Transcripts For LINKTV Democracy Now 20160819

Justice Department Says it will phase out the use of privatelyrun federal prisons, ending contracts with Corrections Corporation of america, geo group, and management and training corporation. We will speak with investigative three reporters who exposed the forprofitprisons substandard conditions and medical care. Then the olympics in rio where police are contradicting claims by olympic Gold Medalist swimmer ryan lochte that he and three other teammates were r robbed by gunmen impersonating Police Officers. At this exact moment, what the police can say is there was no robbery the way the athletes reported. They were not victims of the criminal facts they described. The police can say that now. We will get reaction from the nations sports columnist dave zirin. His latest piece headlined ryan lochte i is one of many priviled first world tourists and brazilians are fed up. All of that and more coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In a historic announcement, the Justice Department has told the bureau of prisons to end the use of private prisons. In a memo released yesterday, deputyty attorney general sally eight road that private prisons simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources, do not save substantially on costs do not mainintain the same level of safety and security as facilities operated by the bureau of prisons. This is former president bill clinton, speaking earlier this year about the need for prison reform. We need prison refoform. He wilill tell you, we overdid t in putting too manany young, nonviolent o offenders in jail r totoo long. [applause] now federal government can seset an example. This is something a a lot of republicans agree. Let these people out of jail. Give them education, training. Amy that was bill clinton. Laws enacted during clintons presidency increased the National Prison population by more than 60 . The Justice Departments directive will affect 13 federal prisons, but does not mean all federal agencies will necessarily stop u using private companies s for detetentions. The department of Homeland Securitys immigration and Customs Enforcement also uses private corrections industry, and is not included in the order. Well have more on this announcement after headlines with the Investigative Reporter seth freed wessler, democracy now s renee feltz, and shane bauer, who worked as a private prison guard and was himself imprisoned as a hostage prisoner in iran. U. S. Homeland security secretary jeh johnson visited parts of louisiana that were devastated by historic floods and said the federal government will help for as long as long as it takes for them to recover. At least 13 people were killed and more than 86,000 people have assistance,r federeral 40,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed. This is secretary johnson speaking in baton rouge. Our hearts are broken, but our faiaith is strong. The federal government is here and we have been here, we will be herere as l long as it takeso help this community recover. Of people have returned to floodhit homes as waters have receded on thursday. About 4000 people were in shelters. The local paper has criticized president obama for continuing his vacation on Marthas Vineyard amidst the flooding, comparing his failure to visit the region to president george to travel tolure new orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In the editorial, the advocate wrote we have seen the story before louisiana and we dont deserve you sequel. Meanwhile in california, the blueue cut fire is still raging your los angeles. Over the last two days, the fires hasas overtaken 36,000 acs and prompt of the evacuation of 80,000 people. So far, california fires have killed eight people and destroyed hundreds of homes. The major thoroughfare highway 138 remains closed. In news from the campaign trail, republican president ial candidate donald trump has said he regrets some of the remarks he has made. In recent weeks, trump has attacked the khan family, whose son was killed in iraq, suggested supporters of the Second Amendment shoot Hillary Clinton, and been abandoned by a number of prominent republicans as a result. Ththis is donald trump s speakig yesterday in north carolina. Mr. Trump sometimes in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you dont choose the right words or you say the wrong thing. I have done that. And believe it or not, i regret it. And i dodo regret it. Particularly, where it may have caused personal pain. Amy the Clinton Foundation will stop accepting International Donations if Hillary Clinton is elected president. Critics of clinton allege the foundation benefited inappropriately from her time as secretary of state. Former president bill clinton said he will also refrain from delivering paid speeches before the november election and will no longer give paid speeches if Hillary Clinton is elected president. Both clintons have been criticized for their high speaking fees. And d a discussion has begun a t whether the Clinton Foundation should be closed if Hillary Clinton is elected. The state department has said a plane filled with 400 million in cash for iran was leverage to ensure that five american prisoners held by iran were released. Republicans, including donald trump, have said the money was a ransom for the prisoners. The money was sent to iran in january. The Obama Administration has said the money was a preplanned transfer that was part of the landmark nuclear deal and that the negotiations regarding the two issues were separate. But state Department Spokesman john kirby has now said the moneys delivery was held up with concern karen would not fulfill its end of the agreement. Including implementation of the nuclear deal, the prisoner talks, and the settlement of an outstanding tribunal claim, which save american taxpayers digitally billions of dollars. As we said at the time, we deliberately leveraged that moment to finalize these outstanding issues nearly simultaneously. Amy the money is spent 02 entrances 1970s when the u. S. Refused to send weapons karen had already paid for. In news from the olympics, Brazilian Police have accused a group of u. S. Olympic swimmers of vandalism during an incident at a gas station last weekend and say they are considering whether to recommend charges against the white john mann, which include against the four men, which includes Gold Medalists ryan lochte. The swimmers told authorities they were robbed by gunmen impersonating Police Officers in the early hours of sunday as they returned in a taxi to the athletes village from a party in rio. However, after an investigation, rio police said there had been no robbery. U. S. Olympic committee ceo Scott Blackmun said in a statement we apologize to our hosts in ririo and the people of brazazir this distracting ordeal in the midst of what should rightly be a celebration of excellence. This comes as the Olympic Games enters its final weekend in rio. There have been a number of historic firsts for american athletes. For the first time ever, american women placed first, second, and third in the 100 meter olympic hurdles. The runners brianna rollins, nia ali, and Kristi Castlin are all african american. The American Olympic Gymnastics Team also made history. The socalled final five womens Gymnastics Team concluded their run in rio with a historic nine medals. They are the most diverse Gymnastics Team to ever represent the united states. Simone biles and Gabby Douglas are africanamerican. New jerseyborn Lauren Hernandez is of puerto rican descent. Madison kocian and aly raisman are white. Well have more on the olympics later in the broadcast with dave zirin. In turkey, president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused followers of u. S. Based turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen of being involved in attacks by kurdish militants that killed 10 people in the countrys southeast. Erdogan has already accused gulens supporters of planning a failed military coup last month. But it is the first time he has linked the coup supporters to the e kurdistan workers party,y, more commonly called the pkk. Turkey has fought a war against the pkk since the 1980s. Erdogan offered nono evidence to back up the claim, but called again on thursday for the u. S. To extradite gulen so he can stand trial in turkey. There is no need for further delay. The development in our country are going toward a different direction, a Strategic Partner should not make things different difficult for a Strategic Partner. On the contrary, they should facilitate. Amy that was turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The state department has said it is considering the extradition request. Gulen lives in its of a now. In yemen, dodoctors without boborders saysys it will withdrw staff from six hospitals in n te north of the country after an aitrike by thehe u. S. Backed saudicocoalitioion hit one ofoe hospitalals, killingng 19. The attack was the fourth and monday deadliest on the groups facilities in yemen. Doctors without borders has said it provided the saudis coordinates of their hospitals in order to avoid accidental strikes and that they are not satisfied with saudi claims that the strikes are accidental. The group said local staff will continue to operate the hospitals. This is Doctors Without Borders legal director francoise bouchetsaulnier. But it is devastating for the medical personnel and for our ability to maintain medical capacity and a country that are affected. If a civilian cannot be treated, they have no other choice but to flee. Whene wants to receive it is a realf nightmare. Amy in news on syria, a viral image of 5yearold boy who survived a Syrian Government airstrike is once e more drawing inrnrnational l attention to the plight of civilianans there. The photo shows the e boy, o omn daqneesh, caked d in dust and blood. He sitits alone in the back of n ambulance, staring directly ahead in shock. The boy lives s in the aleppo, whwhe the Syrian Government t ad rebels are involved in a fierce battle for contrtrol of syrias lalargest city. Some have e pointed out that lat yeyear, a picture of dd twoyearoldld syrian boy y on a turkish beach garnered widespread attention and outrage, but did not result in any chananges. Alan kurdi died while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea with his family, but the number of deaths of refugees on the mediterranean this year has increased significantly from last year. In mexico, the countrys National Human Rights Commission has said federal Police Killed at l least 22 people on a ranch last year before moving the bodies and planting guns to support the official account that the deaths happened in a gun battle. One Police Officer was killed in the confrontation, which took place in the state of michoacan. Federal police have been implicated in other mass killings in the past two years. The government has said the dead wewere suspected members of a dg cartel. The Commission Said officers also tortured at least two suspects. In los angeles, video has emerged of police choking 56yearold d african amererican vavachel howard d shortly befofe died. Ththe police depepartment has suppressed thehe release of the video. Hohoward died inin a Los Angeles Police j jail in 2012. The vivideo shows ththe grandfar of sevenen handcuffed to a bench after hahaving been stripsearched. Ward was a arrested on suspicion ofof driving while intoxicatede. The video does not show w how te altercation between howaward and officersrs began, but t does shw six officers pinning howard d to the ground b before he dieied. It a also shows ththem laughings he lay m motionless onon the grd before medicical help arririves. A coronener listed threeee causf death for hohoward coinine intoxicationon, heart t diseased ththe chokehold d used by offifr juan romomero. Romero wasas suspended f for 22s but prososecutors decicided noto , press chargeges against hihim. Inin 2015, the c city of los ans agreed to papay howards family nearly 3 million toto settlea wrongful d death claim. In media news, the digital outlet gawker will shut down next week. Gawker was ordered to pay 140 million in a lawsuit for publishing the sex tape of wrestler hulk hogan. Hogans lawsuit was financially backed by Silicon Valley billionaire peter thiel, who was outed as gay by a nowdefunct gawker blog. And in north dakota, indigenous activists gathered in the capital bismarck thursday to protest the proposed 3. 8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, which they say would threaten to contaminate the missouri river. The activists also responded to recent claims by Morton County sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier that there have been reports of weapons at sacred stone spiririt camp. Tururning into o a known lawl protesest with some of and te lawful protest and haseen compromised d up to this point. We have had incidenents and reports of weapons, of type bonds, of some shots fired. Amy at thursdays protest, activists denounced the sheriffs claims, saying their actions were nonviolent and there were no weapons at the camp. This is tara houska, National Campaigns director for honor the earth. People are here to stand in prayer. For their children insurance children. Water is life. [inaudible] there is dancing and singing. At the same time, everything is peaceful. [inaudible] amy more than 1000 indigenous activists from dozens of different t tribes across the country have traveled to the spirit camp. The protests have so far shut construction along parts of the pipeline. This comes as on activists from thursdayay, the pine ridge reservatioion in south dakota reportedxpereriencing g trfic checkpointnts manned by state ad local l police whoho stopped cao lolook for tribamemembers plplag to travel to north dakotota. Activists sasaid more an 100 carsrs were stopopd and thosee suspected of heading toward the protest were turned back. To see our interview with indigenous leaders, go to democracynow. Org. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Juan and im juan gonzalez. Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. We begin with news that some are calling a major reversal of u. S. Prison policy. On thursday, the Justice Department announceded it planso phase out the use of privatelyrun federal prisons. In a memo describing the policy shift, Deputy Attorney general jajanet yatetes said researcrchd privatate prisonons simply do t provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources and do not save substantially on costs either. Yates added that government education and Training Programs for prisoners proved difficult to replicate and outsource in the private sector. In the memo, she said as the contracts for 13 private federal facilities come to the end of their terms over the next five years, the bureau should either decline to renew that contract or substantially reduce its scope. Some 22,000 federal prisoners out of a total of 193,000 will eventually be impacted by the move. Most are immigrantnts convictedf crossing the border without permission chararges that currently account for 50 of all federal prprosecutions. Amy the department of justice announcement will have no direct impact on private immigrant detention facilities, which contract with the department of Homeland Security. It also has no direct bearing on contracts for privatelyrun prisons at the state level, which house less than 7 of the total state prison population. But the news still sent stocks plummemeting correctctions corporation of america, the geo group, and Management Training corporatation, which operate the 13 f federal prisons. Cca issued a Statement Today saying we are disappointed with the bops decision to reduce its utilization of privately operated facilities to meet their capacity needs, and believe our Value Proposition remains strong. At this time the contracts at the three facilities cca operates on behalf of the bop remain unchanged, and the bop will determine whether to extend these contracts at the end of their respective contract terms. The statement noted the contracts account for 7 of ccas total annual revenue. All of this comes after a report releasased last week by the federal Inspector General that found federal prisons run by private companies are substantially less safe and secure than ones run by the bureau of prisons and feature higher rates of violence and contraband. It also follows a series of reports by investigative journalists. Some documented riots at these facilities in recent years, sparked by substandard food and medical care, and poor conditions. In other cases, inmates have suffered in silence until their plight was exposed. For more, were joined by of three these journalists. Seth freed wesslers yearlong probe for the nation and reveal news uncovered dozens of questionable deaths and years of dire warnings from internal monitors at the private prisons now set to lose their contracts. He joins us via democracy now video stream. Joining us from manchester, new hamsher, hampshire, is shane bauer, whose 18month investigation for mother jones recently took up its entire issue headlined my four months , as a private prison guard, it chronicles his time as an undercover correctional officer at louisianas winn correctional center, run by the Corrections Corporation of america. His most recent article is headlined thihis prisoner hangd , himself at the private prison where i i worked. His family says he didnt have to die. Also joining us here in new york ,s democracy now s renee feltz criminal justice correspondent who has reported for about a decade on private immigrant detention centers. We welcome all of you to democracy now seth freed wessler, lets begin with you. Talk about the significance of this historic announcecement out of the Justice Department that they are closing forprofit prisons that are run by the doj. Yesterdays announcement by the department of justice came as a surprise to nearly everybody outside and inside the bureau of prisons. What the announcement says iss that the bureau of prisons, the federal bureau of prisons over the neck several years, will have to start shutting down its private prisons. You know, few people know that the federal government has established over the last two decades a sort of subsystem a federal, private prisons used exclusively to hold noncitizens convicted of federal crimes. These prisons have been the sites of repeated protests by prisoners, as i have documented, and as i found an investigation for the nation, deep and systemic failures to provide baseline levels of care to prisoners held inside dozens of deaths of men who are held in these facilities after substandard, negligent medical care. So this decision by the department of justice will begin the process of shuttering these very facilities that i have been investigating where protests have erupted over the years. In over the next five years, were going to see these prisons clclose. There are 13 of these federal prisons operating right now, scattered around the country in texas and california and the south and elsewhere. And i spoke yesterday to the relatives of several men who died inside of these facilities after pretty extreme kinds of medical neglect. Both of those family said that they felt this decision a close these facilities brought some kind of justice. It is too late for them. It is a big decisision. Juan seth, you mention this policy has been in effect for about two decades. It was the mid 199990s during e bill clinton administration, actually, that this began. We normally associate privatization of Government Services with republicans. This actually started under democratic president. What was the original rationale for them . Thats riright. As the f federal government was beginning to incarcerate more and d more people, and the e sif the federal prison popopulation was growing, the federal government, congress, and the white house decided to begin a process of privatizing a subset of federal prisons to meet their capacity needs. Several years after the process begin, t the governmenent decidd quite explicitly that immigrants, noncitizens, would be an ideal group of people to be held in these strippeddown federal prisons. The government has said in statements, the bop is that in statements, the immigrants, because they were later we transferred to immigration authorities and deported, the government does not have to provide them with the same kinds of rehabilitative or Reentry Services that they might provide to u. S. Citizens, that immigrants are not ideal group for these kinds of segregated subsysystem of prisons. These facilities have expanded rapidly over the last 15 years as the number of immigrants who are prosecuted criminanally for crossing the border h h grown massively. Last year, 70,000 people werere prosecututed in fefederal courtr Border Crossing crimes, for injury after deportation, or illegal entry. This has helped to expand the federal criminal Justice System and expand these private prisons. Amy were going to go to break and come back to this conversation. Seth freed wessler is an investigatative reporter. His series on federal prisons, latest piece federal officials , ignored years of warnings about deaths in private prisons. This is democracy now we wilill be back in a a minute. [music break]k] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. We are talking about a historic decision, and announcement out of the Justice Department to close the federal government has contracts governments contracts with private prisons. Shane bauer is with us, awardwinning reporter with mother jones. As well as seth freed wessler, an Investigative Reporter and democracy now s renee feltz. Shane, we last had you on just a little while ago based on this remarkable issue of mother jones magazine. That you wrote. ,s an undercover prison guard you acted as in louisianana. Your most recent article, this prisoner hanged himself at the privivate prison whehere i work. His s family sayays he did not e to d die. This b based on n your four r mh investigatation as a p private prison guauard. Talk about y your reactition tos news and what actually happened to this prisoner you spoke of. Well, this news is certainly unprecedented and surprising. I mean, the findings of the Inspector Generals office are not surprising. Their consistent with findings from the department of justice over the years from reports by journalists consnsistent with things thahat i saw at wininn in louisiana, b but this meaeasures certainlnly bigger than anynythi expected. Damien, he w was somebody whoho i had met whihili was woworking at winnn. After i left the prison, ii learnened in inmate had d commid dieien. E and t that it w was he was somebody whwho was veryry trououbled. Over the yearsrs, he repororted being suicidal. He also had been tryiying to cca providedy that servrvic, mental hltlth serveses. At that prisoson, there wasas oy one rtrttimpsycychiatrist, oe paparttime psychologist, and oe fulltime social worker. Damien had been trying toto get ininto menental healthth progra. He had beeeen waitlisted foror o yes. He frerequently went on suicide watch. H. Just to dedescribe bririefly wht that is, it t is solitarary confnfinement cell wherere a prisonerer is naked, has only a blananket. He is given worst food, it follows dust falls below usda standards. It usually has no reading material or anything in his cell. This is the Mental Health services that damien had. He went on Hunger Strike. He tried to get but so better minnow help services. Eventually, damien was put on suicide watch and he was taken off them even though he was still coming to be suicidal, he was not checked on the way he was supposed to and from what i saw at winn, is was statandard procedure. He hung himself. At the time of his death, he weighed 71 pounds. Jjuan shane, you mentioned this happened in a cca prison. I wawant to ask about the role f cca in particular. After the doj announced thursday it would no longer use private prisonons, stock prices for Corrections Corporation of geo both plunged about 40 . But a financial analyst at, core genuity said the massive falloffs in the stocks imply the risks will spread to other federal state and local jurisdictions. We believe it is unlikely. As such think todays ststock action is based more on fear than actual cash flow risk. But in the ceo of corrections june, corporation of America Damon hininger, told a forum of investors his firm will be just fine no matter who is elected to the white house this fall. This is him speaking. Weve had some nice growth in our business under those three respective president s. Yet a lot of growth under clinton and bush and weve had a lot of growth under president obama. So with that, if we continue to do a good job on the quality and we can demonstrate savings, both on capital voice but also costst savings in our services, then i think we will be just fine. Juan that was the ceo off Corrections Corporation of america just in june. Talk about this company. How did it rise and its role within this general federal prison contracting. And geo both started operating prisons in the 1980s. This was a time when the prison population was skyrocketing, states were trying to build some of thatke up increased population and they could not build them fast enough. Look, wein and said, will operate prisons and we will build prisons. We will run the more cheaply. We will be helping you deal with the overcrowding problem. So they kind of had there was a need for them at one point and their argument now has consistently been they are saving money. This is questionable as the department of justice Inspector General pointed out. But what is important is to look at how they are saving money. The main way they save money is through staffing costs. The prison i worked at, guards were paid nine dollars an hour. This was three dollars 50 in celeste than the starting pay of guards at staterun facilities. Medical costs. The company at the prison i worked, if they sent a prisoner out for medical care, they had to bear that cost. Theres a lot of resistance to sitting prisoners out of the hospital. They had less Mental Health staff. There were days i came into work where there were 24 guards for 1500 prisoners. This is far below what the contract requires. This problem has been found throughout ccas state and federal prisons. The Inspector General has made reports on their audit showing, in one prison where there were byts, the riot was caused understaffing and poor medical care. After they issued the report, they went back and found that problem had not been corrected. This has happened in several states as well. You know, to answer your question about how this is going to affect the states, it remains to be seen, but what i did see winn at is that the company was under a lot of pressure by the state at that time to kind of get its act together, to improve security, improve health care, prevent escapes. There had been a skates while i was there. You know, the question is, how is this affected in the country . I had this is from inside that one prison, the company was struggling to try to hang onto it. Amy shane, in your remarkable investigation were you when undercover at the winn correctional facility, run by cca, Corrections Corporation of america, you met a prisoner who had lost his fingers and legs because of inadequate medical care. We want to go to a clip from one of the videos that accompananied your repeport for momother jone. Ganangrene. Mr. Scott compmplained a about for months to the medical staff at winn. They gave him some eququalent of couplele of motrin and t told ho go away. He is now suing the prison. The people that are working there as nurses and all that, theyre really not that qualified. There are doctors they can hire. They are doctors were more or less affordable. I did some background checking on them and one of them was a pediatrician who had lost his privileges to treat children. Amy Corrections Corporation of america said it is committed to ensuring all individuals entrusted to our care have appropriate access to medical services as needed. Now i want to turn to a clip from our other guest, seth freed wesslers report, that also deals with substandard medical report a private prisons. This is partrt of his interview wiwith dr. John farqrquhar the former clinical director at the Federal Correctional Institution in big spring texas, run by the , geo group. It was featured on reveal, a podcast from the center for investigative reporting. There are times when i was critical. Im a critical person, starting with myself. You wrote one point, i feel bad for his shabby care. Cook i stand by that statement. I dont know who is it is about. I cannot, on any single record of any person, but there are times when the care was not what i wanted for any patient, period. Amy the former clinical director at the federal correction institution. Seth freed wessler w,e,eigh in hehere. I talk to m medical w worker, doctors, phyhysician assistants, nurses who work in this subsystem of federeral p prisons that will now begin to be shut down and across the board, they said they were pressssed to cut cost. That partiticular doctor said hs corporatate bososses soon aftere got his job as a a medical rector, had d come t to town to tell them to cut down on thehe number o of 911 calls made becae they were expensive. And that very prisoson shortly after he lefeft his job b come a prisoner died d after sufferinga stroke in the e prison decided o justst leave him in his cell unl morning. The only medical worker on the shift that night was a licensed vocational nurse with h about a year of training. And across the board, these prisons are operating at deep understaffing, using undedertrained workers. Anand i found stories and 30,000 pages of federal records i obtained through an open records request, an open records lawsuit, i f found stories of people whoho went monthshs, even more than a year in some cases, seeing only nursing staff. Often, only lilicensed vocationl nurses, complaining of increasing pain and illness until they became so ill, they died inside these prisons. What is remarkakable about the documents s i obtained in the interviews i did with peoplele o worked in ththese prisons as w l as letters from prisoners who later died, is that the bureau of prisons knew for years about the very problems that i am talking about. After the Bureau Prisons set upp this subsysystem of federeral private prisons, t they actually established a moderating Monitoring System to check on his facilities. These monitors would flag r rept systemic failures, specially a medical care, over and over again,n, send those flights to washington in hopes that something would change. In fact, when those flags went up, federal officials in theington refused to impose full penalalties available to them. And when monitors try to shut down federal prisons that were failing, the top officials in the bureau of prisons in washington actually refused to let those monitors shut these prisons down. N. So the decision today about rather yesterday, to shut down these types of prisons, comes as a great surprise because monitors have been saying for years these prisons are failing, document and thehese problems the e very samame problems, in e cases, that the Inspector General found in his report and then i found i in my reportingn, nonow finally am a these facilities are going to start being closed as their contracts come up for renewal. Juan i want to bring in renee feltz, who is been covering a lot of these issues with a private prisons, especially in terms of immigrants across the country. This only affects the federal prisons, it does not affect private detentionon facilitities run by Homeland Security or even by the states themselves who contract many many of the states contract with these private companies. The Detention Watch Network has called on the doj to have this policy also for the Homeland Security network. Can you talk about that . Is important to understand this policy shift will not impact immigrant detention centers. Many people think about the prisons that will be impacted that seth described because their immigrant only facilities. Essentially, separate but equal prisons he helped to expose. We want to be clear the decision from the doj will not impact anything that has to do with dhs, department of Homeland Security. However, that is where the momentum is. People are saying if there are flaws without private prison operators accused of shortcuts run federal facilities under one agency, what about under another agency . Something else i think that is important is things juan the same companies, more or less. Cca and geo primarily. They also have the contracts for the immigrant detention centers, which arare largely privatized, but not all. We thing i want to mention, talked about the federal prisons that are closing that hold socalled criminal aliens that is what the government calls them. Their largely accused of crossing the border, being charged with a misdemeanor. After a few times, being convicted of a felony for the same offense. They are in prison for crossing the border without permission. It seems like an immigration offense, but it is not. They then go on to immigrant detention. One thing that is interesting about immigrant detention centers, not everyone there has this prior criminal background. Were talking about people who largely are committed of civil offenses coming to the country without permission step no crime, but held essentially in a controlled environment with barbed wire, guards. What is interesting recently at these detention centers, the Obama Administration has brought that family detention centers. Are talking about cca and geo running a facility for children as young as two years old are being held with their parents. Amy talk about the berks facility. Berks facility in pennsylvania, which is run interestingly your contract with the county in ice is also having problems being accused of for wayimmigrants there too long. There is a mandate of 20 days from its mondays. Women are on a Hunger Strike. They had been held for more than a year. That points to another quick thing i would say about how ice characterizes these facilities. Theyre saying the Ice Detention Centers that are private are shortterm processing centers, where people are held for a brief amount of time. So were talking about different types of facilities. Amy there is a Hunger Strike going on at berks. Democracy now was able to speak to one of the women who are part of that Hunger Strike this week inside berks. We know we have not committed any crime. We only came to ask for help in this country. Help that still has not been offered to us. There are many children who have thought about throwing themselves out of the window of escaping. There are others who want to break the window, saying maybe sacrificing their own lets will be a sacrifice to free us all. It is very sad that children and adolescents are thinking of committing suicide, when really they should be focusing on their studies. Amy we will continue to follow these issues. The prisons that closed in the prisons that dont. I want to thank seth freed wessler for joining us as well as democracy now s renee feltz. Shane bauer, we want to stay with you for one more moment, but on a different issue. I want to ask about the recent developments in iran. In addition to your recent reports for mother jones, in 2009, you spend more than two years in evin prison after you and two other americans, not your wife sarah shourd, and Joshua Fattal were captured while hiking or the unmarked iraniraq border. You recount this in your book. This is a clip of you speaking shortly after your release. The only explanation for ourr prolonged detention is the 32 years of mutual hostility between america and iran. We were convicted of espionage because we are american. It is that simple. No evidence was ever presented against us. That is because there is no evidence and because we are completely innocent. Many times, too many times, we heard the screams of other prisoners bebeing beaten and it was nothing we could do to help them. Confinement was the worst experience of all of our lives. That had tohtmare endure for 14 months sarah had to endure for 14 months. We had a total of 15 minutes telephone calls with our families and one short visit from our mother. Our mothers. We had to go on Hunger Strike repeatedly just to receive letters from our loved ones. Amy this week, the state desktment sent a plane said a plane with 400 million was leverage to ensure five other american prisoners held by iran were released. Republicans, putting donald trump, said the money was ransom for the prisoners and was sent to iraran i in january. It Obama Administration said it was a preplanned transfer that was part of the landmark nuclear deal and the negotiations regarding the two issues were separate. State farm a Spokesman John Kirby admitted the negotiations had been linked to some extent. We were able to conclude diplomacy within 24 hour. , including of limitation of the nuclear deal, christer talks, and the settlement of an outstanding hate tribunal claim, which saved american taxpayers potentially billions of dollars. As we said at the time, we dont really leveraged that moment to finalize these outstanding issues nearly simultaneously. Amy that 400 million had been 1970s iran since the when the u. S. Refused to send weapons and ran at already pay for following the iranian revolution. Shame, were wondering your response to this news and the latest controversy over whether this money was actually ransom, given your situation and how you ultimately got out of iran. I think the claim this money was a ransom is absurd. Like you said, this money had been owed it to iran since the time s of the overthrow of thehaw. This was a previous negotiation and using this as leverage to get a rent to release the prisoners is exactly what should have been done. I could easily see criticism from the opposite direction from republicans saying, what if the Obama Administration had not done this and let these prisoners sit in there are not included them in the negotiations . That would be way more ridiculous. Amy actually, that was Donald Trumps criticism of the iran. Deal. Early on when the deal was struck, he said this is pathetic. It is included in this that prisoners do not get released. Exactly. These criticisms are ridiculous some in my opinion. When i have been in prison, there had not been, as far as i know, much in terms of negotiations between the u. S. And iran. The fact that the administration moves towards this, and including these prisoners in those negotiations, is exactly the right thing to do. Amy how did you ultimately get out, shane . I have been released, as well as sarah and josh, through negotiations with oman. The had initiated negotiations themselves. They were interested in using tensions between the u. S. And iran and ultimately moving toward a nuclear deal. They made trips to iran and to d. C. And kind of went back and forth bringing offers from each side. After our release, that avenue that have been created through our situation was the way the u. S. And iran Began Nuclear talks before they were publicly negotiating. Amy shane, thanks for being with us, shane bauer, awardwinning Senior Reporter at mother jones. His most recent article is called this prisoner hanged , himself at the private prison where i worked. His family says he didnt have to die. It is part of an amazing series he did my four months as a , private prison guard, which chronicles his time as an undercover correctional officer at louisianas winn correctional center. Shane also wrote the book together with sarah and josh called, a sliver of light three americans imprisoned i in iran. When we come back, we will talk about the olympics. Shame, thank you for being with us. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Juan we turn now to the olympics, which are heading into the final weekend in rio de janeiro. Brazilian police h have accuseda group of u. S. Olympic swimmers of vandalism dururing an incidet at gas station last weekend and say they are now considering whether to recommend charges against them, including Gold Medalists ryan lochte and jimmy feigen. The swimmers said they were robbed by gunmen impersonating Police Officers in the early hours of sunday as they returned in a taxi to the athletes village from a party in the city. However, after an investigation, rio police said there had been no robbery. This is the head of rio de janeiros civil police, fernando veloso. At this exact moment, what the police can say is there was no robbery the way the athletes reported. They were not victims of the criminal fact that they described. The police can say that now. In theory, they can be charged with giving false testimony and vandalism. In theory. They stopped at the gas station. They went to the toilets as the images showed. And one or more than one, were still investigating that, started vandalizing inside the toilets of the gas station. Juan u. S. Olympic authorities later apologized to brazil after two u. S. Swimmers kept in the country for questioning about the incident were allowed to go home. U. S. Olympic committee ceo Scott Blackmun said in a statement we apologize to our hosts in rio and the people of brazil for this distracting ordeal in the midst of what should rightly be a celebration of excellence. The incident was just one in an Olympic Games plagued by everything from green pools to empty seats. Brazil is also battling an economic recession, a massive zika outbreak, and the recent ouster of its democratically elected president dilma rouseff. Human rights organizations have also expressed concern about the impact of the games on rios most vulnerable communities. Amy but the olympics were not without its success stories. Thursday night, jamaicas usain bolt dominated the mens 200 meters final, clinching his eighth olympic gold medal. Brianna rollins led the american women in sweeping the 100 Meter Hurdles wednesday. And the socalled final five womens Gymnastics Team, the most diverse team ever to represent the u. S. , concluded their run in rio with a historic nine medals. To talk more about the rio olympics, were joined now by dave zirin in washington, d. C. He writes for the nation magazine. His recent article ryan lochte , is one of many privileged firstworld tourists and brazilians are fed up. Hes the author of brazils dance with the devil the world cup, the olympics and the fight for democracy. Dave, talk about the lochte scandal. Absolutely. Were breaking news on this in addition to what you have already reported. Jimmy feigen, one of the t two swimimmers along with lochte who is probably going to be chargrgd for making false statements to the police and vandalism, has been released. He is on his way home step in return, he a to get 11,000 terrible donation to a foundation called reaction charitable donation to a foundation called reaction as a way to bring silicates into the mainstream of rio. It is a place that the brazilian judoka from the city, that is where she trained as well. That might sound small to some folks, but in a city where the business l leaders, constrtructn leaders, and real estate leaders want a rio witithout the villas and haveve built thehese exclusn games were the for villas are monetaryupation, any ability to give anything helps. Jimmy is on his way back to the united states. As for ryan lochte, he could still be indicted and absentee for making falalse they must and vandalism. Making false e statement and mentalism. It would not require any extradition. The criminal part is largely done. Havingng just returned from rio, the ananger about this is not going anywhere because ryan lochte has done the impossible. He is managed to unite people in rio were both against the olympics and people who are for the olympics. It is paradoxical down there because on the one hand, i spoke to teachers and people who depend on brazils ram shackled radical system. People are furiousus about the fact thahat billionsns of dollas are being spenent to put on thee games at a time when theyre so much economic and social upheaval in the country, when the country is mired in its worst recession in decades. But paradoxically, there is a lot of pride and the fact that people are kind of holding this together, that volunteers, that lowwage workers are somehow keeping this together and holding the kinds of games that can have the kinds of events, amy, that you described, that can create these kinds o of moments. To have ryryan lochte and friris literally and figuratively urinate all over their efffforts and also be t the kinds of stereotypes of the ugly american who believes there is no sin below the equator, who exploits peoples biggest stereotypes and crime, and attempts to leverage the fact that they arare wealthy and whie and olympians and can somehowow just blame i it on the brown people, get on a plane andnd go hohome what it manages to dos touch h every nerve in Brazilian Society right now and create a kind of bizarre unity of brazazilians who are sayining, t a minute, we deserve a lot better than this for the effort that we have p put in the stagig ablee games under unendur circumstances. Juan i want to follow up on that. This scandal had two periods. The early y rrative ththat was reinforcing, well, rio is a place of commonality, the athletes are not safe for the first couple of days, until the actual story came out. And now there has been a reversal. It reminded me of people man forgotten man more than 30 years ago n now, bobby knight. In puertoby knight was rico and the panamerican games with the u. S. Team and ends up getting arrested because he assaulted a Police Officer there and then flees the country and becomes, really, a pariah in latin america as a result. Bobby knight, a trump supporter. He assaulted a puerto rican Police Officer. Then as he said later, he entire mooned the country as the plane was taking off. It is that kind of ugly american. Tstereotype that helps nobody and fulfilling that stereotype certainly helps nobody. I tell you who is also really upset, when i was in rio, a met a ton of people from the u. S. Who were tried to do the right kind of work, trying to do so develop support, help train people w with independent medid. Catalalytics like commununities. When he anan american behave l e this, behave with ththis kind of ununfettered privilege, what it does is affects everybody who is asked to try to do the right work and build solidarity. That is why y this is more than just this kind of small story of americans behaving badly. Im sure that is what ryan lochte thinks it is, this his comments have already elected a the of braindeadness about internatational incident aspectf this. A for people who are down there anand ask lee have to deal with police violence, for people who haveve to do with the very real thing in rio, whwhich is Police Actually robbing you, for people in the favelas that have to do with police violence, to have the people most likely protected by police to tell a story about being robbed by police . That manages to offend peoplple who fight Police Corruption and also people who are defending the way that rio has been able to create a secure games, even though rumors before hand said that these would be some of the least secured games in history. Juan what about that . How has rio managed to pull off these games . Were headingng into the lastst weekend. We only have 30 0 seconds. Scotctchlly, through tape, hard work, and unpaid labor. A report was out today that the day laborers working in the Olympic Village make only 15 a day, yet ioc officialsls get spending moneyey, per diem, 900 per day. So people e are doing it only ot of a sense of National Pride at this point. To have their effortrts just absolutely slapped around by ryan lochte and friends as if they are somehow less than human, believe me, that really touches the third rail of brazilian amy we want to continue this conversation and post it online at democracynow. Org. That does it for our show. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 yayaxaxaxaxa