Hernandez was sentenced to life with a parole for nondrug violent for a drug nonviolent offense. His sentence was commuted by president obama in 2013. He was jailed at the federal prison obama visited on thursday. We will also speak to Maya Schenwar, author of locked down, locked out, why prison doesnt work and how we can do better. Then after a twoyear battle federal judge has ordered the release of Police Dashcam footage of a Police Killing of an unarmed man in gardena, california that shows officers ordering Ricardo Diaz Zeferino and two other men to raise their hands in the air, which they do. Three officers then open fire, killing him with eight bullets. We will speak with Sonia Mercado , civil rights attorney representing the family of the victim. Then a gunman opens fire on two separate military sites in chattanooga, tennessee. The rampage left four marines and the gunman dead and at least three people injured. This obviously has been horrible day for chattanooga in a tragic day for all of tennessee. I wanted to be her to express my sorrow and sympathy for the families and everyone else involved. Amy the tennessee shooting comes as a jury in colorado announced its verdict in one of the deadliest Mass Shootings in u. S. History. Almost exactly three years ago july 20, 2012, james holmes walked into a Movie Theater in aurora colorado, opened fire killing 12 people and injuring 70 others. On thursday, the jury found him guilty of 165 counts of firstdegree murder inattentive murder. We will speak with mark follman from mother jones who covers gun violence. He runs their Mass Shootings database. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Four u. S. Marines were killed and three people were injured in shootings at two separate military sites in chattanooga thursday tennessee. The shooter has been identified as 24yearold Mohammad Youssuf abdulazeez, a u. S. Citizen who was born in kuwait. He attended high school and college in chattanooga. President obama spoke after the shooting. I would ask all americans to pray for the families who are grief stricken at this point. I want everyone to understand we will be thorough and prompt in figuring out exactly what happened. Amy in a press conference last night, the fbi said the agency does not have anything that directly ties the suspected shooter to any International Terrorist organizations. In news from colorado james , holmes has been convicted of multiple counts of murder for the 2012 aurora Movie Theater shooting that left 12 dead and dozens wounded. Holmes had pleaded not guilty by reasons of insanity, but the jury rejected that argument. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. More in the story later in the broadcast. A new Government Accountability report shows hundreds of packages of aid intended for yemen have been delivered and sitting in a Storage Facility in virginia for years. The packages include medical supplies and batteries, as well as military equipment. The revelations come two weeks after the when declared yemen now faces the highest level humanitarian crisis as the on par with south sudan, syria and iraq. Julien harneis, the acting u. N. Humanitarian coordinator for yemen, spoke on the situation. President obama has made history by becoming the first sitting president to visit a federal prison as he continues the effort to reform the countrys criminal justice system. On thursday, he visited El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in oklahoma. Visiting with these six individuals, and i have said this before, when they describe their use in childhood, these are these are young people who have made mistakes that arent that different than the mistakes i made and that mistakes in the mistakes a lot of you guys make. Amy meanwhile, at a speech to the naacp wednesday, former president bill clinton said he regrets signing into law the three strikes law another bills which dramatically increased prison sentences. More on the visit after headlines. More than 50,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the Justice Department to probe the mysterious death of an africanamerican woman who died in a texas jail. 28yearold sandra bland was arrested last friday after a traffic stop for failing to use her turn signal while changing lanes. Three days later, on monday, she was found dead in her jail cell northwest of houston. Jail officials said her death was a suicide, a claim disputed by her family. We want to see to understand what happened. We dont know. Amy on thursday, video footage surfaced of her arrest, which appears to show police pushing sandra bland to the pavement and restraining her as she asks why she is being treated so roughly. Why theyre are slamming her head on the ground. Sandy bland was involved in the black lives Matter Movement and posted a series of videos online speaking out against Police Brutality and racial injustice. We want the white folks to really understand out there black people are truly were doing as much as we can. Not all of us, but some of us are really doing as much as we can. We cant help but get we see situations that it is clear that black lives did not matter. For those questioning, why was he wanting a way . Running away . Because in the news we have seen as of late, you can stand there surrender to the comps, and still be killed. Amy president obamas former top military intelligence official has described the administrations reliance on drones as a failed strategy that creates more terrorists. In an interview with al jazeera, retired u. S. Lieutenant general Michael Flynn said, when you drop a bomb from a drone you are going to cause more damage than you are going to cause good. Flynn served as head of the Pentagons Defense Intelligence Agency up until last august. Meanwhile, the u. S. Reportedly carried out another drone strike in somalia thursday targeting militants with al shabab. Nasa is scheduled today to release more photos of pluto the last major unexplored body in the solar system. It is located 3 billion miles away from earth. Initial images show pluto has icy mountain ranges and a surprising lack of craters. And journalist Marlene Sanders has died at the age of 84. One of the first female reporters on television, sanders taped the way for women in media. She also produced multiple documentaries on the womens movement. She spoke with democracy now in 2006 about the death of betty friedan, whom she profiled in her films. I talk a lot about her impact and how she affected those of us in the media. We organized and the networks and newspapers and support, to confront our managements. She was very important to give us moral support. This is nerveracking business and the 1970s. Amy and those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Juan welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. President obama became the first sitting president in history to visit a federal prison thursday when toured the El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in oklahoma. After passing through several security gates, obama stepped inside a 9 by 10 cell and walked through a section called cell block b that houses prisoners who are part of a drug rehabilitation and prevention program. He also spent about 45 minutes meeting with six nonviolent drug offenders, which he described during a press conference afterwards. Visiting with these six individuals, you know, i said this before, when they describe their use in her childhood youth and their childhood, these are these are young people who made mistakes that arent that different than the mistakes i made and the mistakes that a lot of you guys made. The differences, they did not have the kind of support structures, the Second Chances the resources that would allow them to survive those mistakes. I think we have a tendency sometimes to almost take for granted or think is normal that so many young people in depth end up in our criminal justice system. It is not normal. It is not what happens in other countries. What is normal is teenagers doing stupid things. What is normal is young people making mistakes. And we have got to be able to distinguish between dangerous individuals who need to be incapacitated and incarcerated versus young people who are in an environment in which they are adapting, but if given different opportunities, a different vision of life, could be thriving the way we are. That is what strikes me. There but for the grace of god. And that, i think, something we all have to think about. Juan obamas stop at the federal prison in el reno comes amidst a broader, bipartisan push to end mass incarceration. On monday, he commuted the sentences of 46 lowlevel drug offenders. Amy many of them had stories like our next guest, Jason Hernandez, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1998 for his role in a drug conspiracy, starting when he was only 15. He was arrested and convicted of a nonviolent drug offense. He was one of eight prisoners whose sentences were commuted by president obama on december 19 2013. Jason joined us on democracy now the next day. After he learned of the commutation. I asked him how he felt after hearing the news. Elated. It is a dream come true. Im just i hope this is the beginning of more to come. Im happy for what was given to me by the president , but it is kind of like a bittersweet moment because there are other individuals in here who i believe are more deserving than me. They didnt believe Something Like this could happen. But now they believe. I just hope the president and other lawmakers decide to do more for the individuals in here because you know, my mother and father this christmas when they come visit me and my family, my son, theyre going to be crying. It is going to be tears of joy. At the same time, i am going to have to look at other mothers and fathers and kids crying a visitation, and their cries are going to be for sorrow. Im grateful for what the president has done, but i hope there is more to come. Amy Jason Hernandez had a sentenced reduced to 20 years of which he had served 15. He was imprisoned in the el reno, oklahoma federal prison that obama visited thursday. He has since been released, but is still technically in custody until this coming august. While he was in prison, he founded the sentencing reform group, crack open the door. He now works as a welder, and at a nonprofit restaurant in dallas called cafe momentum, where he mentors young people training there who were previously incarcerated in juvenile facilities. He joins us from his parents home in mckinney, texas. And in chicago we are also joined by Maya Schenwar, editorinchief of truthout and author of, locked down, locked out why prison doesnt work and how we can do better. Welcome both of you to democracy now jason, lets begin with you. You are imprisoned at el reno and you were released by president obama will step obama just visited el reno yesterday the first sitting president to visit a federal prison. Your thoughts . My first thought when i heard it was, and a never thought in a million years i would ever say this but there was no place i would rather be then el reno just to meet the president and shake his hand and to hug him and tell him i was so grateful for what he is done for me and for my family and others, and ask them to keep on doing it for those inmates who truly deserve it. I think it is just a shame that there is never been a president who is talked about sentencing reform are Prison Reform, who has never been to a prison. For him to do that, i mean, that is what is needed. How can you make a suggestion on how to change something if you dont even know what is going on inside prison . President obama that is a great step he has taken. And pretty sure while he was in that prison, that he had to a felt what i felt and there thinking i was going to die step hopefully, it had a strong impact on him. And there will be more changes and Push Congress to do the right thing. Juan jason, your self or targeted under the mandatory minimum and the thing laws for drug offenders minimum sentencing laws for drug offenders. Your reaction as your hearing more and more among congress and the National Leaders to reform these, especially these mandatory minimum, but also this mass incarceration, so many youth in the country . Yeah, i mean, my first reaction is, it is about time. I mean, it has taken him was 30 years for congress to realize in society that the war on drugs which you could actually call a war on minorities, is wrong. That we have been going about it the wrong way and locking people up for not only a couple of years, but 10 years, decades, or the rest of their lives actually has an adverse effect on society. Like i said hopefully, i read an article the other day where they said the black president that everybody expected has finally arrived. I think that is far from the truth. He has been here. His view on the criminal system has been 10, 15 years ago, when he was a congressman. Amy Jason Hernandez, the u. S. Has 5 of the world population, 25 of its prisoners. One in four prisoners in the world are imprisoned in the united states. One in 99 americans are in prison. The vast majority are black and latino. How long did you serve in jail . I served approximately about 16 years and eight months. Im doing the last year, like, home confinement. Amy you shared a photo of you and other nonviolent drug offenders with long sentences. Mostly life without parole, at el reno prison before you were released. Can you talk about who is in this picture and where they are today . One of them, Antonio Douglas he is serving life without parole. He is an car serrated since 1993 for crack cocaine. The row great guy, one of the greatest individuals i came across. He was in the welding class in el reno. Probably every year he graduates about 100 inmates from el reno and gets them ready to get a job immediately upon release. There is also kenny evans. He is also nonviolent did nonviolent serving life without parole for crack. He has been in there since 1993. When i left, he was a ged teacher. At the time he was a ged teacher, he the most highest Graduation Rate el reno is ever had. Theres a guy in there named preacher. He has left. He is not there no more. They called him preacher because he preached sermons on sunday. He is a bigger congregation in the free world preachers that come in. There are some great people in there. Juan were also joined by Maya Schenwar, editor at truthout and author of locked down, locked , out why prison doesnt work and how we can do better. Shes joining us from chicago. Welcome. Your reaction to the president s visit to a federal prison . Well, i think first of all we have to of knowledge this is unusual and commendable. It is interesting that we are at a moment in history, a strange moment, where fairly quickly Prison Reform has become something acceptable to talk about in the mainstream. That a president visiting a prison actually earn 10 points. Urns him points. I think the fact that he met with incarcerated people was a positive thing, the way he talked about their shared humanity was definitely encouraging. And also he did speak about the injustice of these long, excruciating sentences that have been prompted by mandatory minimums. I want to push back on a couple of things he said. One was this giant emphasis that he placed on distinguishing nonviolent and violent offenders behind bars. Anything what he emphasized was drawing this line were some people are the people who just do stupid things, like all of us, as he said, and then there are the hardened, violent criminals. I think drawing this line really causes us to discard huge numbers of people. In state prisons, half the people behind bars have been convicted of violent offenses. Many of those violent offenses are prompted by the same structural oppression, the same structural racism, structural economic violence that leads to these nonviolent offenses. I think we have to take that structural violence seriously and not discard these people. I also think it is important to think about them as individuals and think about whether we would want to be judged for the worst thing possibly we ever did. So i think drawing that line, that is something that is being done across the board with this mainstream rhetoric on bipartisan Prison Reform, and it is something that we have to challenge. Amy president obamas push to end mass incarceration comes two decades after another democrat president bill clinton, signed into law the federal three strikes provision that mandated harsher punishment, often a life sentence, the third time a person commits a felony, a nonviolent drug offense. In may, clinton acknowledged the policys role in overincarceration during an interview on cnn. The problem is, the way it was written and implemented, we have too many people in prison. And we wound up putting so many people in prison that there wasnt enough money left to educate them, train them for new jobs, and increase the chances when they came out so they can live productive lives. A strongly support what she is doing, and i think any policy that was adopted when was president and federal law that contribute it to it should be changed. Amy more than 2. 2 Million People are now behind bars nearly double the number incarcerated when clinton took office. He, by the way, also repeated his apology before the naacp. He spoke after president obama did. Maya schenwar, your response . Well, i think this is an encouraging development. I rhetoric and a lot of the discussion around bipartisan Prison Reform, which has really been spurred a lot by conservatives, the conservative group right on crime, the koch brothers, Newt Gingrich all of these people who now are very vocally speaking out for Prison Reform, a lot of what theyre talking about is money. Theyre talking about how much prison costs. 80 billion. Were wasting money on incarcerating people, we could be doing other things. And while i think it is important, obviously that mass incarceration is being challenged, we need to step back a little bit and think about whether this is where we want to place our emphasis. Because, first of all, a lot of the legislation being proposed in congress to sort of right the wrongs is taking that money that would be saved by decarcerating some people in federal prison and redirecting it into what they call Public Safety measures, like local Police Forces. So that money isnt being channeled into Early Childhood education or Mental Health care or Real Community resources that would promote lasting safety. A lot of the strategy going on is really about heightening policing in various ways. And channeling that money into people who are really at the start of the prison pipeline, the police, are the gateway to prison. And we know that Police Forces are imbued with racism and antiblackness. They grew out of slave patrols. So we really have to challenge that idea of easy reinvestment, and also just the emphasis on taking dollars from one pot and putting them in the other, now that it is no longer acceptable to be spending 80 billion on prison. Juan i want to ask you, maya as more people get released and the question of reintegrating former prisoners into society the comes a much bigger one, what do you make of the movement to the box movement youre seeing now by countries like target and walmart when the reality is, these companies dont longer need people to fill out a box unemployment form because of so many databases down to determine what that persons history is been to begin with . Right. Right. I think the ban the box campaigns are definitely a positive step. And i have been happy that obama, over the past week and in recent months, has been talking about Voting Rights in reinstating the Voting Rights formerly incarcerated people. I would also question why people behind bars are not able to vote. I think that when we talk about reintegration, reentry and we think about, well, what does it mean to be a participant in society and thinking about the employment factors that you mentioned, thinking about how people are able to step back into this world, i think we have to consider, well, what are we doing in the first place that is making it possible for them to enter the prison system . I think sometimes we do kind of overemphasize this idea of reentry, and a lot of money can actually be fueled into reentry but it puts a lot of restrictions on people that puts people in a position where they are answering to a number of folks within the state apparatus and sort of continuing that type of confinement. So i think we have to be careful about that. I think we have to make sure to cultivate opportunities for people to really get involved. One thing that i think we have to be careful of as we make this transition, and hopefully, fewer and fewer people will be incarcerated, is that theres a lot of talk, oh, well, we will let them out early and put them on electronic monitors. We will let them out early and we will put them on house arrest. All of these things that are still confinement, still isolation. We will let them out early, but we will send them to lock down Treatment Facility or Mental Health facility. We have to think about the ways we are recreating prison sometimes in our transition efforts. Amy Jason Hernandez, explain your time out from el reno prison that you got out of years ago. After almost two decades of incarceration, it takes some adjustment. Going to certain places like a store where there is a lot of people just moving around you. Driving the echo my father had to teach me how to Parallel Park and drive. But other than that, trying to get a job, it was difficult at first. Nobody really cared that i had a felony for drugs. They were like, the bosses were well, everybody goes to prison for drugs now. They kind of laughed it off. Amy very quickly, for people who are hearing about these clemency is that president obama has granted more than the last four president s combined, if you could briefly say how you started the process. You describe your friends, he said many who are more deserving, but they remained behind bars. How did you apply for clemency . I filed my own petition from everything that i learned from legal classes. I prepared it like my life depended on it. Luckily for me, shall alexander connected me Michelle Alexander connected me with the aclu Jennifer Turner and practically got the ball rolling. Without the aclu and michelle turner, i probably would not be here right now and inmates being released right now would probably still be in prison. Theres a lot of people to give credit to. Amy i just want to say, we want to thank you for joining us. We will be checking back with you over time. Jason hernandez was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1998 for his role in a drug conspiracy, starting when he was 15. He was one of eight prisoners whose sentences were commuted by president obama in 2013. He was in prison at the el reno oklahoma federal prison that obama visited thursday. We would like Maya Schenwar to stay with us. We want to ask you about the case of sandrabland when we come back. Were going to look at the case of Police Brutality in two cases, coming up. We will be back in a minute. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Juan last friday, an africanamerican woman was returning home from a Job Interview in Waller County texas, when she was stopped by police. Apparently, she had improperly signaled a lane change. Two days later, the woman, sandy bland, was found dead in a jail cell. A video taken by a bystander during the arrest shows bland shouting that the officer had slammed her head into the ground. You dont even care about that. I cant even hear. You slammed me into the ground and everything. Juan according to Police Sandra Bland was taken into custody and charged with assault of a public servant. The next morning, police say she was found in her cell not breathing from what appears to be selfinflicted six edition. Asphyxiation. The announcement was made by Waller County sheriff glenn smith. Meanwhile, reports have emerged that smith was fired from his Previous Post as chief of police of hempstead, texas amidst accusations of racism. Blands friends and family contest smiths account, saying the thought of her committing suicide by hanging is unfathomable. This Cheryl Nanton and lavaugn moley, blands friends, followed by her sister, sharon cooper. I do suspect there was foul play and i believe we all are 100 and believe that she did not do harm to herself. Were very suspicious and very upset that this is happening and it seems like nothing is really being done about it. Quick each one of us feels like we have lost a part of ourselves and it is hard. It is going to be hard for very long time. Inigo sandra bland was 28 years old. She was outspoken member of the black lives Matter Movement. She produced a series of videos called sandy speaks in which she discussed social justice and racism on her facebook page. I want the white folks to really understand out there black people are truly were doing as much as we can. Not all of us, but some of us are really doing as much as we can. And we cant help but getting when you see situations where it is clear that black lives did not matter. Or those of you questioning, why was he running away . Because in the news that weve seen as of late, you can stand there, surrender to the cops, and still be killed. Amy social media is not ablaze with people demanding answers about Sandra Blands death. The hashtag sandrabland is now trending on twitter, edging out the emmys as a topic of discussion. Were still with Maya Schenwar editor in chief of truthout and author of locked down, locked out why prison doesnt work and how we can do better. Her family, sandys family sandy herself is from chicago and maia that is where we are speaking to you, her family is gone to retrieve her body. Can you comment on what we know at this point . We have this video, unfairly, that is just been released of her saying, why are you slamming my head into the ground . She is then taken to the local jail. That was a monday. Then she is found dead in herself. 00 in her cell. She spent three days in jail clearly, police had severely injured her. We do not know the very specifics but we know she was slammed to the ground. This video showed she was severely injured and then left in the jail cell. And i think that definitely highlight something about our county jail system that people who are still innocent they havent been Proven Guilty of anything are left, you know, until they can post bail, which was actually going to happen on monday. Sandras friends were about to post her bail. And i think the fact that we see the situation where this young black woman is pulled over for a small traffic violation. She is thrown to the ground by police. She is severely beaten and slammed into the ground. The police