tv America Tonight Al Jazeera February 4, 2014 4:00am-5:01am EST
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since last june. disappointing factory activity report was blamed. a jobs report is due out on friday. "america tonight" is next. i'm thomas drayton in new york. you can get the latest news online at aljazeera.com. depth look at crime and punishment takes us inside america's biggest and stuffest yale. is justice being served here? >> his highs were black and blue and shut closed for a month and his ankle was broken in four different places. >> that's not punishment. >> that's brutality. a sub sushan high, why it's
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among users you would least expect. the brothers, their brew and a buzz. the little micro brewery launched with a lot of faith and prayer. >> the first bruisery in our order outside of europe. good evening. thanks for being with us. i am joie chen. it is said a society can be judged knot by how it treats the best but it's most unfortunate of the. consider the report, the los angeles county jail system. critics say it is one of the worst, a place where discipline has been enforced and excessively enforced, some say, with an iron hand.
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in the first of a 4-part in depth series on crime and punishment, "america tonight's" michael oku goes inside the largest jail in america and speaks with one man who has been through the system. this features jailhouse video some may find disturbing. >> when i am lying face down with my face on the ground, my hands behind my back and i have about four or five officers come around me and then i hear this... >> that's wha happened when he went to individuals one of the most note toryous jails in america. in july 2010, figaroa got a phone call from his younger brother, juan, who had been arrested and was being held at the jail. juan, a veteran of desert storm, had trouble adjusting to civilian life since leaving the army. over the years, he had had a few minor scrapes with the law, but they never amounted to much.
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stunned. >> your brother calls you? >> yes, sir. >> from jail? >> yes, sir. >> and tells you that his teeth are busted? >> yes, sir. >> what else? >> and his ribs are broken, sir. >> his ribs are broken? >> yes, sir. >> did he give you any indication in that phone call how he sustained those injuries? >> los angeles sheriffs. >> that the los angeles sheriffs had, in fact, hurt him? >> yes. >> did you believe that? >> yes. >> figaroa went to the jail hoping to see his brother. after getting what he calls the rung-around, he approached a deputy in the visiting area. so began his own or deal with the hands of the los angeles county sheriff's department. >> i started hearing stop resisting. i yelled out, i am in handcuffs. >> this is an x-ray of figaroa's incident. >> so how is your arm now? >> i can only lift my arm this fall. the strength in it is very weak. >> is there still pain? >> yes. all the time. >> the jail system run by the los angeles county sheriff's
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department is the largest in the country. critics say it's also one of the worst, a place where beatings and broken bones have been the preferred method of disciplining inmates and visitors alike. >> culture, they say, was condoned by the department's brass, including the sheriff, himself, ree baka. he stemmed down last week. his resignation was hastened after federal authorities recently announced charges against 18 officers who worked at the jail. figaroa's story is just one of several recounted in the indictments. after leo figaroa was injured, he was questioned by a supervisor in charge of the gonzalez. he repeatedly pressed digaroa suggesting he was responsible for the attack. >> not told to leave. if i was told to leave, i would have left. i was backing away from the officer. >> why would you back away? >> i was backing away from the
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officer because he is going over here, there is nothing i can do for you. who is your watch commander? i am not telling you. >> did you have that tone of voice with the deposit at this? >> no. me. >> at one point, gonzales even handled figaroa's broken arm. >> medical attention. all right? it appears to be -- >> aagh. >> left arm, red, swelling. >> according to one of the federal indictments, gonzales didn't like it when visitors disrespected deputies, so he encouraged those under his command to conduct unreasonable searchs and seizures, engage in excessive force and to make unlawfully arrests. figaroa was held for five days although he was never charged with a crime. >> i didn't do anything to the deputy sheriffs or anyone else that i was involved with. and they know that.
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the bottom line is they know that. >> reporter: it wasn't just jailhouse visitors like figaroa who were mistreated by deputies. the indictments make clear inmates were harshly treated as well. >> a young gentleman who was a pre-trial detainee at los angeles county jail and was deputies. >> sonya macato is a civil rights attorney who has
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represented. >> he heard joking about the manual's injuries. >> he was fine. >> he is talking right now. >> if you are difficult in jail, you will be disciplined. everybody assumes that. >> that's right. >> why should we care that these inmates are being disciplined? >> i think that if you are difficult in jail, you should be disciplined, but the punishment does not to be that i just get to beat you. it's not by breaking the probablying on his ankles because you took a flashlight that was 40 ounces and you beat his ankle until it broke in 4 or five different places. >> is not punishment. >> that's brutality. >> after suing the sheriff's department and the officers involved, a jury unanimously awarded the imagine $125,000 in damages. sheriff baka, a former jail house captain and the deputies involved also agreed to pay $165,000 in punitive penalties. the sheriff's department wouldn't comment on that case or
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mr. figaroa's. the sheriff's office declined a request for an interview. >> the surplus is spent quickly building. >> however, we were given a tour of the men's central jail by the man who was sent here to clean things up. >> the jails across the country is escalators. >> captain daniel dire overseas jail. months. >> what was your first reaction when you heard that there were guards who were physically abusing not only some of the inmates here but the visitors of some of those inmates? >> you know, disbelief. >> he blames a lot of the problems on poor morale, saying officers regarded working at the jail as a temporary stop on the way to more glamorous jobs within the department. >> guys, how are you. >> how critical is it for your sheriff's deputy deputies and guards to develop relationships with these inmates? >> it's very critical. you give them the respect, you get the respect back.
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day. >> so this is the 3000 floor. as you know, this is one of the floors where people ald allege some of the wrongdoings were most seriously inflicted. is there abuse at this jail or has abuse happened at this jail in the past? >> we had problems with it as rampant as some of the media portrays it? no. i have some outstanding men and women who work with some of the toughest l.a. street criminals. >> i am sure you have dedicated people but it sounds a little bit like spin when you say that it might have been over blown by the media. individuals. >> no doubt. >> current and past. >> that's right? >> that's a lot of folks. >> there are a lot of folks and there are some serious allegations, and we take every single one of those extremely serious. we have dong a lot of things since then. i have almost doubled my
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supervision. we have changed some protocols and basically gone back to the drawing board on a few things. >> there are those in los angeles who say the sheriff's department can't be trusted to clean up its own act. los angeles county supervisor mark ridley thomas is one of them. in 2012, a commission formed by the county board of supervisors found a persistent pattern of unreasonable force in the los angeles county jails that dates back many years. it added notwithstanding recent reforms, the commission does not believe that the problem of fixed. >> baka is resigning. problem solved? >> no, because this is not reducible to a single individual or personality. the problems are structural. they are systemic. i think you have to have better over sight, and that means you have to have a set of eyes and ears, an inspector general and
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an oversight panel so that this department is not itself. >> as for leo sfaiings figaroa judge awarded him $320,000 for his or deal. appealed. it's estimated figaroa faces costs. he says his studies have also suffered since the incident. he has been working towards a master's degree. >> in the end, know, figaroa says what's most important is that the truth about what happened to him is finally, coming out so that a stay or even just a visit to the lacounty jail is no longer a life-threatening experience. michael oku, al jazeera, angeles. tuesday on america tonight, we continue our in-depth crime and punishment series with a look at death drugs. as u.s. prisons run out of the drug commonly used in lethal injections, an unusual execution illustrates the length that some
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states are going through to put the condemns to death. >> we didn't expect to see what we saw. we expected it to look like he just went to sleep. >> that's what we expected. >> after three to four minutes, dennis mcgierp began gasping for breath. his stomach and chest were compressing deeply. he was making a snorting sound, almost a choking sound. >> a botched execution with untested drugs and another death row inmate's desperate fight to escape the same fight. crime and punishment, death drugs, the story tuesday on ameri "america tonight." you can explore more about the ways america polices, prosecutes and punishes it's on where we probe more of what is and isn't working in the u.s. justice system. when we return, a star's sudden death points to bigger worries about the spread of heroin and
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the stunning reports of actor seymour hoffman's death were not only because of the father of three but the apparent cause, a heroin dose. hoffman sought rehab last year when he said his dependency on prescription painkillers led him to heroin abuse. it under scores a concern for drug abuse counselors who worry that the street level junkies, heroin has taken place in many
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places you wouldn't expect. carmon capose's son is a new face from heroin, a kid with ambitions toss join the navy. instead, he oded in a motel 90 days after he had gotten clean. >> we were devastated. we were devastated. i couldn't imagine i didn't know what heroine looked like. >> suburban parents are seeing heroine destroy their communities. warning of an epidemic. in one county more overdose deaths than traffic accidents combined. a wave of death, 22 in six days. >> saturday, when i had four and sunday, when i had three, i knew that i was hitting some major part of an overdose crisis. >> they were
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poisoned by fentynl. it is as much as 100 times stronger than morphine. >> if people were dying from something, you would think common sense would tell you, stay away from that. but because of the nature of addiction, people with addiction, they believe that's the good stuff. >> that's the strong stuff. >> it's not just in western pennsylvania. a yet to be published study from washington university in st. louis found the number of rehab patients being treated for harry win addiction has ballooned from 10 to more than 20% in just the last two years. experts say heroin has become more attractive to users as drug makers clamp down on prescription opiates like like oxycontin and it's appeal even in suburbia is growing. in just the last few weez, as pittsburgh law enforcement tracked the fentanyl laced heroin, they found heroin being sold by dealers in fast food meals.
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>> this is supposed to be a fast food restaurant. it's fast food and dope. what a gift. >> it is stunning, epidemic proportions, the former baltimore county drug czar and host of "straight talk." help us understand about this. after all, we are talking about an incredibly successful actor. every sign that he had everything to live for, said he had beaten his addiction years and years ago. how could somebody like this be drawn into heroin use? >> heroin has become so mainstream in the last couple of years that it doesn't discriminate anymore. it user to be an inner city drug. now, we are looking in suburban america everywhere, every community in this country is seeing young people, young adults who are getting involved, first usually with prescription pills, and then they switch over
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to heroine because it's actually becoming more available and actually cheaper and stronger. >> explain that to me. >> very said ductive. >> i have heard this repeatedly things like making oxycodone difficult to access is actually increasing the use of heroin even among these suburban communities like that young man that we saw in the report. >> yeah. yeah. well, the last five years, we have always watched an epidemic of prescription drug abuse. when you look at the actual numbers, more people in america die from an overdose of prescription painkillers than heroin and cocaine combined. so the problem of prescription drug abuse has grown dramatically over the last five years. as the government has cracked down on doctors prescribing prescription drugs, people are addicted. so they are left with their addiction and what they end up doing is going to the streets, looking for heroin. and because heroin is more
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available than ever before, in suburbia, then it's cheaper. and so now, we've got this double-edged sword of those addicted to prescription drugs now hooked on heroin and on top of it, we see the recent epidemic of the fentanyl-laced heroin and that's a killer drug. i mean that is a killer drug. you add it all together, and we've got ourselves a deadly epidemic of young people, whether they are famous or not famous who are using heroin and now they are getting not just addicted, but they are dying. >> right. we are not giving away a secret here you have you've just as bad of a thing i can imagine, people shooting heroin. how can it become so tractive? >> heroin is one of those drugs
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when are it's almost the forbidden fruit if you are doing drugs. whose the hard drugs. but in reality, the high you get from heroin is extremely euphoric and the user tends to want to go back to that u euphoria over and over again. when i started doing heroin, i didn't understand what addiction was but the drug made you feel very warm, very good, very mellow, and you kept going back. what we didn't realize, what i didn't realize was how addictive it actually was. and got hooked very quickly and found myself needing more and more and more, thus needing to commit crimes and getting more money to get the drugs that i needed. once you stop, it's still a powerful addiction. >> right. the other thing you see, both in phillip seymour hoffman's case and the young man profiled earlier, both of these people
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had gotten clean at some point and somehow fallen back. how does that happen? by the time you get cleaned up, you realize i don't want to ever do that again? >> two things are happening. a lot of people do not understand addiction. it's an illness. it's a disease, something you have to live with and deal with every single day for the rest of your life. a lot of people don't believe that. a lot of people feel like, well, i can do a little bit of this or a little bit of that and i won't go back to being a heroin addict. they are wrong because they will. >> that's one. the other part is, is that the seduction of heroin is so strong not only on your body but on your brain that the memory of that feeling comes back over and over. i mean we have this killer drug now with fentanyl and heroin and heroin addicts who haven't used for years are actually going back and using
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again. basis they know it's had a super powerful drug. it induce them back. >> what i had read about president pittsburgh cases, one of the people who almost killed himself, almost overdosed to that point had said, my dealer told me that it was too strong to use, not to use it all. addiction. you think people would say stay away. instead, they go toward the drug because it's a better high. i overdosed several times. i relapsed many times. >> that's the nature of the disease of addiction. the problem here is, we've got this killer drug out there, and younger people than ever using heroin in the suburban communities throughout this country and parents, professionals, health experts, people who need to wake up and realize this is not just an inner city problem. this is something very, very deadly and we need help.
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we need treatment centers. we need more available resources for people. this is not enough help for people to begin with. >> remarkable. we are going continue to follow this. al former baltimore county drug czar. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> when we return, why the giant farm belt aimed at supporting millions of americans families could also lead to less food on the table. >> every sunday night, al jazeera america presents... award winning films telling stories... >> she doesn't wanna come as someone who was manipulative. >> revealing secrets... >> information became our most powerful weapon... >> taking chances... >> everyone that was involved in the clandestant movement, had a code name. >> each week, a new eye opening experience.
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now a snapshot of stories making headlines on "america tonight". the winter storm has paralyzed parts of the mid atlantic, the northeast, snow, frigid temperatures calling school closures and flight delays across the region. this storm will be short-lived but another is expected to hit as early as wednesday. the abortion rate has dropped to the lowest level since it was legalized in 1973, a study from the good macher reason said they found no evidence looking laws. one of new jersey governor's ai aides resigned. christina rena, former director of departmental relations is the second person in christie's inner circle to leave since news of the scandal broke last month. the governor continues to deny any involvement in it.
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when congress approved the nearly half a trillion dollar farm bill, it meant a step forward, a big one for crop subsidies but it could deal a devastating blow to 850,000 american families who depend upon food stamps. this legislation which the senate and president are expected to prove would bring a savings of almost $17,000,000,000 over the next decade but it includes almost a $9 billion to snap. it means a household's benefits would be sliced by $90 a month. >> might not seem like a lot to some folks but for a family of four it is a week's worth of inexpensive groceries. this comes at a time when 80% of households that receive these benefits have a gross income below the poverty line. in the 2012, food stamps alone helped 4 million people out of poverty. this way 65 million americans receive snap benefits for at
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least a month. >> that's more than 1/5 of the population. joining us now is joshua smith, a senior policy analyst with the economic policy institute, and he is here in the studio with us. explain to us, joshua, how this has come about. i mean this is really going to be a significant group? >> absolutely. absolutely. you have to remember that these benefits just aren't that lavish. the u.s. government thinks that the average food stamp goes for a meal that they provide is a dollar 40. >> that's it. >> that's all that the food stands by 1.40. >> that's what its based on? >> so the cuts that have occurred are something like 16 meals per week. >> that's not even counting the cuts that are about to occur that you were just discussing. >> talk to us a little bit about what's in this bill and how this is going to change things. i mean it's a complete show of what happens? >> proponents consider this closing a loop hole.
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right now, states and the district of columbia can provide heating assistance for just a dollar and that increases snap benefits, like you were saying by 8 and a ha$8 and a half bills to these 850,000 people every year. so they think that they are closing a loophole. in isolation, this might be perceived as a good cut, as closing a loophole that affects, you know, not terrible many people who receive the benefits. but that's only in isolation.$8 billion dollars from the budget, there are myriad places to do it, not from people who are in poverty, not from, you know, folks who have had kids and work two jobs like a lot of food stamp recipients do. >> we want to bring in now q sewell who is on the program and who recently saw his own benefits cut. sewell, appreciate you being with us. what do you think the misconception is people have of folks who are on food stamps? >> well, i mean, i guess some people think that a lot of
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people on food stamps have been there their whole life or it was something they, you know, tried to get whereas i think amount of people like myself wound up there due to being laid off and then not being able to find anything comparable and winding up going back to work for much less than i was making, and the food stamps are about the only thing that, you know, are keeping us going. >> right. now, you have, i understand, a family of three? >> yes. i have myself, my wife and my daughter. >> uh-huh. and -- >> fifteen. >> your monthly stamps are $526 a month? >> well, that's what it was. i think it had just got droppe about $40 on so. >> this is significance, even at the $526 level, what does that really mean for you and your family in a month? how does that chanyour buying habits? money?
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>> well, you know, when you go shopping at the beginning of the month, you make sure you buy, you know, a big bag of rice and plenty of, you know, preferred kind of dried beans, something that will last you and a lot of pasta and sauce and then, you know, you buy some chicken and maybe get yourself some hamburger and eat good for a little while but toward the end of the month, you know, you are finding leftovers to mix up with some beans and rice. >> you know, a lot of the discussion that we are having about this with mr. smith here is this notion that came up from wal-mart actually last week, which in talking about its profit center said, look. one of the elements that we are looking at here is the impact of people having less in food stamp benefits, buying less at wal-mart. it is a trickle-down effect that see? >> in this case, it's sort of trickle-up economics, people like mr. sewell can't afford to buy as much as wal-mart.
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you know, the rising tide lifts all boats. if the tide isn't rising, you can't lift the boat of the walton family. a dollar in food stamps gives about a dollar seventy. they spend them. say they spend them at safeway. safe way needs to hire more people. the peer they hire, in turn, have the money to buy goods and the stores that sell those goods have to hire more people. it's a virtual cycle. so cutting these kind of benefits is cruel to folks who are getting cut and it's also stupid for the entire economy. >> mr. sewell, do you see that in your tone experience? i mean did it change, for example, where you and your family would buy your food or what kinds of things top shelf stuff, brand-name stuff, all of that, i presume, goes away when you are dealing with these kind of numbers? >> well, yeah. you don't -- you know, you don't buy steak. very rarely if there is something cheap. >> would you be shopping at wal-mart anyway? >> no. i don't shop. we did shop a couple of times at wal-mart but we found that their
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produce was not very appetizing. it seemed to be old. so we shop at our local shop. >> you shop at a shop rite so you are looking for bargain items, what we would conventionally thing of, wal-mart holds itself out as having great prices. >> that's not necessarily the most efficient use of the food stamp money you get? >> well, especially if the food is going to go, like you buy strawberries and three days later they are moldy in your refrigerator. it's not at good place to shop for produce anyway. >> a last word here, mr. smith, you know, can you just help us understand: it's a simple thing to say, if we cut out this benefit, it's going to be a good thing for the economy. but it isn't necessarily. >> that's exactly right. the idea is that we are trying to induce people to get jobs. the fact is the jobs aren't there. they are almost three job seekers to every job that's opened and cutting benefits for the people who need them most, for families who, you know,
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through no fault of their own are in situations like mr. sewell. it's not smart. it's cruel, and it's stupid. >> mr. sewell, mr. smith, appreciate both of your being with us and helping us to understand a little bit more about the food stamp program and what it means to real families. >> thank you very much. >> coming up next, her bones are brittle but her spirit is unbreakable. how one brave teenager is fighting to do what her body cannot: live strong. >> fault lines hard hitting... ground breaking... truth seeking... al jazeera america's breakthrough investigative documentary series. >> this is where colombia's war continues... >> decades of violence... familes driven from their land... >> we have to get out of here... >> now the people are fighting back. >> they don't wanna show what's
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>> every sunday night al jazeera america brings you controversial... >> both parties are owned by the corporations. >> ..entertaining >> it's fun to play with ideas. >> ...thought provoking >> get your damn education. >> ...surprising >> oh, absolutely! >> ...exclusive one-on-one interviews with the most interesting people of our time. >> you're listening because you want to see what's going to happen. >> i want to know what works what do you know works? >> conversations you won't find anywhere else. >> talk to al jazeera. >> only on al jazeera america. >> oh my! interpreter in today's
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healthcare landscape, for people with very rare, research and research money, hoping for a cure out of reach. tonight, adam may looks at how one disease leaves families struggling and quite often ignored. but there's one young woman whose spirit is quite unbreakable. >> reporter: on a cold rainy day in baltimore, they make a trip they have made many times. a trip to the doctor for a broken bone. i first met hannah back in 2006. featured her in osteoporosis, brittle bones, and now she's 13
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years old with the same vibrant spirit and unforgettable laugh. but sadly, hannah's condition has not gotten better. she was suffered more than 126 bone fractures. from something as simple al bumping into a wall or rolling over in bed. on this date, she's getting a checkup on her broken arm. oi is extremely rare. affecting between 25 to 50,000 americans with various degrees of severity. hannah's condition is among the most serious. >> do you think your body has gotten used to the pain? >> no. >> sometimes they really hurt. >> can you describe how they feel? >> 1-10? 40. >> he's one of the
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top pediatric orthopedic specialists in the country. he showed us how the disease has ravaged hannah's body. >> the knee on over here, and this is the middle of her tibia, and the fractures have occurred mainly over here and healed in this position since birth. the bones that are most susceptible to fracture appear to be the longer bones. i've spent my career trying to straighten out crooked bones, and it's sad that hannah has not been successful in getting them straight. it's a challenge, but it's frustrating >> reporter: what is it about hannah that you find special? >> hannah has a bright and engaging spirit. and if any of us are stressed we might have a tough time, and
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hannah has a bright spirit. and moves on as best she can. >> the outside world can be a scary place for hannah. a bump in the sidewalk or a crowd can lead to another painful break. >> i only see my aunt there. >> hanna finds safety at home in her bright pink bedroom. she takes classes online. she tried traditional school a few years ago, but it was too dangerous. >> when i was opening my locker door, i can't see it, but my mom saw it, some girl about to hit me in the back of my head. >> it was a catastrophe waiting to happen, and i was not going to sit by and let my daughter be hospitalized for something that could be avoided and t hear the school system say, i'm sorry. >> you're a fighter. >> i am. >> reporter: you fight for this girl. >> i have to.
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look at her. she deserves every chance of happiness. >> reporter: valerie brammer has raised hannah all by herself since day one. >> one. when you think back to delivering her and holding her for the first time, what was it like? >> you know, no one has ever asked me that. they didn't allow me to hold her. they didn't think she was going to make it. >> reporter: valerie and hannah spend most of their free time inside of their condominium. it's outfitted with small ramps so hannah can use the bathroom. >> i come up here and brush my teeth up here. >> do you always go up the ramps? or climb up her ramp and look out the window.
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>> you have a pretty view out this. >> sometimes i wake up and don't leave the bed until two hours later. hey. >> reporter: hannah's best friend is katie, another teenager from tennessee who has brittle bones. >> do you have eyeliner on? or mascara? >> no. >> i can definitely see it. >> reporter: the two chat online every day, and their discussions are typical for teenage girls. >> well, i'm 13, and i like boys now. and i'm into makeup and girl things and shopping. >> reporter: so what do you want to do? >> a model and a fashion designer. i like songs. >> reporter: hannah is not just a fan of beyonce', she's also a friend. singer became aware of hannah
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through a fan site, met her and found her story inspiring. she featured hannah in a music video, and in fact, beyonce' calls hannah her little sis. >> that's so fun to see you in that video. >> reporter: while hannah has brought some attention to osteogenesis, it's ignored in the scientific community. they have a small annual budget. >> what are the challenges that you have? >> i think that the challenges relate to research. >> reporter: every year hundreds of families with oi request help, but resources are stretched thin. >> how often do you have to say know because you don't have enough money? >> unfortunately, we are to say no a lot.
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we would like to have millions of dollars every year, somebody said i can't get out of my house because i don't have a ramp, and we would like to do everything. >> reporter: despite optimism that some like hannah can be cured, every day challenges are the reality, both physically and emotionally. >> some people scare me, and some say baby, and the kids say i'm a baby, and mom has to tell them, no, i'm a teenager, so it's weird. can't you see i'm not one? >> i know you're hungry, come on now, you know better. >> reporter: shortly after this exchange, the normally cheerful hannah asked us to stop the interview. >> you are tearing up, why? >> i want it to be over with. >> you don't want to talk anymore? all right. >> i love you, darling.
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>> reporter: her mother said it's one of the first times that she's seen her daughter cry about oi. >> what did you make about that? >> i think she's a teenager and she's understanding more, and maybe she realizes she's different. but perhaps now she realizes more of her limitations. >> reporter: how is this disease going to affect hannah's lifespan? >> we don't know what the true life expectancy is. but she has such a severe form. literally, her skeleton is not strong enough to hold up her body >> reporter: what are your dreams for hannah's future? >> my prayer, every day and every night, i want a manifestation of her to take place. i would trade everything in the
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world for that. that would be my heaven here on earth, to see her run into my arms. >> reporter: run? >> run. >> reporter: and give hannah the big strong hug so cruelly denied by this disease. >> reporter: i think that just about anyone who has ever met hannah would love to see her run every day. she's such an amazing spirit. and i'm proud to report that she's doing extremely well in her studies, and she makes amazing youtube videos. but doctors say that there's concern about her health because of this disease. she has a very short trunk, and that puts her in danger for some lung issues, joie. >> oh, she has such an amazing personality and i can imagine why beyonce' would be inspired by her, and this has to be very
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difficult for hannah and her mom and other families in the situation. >> reporter: it's incredible how draining it has to be on the family. hannah cannot be left at home at the age of 13, so her mom has had to quit her job, and all of the equipment that they need. the family has almost been evicted on a couple of occasions. >> adam may for "america tonight." and the story of hannah, thank you for following upping and telling us more. still to come here, spirits, made by what, monks? we'll take you inside of the abby turned brewery, next. >> no doubt about it, innovation changes our lives. opening doors ... opening possibilities. taking the impossible from lab ... to life.
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solitude is one of the most precious things we have, and for me personally because it helps me pay attention, to pay attention to the mystery and the goodness that i am seeking. to me, the learning curve was about 100%. my background is really pottery. a brother had the inspired idea for the brewery invited me in at the beginning because i could bring kind of aircraft background to it. >> traff trappist monk belongs to worldwide religious order that follows saint benedict which goes back to the 6th century but tries to follow a more prim i have been mon after thecism. that's why we were founded in 1098. we gathered together as a community several times a day to pray. also private prayer in solitude and dwelling with the word of god, meditation.
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>> that's a big part. >> no draft beer. this is all bottled beer. the first batch was released and filled out the next day in a retail store. >> that's good but it's also challenging because we need to get more beer out to the public. >> in our monastery, we presentlied have 63 members. the oldest 97, 98. the youngest is 27. it's a slice of life that in the united states there are a total of 17 monasteries of trappists and trappistines, both monks and nuns, probably 160, 65 hon starries in the world. and -- monasteries in the world and several thousand including the male and the female branch of the order.
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putting the labels on. putting the back label on and getting close to running at speed. we are about five weeks into commissioning this and trying to make it work. >> our goal is to be self-supportive. so how have we supported ourselves financially? when we came to spencer, we inharried a farm and we were farmers and sold good milk. when it was no longer viable, we made jams and gellies and pres overbids evans. we discovered we were good at it and there was a market for it. >> this is preparing the shipping car topics one by one. it's one of my favorite machines when it's operating. over in jelly, we put a lot of these cartons together by hand for years by the millions. to have the machine do it automatically is fantastic. >> as time went on in the last 10 years or so, our expenses out ran our income and we had to
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find a way to sustain ourselves. >> in a way, we are trying to re-invent our economy and our capacity to live in thi monastery, which a whole generation spent their lives building. and a huge community of people around us who find this is their spiritual home. >> i think when the idea first idea came up, especially the younger monks thought it would be great, it would be more interesting than making jams and preserves. the older monks were cautious because it's something new and we don't know how it will work and how this will fit in american culture and how does it reflect our values? and all of that is important. when it came time to vote, was presented in this room, and the
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results were 85, 87%, an overwhelming majority to proceed with this. >> another machine monks like. this is the packer. so when the carton comes down, it's packed with 24 bottles in. again, many spent years putting six jars of gellie in car topics for several hours a day. so... >> a great significance of our brewery is we are the first american trappist brewery, the first brewery in our order outside of europe. >> i would say trapist beer has a golden sensor. i drive people crazy with this. they say what does it mean? a distinctive case, it communicates wholesomeness and has a clean finish. >> when someone becomes a monk, they are making a life-long commitment, which means they stay in this monastery that they enter until they die.
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we have two happy occasions in a monk's life, the day he makes his final vows and the second is when we bring him to the cemetery and that's a happy day for us. >> that's when you complete your final vows so to speak. i think anything that we do have that dimension of you give yourself totally to it. >> early on, we were looking for funding. one of the first bankers we talked to asked our abbott: why are you doing this? and he really paused and then he said, survival. most startups don't make it but people doing it to survive have the greatest percentage of success. >> i do think about the future, and i know that it's going to be different from how it is today. if you don't change, you don't grow. to me, the brewery is a symbol of something that's high-tech. you can see we have almost like medieval building but it goes together so the future will be different. the future is very important. >> a spirit with wholesomeness,
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father said in a clean finish. >> that's it for us here on "america tonight" police remember if you would like to comment on the stories, log onto our website, aljazeera.com/americatonight and please join the conversation. we are on exiter or at our facebook page. tonight, we will have more of "america tonight" tomorrow. while you were asleep news was happening. >> here are the stories we're following. >> find out what happened and what to expect. >> international outrage. >> a day of political posturing. >> every morning from 5 to 9 am al jazeera america brings you more us and global news than any other american news channel. >> tell us exactly what is behind this story. >> from more sources around the world. >> the situation has intensified here at the border. >> start every morning, every day 5am to 9 eastern. >> with al jazeera america.
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