 00:16:11,480 --> 00:16:14,360 ferruginous hawks, red-tailed hawks. 281 00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:18,600 All different kinds of predators from the sky. To be really crude, 282 00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:22,280 sometimes we calm them the Chicken McNuggets of the prairie. 283 00:16:22,280 --> 00:16:24,640 Vast underground towns used to exist, 284 00:16:24,640 --> 00:16:26,840 teeming with millions of prairie dogs. 285 00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:32,920 Notice there's some bird excrement, 286 00:16:32,920 --> 00:16:37,160 so a raptor's come and that usually means bad news for the prairie dog, 287 00:16:37,160 --> 00:16:39,680 that the Raptor caught it and will sit here and eat it. 288 00:16:39,680 --> 00:16:41,120 See the bones? 289 00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:44,240 So, the bird's sitting here, spitting bones away. 290 00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:45,800 That's just heartless. 291 00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:48,320 And the entire head, 292 00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:49,840 more teeth... 293 00:16:49,840 --> 00:16:52,600 Poor little prairie dog. 294 00:16:52,600 --> 00:16:55,120 These little rodents also have human predators. 295 00:16:55,120 --> 00:16:58,600 Ranchers don't like them. They've gassed, shot and burnt them out, 296 00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:01,360 removing a vital part of the food chain. 297 00:17:01,360 --> 00:17:03,720 They compete for grass with livestock. 298 00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:07,520 Some people say, "Well, don't... They're dangerous for horses. 299 00:17:07,520 --> 00:17:09,360 "A horse might step in the hole." 300 00:17:09,360 --> 00:17:12,280 But, actually, horses don't step in prairie dog holes. 301 00:17:12,280 --> 00:17:14,680 In the US... I can't speak for... 302 00:17:14,680 --> 00:17:17,120 I've been to a lot of other countries, but here 303 00:17:17,120 --> 00:17:19,320 people tend to lean in a capitalist society 304 00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:22,960 that land ought to be for making money, whether it's timber, mining, 305 00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:25,320 cattle ranching, whatever it might be. 306 00:17:25,320 --> 00:17:30,360 We should save some of it for nature and it's going away quickly. 307 00:17:30,360 --> 00:17:32,320 It's really time to... 308 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:35,600 It's really time to grab some and make sure it's preserved 309 00:17:35,600 --> 00:17:38,680 for hundreds and hundreds of years, before it's all gone. 310 00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:43,720 Sean's project is buying up private tracts of land 311 00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:46,400 to join up disconnected areas of public land 312 00:17:46,400 --> 00:17:49,080 and make one huge area of wilderness. 313 00:17:49,080 --> 00:17:52,160 The American Prairie Reserve is now already so vast 314 00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:55,360 and much of it is so remote that the only way to get a real sense 315 00:17:55,360 --> 00:17:59,520 of its size and the wildlife it hosts is to take to the air. 316 00:18:08,040 --> 00:18:09,480 Those are mule deer. 317 00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:15,160 Rewilding isn't just about saving wildlife - 318 00:18:15,160 --> 00:18:16,840 it helps the planet. 319 00:18:16,840 --> 00:18:19,680 Conservationists believe rewilding is a key strategy 320 00:18:19,680 --> 00:18:21,920 for tackling climate change. 321 00:18:21,920 --> 00:18:25,120 Left to its own devices, the vast prairie can absorb huge amounts 322 00:18:25,120 --> 00:18:26,920 of carbon dioxide. 323 00:18:28,160 --> 00:18:29,760 There's a golden eagle! 324 00:18:30,800 --> 00:18:33,480 A... A golden eagle! 325 00:18:43,400 --> 00:18:44,640 Buffalo! 326 00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:50,320 The buffalo is also known as the North American bison. 327 00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:53,200 They are completely magnificent. 328 00:18:53,200 --> 00:18:56,800 They are enormous and powerful and majestic. 329 00:18:56,800 --> 00:19:01,080 The buffalo was annihilated by settlers here in the 19th century. 330 00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:04,480 There are plans to reintroduce 10,000 of them to the APR. 331 00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:08,120 They'll be a major draw for the tourists Sean is hoping to attract 332 00:19:08,120 --> 00:19:10,480 to camp, glamp and explore. 333 00:19:11,600 --> 00:19:14,320 This is an amazing, resilient landscape. 334 00:19:14,320 --> 00:19:17,080 You could have a thousand bison come thundering through here 335 00:19:17,080 --> 00:19:18,760 and all these plants can take it. 336 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:24,680 The buffalo are key to creating a rich and sustainable ecosystem. 337 00:19:24,680 --> 00:19:28,440 If we come back here in ten years, 20 years, 338 00:19:28,440 --> 00:19:31,800 what's your vision of what we might see? 339 00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:35,120 I think you'll see bison along the river, bighorn sheep, 340 00:19:35,120 --> 00:19:38,320 maybe a grizzly bear walking along with three cubs, 341 00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:41,920 maybe a pack of wolves moving along, seeing if they might be able to 342 00:19:41,920 --> 00:19:45,800 chase some elk for dinner themselves. The habitat's here. 343 00:19:45,800 --> 00:19:49,040 It's just a matter of time to coax that wildlife back. 344 00:19:49,040 --> 00:19:53,520 I am sold. It sounds... It sounds wonderful. 345 00:19:57,600 --> 00:20:00,840 The American Prairie Reserve isn't without its critics. 346 00:20:00,840 --> 00:20:04,080 Some ranchers here resent outsiders buying up the land and threatening 347 00:20:04,080 --> 00:20:06,080 the frontier way of life. 348 00:20:07,320 --> 00:20:09,360 However, I thought it was wonderful 349 00:20:09,360 --> 00:20:12,040 and important and desperately needed. 350 00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:16,840 Rewilding could give us the chance to feel closer to nature, 351 00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:19,880 to wildlife that has teeth and claws and fangs, 352 00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:21,880 and to feel awe and wonder. 353 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:41,720 Many of the reserve's neighbours are delighted with Sean's plans. 354 00:20:46,720 --> 00:20:49,560 I continued my journey across what sometimes felt like 355 00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:52,080 an ocean of grassland. 356 00:20:52,080 --> 00:20:55,240 Look! Look at the sign here. 357 00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:57,720 So that means we are now entering 358 00:20:57,720 --> 00:21:02,400 Fort Belknap Native American Reservation. 359 00:21:02,400 --> 00:21:04,160 By the end of the 1800s, 360 00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:07,000 nearly all of the surviving Native American tribes 361 00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:08,880 had been forced into reservations 362 00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:11,480 by the relatively new United States government. 363 00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:15,280 Many of the reservations still exist. 364 00:21:16,760 --> 00:21:19,400 One of the community leaders here in the Fort Belknap Reservation 365 00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:21,360 is George Horse Capture. 366 00:21:21,360 --> 00:21:24,280 He has strong views on what's happened to his people. 367 00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:28,120 What is a reservation? Let's say a prison. 368 00:21:28,120 --> 00:21:29,760 A holding facility. 369 00:21:31,360 --> 00:21:37,240 There's always some confining element to keep people separate 370 00:21:37,240 --> 00:21:39,120 and keep them in their... 371 00:21:40,520 --> 00:21:45,440 I think the term most commonly used is in their social class. 372 00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:48,000 Don't let 'em rise out of it. 373 00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:51,560 Don't mingle with us too much - white America. 374 00:21:52,720 --> 00:21:54,440 But this is home. 375 00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:56,480 This little reservation... 376 00:21:57,520 --> 00:21:59,640 ..that's all we got left, 377 00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:04,520 after being nomads, wandering wherever we wanted to. 378 00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:07,200 Like many reservations, 379 00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:11,000 Fort Belknap has been blighted by social problems. 380 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:12,680 I'll do the gate. 381 00:22:13,840 --> 00:22:15,720 Unemployment and drug dependency 382 00:22:15,720 --> 00:22:17,920 are higher than other parts of Montana, 383 00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:21,520 while life expectancy for males is 20 years lower. 384 00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:26,040 But George sees a new hope for his community 385 00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:27,720 in the shape of an iconic creature 386 00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:31,560 that can grow to be over two metres tall and weigh more than a tonne. 387 00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:35,520 Look at that sight. 388 00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:38,600 Does it still give you a bit of a thrill, George? 389 00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:42,920 Oh, yeah. They kinda remind me of my grandfathers. 390 00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:46,480 Get up, stand, look around. 391 00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:48,560 "What are these white guys doing here?" 392 00:22:48,560 --> 00:22:50,960 HE LAUGHS 393 00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:53,240 Buffalo have been almost entirely absent 394 00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:55,320 from these prairies for decades. 395 00:22:55,320 --> 00:22:58,960 Now this herd of purebred buffalo have been brought to Fort Belknap 396 00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:01,360 in partnership with the American Prairie Reserve. 397 00:23:01,360 --> 00:23:03,320 GRUNTING 398 00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:06,960 We always shared our life together - 399 00:23:06,960 --> 00:23:08,960 Indians and Buffalo - 400 00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:11,880 through the good times and the bad times. 401 00:23:11,880 --> 00:23:18,040 The European invaders, as they came here, is almost like locusts 402 00:23:18,040 --> 00:23:20,520 going into a grain field. 403 00:23:20,520 --> 00:23:25,800 They're going to strip it for all it's worth and move on. 404 00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:29,440 In just four decades, towards the end of the 19th century, 405 00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:33,520 an estimated population of 30 million buffalo were annihilated, 406 00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:35,920 down to just 500. 407 00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:39,440 For Native Americans who depended on them, it was a catastrophe. 408 00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:45,680 There's still a lot of people that... "You're conquered. 409 00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:48,240 "The buffalo are gone." 410 00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:50,400 And, "Get over it." 411 00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:55,840 And you can't get over...a genocide. 412 00:23:57,040 --> 00:24:00,480 Be it the buffalos' genocide, 413 00:24:00,480 --> 00:24:02,480 my people's genocide, 414 00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:05,000 you just can't get over that. 415 00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:09,840 You can't hate and be angry about it, but it's important... 416 00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:15,360 ..that that kind of knowledge survives. 417 00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:21,000 The white settlers slaughtered so many millions of buffalo 418 00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:23,720 to starve the Native Americans of their main source of food 419 00:24:23,720 --> 00:24:26,560 and clothing, force them into reservations 420 00:24:26,560 --> 00:24:28,640 and destroy their spirit. 421 00:24:30,360 --> 00:24:34,240 Do you feel, at a practical level, 422 00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:37,880 it will change things and improve things for the community? 423 00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:41,760 We suffered dearly and then I look at them and I think, you know, 424 00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:44,560 these are relative, they suffered dearly, too, 425 00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:47,800 but we're going to make it together. 426 00:24:47,800 --> 00:24:49,960 We're going to make it to what we call 427 00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:53,080 when things are set right again. 428 00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:57,160 And that's... That's pretty... That's pretty good. 429 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:02,880 Buffalo had been returned to this and other reservations 430 00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:05,920 for ceremonial, food and conservation purposes. 431 00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:12,000 I mean, you look at these two. 432 00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:14,000 Are these both bulls out here? 433 00:25:15,040 --> 00:25:17,080 They're watching us carefully. 434 00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:20,680 By the time they reached us, 435 00:25:20,680 --> 00:25:23,960 they would be at full ramming speed, wouldn't they? 436 00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:26,720 They'd cover that in a couple blinks of an eye. 437 00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:29,480 They'd probably be three quarters of the way here 438 00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:33,360 before we figured - some of us figured - out what to do. 439 00:25:33,360 --> 00:25:37,600 See, me, I'd push the white guy down and roll under the pick-up. 440 00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:39,480 THEY LAUGH 441 00:25:44,240 --> 00:25:47,760 There are buffalo once more on the American plain 442 00:25:47,760 --> 00:25:49,880 and that's a bloody wonderful thing. 443 00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:56,600 It feels like righting a historical wrong 444 00:25:56,600 --> 00:25:58,560 and should help to bring back pride, 445 00:25:58,560 --> 00:26:00,520 purpose and even jobs to the community. 446 00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:07,000 I headed south, back towards the Rockies, 447 00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:10,040 the mountains that form the western spine of the continent. 448 00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:19,200 We're just coming into Utah, 449 00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:23,160 into a very beautiful - and quite green - Rocky Mountains, 450 00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:24,920 at least at this point. 451 00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:31,440 Utah was founded by people who consider themselves exiles 452 00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:35,520 from the rest of the United States, the Mormons. 453 00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:37,920 Mormons is a term often used for members of 454 00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:40,760 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 455 00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:42,920 Mormons were some of the first Europeans 456 00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:45,840 to cross the Rocky Mountains. They were one of the principle forces 457 00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:47,880 in the settlement of the West. 458 00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:50,960 INDISTINCT CHATTER 459 00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:54,440 I met up with Grace and Emma, Mormon sisters, 460 00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:57,240 for a hike along what's called the Mormon Trail, 461 00:26:57,240 --> 00:27:00,880 to find out a bit more about this conservative, controversial, 462 00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:03,080 and very American church. 463 00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:07,360 The basics of the Book of Mormon are that this Jewish family 464 00:27:07,360 --> 00:27:10,240 actually fled from Jerusalem, 465 00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:13,880 over the oceans, to America, the Americas, 466 00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:16,800 and there that family ended up splitting into two tribes, 467 00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:18,440 the Nephites and the Lamanites. 468 00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:20,600 And this is a long time ago? 469 00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:22,400 Long, long time ago, yeah. 470 00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:24,640 Way before Europeans, before Christ. 471 00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:28,120 Yeah. Before Europeans came here, OK. Mm-hm. 472 00:27:28,120 --> 00:27:30,600 Where did Native Americans come into this? 473 00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:35,440 One of the origins of Native Americans is actually those tribes. 474 00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:38,880 The best part about the Book of Mormon is when Christ, 475 00:27:38,880 --> 00:27:41,960 after his resurrection, actually comes to the Americas. 476 00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:44,360 Jesus, after he died and was resurrected, you believe, 477 00:27:44,360 --> 00:27:48,640 came to the United States? Mm-hm, yeah. OK. 478 00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:51,720 Mormons certainly have some eccentric beliefs - 479 00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:54,320 in this country, they're not alone in that. 480 00:27:54,320 --> 00:27:56,840 The Mormons first prophet was Joseph Smith. 481 00:27:56,840 --> 00:28:00,080 In 1830, he published The Book of Mormon, after an angel guided him 482 00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:02,640 to mysterious golden tablets. 483 00:28:02,640 --> 00:28:06,720 The Mormon faith grew quickly, then Mormons headed west. 484 00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:09,760 There's a lot of persecution against a lot of people in the faith. 485 00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:12,400 People didn't really like... They're, like, "Mormons, argh!" 486 00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:15,240 That was partly because, at the time, 487 00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:17,880 Mormons were practising polygamy, wasn't it? 488 00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:20,280 So it wasn't a persecution, it was prosecution. 489 00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:22,480 Yep. And the idea that Joseph Smith 490 00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:25,680 had a vision and had an angel come to him, people didn't really like, 491 00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:27,880 they thought that was really weird, right? 492 00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:33,000 So they ended up coming on this huge, long trek down here to Utah. 493 00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:35,160 This is just one of the ways they got, eventually, 494 00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:36,960 to the Salt Lake Valley. 495 00:28:36,960 --> 00:28:40,040 But they had to get over these. Look at this! 496 00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:43,080 This is the sort of landscape they had to come through. 497 00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:44,880 Yeah. A lot of people died. 498 00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:49,520 Some people had babies on the trail, who they had to bury along the way. 499 00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:55,280 This story, it must give you a real sense of roots in this land, 500 00:28:55,280 --> 00:28:58,720 of struggle and loss and blood that was shed. 501 00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:02,160 You feel a belonging. Mm-hm. Even just, like, to the mountains 502 00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:04,200 cos you're, like, "Hey, this is where..." 503 00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:07,200 Like, they came over these mountains and so coming up here, you're, like, 504 00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:08,880 "This is what they saw." Yeah. 505 00:29:08,880 --> 00:29:12,440 It gives you identity, as much as anything. 506 00:29:13,520 --> 00:29:15,760 There are now 16 million members of the Mormon Church 507 00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:19,040 around the world and it's one of the fastest growing faiths. 508 00:29:19,040 --> 00:29:22,480 Its success owes much to tens of thousands of missionaries like Emma, 509 00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:24,880 who spread the word and recruit new followers. 510 00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:28,720 You go to someone, you're, like, "Hey, I like your shoes." 511 00:29:28,720 --> 00:29:31,160 And then... Oh, that's quite... 512 00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:34,040 Well, that's an instant in, isn't it? Yeah. 513 00:29:34,040 --> 00:29:36,960 You can always find something to compliment. What's your aim? 514 00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:40,360 Are you aiming to...? Is the ultimate aim to baptise people? 515 00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:44,400 It is to invite others to come under Christ by helping them receive 516 00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:48,080 the restored gospel through a faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, 517 00:29:48,080 --> 00:29:51,120 repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost 518 00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:54,560 and enduring to the end. That's quite a long mission statement, 519 00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:56,800 if you don't mind me pointing out. 520 00:29:56,800 --> 00:30:00,200 Christianity has long been an incredible social and political 521 00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:02,520 force in the US, but, in recent years, 522 00:30:02,520 --> 00:30:05,600 the number of people who say they're Christians has declined. 523 00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:08,280 Young people in particular are turning away from powerful 524 00:30:08,280 --> 00:30:11,560 evangelical churches and preachers. 525 00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:14,360 But the Mormon Church hasn't suffered the same way, 526 00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:17,400 probably because it's got good souls like Emma and Grace out there doing 527 00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:20,400 charity work and spreading the message. 528 00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:30,640 Back on the road, driving for hours 529 00:30:30,640 --> 00:30:34,160 across what sometimes felt like endless open space. 530 00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:38,080 But it was worth it. 531 00:30:41,520 --> 00:30:43,320 The rocks really tower here. 532 00:30:45,160 --> 00:30:48,600 It's easy to forget how massive the United States is 533 00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:50,440 and that enormous space 534 00:30:50,440 --> 00:30:54,400 obviously encompasses so many different environments 535 00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:58,760 and ecosystems and sheer bloody beauty. 536 00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:03,520 I took a small detour on my journey south and stopped off 537 00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:07,520 at the Arches National Park. With its sandstone rock formations, 538 00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:09,920 it's one of America's most iconic landscapes 539 00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:11,920 and a huge tourist attraction. 540 00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:15,800 I mean, come on. 541 00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:17,840 That is flipping amazing, isn't it? 542 00:31:24,080 --> 00:31:28,480 If you want to come and enjoy peace and raw nature here, 543 00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:31,640 I think you might be a little bit too late. 544 00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:39,560 Several decades too late. 545 00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:50,760 It is still stunning. It is still a gorgeous experience. 546 00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:52,960 You can still get lost in the moment. 547 00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:03,120 You don't have to be inside an American national park to find 548 00:32:03,120 --> 00:32:04,920 incredible beauty here. 549 00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:06,360 Yay! 550 00:32:06,360 --> 00:32:08,400 It's the Colorado River. 551 00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:12,400 Even in remote and lovely corners of this country, 552 00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:14,760 there are people living out here 553 00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:17,520 in thousands and thousands of small communities. 554 00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:32,800 I was heading into the land of small-town America, 555 00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:36,680 traditionally the heart and soul of the USA. 556 00:32:36,680 --> 00:32:40,800 Here we go. So this is the little town of Nucla. 557 00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:46,000 Roughly 700 people live in Nucla, in Colorado. 558 00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:49,880 Like many of America's small towns, it's fallen on hard times. 559 00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:52,600 This was once the centre of a thriving mining industry, 560 00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:54,680 but then companies and the government realised 561 00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:56,760 they could buy cheaper from abroad. 562 00:32:56,760 --> 00:32:59,920 Over the years, the mines have shut down. The last local mine 563 00:32:59,920 --> 00:33:03,400 will soon close - along with another 80 jobs. 564 00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:04,680 It's so quiet here. 565 00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:10,760 The stores and the buildings have closed... 566 00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:15,880 ..because so many of the jobs have gone. 567 00:33:15,880 --> 00:33:19,800 I wanted to know if the American dream was still alive in Nucla, 568 00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:22,560 so I popped into one of the shops. 569 00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:25,440 When I started, there were four pharmacies 570 00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:29,840 and about ten years ago there was me left. That was it. 571 00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:32,760 We've done everything we can and yet all of a sudden we just feel like 572 00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:34,840 everything's been yanked out below us. 573 00:33:34,840 --> 00:33:37,160 Even though we've done the right thing - we've worked hard, 574 00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:38,920 we put money into our property, 575 00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:41,640 we've saved money, we've provide our own health care 576 00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:43,880 and then all of a sudden everything's gone. 577 00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:46,480 I mean, without any warning. 578 00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:49,200 It sounds to me like people feel they've been betrayed, 579 00:33:49,200 --> 00:33:51,000 people feel angry. 580 00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:55,040 Well, people are angry because, you know, somebody that owns 581 00:33:55,040 --> 00:33:57,240 a company makes a decision that, 582 00:33:57,240 --> 00:34:00,360 "We can save two cents by doing it someplace else, so goodbye. 583 00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:02,120 "You know, you're gone." 584 00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:10,720 I do you think this sense that a lot of people have here 585 00:34:10,720 --> 00:34:15,800 that the old industries are closing down and that there is 586 00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:21,040 a feeling that the system is rigged in favour of the large corporations, 587 00:34:21,040 --> 00:34:23,360 the wealthy and the elite, 588 00:34:23,360 --> 00:34:28,160 and many areas of the country are being forgotten and left behind, 589 00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:32,560 this is a big part of the widening 590 00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:36,920 and the sharpening political divide in the US. 591 00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:42,200 But not all of the small towns in Colorado 592 00:34:42,200 --> 00:34:44,320 are in a terminal state of decline. 593 00:34:50,520 --> 00:34:54,960 It looks like a fairly prosperous little community. 594 00:34:54,960 --> 00:34:57,200 Here we are. 595 00:34:57,200 --> 00:34:59,240 Garden City Town Hall. 596 00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:04,720 We're here...to meet the cops. 597 00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:10,880 I was going to get a tour of his turf with Officer Bacon. 598 00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:17,600 This road, right here, this is 6th Avenue Lane. 599 00:35:17,600 --> 00:35:19,800 A regular neighbourhood. Regular neighbourhood. 600 00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:22,920 In Garden City. Mm-hm. Colorado. Mm-hm. 601 00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:26,040 How many people? There's 256, roughly. 602 00:35:26,040 --> 00:35:27,920 How many streets? 603 00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:29,880 Oh, let's see. We've got 25th Street, 604 00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:33,000 26th Street, 27th Street. 605 00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:36,040 27th Street Road. Are you going to get off one hand? 606 00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:39,120 We have five streets going north and south. 607 00:35:39,120 --> 00:35:41,120 It must be one of the smaller... 608 00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:44,360 We're about a half a square mile, that's how big our town is. 609 00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:48,360 Look at the left, you've got plants, bushes, well-kept lawns 610 00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:50,000 and general smartness. 611 00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:54,680 All these railings, the benches, 612 00:35:54,680 --> 00:35:57,360 that's all new. New pavement. 613 00:35:57,360 --> 00:36:00,800 I mean, this whole road... New pavement and new paint. Yep. 614 00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:02,880 So this this whole road, right here, 615 00:36:02,880 --> 00:36:07,280 this road was completed, I'd say, about six months ago. 616 00:36:07,280 --> 00:36:08,840 All brand-new. Oh, right. 617 00:36:08,840 --> 00:36:12,680 Garden City is tiny, but it has a well-equipped police force - 618 00:36:12,680 --> 00:36:14,640 with four full-time officers. 619 00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:17,360 The local council has clearly been on a big spending spree. 620 00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:22,600 Where is this money coming from? We have our secrets. 621 00:36:22,600 --> 00:36:25,000 HE LAUGHS 622 00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:28,240 Tell us the truth! I can't tell you everything. 623 00:36:28,240 --> 00:36:32,440 So, we actually, we do have, in this small little community, 624 00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:36,960 we actually have four marijuana dispensaries. 625 00:36:36,960 --> 00:36:39,400 Four marijuana dispensaries. 626 00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:43,880 And that sets us apart from every other town in this county. 627 00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:46,480 We get people coming in from all over the place, 628 00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:49,000 coming here specifically, 629 00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:51,920 just to purchase their marijuana, 630 00:36:51,920 --> 00:36:56,080 whether it be for recreational use or medicinal use. 631 00:36:56,080 --> 00:37:01,080 And, as an officer of the law, how are you feeling about that? 632 00:37:01,080 --> 00:37:04,240 I'm OK with it. Honestly, I've never come across anybody 633 00:37:04,240 --> 00:37:08,520 who uses marijuana who is...angry. 634 00:37:08,520 --> 00:37:10,480 They're all nice. 635 00:37:10,480 --> 00:37:12,080 That's a hell of a thing to say. 636 00:37:12,080 --> 00:37:15,080 Yeah. They're all happy. You've never come across anyone? 637 00:37:15,080 --> 00:37:19,440 All they want is cookies, some snacks, maybe a soda. 638 00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:22,600 Munchies. Munchies. They want munchies. They want to sit down, 639 00:37:22,600 --> 00:37:26,480 they want to watch some cartoons and just enjoy their munchies. 640 00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:28,680 We can go in there. OK. 641 00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:36,480 So this is a marijuana dispensary? It's basically a cannabis shop? 642 00:37:36,480 --> 00:37:41,040 It is. Kind of like, you know, you go to a place to go buy groceries. 643 00:37:41,040 --> 00:37:45,120 Yeah. You come here to buy your marijuana. Marijuana store. 644 00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:48,400 In 2012, Colorado voted to be one of the first states 645 00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:51,360 to legalise recreational cannabis. 646 00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:55,360 Welcome to Smokey's. We are a dispensary, is what we are here, 647 00:37:55,360 --> 00:37:58,400 which means that we sell cannabis-related products. 648 00:37:58,400 --> 00:38:00,240 Excuse me, sir. 649 00:38:00,240 --> 00:38:03,320 Thank you for shopping at Smokey's Have a great day. I'll see you guys. 650 00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:07,040 I met Scott Brady. Smokey's has quite a lot of business going here. 651 00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:09,560 It's a bit of an overwhelming amount of choice. 652 00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:12,360 It is. What the hell is that? 653 00:38:12,360 --> 00:38:15,720 So that's going to be for dabbing, so it's much like vaping. 654 00:38:15,720 --> 00:38:18,520 You've heard vaping, right? I have heard of vaping. 655 00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:20,360 You can even vape this product - 656 00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:23,440 that's another form that you can do with the product. 657 00:38:24,640 --> 00:38:27,880 Under federal law, which is made by the US government in Washington, 658 00:38:27,880 --> 00:38:30,560 all of this is actually still illegal. 659 00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:32,760 However, more than half of US states 660 00:38:32,760 --> 00:38:35,640 have now legalised cannabis to some degree. 661 00:38:35,640 --> 00:38:37,680 But not everyone is so positive. 662 00:38:37,680 --> 00:38:39,520 Cannabis is a drug and, of course, 663 00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:42,400 there are health risks with all drugs. 664 00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:47,600 "Cinderella 99. Cherry Lime Haze. Black Russian." 665 00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:50,200 I mean, it's like looking at a long list of cocktails, isn't it? 666 00:38:50,200 --> 00:38:54,080 It is, it is. This gives you a sample of each one of the available 667 00:38:54,080 --> 00:38:56,720 strains that we have on the floor right now 668 00:38:56,720 --> 00:39:00,000 and there's a variety of them. Each one of these smell different. 669 00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:01,640 This one right here, 670 00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:04,440 this is the Cinderella 99 that you saw on the sign. 671 00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:07,680 That smells very sweet. Right? Very sweet. 672 00:39:07,680 --> 00:39:11,200 And you're going to have some that are towards the fruity side. 673 00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:14,400 America can be a weird place. At this very local level, 674 00:39:14,400 --> 00:39:17,640 the Garden City community has been able to pass legislation 675 00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:20,040 to allow cannabis shops in their neighbourhood. 676 00:39:20,040 --> 00:39:22,040 Other towns said no. 677 00:39:22,040 --> 00:39:25,160 Garden City had its eye on the tax. 678 00:39:25,160 --> 00:39:28,280 Thanks to a 3% tax levied on cannabis sales, 679 00:39:28,280 --> 00:39:32,880 the town's annual revenues have soared to more than $2 million. 680 00:39:32,880 --> 00:39:35,160 All right, so we've got some suits over here for you. 681 00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:37,720 We're going to have you guys suit up. 682 00:39:37,720 --> 00:39:39,560 So I spray you down before we head back. 683 00:39:41,080 --> 00:39:43,520 All right, go ahead and spin around for me, please. 684 00:39:43,520 --> 00:39:45,480 That's great. Thank you. 685 00:39:45,480 --> 00:39:47,760 So we'll go into one of our flower rooms. 686 00:39:47,760 --> 00:39:49,920 These plants are all in week seven. 687 00:39:49,920 --> 00:39:51,960 We do a nine-week gestation, 688 00:39:51,960 --> 00:39:56,080 that is to say that these plants will be done 689 00:39:56,080 --> 00:39:59,680 in nine weeks, from beginning to end. 690 00:39:59,680 --> 00:40:03,720 Research suggests excessive use of cannabis can increase the risk 691 00:40:03,720 --> 00:40:05,840 of developing a psychotic illness. 692 00:40:07,200 --> 00:40:09,960 Cannabis is still illegal in most countries around the world, 693 00:40:09,960 --> 00:40:12,080 including in the UK, 694 00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:15,360 but there are now growing calls for the drug to be legalised. 695 00:40:15,360 --> 00:40:18,160 Who knows? We might soon see dispensaries like this 696 00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:19,840 on British high streets. 697 00:40:19,840 --> 00:40:23,240 In Colorado, many think they've led the way. 698 00:40:23,240 --> 00:40:25,760 So, these plants are all harvested up. 699 00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:29,520 Is this the future of cannabis in the United States? 700 00:40:29,520 --> 00:40:31,520 I would like to hope so, yeah. 701 00:40:31,520 --> 00:40:34,640 I think that what we're doing and the way we're doing it, 702 00:40:34,640 --> 00:40:36,840 I really think, is the future for cannabis 703 00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:38,640 and not just in the United States. 704 00:40:38,640 --> 00:40:41,720 We fully understand that it's not just the eyes of Colorado 705 00:40:41,720 --> 00:40:45,000 that are on us. It's the eyes of the world. 706 00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:47,800 The genie's out of the bottle, if you will. 707 00:40:53,760 --> 00:40:57,440 The final part of this journey took me away from small-town America, 708 00:40:57,440 --> 00:40:59,840 into the most populated part of the Rockies. 709 00:41:04,120 --> 00:41:08,160 This part of the Rockies area is sprawling connected cities. 710 00:41:09,680 --> 00:41:12,960 I drove to Denver, nicknamed the Mile High City. 711 00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:17,280 It's one of the fastest growing cities in America. 712 00:41:17,280 --> 00:41:21,320 It's yet another tech hub for newly arrived internet startups 713 00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:24,080 doing goodness knows what, 714 00:41:24,080 --> 00:41:26,840 but I wanted to meet a local who'd grown up here and could give me 715 00:41:26,840 --> 00:41:30,080 another perspective on life in this part of the Rockies. 716 00:41:30,080 --> 00:41:32,520 I think this is where we're meeting him. 717 00:41:32,520 --> 00:41:35,160 On the outskirts of Denver, I met up with campaigner 718 00:41:35,160 --> 00:41:37,840 and community activist Juston Cooper. 719 00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:40,360 Thanks for meeting me here. I appreciate it. Thank you. 720 00:41:40,360 --> 00:41:42,160 Thank you for meeting us. 721 00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:44,280 He took me back to where he grew up. 722 00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:48,160 It's considered urban. 723 00:41:48,160 --> 00:41:51,880 It's considered urban. It looks pretty suburban to me. Right?! 724 00:41:51,880 --> 00:41:55,080 How is this...? Yeah, that was always, like... 725 00:41:55,080 --> 00:41:58,120 You know, because all the things that come with a community 726 00:41:58,120 --> 00:42:01,560 that is technically low to middle income. 727 00:42:01,560 --> 00:42:06,960 This was a fairly safe and secure place to grow up for you, was it? 728 00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:10,920 No. Not safe and secure... It was... It was... It was home. 729 00:42:10,920 --> 00:42:13,560 This is, you know, this place developed. 730 00:42:13,560 --> 00:42:17,800 We were just around the corner from Juston's family home 731 00:42:17,800 --> 00:42:20,000 and it was a very special day of the year. 732 00:42:21,560 --> 00:42:24,280 What's happening now? What's happening, y'all? 733 00:42:24,280 --> 00:42:26,960 OG, what's going on with you? 734 00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:32,240 Juston has basically invited us round to his mum's house 735 00:42:32,240 --> 00:42:35,280 to have lunch. It's Mother's Day and he says, 736 00:42:35,280 --> 00:42:38,520 "No, no, it's not a problem. She'll love to see you." 737 00:42:38,520 --> 00:42:40,920 I've got some chocolates that we bought in a store. 738 00:42:40,920 --> 00:42:43,080 I still feel a little bit guilty about it, but... 739 00:42:43,080 --> 00:42:46,240 I'm not entirely dressed, either. I hope we'll be all right. 740 00:42:48,200 --> 00:42:50,360 Hey. How are you guys doing? 741 00:42:50,360 --> 00:42:53,840 We're doing so well. Honour to meet you. Nice to meet you. 742 00:42:53,840 --> 00:42:56,280 Thank you so much for letting us come to visit... 743 00:42:56,280 --> 00:42:58,880 Oh, you're so welcome. ..on Mother's Day. 744 00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:01,080 You are so welcome. 745 00:43:01,080 --> 00:43:03,360 We brought you some chocolates. Thank you so much. 746 00:43:03,360 --> 00:43:05,720 Do you eat chocolate? Oh, yes, absolutely. OK. 747 00:43:07,840 --> 00:43:09,520 Teamwork makes the dream work. 748 00:43:09,520 --> 00:43:13,080 I'm pretty shameless, so I wasn't going to turn down a family lunch, 749 00:43:13,080 --> 00:43:15,320 but Juston's a passionate campaigner. 750 00:43:15,320 --> 00:43:17,320 He's a leading advocate for reforming 751 00:43:17,320 --> 00:43:19,160 the American prison system. 752 00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:21,880 We'd only managed a few mouthfuls before talk turned to the issue 753 00:43:21,880 --> 00:43:23,640 close to his heart. 754 00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:26,960 So, just so we understand, 755 00:43:26,960 --> 00:43:31,760 I mean, basically, America jails an unbelievable number of people. 756 00:43:31,760 --> 00:43:34,680 2.3 million we incarcerate. 757 00:43:34,680 --> 00:43:37,320 You know, predominantly black and brown people. 758 00:43:37,320 --> 00:43:38,880 Where does it all start? 759 00:43:38,880 --> 00:43:43,280 It doesn't have to necessarily be a criminal act, right? 760 00:43:43,280 --> 00:43:45,680 Traffic is a really good example of that. 761 00:43:45,680 --> 00:43:50,200 Traffic is not criminalised per se until a certain point, 762 00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:53,240 so you can get stopped for a busted tail light, you can get stopped 763 00:43:53,240 --> 00:43:57,360 in this country for having a cracked window, windshield, 764 00:43:57,360 --> 00:44:01,000 and you can get stopped for all these reasons 765 00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:03,440 and these penalties and fines start to add up. 766 00:44:03,440 --> 00:44:06,680 If you don't have the ability to pay, in this country, 767 00:44:06,680 --> 00:44:09,320 courts can issue what is called a warrant. 768 00:44:09,320 --> 00:44:13,480 Now you're in violation of the court by not paying these fines or fees. 769 00:44:13,480 --> 00:44:16,240 It then can cross over to criminal, 770 00:44:16,240 --> 00:44:18,880 so you can be held in contempt of court 771 00:44:18,880 --> 00:44:21,120 for not paying your fines or fees. 772 00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:23,560 You have a warrant that you have to pay a fee on 773 00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:26,320 once you're detained and that begins arrest, right? 774 00:44:26,320 --> 00:44:31,320 Now, all from a busted tail light or all from a defective vehicle. 775 00:44:31,320 --> 00:44:35,040 I got stopped for... I had a tail light out. 776 00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:38,160 One bulb wasn't working? One bulb wasn't working. 777 00:44:38,160 --> 00:44:41,400 And they stopped me for that and they took me to jail. 778 00:44:41,400 --> 00:44:44,720 I spent the night in jail. 779 00:44:44,720 --> 00:44:48,760 The system in the United States has done more damage 780 00:44:48,760 --> 00:44:50,840 and created more harm to communities, 781 00:44:50,840 --> 00:44:54,360 particularly communities of colour, than imaginable. 782 00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:56,720 And what you're hearing is that's how it snowballs. 783 00:44:56,720 --> 00:44:58,720 That's the chain reaction. 784 00:44:58,720 --> 00:45:03,760 And it's this pipeline that basically says you're noncompliant, 785 00:45:03,760 --> 00:45:07,240 you're poor, you don't have money, and now here you are. 786 00:45:07,240 --> 00:45:10,760 You start to snowball into the system and that's how the pipeline 787 00:45:10,760 --> 00:45:13,080 gets created. Into the criminal justice... 788 00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:16,880 Into the criminal justice system, and it can lead to prison. 789 00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:19,840 Many local councils across the US are hugely dependent 790 00:45:19,840 --> 00:45:22,480 on these kind of fines for revenue. 791 00:45:22,480 --> 00:45:25,440 It's alleged they can have an incentive to persecute people 792 00:45:25,440 --> 00:45:29,360 for trivial offences and bank the money from the harsh fines. 793 00:45:29,360 --> 00:45:33,440 You have a very lovely family. Thank you. OK? Thank you so much. 794 00:45:33,440 --> 00:45:36,680 Studies show black minority and poor communities here 795 00:45:36,680 --> 00:45:39,960 are disproportionately targeted by courts and the police. 796 00:45:39,960 --> 00:45:43,480 When you go to get into your truck, do you...? 797 00:45:43,480 --> 00:45:46,440 Do you find yourself looking around, just to check it every time, 798 00:45:46,440 --> 00:45:48,680 in case you're going to have something wrong 799 00:45:48,680 --> 00:45:51,160 with it and the police are going to stop you? Oh, absolutely. 800 00:45:51,160 --> 00:45:54,760 What is the lowest level of problem you can have on a vehicle 801 00:45:54,760 --> 00:45:57,800 that you've heard about that's resulted in people being 802 00:45:57,800 --> 00:46:00,400 sucked, almost, into the criminal justice system? 803 00:46:00,400 --> 00:46:02,800 Something hanging from your rear-view mirror, 804 00:46:02,800 --> 00:46:05,600 like an air freshener, charm, a bracelet or any of that kind 805 00:46:05,600 --> 00:46:07,280 of stuff that's hanging. 806 00:46:07,280 --> 00:46:10,760 That little thing alone can give them a reason to stop, 807 00:46:10,760 --> 00:46:12,640 which then can lead to fines. 808 00:46:14,480 --> 00:46:18,320 This country prides itself on being the land of the free, 809 00:46:18,320 --> 00:46:23,200 but the US has some local laws which can often seem completely bonkers. 810 00:46:23,200 --> 00:46:26,600 In certain parts of the country, you know, where you live matters. 811 00:46:26,600 --> 00:46:30,880 You can have mismatched curtains in your house, in your windows, 812 00:46:30,880 --> 00:46:33,320 and get fined by the city for that. 813 00:46:33,320 --> 00:46:35,960 Mismatched curtains? Yes. 814 00:46:37,600 --> 00:46:41,720 Homelessness is another major pipeline to prison in the US. 815 00:46:41,720 --> 00:46:43,880 Thousands of people are jailed here 816 00:46:43,880 --> 00:46:46,120 after being fined for being homeless, 817 00:46:46,120 --> 00:46:48,000 just for sleeping in a park, 818 00:46:48,000 --> 00:46:51,080 for loitering, standing around in public. 819 00:46:51,080 --> 00:46:53,040 This can be a brutal country. 820 00:46:53,040 --> 00:46:56,640 Our prisons and jails are filled with poor people... 821 00:46:58,640 --> 00:47:02,240 ..because if you have the means and the resources 822 00:47:02,240 --> 00:47:04,480 to get yourself legal representation, 823 00:47:04,480 --> 00:47:07,280 that's going to prevent you from going to jail. 824 00:47:07,280 --> 00:47:09,880 Does it sometimes feel to you like the system here 825 00:47:09,880 --> 00:47:13,720 is almost criminalising poverty? 826 00:47:13,720 --> 00:47:16,600 Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. 827 00:47:18,440 --> 00:47:22,720 Juston took me south to another small Colorado town 828 00:47:22,720 --> 00:47:25,000 which prospers from a single industry. 829 00:47:29,320 --> 00:47:31,600 That's quite a view. That is. 830 00:47:33,040 --> 00:47:35,320 What makes Canon City special? 831 00:47:35,320 --> 00:47:37,000 This area where we're standing, 832 00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:40,440 right over there has the most prisons in one area in the country 833 00:47:40,440 --> 00:47:42,120 and probably in the world. 834 00:47:43,560 --> 00:47:45,640 Canon City is a prison town. 835 00:47:47,160 --> 00:47:51,720 Out there, an astonishing 11 prisons and 9,000 inmates. 836 00:47:51,720 --> 00:47:55,000 These particular prisons drive jobs. 837 00:47:55,000 --> 00:47:56,840 They're the revenue earner, 838 00:47:56,840 --> 00:48:00,920 they generate and pump money back into the county, right? 839 00:48:00,920 --> 00:48:05,560 The number one employer in this town is its prisons. 840 00:48:05,560 --> 00:48:09,600 You have an industry that's being created. 841 00:48:09,600 --> 00:48:13,240 Like any industry, it grows. 842 00:48:13,240 --> 00:48:14,920 So, in the United States, 843 00:48:14,920 --> 00:48:18,040 from the '80s until now, you had this huge boom 844 00:48:18,040 --> 00:48:22,240 of prison development across the nation. 845 00:48:22,240 --> 00:48:25,800 And now here we are, trillions of dollars spent, 846 00:48:25,800 --> 00:48:27,880 yet no-one feels safer. 847 00:48:27,880 --> 00:48:29,960 Despite all the jails, 848 00:48:29,960 --> 00:48:34,040 Americans remain some of the most fearful people in the world. 849 00:48:34,040 --> 00:48:36,520 Juston wants to reform the system. 850 00:48:39,480 --> 00:48:43,960 Our part of the journey together has to end now, doesn't it? 851 00:48:43,960 --> 00:48:49,440 Because tomorrow I'm doing something that you can't come with me on. 852 00:48:50,840 --> 00:48:53,120 I'm going into a prison. Yeah. 853 00:48:53,120 --> 00:48:55,960 Probably best you don't come. Probably. 854 00:48:55,960 --> 00:49:00,040 Prison reformers... Yeah! ..generally aren't invited in. 855 00:49:00,040 --> 00:49:03,400 Thank you for the opportunity in elevating the conversation, my friend. 856 00:49:05,560 --> 00:49:10,840 America spends $80 billion a year locking up its own citizens. 857 00:49:10,840 --> 00:49:13,640 A quarter of the prisoners on planet Earth 858 00:49:13,640 --> 00:49:16,440 are believed to be here, in the United States. 859 00:49:25,200 --> 00:49:28,200 Well, that truly is a concrete monstrosity. 860 00:49:29,880 --> 00:49:34,080 The huge scale of the American penal system can be seen in Canon City. 861 00:49:35,520 --> 00:49:41,040 There are federal, state, county and female correctional facilities. 862 00:49:41,040 --> 00:49:45,000 But, to their credit, they're pretty open to foreign TV travellers. 863 00:49:46,320 --> 00:49:49,040 My first stop was Colorado's oldest prison. 864 00:49:50,400 --> 00:49:53,120 This is a medium security correctional facility, 865 00:49:53,120 --> 00:49:55,400 holding 900 inmates. 866 00:49:59,720 --> 00:50:00,920 Mindy has the key. 867 00:50:02,560 --> 00:50:06,000 It's much bigger than it looks from the outside. Yeah. 868 00:50:08,040 --> 00:50:10,720 Prisoners here are put to work making car number plates 869 00:50:10,720 --> 00:50:12,480 for the state government. 870 00:50:19,640 --> 00:50:22,480 Every licence plate in the state of Colorado is manufactured here 871 00:50:22,480 --> 00:50:24,520 and has been since the 1920s. 872 00:50:25,880 --> 00:50:29,560 This wasn't entirely what I'd expected to see inside a US prison. 873 00:50:30,800 --> 00:50:32,160 It's like a factory, 874 00:50:32,160 --> 00:50:35,160 but a factory with some really tough cons working there. 875 00:50:39,920 --> 00:50:41,480 How many in a set? 876 00:50:52,000 --> 00:50:54,520 Has Colorado got that many cars? 877 00:50:56,400 --> 00:51:00,040 The pay here is tiny, just a few dollars a day. 878 00:51:01,560 --> 00:51:04,320 But, for many, it's better than sitting in a cell. 879 00:51:07,360 --> 00:51:11,360 That is quite... It's quite mesmerising to watch this, actually. 880 00:51:11,360 --> 00:51:14,040 You are like the ultimate multitasker, aren't you? 881 00:51:16,280 --> 00:51:21,720 Why would you say America jails so many people? 882 00:51:31,480 --> 00:51:32,960 In what sense? 883 00:51:43,680 --> 00:51:45,160 That's an exaggeration, 884 00:51:45,160 --> 00:51:48,760 but prison labour is a a billion dollar industry in the US. 885 00:51:50,480 --> 00:51:52,520 Prisons in the United States 886 00:51:52,520 --> 00:51:56,280 employ nearly half a million correctional officers. 887 00:51:56,280 --> 00:51:57,960 Half a million - 888 00:51:57,960 --> 00:52:01,200 that's more than five times the size of the British Army. 889 00:52:01,200 --> 00:52:05,440 The US jails more than seven times the number of people per capita 890 00:52:05,440 --> 00:52:07,600 compared to the average in Europe 891 00:52:07,600 --> 00:52:10,520 and sentences in the US can be much longer. 892 00:52:12,160 --> 00:52:15,240 Across town, I visited a maximum security prison, 893 00:52:15,240 --> 00:52:18,840 where many of the offenders face a lifetime behind bars. 894 00:52:18,840 --> 00:52:22,160 OK. Left my phone. 895 00:52:22,160 --> 00:52:23,800 Left all my stuff. 896 00:52:23,800 --> 00:52:26,440 It's a little bit scary, quite honestly. 897 00:52:29,680 --> 00:52:34,440 160,000 prisoners in the US are serving life sentences. 898 00:52:35,760 --> 00:52:39,600 And for many, life means life, with no chance of release. 899 00:52:42,040 --> 00:52:45,880 This is something you do all the time, but for me that's a big deal. 900 00:52:45,880 --> 00:52:48,520 This is where the tension rises a little. 901 00:52:48,520 --> 00:52:51,800 It does a little bit. Not for you, though. No. 902 00:52:51,800 --> 00:52:55,400 After 21 years. This is just a typical day. 903 00:52:55,400 --> 00:52:57,800 Right. Thank you. 904 00:53:04,360 --> 00:53:06,840 The men I was about to meet had all been convicted 905 00:53:06,840 --> 00:53:09,840 when they were juveniles, some as young as 16. 906 00:53:16,560 --> 00:53:18,960 Good Afternoon. Afternoon. Afternoon. 907 00:53:20,680 --> 00:53:25,480 Were all of you convicted 18 or under? Under 18, in fact? 908 00:53:26,920 --> 00:53:31,400 I believe I was sentenced around my birthday of turning 16. 909 00:53:31,400 --> 00:53:35,000 I was 16 when I committed my offence. I have 40 to life now. 910 00:53:35,000 --> 00:53:37,280 I used to have two lifes plus 51 years. 911 00:53:37,280 --> 00:53:40,880 Two life sentences plus 51 years? 912 00:53:40,880 --> 00:53:42,760 Yes. I had 17 charges, 913 00:53:42,760 --> 00:53:47,400 from murder to burglary to auto theft to attempted murder 914 00:53:47,400 --> 00:53:51,320 to possession of dangerous weapons, etc. I had a lot of charges. 915 00:53:51,320 --> 00:53:55,600 So, when you started in the prison system, you must have thought, 916 00:53:55,600 --> 00:53:59,800 "I am never leaving this prison alive." Yes. 917 00:54:01,040 --> 00:54:04,080 Many of these men committed terrible crimes when they were young 918 00:54:04,080 --> 00:54:06,920 and face the rest of their lives in prison, 919 00:54:06,920 --> 00:54:11,600 but a recent Supreme Court ruling means they might now get out. 920 00:54:11,600 --> 00:54:14,800 Currently, right now, we are learning about mobile platforms. 921 00:54:14,800 --> 00:54:18,400 The mobile platforms consist of Facebook, everything that's going on 922 00:54:18,400 --> 00:54:21,240 in the 21st century that they have missed out 923 00:54:21,240 --> 00:54:24,320 because of the incarceration period, OK? 924 00:54:24,320 --> 00:54:27,600 And then, when we are actually ready to go, we actually put them 925 00:54:27,600 --> 00:54:31,120 on the virtual reality simulation. 926 00:54:31,120 --> 00:54:33,960 Before any of these prisoners are eligible for parole, 927 00:54:33,960 --> 00:54:37,120 they must complete a three-year re-entry programme. 928 00:54:37,120 --> 00:54:40,240 It's an innovative project, where they use virtual reality 929 00:54:40,240 --> 00:54:44,000 to simulate life situations in the outside world. 930 00:54:44,000 --> 00:54:48,400 On this simulation, it's basically how do you order a full service 931 00:54:48,400 --> 00:54:50,200 at a current restaurant? 932 00:54:52,440 --> 00:54:53,840 And then have a seat. 933 00:54:58,320 --> 00:55:02,360 So, are we seeing what Mr Romero is seeing? We are. 934 00:55:02,360 --> 00:55:05,360 If you look up, do you see the waiter, Romero? Yes, I do. 935 00:55:05,360 --> 00:55:08,080 OK. We're going to go ahead and start. 936 00:55:09,320 --> 00:55:12,560 How are you this evening? I'm very well, thank you. 937 00:55:12,560 --> 00:55:14,360 Would you like something to start, 938 00:55:14,360 --> 00:55:16,800 before I take the rest of your order? 939 00:55:16,800 --> 00:55:20,440 I'd like am orange cream soda, please. 940 00:55:20,440 --> 00:55:22,040 OK. 941 00:55:22,040 --> 00:55:26,160 Tip is not included. It's up to you if you'd like to leave a tip. 942 00:55:26,160 --> 00:55:30,320 The whole minefield of tipping in an American restaurant! 943 00:55:30,320 --> 00:55:33,040 I've never seen or heard about anything like this. 944 00:55:33,040 --> 00:55:35,920 Is it useful? Absolutely. 945 00:55:35,920 --> 00:55:38,760 I haven't seen the inside of a restaurant in so long. 946 00:55:38,760 --> 00:55:41,400 We've got one where we go into a supermarket 947 00:55:41,400 --> 00:55:44,440 and there are so many choices - it's kind of overwhelming. 948 00:55:44,440 --> 00:55:48,080 So having a chance to see myself in a different setting 949 00:55:48,080 --> 00:55:52,200 outside these prison walls is an amazing feeling 950 00:55:52,200 --> 00:55:54,400 and it reminds me of how close I am 951 00:55:54,400 --> 00:55:57,240 and what I've been working for this whole time. 952 00:56:03,480 --> 00:56:06,080 What are your strengths? 953 00:56:06,080 --> 00:56:11,640 I think my strengths are patience, the ability to work with others. 954 00:56:11,640 --> 00:56:13,440 Were you in prison? 955 00:56:13,440 --> 00:56:15,280 Yes. 956 00:56:15,280 --> 00:56:16,680 Can you explain more? 957 00:56:17,960 --> 00:56:21,800 As a kid, I made poor choices and so ended in prison. 958 00:56:21,800 --> 00:56:25,440 OK. That's great. Thank you. 959 00:56:36,240 --> 00:56:40,480 For too long, not enough has been done in the American prison system 960 00:56:40,480 --> 00:56:44,040 to prepare people for a life on the outside, 961 00:56:44,040 --> 00:56:45,360 to give them a chance. 962 00:56:45,360 --> 00:56:48,840 Now, finally, at least here, they are going through a programme 963 00:56:48,840 --> 00:56:53,320 that will help to prepare them for the day, eventually, 964 00:56:53,320 --> 00:56:55,880 when it's possible, for some of them, 965 00:56:55,880 --> 00:56:57,720 they'll step out through a gate. 966 00:57:11,160 --> 00:57:14,000 I travelled from the prairies of Montana, 967 00:57:14,000 --> 00:57:16,240 right down through the Rockies. 968 00:57:17,480 --> 00:57:21,520 I'd seen hope in the American Prairie Reserve 969 00:57:21,520 --> 00:57:24,560 and frustration at the American penal system. 970 00:57:26,000 --> 00:57:29,000 I'd seen the beauty of the American West, 971 00:57:29,000 --> 00:57:30,680 what was once the frontier 972 00:57:30,680 --> 00:57:34,200 of a country obsessed with freedom and opportunity, 973 00:57:34,200 --> 00:57:36,080 and I'd learnt how many here feel 974 00:57:36,080 --> 00:57:39,120 they've too often been forgotten and left behind. 975 00:57:40,880 --> 00:57:43,680 That's the end of this part of my journey. 976 00:57:43,680 --> 00:57:45,920 It's been completely eye-opening for me. 977 00:57:45,920 --> 00:57:48,520 I've seen a completely new side of the Wild West. 978 00:57:49,760 --> 00:57:51,000 Next time, 979 00:57:51,000 --> 00:57:54,800 I'm travelling down through the beautiful state of California... 980 00:57:54,800 --> 00:57:57,880 Now that is a view worth protecting, eh? 981 00:57:57,880 --> 00:58:01,360 ..under threat from drought and fire. 982 00:58:01,360 --> 00:58:04,760 The speed at which the flames can move is astonishing.