Can help you make the most of today. Mutual of america financial group, Retirement Services and investments. Additional suppo been provided by and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewersike you. Thank you. From the tisch wnet studios at Lincoln Center in new york,re hariivasan. Sreenivasan good eveni j and thanks fning us. The new coronavirus has now spread to 107 countries and there are close to 108,000 cases worldwide according to the johns hoins university coronavir resource center. Italy is one of the hotspots, where more than 360 people have died frothe virus, and the government issued a quarantine, restricting trel for more than 16 Million People in the northern part of the country. It affects cities like milan, venice and more than a dozen provinces until april 3. In the u. S. , the grand princess cruise ship is etoected to dock rrow at the port of oakland. 21 people have tested positive19 for covi Princess Cruises said those in need of acute medical care will be evacuated to local Health Care Facilities for treatment. While the other passengers will be tested and isolated at additional facilities. Dr. Anthony fauci, the director of the nional institutof allergand infeious diseases at the n. I. H. , had a message for those vulnerable to se complications, particularly elderly people with underlying alth conditions right now, not wait until ings get worse say no large crowds, no long trips. And above all, dont get on a cruise ship. Sreenivasan meanwhile secretary of housing and urban development dr. Ben carson did not state any concrete plans from the federal government on what to with the people on board. The ship is docking tomorrow. E. The plan wi be in place by that t but i dont wa to preview the plan right now. Sreenivasan for more now on the situation in italy, newshour weekend special correspondent Christopher Livesay joins us via test test you were just traveling here before these quarantines went into place. What is it like out there . Well, italians are extremely nervous. You had this announcetment t came through on officials channels, there was a government de cree that went in toimit travel. However that was leaked to the Italian Press before it ppwas ed to be made public and it sparked a lot of panic. You had a liaot of it in milan, that is the Industrial Hub of the economy here. A lot of people work ther but are actually originally from the south. So some of them were storming train stations last night thinking that this was the last train out of town. Meanwhile this travel ban,his quarantine stretches all the way to places like venice. S thatcity that has been reeling from high te flooding that really tanked its tourism economy. And now with this latestit quar on travel, it is just tanking the tourist economth fear they will lose more than a billion dollars. So people are extremely nervous, hari. Senivasan what about for their health, are people heeding the warnings . Are they keeping a social distance, wahing their hands . Do you see people aware of this. I saw italians taking this in stride when the outbreak first began, or at least en it was first spotted on february 21s. There was a lot of skepticism. Italians tend to be rather cynical. Ey didnt necessarily trust the government when it was making these warnings. That is changing now, especially because in lombardi, the region around milan, you had 113 people die in the last 24 hours alone. And so with this spike, peopole seeme catching on and something to just joke around with. But that is a really hard adjustment for italians when yor consow affectionate italians are. Greeting people, it just goesn against everything that makes somebody italian. But there is going to have to be some major lifestyle change. You have the president , you have authorities are cstantlyal telling italians, we have to be very careful, maintain one mer liss tans, apart between each other at all times. Sreenivasan this is a weekend when this quartine went into effect. How are they planning to implement it, lets say, monday. Morn people wake up, do they get to their jobs. Does trade slow down. The government has already anticipated that italy alone was mogoing to lose re than 80 billion dollars. But that was before this massive quarantine went into place. And so its really too soon to predict what kind of an impact this igoing to have on the economy. Sreenivasan Chris Livesay joining us live via skype, reanks so much 6 ivasan federal, state and local governments are in the midst of a complicated public heal crisis as the coronavir outbreak continues to grow in the u. S. And around the world. Joining me now is Caroline Chen, a reporter for pro publica, who is coverinthe covid19 sponse and what we need to know about the spread of the virus. You lived through sars when you were a kid in hg kong. U covered zika and ebola. So you have a little bit of perience watching these things roll out. What is most concerning to you ws most concerning to me t ght now . Is how preped the u. S. Is, we are in a critical junction right now because speed matters ight now. Were still in early days in the u. S. Buhow prepared we are now and how we respond right now over these weeks are gng to matter a lotd e population im most fncerned about are the vulnerable ar me that means the elderly in particular with a this diseas also the frontline workers. So that is Health Care Workers and first responders. Because this is more deadly than the flu. And in partular, there is enough data right now to know that it is a really danerous disease, particularly for the elderly. Ths important to know. I think scientists are also t confident enousay that it is less deadly than a disease like sars where the fatal iterate ended up being in the ball park of 9 to 10 . Lets look at each of those populations. The elderly. That was a deaf stating number of people that were affected seattle at that nursing care. What should anybody that has a relative in a nursing home be thinking right now. What kind of plan should those ciliti have. Nursing facilities, i hope they all haver aaredness plan right now and are stepping up their inspection control in particular. And that is also the case for hospitals or any type of healthcare facility that are in a state or in cities and counes that has geriatric populations. But also, you know, even if you are not living in a nursing home, if someone is elderly, they might start thinking, you know, at some point in time i might not want tgout, taking public transit, and start stocking up a little bit. And im not talking aboupanic buying, buying 16 bottles of lie sol but start slowly and met oddically buying a little bit more groceries every time you go for a grgcery run. And also i would encourage people to start think being their nei ybors. Have an elderly neighbor, if you have an elderly grandparent, this is the time ere we can really be helping our neighbors. We have already seen Different Cases around the country pop up where nurses who are getting sick or doctors o are getting sick say hey, i still dont get these tesstts. I ant to know if i can help people or would be a greater harm to people if i go out and touch them. So i think there are two elements. One that capacity really needs needs to Testing Capacity need to ramp up. Because if we dont know where e cases are and how many cases are, tt will put Health Care Workers at risk. The second issue is suppls and supplies of what is called ppe, personal proct ive quipment, masks, gowns and gloves and were already hearing thatbe hospitals arng prepared for there to be scarcity there. Th ans something that governments both on local levels and at the federal level are going to have to really be. Prepared f i kind of hear you saying two things. On the one hand and be gent with your government, on the other hand dont panic if you are a citizen. Yes. And i think that a lot of people i have heard saying you know, shou gi to a con srt. And i totally understand that you want to have the answer. E but isnt a blanket answer. It really depends on who you are, you know. How old you are, what is your personal medical history look like, where you are in e country. And so you have to make that judgment call for yourself. And listen to those Public Health officials. All right,. Sreenivasan Caroline Chen thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much. Sreenivasan democratic president ial candidates joe biden and Bernie Sanders both received highprofile endorsements on sunday. At read morbs. Org newshour. Sreenivasan this week begins the 2020 census, an aim to count everyone living in the country and the u. S. Territories. The findings will determine how federal dollars are distributed. Hansi loang a National Correspondent for npr has been reporting on the 2020 census. We sat down recently to discuss what to expect, including whats new this time around. Its a basic set of questions thats could ask you where you live. Confirming her address, all the People Living in your home, their age, birth date, phone number that someone can be reached at, race, ethnicy and the relationship that peopleop between living in the same home as well as whether the home is rented or owned. Some of the changes are in the ra question. If you mark off the white and or the black box, to answer the race question, for the first time the Census Bureau is going to ask within the context of race what your origins are. And those are nonhispanic they provide examples such as english or french or jamaican or nigerian, for example, asking them to write those inland under the onship question describing how people within the same household are related. Theres going to be categories that specify same sex and what the bureau is calli opposite sex spouse, wife, husband, partner. Bureau is asking for people to identify their Sexual Orientation directly in the context of this relationship question. Sreenivasan okay, so there is not aitizenship questn in this census. Is there another way are thereys other hat the government is going to come up with some sort of an estimate on that s ta . The governmening to try. President trump issued an executive order once hehe announced that administration was no longer pushing for this Citizenship Question that federal courts edhave now permanently blo from being added to the 2020 census forms. And so the Census Bureau has be working to try to compi existing government records from erious federal agencies, state department, department of homeland security, as well as some state d. M. V. Offices and trying to come up with a data set that would represent the citizenship status of every anrson living in the country. Sreenand sort of very but this is not happening on facebook. Right now. Thg im watching and 500,000 workers is what the bureau is expecting to need if the response rate, actually lfresponse rate, is eve lower than 60 , about 55 . And those, thats of households elfyre expecting to respond. And so its a big questf the Census Bureau, right now, its supposed to be ramping up hiring. Its recruited more than two and now starting to offer positions to these applicants to see if anyone will take them and go throughraining over the next few mons and to be deployed in may. Well see how that turns out. Sreenivasan how do we count sreenivasan and really kind of the bottom line of this is that this is very consw uential for mmunities get money from the federal government and atw we really think about lots of other things ave big consequences Going Forward the next ten yrs. One way to think about the census, it a way for every person living in the United States of america to express power. The constitution, article one, section two, is calling for an actual numeration, actual counting of every person ling in the country. And those numbers determine how many congressional seats,ra eleccollege votes each state gets. And it guides more than 1. 5 trillion a year for dicare, medicaid, roads and schools. And its all dependent upon how many people are living in the country. Sreenivasan all right. Hansi lo wang, thanks so much. Youre welcome. Sreenivasan for decades, louisiana incarcerated the most people percapita. But in recent years, a major bi partisan oveaul of the states criminal Justice System has led to a smaller prison pulation and a new focus on rehabilitation. Newshour weekend special correspondent Joanne Elgart h jennin our story, reported in conjunction with bryan stole of the new orleans advocate and pbss independent lens. Ry reporter euesday, a bus load of newly sentenced inmates from new orleans and neighbing Jefferson Parish arrives at thistate prison. This is their entry point into system. Awling louisiana prison theyre here in cottonport about 90 minutes northwest of baton rouge, only briefly, for screening and orientation. Wre going to have our nur practitioner come look at you. Do you take any medicines . No. You dont have any kind of medicine . And you said tenth grade was pee highest grade you went to. Did you take anycial education classes . No, maam. Reporter many of thosevi arring lack education, or come in with long histories of addiction. If youre a drug , youre not going to keep your job. Youre going to lose your job. Okay . So once you lose your job, o theres realy two ways to get drugs. Reatsteal for it or sell it to make the drug it doesnt mean im a big drug dealer thats riding around in a fay car and tting money my pocket. cause i didnt. I was homeless. I had no car, i had nothing. Reporter 4yearold Craig Leblanc is serving a ten year sentence for possession of mh with intto distribute. Hes hoping to be placed in a state facilityhat offers drug rehab and educational programs. But odds are high thatell do his time in a local jail not equipped for that. A sentence that you spend in a local jail or prison is a ence that probably comes with very little programming. It comes with very littl opportunities to take courses on anger management or to get your ode. D. It means that th are high that you will not get routine medical care. Reporter jila johnson is a managing attorney at the promise of justice initiative. Its a nonprofit that advocates for criminal Justice Reforms. The odds are high that you wont get appropriate dental care. If you have a mental illness, the odds are very high that there will be no one there who mental illness, treat your mental illness, provide whatever you were being provided on the outside. Reporter today, more than half the people convicted of crimes in louisiana arheld in parish prisons. The state pays local sheriffs 25 a day for each person they incarcerate. That means that the sheriffs are incentivized to a, as many people as they can to increase the revenue and b, provide the minimum level of , rvices that they need to increase the pfit. Reporter Katie Schwartzmann is legal director at the a. C. L. U. Of louisiana. So it means that because the sheriffs kind of nefit from the department of corrections paymt, the conditions in tho parish jails have traditionally been really terrible. Reporter jimmy leblanc, a former warden, is louisianas secretary of corrections. He says 25 a day is simply not enough to provide anything beyond the bare minimum. At 25 a day, you basically asn, i call it lockandfeed. Lock and feed isally they have the funding to be able to clothe them, be able to provide food for them, be able to, to house them and provide security. When somebody comes into our evstem, theyre in a grade of somewhere around the seventh grade. Thats the average grade level ed obviously they have failed in ouation system, in so then we get em and we expect to create miracles and we cerininly not to do it at 25 a day. Reporter in 2017, governor john bell edwards, a democrat, worked with the Republican Controlled Legislature to pass a major criminal Justice Reform package. Through targeted releases, greater access to parole and probation, and investmt in alternatives to incarceration, the prison population has dropped about 13 . From nearly 36,000 inmates in 2017 to fewer than 32,000 today. In the process, e state has saved about 35 million dollars. Corrections secretary leblanc is now reinvesting a portion of the keep people from returning to prison. We canexpect people to come to prison and be dropped back off on the corners and expect them to succeed. Ing toust,ts not happen. And weve, were changing that and that, that is a big part of our Reform Efforts. Reporr and one of those Reform Efforts is here. The southernmost tip of louisiana, in Plaquemines Parish, the department of corrections is piloting a new reEntry Program. The Plaquemines Parish detention cent is an 800bed jail. It was built with funds from the federal Emergency Management agency, fema, after hurricane ka lockup. Troyed the old now, prisoners whollyacant. Would be scattered across dozens of jails in rural stretches of the state arbeing brought together her t its closer communities in and around new orleans, where most will eventually be released. On top of the 25 per day that onthe department of correc pays the sheriff for eac prisonerere, its providing an additional 1. 2 million for rehabilitati programming that includes courses on anger management and substance abuse. So we were discussing last week about the different effects, the biological. Education is key. Reporter captain Byron Williams heads up the reentry department. He sheriffs education is key. So the first thing is to get these guys eduifte