Story highlights The Florida activist who flew a gyrocopter to the Capitol reported to prison

Doug Hughes is serving a 120-day sentence

CNN was granted exclusive access to Hughes during his final hours of freedom

Washington (CNN) The Florida man who pleaded guilty to a felony after landing a gyrocopter on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol last year began serving his 120-day sentence in a Florida prison on Tuesday. He granted CNN exclusive interviews during his final hours of freedom.

Doug Hughes, 62, started a national conversation about security over some of the country's most famous restricted airspace, but he did it all in the name of getting money out of politics. The former mailman planned on delivering letters on the subject to every member of Congress.

If you ask someone, they're more likely to remember his method than his message. More than a year later, Hughes is still explaining at length the mission he was trying to accomplish.

"I had the intention to deliver the message to Washington in a way that was so spectacular," Hughes said in an interview with CNN in his Ruskin, Florida, home. "Not so much to the Congress, but getting the message to the people that corruption is the reason that we have the logjam."

And Hughes is not alone. While some were quick to write Hughes off as crazy , he is surrounded by other activists fighting for campaign finance reform.

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