president obama signed a farm bill worth nearly $1 trillion over. those are the headlines, america tonight is up next on al jazeera. day on long island. >> brutality inside america's biggest jail. tonight, more to it. and the four young guys who made the nation of girls scream. beatle mania, 50 years later. >> new york was jumpin'. and we were jumpin' because we had landed in new york and we were in america. there was nothing more far out

than that! >> good evening, thank you for joining us. joie chen is on assignment. i'm josh rushing. oscar winning actor philip seymour hoffman was laid to rest, the ceremony was private. but his death apparently over heroine, has sparked unrest, over the heart of the problem which lies in a place that has a long dark history with heroin. the city where hoffman died, there in new york city, the drug is cheaper than anywhere else. according to the new york daily news you can buy 100 packets of american for $400. basically four bucks a bag. that's where "america tonight"'s christof putzel went to get the answer to the questions, what's behind the heroin spike. >> the city of new york has a

heroin problem. heroin related deaths have increased 84% in the past four years. heroin is now cheaper more potent and easier to get than ever. the result is a city reeling from a new epidemic. new york has become a major transit point for the drug to reach a whole new generation of users. organized heroin mills are set up in all five of the cities boroughs creating a gateway to the outskirts and beyond. >> taking the five kilograms to the mill, the mill will have seven or eight workers, they will get a bunch of cut, baking soda or any other kind of powder, mix it with the heroin and make more. >> the mills are often hided in secluded middle class neighborhoods that provide easy access to smuggling routes up and down the northeast corridor. >> you see all kinds of ways that people smuggle heroin.

>> they are ingenious with some of the schemes they come up with. they found these build abears that were stuffed with heroin. there were other cases where heroin was stuffed inside a prosthetic leg. familiar. in the 1970s heroin had a visible hold on the city, the drug of choice for celebrities and street people alike. >> they had their own dealers, the big black dealers that controlled harlem. in harlem there was a huge presence. you could see people lined up ten, 20 deep on a sidewalk buying an a sidewalk. >> but by the 1980s heroin's popularity had declined. >> the negativity of people dying with overdoses, needles in their arms, i think it really did slow down its use. >> fast-forward 20 years and many fear there's a kind of

generational amnesia on the grip heroin once had on new york. the widespread use of prescription drugs has created a new market for heroin, among those addicted to opiate painkillers. the stretch of interstate known to motte other commuters as just another artery to the city but to police, as heroin highway. heroin is clearly marketed to a younger clientele. we caught up with tina wolf who started the only needle exchange program in new york. >> we do work in long island, how to recognize an overdose, reverse an overdose and give them a kid to administer to somebody who has overdosed on opiates. >> tina passes out clean syringes to addicts. >> people don't realize that you

don't just transmit hiv or aids by sharing are syringes but by sharing a tourniquet or a cooker. we want you to use new supplies every single time. >> tina drives to deliver clean needles to her clients. another face of heroin changing. >> much of the case in long island. a lot of them are working, they have jobs, they can't get to you from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. >> you say a lot of the heroin addicts have 9 to 5 jobs and that's why they can't get to the needle exchange because they can't make those hours? >> absolutely. >> the needles that tina is passing outs are 28 gauge, smaller end, particularly thin, and that is because a lot of the people in the area that are addicted to heroin are quite

young and their veins are not yet callused. they find this type of needle is a lot easier and more comfortable to shoot up with. >> tina believes giving heroin addicts access to clean needles is the only thing keeping theam live. >> we're -- them alive. >> one person a day on heroin? >> to a failed overdose to heroin or prescription opiates. >> at phoenix house almost half of the patients are in treatment for opiate addiction. unlike the lower income addicts, who used to make up the majority of phoenix house's addicts,ful are like coe, a middle class professional who started on heroin, after prescription painkiller addiction. >> i was wrestling and my junior year in high school i had hurt

my knee and that was when i was first introduced to perkocets and o'yats. >> he battled addiction to opiates and when he couldn't get it legally he turned to the streets. he called his dealer in a panic. >> i said look man, i don't care what you got odo, i don't care if you got go to your grandma's house and take them out of her bottle. sick thinking, behaviors that are not really me. but i needed whatever i could to get that feeling to go away. and that was when i was introduced to heroin. he pretty much told me, look, i can't do anything for you. as far as pain meds. but i can give you something that makes you feel better. and he never said the word. and i didn't care. to be honest with you i really didn't care what he was bringing me. it was just the feeling that i wasn't going to be sick anymore.

>> what marco discovered is heroin was more potent and more affordable than pills but they end it would cost him almost everything. >> what people would consider to be a decent life, beautiful wife, beautiful child, new born, it spiraled down, spiraled down in a matter of three months my life just completely went in the garbage. >> today marco has been sober for almost 90 days and has opted to remain at phoenix house for another month. taking strengths from the lessons of others who came before him. >> many of us cling to our fears doubts or self-loathing because there is distorted reality and familiar pain. it seems better to embrace what we know than to let go of it for the unknown. >> you see people walk these walls for the stairway. >> it's pretty amazing from a doctor to a lawyer to people who

are multimillionaires. >> do you think the face of the >> absolutely. i don't think i'm in maybe a am. there are so many people out there on the news these days you know that are dying, you know, and over heroin use, you know and i don't want to be a statistic. >> that was "america tonight"'s christof putzel reporting. and we're joined by rusty payne from the administration. >> thank you for having me. >> we saw the guy named marco, who was first looked by pain pills and when he couldn't get the pills anymore he went to heroin. when you see less elicit pills on the market are more people turning to heroin now? >> unfortunately it is a common tale. americans have become more and more dependent and addicted to prescription opiates,

painkillers and when those aren't available you want that opiate-like high and you turn to heroin. a lot of heroin addicts, start out with pills and they go back and forth depending onibility availability and price. unfortunately we live in a country where heroin is cheaper and more available than prescription opiates, pills. >> why is it so cheap, what's driving that? >> i think production in mexico and other parts of the world, particularly mexico and columbia, especially mexico, we seized more heroin at the u.s. border than five years ago. four times more. >> what's driving that, weather and a bumper crop or what's going on? >> they see a demand. they see an intense increase in heroin demand in the united states because of this opiate spike in addiction rates for painkillers in the u.s. >> what about the mix of heroin and fent

fent fentanyl things like that? >> you see a lot of fentanyl, you ready don't know what you're getting, you don't know the pure city level, you don't know what's in it. there's no such thing as a bad batch of heroine. heroine is death quite possibly, regardless of what's in it. you don't know what you're getting, the lab environment with which it was manufactured overseas or south of the border. you don't know what's in it, don't know how the body is going to respond. american is played with chemicals that have no reason to be in your body. morphine, opium, not good. >> is the dea tracking where there are overdoses from heroin? >> typically when there's a heroin overdose in a city or a town we might be asked to take parts in an investigation.

sometimes that investigation may be led by dea, sometimes assisting our states, locals. sometimes like new york we're involved trying to find out the sources of supply, going against the facilitators. it's led by these mexican drug trafficking organization he, who control distribution and most of the american drug markets. >> hmm. is there -- is there more heroin or the streets now, because of u.s. troops pulling back in southern afghanistan? >> no, that's not even related, we don't see afghan heroin very much in the united states. we see heroin from columbia and from mexico. production of heroin in mexico is way up significantly in the last few years, we are seeing more and more of the mexican product here on the streets of the united states. >> we have reported significantly about the i-95

corridor, a lot of the eastern seaboard users. there are hot spots in the country? >> i've talked to prison officials in west virginia, they told me heroin use is the biggest problem in the rural elements of the country. >> how about other places, dallas, cincinnati, los angeles? >> all of the above. we are talking about a 40% overdose rate between 2006 and 2010 we lost 45% more people to overdose. went from 2100 to 3100. huge increase. i know it was a 45% increase. >> fair to caught it an epidemic? >> yes, fair to call it an epidemic. heroin is right there with it. >> rusty, appreciate you being here. .los angeles county jail system. earlier this wee

week maircht spoke "america tonight" spoke to a man who claimed he was beaten up in jail. a look at michael okwu's report. >> i have four or five officers come around me. i hear this crack. >> that's what happened says leo figueroa when he went to visit his brother at one of the most notorious jails in america. the men's central jail in downtown los angeles. in july 2010, figueroa got a phone call from his younger brother juan, who was arrested and being held at the jail. >> your brother calls you. >> yes, sir. >> from jail. >> yes, sir. >> and tells you his teeth are busted and what else? >> his ribs are broken. >> did he give you any idea how

he sustained those injuries? >> los angeles sheriffs. >> that the los angeles sheriff's did that and did you believe him? >> yes. >> after getting what he calls the run around, he approached a deputy in the visiting area. so began his own ordeal at the happened of the los angeles county sheriff's department. >> i heard, stop resisting, stop handcuffs. >> this is an x ray of his arm shortly after this incident. >> is there pain? >> all the time. >> a place where beatings and broken boangs have been the preferred -- bones have been the preferred method of disciplining inmates. culture condoned by the department's brass. condoned by the leader, lee

baca, baca has stepped down. >> today we have learned that the l.a. county grand jury has dieted two more are deputies, kicked, punched and even maced a chained inmate. the deputies are accused of covering up the abuse with flawed reports. 20 currently and former deputies have been indicted on corruption and civil rights ordinances. breathing on borrowed time. how this box can mean the different. -- difference.

>> all about life and death, 24-7. they specialize in lung transplant surgeries, cutting edge world of medicine.

"techknow"'s "techknow"'s shin i samura represents. >> the organ care system, also known as the ocs. the device allows vital organs like the heart or lung to stay warm and functioning outside of the human body. if approved by the fda, it could change the way donor organs are transported. dr. michael smith is a surgical director of lung transplantation at st. joseph's. >> what we've done is taken out of the donor's body and put it into an ice chest. >> but on ice, limited window of six hours before they're unsuitable for transplant.

>> that period of time there is no blood flow or oxygen getting to those lungs so that's called ischemia. >> the lungs the moment they leave the donor's body those they? >> that's right. the lungs don't like that. >> the transplant team is on call 24-7. when a donor becomes available, they rush into action and retrieve the organs needed to save the life of one of their patients. patients like 69-year-old victoria bloomfield. >> we were gorgeous. hmm. >> brian and vick yah have been married for 47 years. together they raised three children. they kept active lives up until three years ago. when victoria was diagnosed with

ideopathic pulmonary phi borrows is, a chronic and ultimately fatal lung disease. >> psychologically are you ready for the transplant? >> i'm ready for it. i don't have any option, there is no option. i either get the transplant or i just deteriorate. >> just got off the plane and jumped in a cab at 2:30 in the morning and we're heading for st. joseph's hospital where vicky is waiting for her double lung transplant. >> i'm a little apprehensive. >> there is one more critical player yet to arrive.

♪ ♪ >> you can watch the surgical team in action, and witness victoria's amazing journey, this sunday on "techknow" at 7:30. >> coming up. sensation known as beatle mania, it's been 50 years. we'll hear from ringo star as he reflects on the moment that changed history forever.

>> it's hard to believe but it's been 50 years since four brits with mop top haircuts set foot on u.s. soil for the first time. thousands of screaming girls mobbed the fab 4 as they descended the jet at new york airport. ringo star reflected on the infestation known as beatle mania. >> even 50 years on, they knew where they were exactly, when it happened, as the beatles landed

at the new jfk airport. an antedote to the u.s. sadness. we could feel how badly america needed the beatles. >> new york was jumpin' and we were jumping that we had landed in new york, in america. there was nothing more far out than that. we were in our 20s. we were all lads. it's incredible. i felt even on the plane, new york was pulling us down, come on, come on. i had a great time. >> the beatles had a singular, and head on look at america. >> we were number 1, we were living on the plaza, the whole floor. we didn't know ed sullivan. he had seen us, coming from sweden. he booked us. when we came here it was up! >> what the country saw was one

of the most memorable tv appearances in history and from the ed sullivan show it was on to d.c. >> the first live gig was in the round, it was like a are boxing ring. my part didn't go round, i had to do it myself, i was playing here and the band were going round. i could see them doing it, oh i'll fix it. >> 50 years from then, ringo says, it's the songs no , not the hair cutle, thhaircuts. the music. >> ringo was recently honored by the peace and

love organization. >> my second son had just been born and whether i got home there was a message from george and a message from john, we just met this guy, we're going to okay. >> did you think they were nuts when you layered that? >> no. but we went to wales. the first time i met him, this man shines, you know? we went to india, we had some lfns an lefn lessons and it worked this morning. >> what's paul like when he doesn't meditate? >> angry bastard. we had that moment of peace and love, now it's in japan, it's in spain, you know, taking off. >> 7th of july the day they

run with the bulls. you have to go to pamplona. >> ton 7th of july? i didn't know that. you learn something every day. >> ringo's youthful enthusiasm remains, michael sure. al jazeera america. los angeles. >> did you know about their first american gig? >> this room was packed. you know, the screaming was so loud and so constant, i talked to people who were ten rows back and they couldn't here the lyrics. >> we'll bring you the story of the first beatles concert and the lives they changed. right here on "america tonight." >> that's it on "america tonight." if you would like to comment, log on to power

website, aljazeera.com/americatonight. join the conversation on our twitter and facebook page. good night. >> it's taken us a day to trek to the small village of mulatos. we are up here in the mountains, and this is where colombia's war has continued, where the government has pushed the paramilitary, and they're at war. we have come to meet a group of activists. they formed almost two decades ago, after a series of farc guerillas, working alongside the