Now infecting american Prison Inmates at a rate more than 5 times higher than the overall u. S. Population and thats climbing in fact at the Federal Correctional Institution in c. Go bill texas the federal bureau of prisons reports that more than 1300 of the approximately 1750 prisoners held there have tested positive for covert 19 these brutal statistics of lead to multiple uprisings among the incarcerated populations across the United States just last week in georgia violence broke out of where state prison where the Atlanta Journal constitution reports that quote tensions were running high due to cope with 192 people incarcerated at the prison have died of the disease while 22 inmates and 32 employees have tested positive so with covert 19 on fire inside us prisons exposing even more horrors of our prison and die. Complex i think thats a good place to start watching the hawks. If you want to know whats going on a city a new street you want to see. Them so you like to see the prices you always just state ill see you drone strikes mass graves suggests least systemic deception is the late show which is i would say when the field. And welcome everyone are watching the hawks i am to roll them to an island and joining us today to discuss the state of u. S. Prisons as we get deeper into the 1st year of the covert 19 pandemic is the president of the n. W. C. P. U. In georgia mr james wood all and dr andre m. Perry author and fellow at the metropolitan policy program at the Brookings Institute thank you both for coming on today. So look over probably have overcrowding lack of proper medical care or unsanitary Living Conditions were already major issues in the u. S. Prison system how is covert 19 exacerbated these existing issues dr perry your thoughts. Well if you mentioned it there were looted. Art in. That. 5 years where its product. Areas. Are. Areas. They are also. People have little recourse and so we need to look for examine the conditions in prisons in and we need to socially distance people and create the kind of conditions that enable people to thrive and so in the short of it is that prisons are in the main places that that are conducive for virus spread and other illnesses. And james here in washington d. C. A family of many. A mate recently died from kobe while being held in North Carolina wasnt informed of his death by the bureau present until over 100 days after it occurred we talk about coping in prisons we often only focus on the guards the staff and inmates but how has this crisis affected the families and communities surrounding the u. S. Prison system. Well thank you for that question and as a son of a father who currently serving the sentence in a Georgia State prison ive known too well what that impact does my father got colvin and see we were not able to know really know what the status of your health was you know Legal Counsel is not able to visit these inmates we have complaints of people not even being able to get the kind of reputation it accustomed to servants. So you know this situation is exacerbated. I was just on the wire many of ways which is what you mean izing just i frankly just and so there must be action taken action taken out not only saved not ours but also to save money every Single Person in the prison system in this country you know has been has been damaged and broken for a long time thats why i agree with a lot of people that say you know we need to abolish the prison system as we know what rebuild it from the ground up find the turn it into a place of reform rather than incarceration but i also want to talk about Something Else because gentlemen if we cant keep covert from spreading like wildfire in a lock and barrel and secure environment like a pub or a potential how can we begin to expect to contain covert in our schools james i want to start. Well what we have to look at really what this disease is actually doing and i honestly believe that we have done ourselves a disservice when were not honest from a state and National Level as to what are the risk factors involved in this situation. We as a Community Power to us economy money and commerce only actually all the lives of people who live in our communities in we can actually see the feet is the lead environs and so as we as it relates to school and we talk about opening up colleges and universities we talk about opening up well probably very nervous we you know what were talking about is not the actual hope of equal but rather how can we keep money flow into peoples pockets how can we keep the bottom not up in margins secured in such a basket and we dont lose billions of dollars for me economic standpoint but also as a as they are so the 1st step is actually i was out and he was lobbying not money but in the 2nd part of actually being make sure that people have access to you know resources dr perry we are what are your thoughts on that i mean the schools even stand a chance if we can even keep covert from from turning our prisons into even worse nightmares than they already are. Well 1st of all i want to cosign what the double a c. P. President said my father also he died in prison and i just want to be clear that the that Structural Racism that actually put us in position to be in prison the Structural Racism that robs School Districts of the resources needed to protect children come from the same racist street and so no we wont be able to protect children and communities because one that the federal government have not passed a spending bill that enables School States and School Districts to purchase the p. P. S. To socially distance in in classrooms and on buses to provide the technology so when you do have to shut down a school they can do Remote Learning and so and they not been able to get those. Resources to schools because they simply do not care about black people and so for me its clear that this is an epidemic well have more epidemic so there are always some type of tragedy repeat itself time and time again until we sure are eradicate the Structural Racism that continues to put black people in a vulnerable position. Powerful and very true and my heart goes out to you i also lost my mom in a prison as well she died from cancer. Nearly 100000 kids 100000 kids in america have been affected with kobe 19 in just the last 2 weeks of july states like georgia are refusing a math mandate for students even though experts like dr anthony 1000 recommend all schools mandate universal mask wearing our schools across the United States truly ready to handle in Person Learning at this stage in the pandemic or do you think there is an alternative and that since you know we mentioned georgia ill start with you james. Well i think thats a very difficult question because one we as a community we dont need the government to tell us whats right or wrong we have a state we have a nation that has not done the right thing but we at the Community Level we know was yes where are you so were going to. Mandates we get a mask or not we need to tell our people to make sure that they wear a mask thats one of the reasons why i issued an executive order myself as a state president in which all of our members all of our supporters all of our friends and family all were mass when theyre on public because i dont need the governor of the state of georgia to tell us what is in the best interest of our people if we are on the community in the Grassroots Level we know what it takes to say. Im done waiting for. Government officials to do was in best interest of our people in this you know where that number. To save up was a lot but were going to stop. Now with schools are not ready. You see the schools on dont even know what day to open schools its endemic the lack of preparedness that schools and School Districts have the Congress Head 5 months to prepare for this 5 months and its almost as if the pandemic occurred a few weeks ago and so intil schools have the resources to open safely and meet Safety Standards as well as educational standards they will not be ready in what was pointed out earlier that as School Students congregate in crowded spaces there are since these facilitating the spread those kids go back to their homes and spread the disease of the illness more and so kids dont live in schools they live in communities schools are not some kind of bubble in which they are sheltered from the rest of the community and so we need to protect the community and the schools and till they are. Returned safely i would not advise a parent to send their child to a place that is simply not ready to take on on on kids safely. Thats a great point you bring up and very quickly i just want to ask ask you both a bit at the end of all this is that what what do you believe believe colbert has truly shown as far as the truth of the american system whether its schools or just a story i think you know you guys a bit more going in the trenches for a long time i mean realistically colbert is not just exposing that the idea of american exceptionalism was always a myth to begin with dr perry you can start with a little bit of time well. Yeah i was i was going to say that it really revealed the Structural Racism that is present in our country black people are dying at a higher rate and can speak. Not because of cove it. Attacks black people but it it attacks the conditions in which we live and those conditions were set generations ago and theyre set every day and so racism is the preexisting condition that we need to get rid of not and not blame it on asthma or diabetes and all these other things that its Structural Racism that is making us vulnerable Structural Racism that it will destroy the resources needed to make our schools say the Structural Racism that puts black people in prison at higher rates and keeps them those conditions unsafe and so all this is doing is revealed playing the person issues policy that attacks black people every day in this country. And not had that its not just you know i and im the president in the us we dont get it but its not just black people this is displaying it well in many ways what black you have known for a while to me is that the institution the empire of America Western civilization is here is not here we can see more of our if i see me in actual law and so we talk about. All of us when we talk about the Unemployment Insurance benefits theyre not going to talk about us yes literally becoming bankrupt because the people that are in leadership care more about their bottom line unwilling elections than actually lifting up the ones its. We have a system thats committed more to the preservation of power you seem to privilege in actual peoples lives in so that is reflected in racism thats why supreme see that is reflected. In the midst its a case of the negro is so on so what do you go down a lot. Outside of james as powerful stuff and i hate to cut you off got to go to break but excellent excellent stuff mr james wood on dr andrea perry thank you so much for coming on and educating our audience always a pleasure having you both on and the good work that youre doing thank you so much. All right as we go to break over there you can also still watch knocks on demand for the brand new portable t. V. Which is available on all platforms and coming up the battle over Public Versus Private Health Care is magnified in the time of coverage tonight stay tuned to watching the hawks. Oh my. Goodness confessional moment to laugh and ask for the last 70 and seeing and im interested if they were thats probably true but commission. Branches just shoot on disk in the. Command among the. Legion mom. And i know you care so said im not going to much fame the momma is just there are no. One else seemed wrong why dont we all just dont call. Me old yet to shape out this day and become educated and gain from it because betrayal. When so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. Has changed lives that pharmaceutical companies have a miraculous solution. Based drugs talk to people who are chronic pain patients and believe that their opioid prescription is working for them on the remedy the same. Price that they pay. Their dependency and addiction to opiates to long term use that really isnt scientifically just right now a study actually suggests that. The long term effects might not just be the absence of benefit but actually that they might be causing long term. Health care remains one of the primary issues at the top of voters minds across america with coronavirus in our midst the concern for Health Insurance is only heightened access to Quality Health care has never been available to everyone your ability to pay determines the quality of health care you receive in your outcomes add race to the mix and things tend to get a lot worse politicians have been grappling with how best to serve Americas Health care needs for over 5 decades now notably Hillary Clinton 1st lady in the ninetys attempted and failed to bring hillary care and universal Health Care Package to fruition providing health care for everyone with loud it is a Big Government takeover in 1903. Fast forward to 22 and president Barack ObamasAffordable Care act attempted to pick up where hillary care left off obamacare passed and Health Insurance became more acceptable for millions of people meanwhile Medicaid Expansion allowed for several low income individuals to Access Health care for the 1st time but the a c a 2 didnt create a health care haven private Insurance Companies pulled out prices went up the cost of lifesaving pharmaceutical drugs like insulin are well beyond the reach of most pocketbooks rule medicine is on life support and Community Clinics across the country are closing rapidly and have been for the past 12 years all of this meanwhile the Racial Disparities in care continue to grow and cope with 19 late Americas Health care crisis bayer everything from overcrowded hospitals lack of access to testing wait times over a month for test results show complete chaos and few people trust the system would a single payer option be better is universal healthcare or medicare for all a better route is government even equipped to handle the challenges of americas growing Health Care Needs and infrastructure. A recent opinion piece by libertarian commentator hannah cox provides a few insights and joins us now to share more welcome him. Or him out your piece new yorks bill your to use emergency hospitals as another reason to distrust Government Health care is a scathing critique of the thinks response to cope with 19 arguably you promote removing government from the business of health care what that look like and how with the private sector deliver better service. Well i think one thing that were seeing during code 19 is just how intertwined government already is in our Health Care System right from the get go we saw government start removing certificate of need laws certain deregulating start taking away some regulations that they had around telling Health Services and things that were actually preventing people from accessing faster cheaper and Better Health care the competition we havent had at the National Level yet is why are those things in place to begin with it would seem to actually make it harder to get Good Health Care if they slow down the process if they make it less accessible we should never have those things in place and as weve seen states try to approach the massive operates especially new york city where i was in march and april during the height of their outbreak weve seen them catastrophic leigh sales and actually trying to get Adequate Health care to people who need it is absolutely atrocious what happened in new york city and i think the only reason we havent seen that replicate in other states is fortunately you havent had instances populations but i think what happened there again need every reason to fear the government ever running my health care we saw patients unable to get beds we saw trucks with bodies being put into the they didnt have space to deal with the people we heard about things called bathroom codes that where people were waking up without attendants and not knowing where they were and trying to go and get help or go to the bathroom in coding of people who wouldnt have survived had they actually had Adequate Health care and so we saw a government just across the board i do think if we were true move a lot of the regulations personally if we were to get government out