06/27/16 06/27/16 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> what is going to happen is there going to be pretty damaging and painful consequences of the process of trent extricate u.k. from the eu. i want to try to protect scotland from that. amy: britain is in a state of political crisis as scotland the house to do whatever it takes to stay in the european union following the brexit vote. could this lead to the breakup of the united kingdom? meanwhile, as british prime minister david cameron prepares to step down, the opposition labour party is also in a state of crisis that could topple

opposition leader jeremy corbyn. we will go to london for the latest. then we go inside a privately run prison in louisiana. withput in an application corrections corporation of america for prison guard job. a week later, i start getting calls. i was surprised how quickly it happened. i don't know how long i'm going to be doing this. i don't know where it is going to take me. i do not know what my job will entail. amy: between 2009 and 2011, shane bauer spent nearly two years locked up in an iranian prison as one of the jailed american hikers. last year, he went back to jail -- this time as an undercover journalist working as a guard at a private prison in louisiana. in a stunning new expose for mother jones, titled "beatings, stabbings, love letters riot squads, an escape. my four months as a private prison guard." all that and more, coming up.

welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. britain remains in a widening crisis days after voters chose to leave the european union. the british prime minister david cameron has announced his resignation, labor leader germy corbyn is facing a coup within his own party, as more than a dozen members of his shadow cabinet have resigned or been fired. scotland has announced it will take any steps needed to stay inside the european union, including possibly holding a second independence referendum. global stock markets have plummeted. more than $2 trillion was wiped off global equity markets on friday the biggest daily loss ever. earlier today, the british pound hit a 31 year low. with his own political fate uncertain, the british finance minister george osborne sought to reassure the british people.

plain sailing be in the days ahead. but you should not underestimate our resolve. we were prepared for the unexpected, and we are equipped for whatever happens. and we are determined that unlike eight years ago, britain's financial system will help our country deal with any shocks and dampen them, not contribute to their shocks or make them worse. amy: john kerry is headed to brussels in london to discuss the political and economic of people caused by the brexit vote. meanwhile, the first muslim woman to serve in the british cabinet says a vote to leave the european union has sparked an uptick in racist abuse. we will have more on brexit after headlines. in spain, the conservative people's party of acting prime minister mariano rajoy says he -- has won a largest number of

seats in parliament but fallen short of an outright majority. the socialist party came in second with the left-wing alliance coming in third. pablo iglesias says the results are disappointing. say the results tonight are not satisfactory for us. we had different expectations. we are also worried about the loss of support from the progress of block. it is true with consolidated ourselves as the political option, which would have a determining role in the present and future role of our country. it is true what we have done in the past two years is historic. it is also true we expected a different electoral results tonight. amy: in california, at least seven people have been stabbed and 10 hospitalized after a confrontation between white nationalists and anti-racist counter-protesters at the state capital in sacramento. white nationalist leader matthew heimbach said only one of the people injured was from his group, the traditionalist worker

party, which organized the rally to "make a statement about the precarious situation our race is in" after what it called "brutal assaults" at donald trump events. hundreds of anti-racist demonstrators outnumbered the white nationalists. the leading conservative columnist and commentator george will has left the republican party over the presumed nomination of donald trump. speaking on "fox news sunday," will said he had changed his voter registration in maryland to unaffiliated 23 days ago. >> trump the kim the presumptive nominee. yet a summit meeting with all right where they stressed the common principles and their vast shared ground, which is much more important in the differences. i thought that was puzzling because paul ryan still did not endorse him. after trump one, -- when after the mexican judge from indiana, then paul ryan endorsed him and i decided in fact this is not my party anymore. amy: george will did not say who

he would support in the 2016 election. in the latest sign of discord between trump and the republican party, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has refused to say whether trump is qualified to be president. mcconnell was questioned sunday by abc's george stephanopoulos. of americans said they don't think donald trump is qualified to be president. do you believe he is qualified and how do you convince all of those voters who think he isn't? >> i think there's no question he has made a number of mistakes over the last few weeks. i think they're beginning to right the ship. it is a long time until november. the burden will be on him to convince people he can handle this job. amy: donald trump has barred yet another journalist from his events. during trump's two-day visit to his golf resorts in scotland over the weekend, guardian reporter ewen maccaskill asked trump about how british politicians weren't meeting with

trump because he is "regarded as toxic." trump called him a nasty guy. the following day, maccaskill and a guardian photographer were denied entrance to trump's golf course. a security press list reportedly had google no guardian or buzzfeed" penciled on top. among the other outlets whose journalists have been booted from trump campaign events or explicitly banned are politico, univision, the huffington post, the daily beast and the des moines register. the committee drafting the democratic party's platform has rejected a number of measures proposed by members appointed by senator bernie sanders. meeting in st. louis, missouri members rejected measures to , friday, oppose the tran-pacific partnership or tpp declare a national moratorium on , fracking, and call for $15 an hour federal minimum wage and an end to israeli occupation and illegal settlements. sanders said he was disappointed and dismayed by the defeat of

proposals on trade, but pleased over language about breaking up big banks. speaking on msnbc's "morning joe" on sanders said he is friday, focusing on making the dnc platform more progressive. >> are you going to vote for hillary clinton in november? >> yes. i think the issue right here is i'm going to do everything i can to defeat donald trump. what my job right now is is to fight for the strongest possible platform in the democratic convention. and as we speak in st. louis, that is going on right now. that means a platform that represents working putting will, stand up to big money interests. amy: hillary clinton's campaign hailed the draft democratic platform is the most ambitious and progressive our party has ever seen. for the first time, the platform includes an explicit call to repeal the hyde amendment, the decades-old ban on federal funding for abortion which disproportionately impacts the poor and women of color.

in related news, the u.s. supreme court rules today on the most significant abortion rights case in a generation, over anti-choice restrictions in texas. hope francis is the roman catholic church -- hope francis says the should seek forgiveness roman catholic church from gay people for the way they have treated them. the pontiff also said the church should seek forgiveness for the way it has treated women, for "blessing so many weapons." pope francis' remarks came as millions of people took to the streets for lgbtq pride celebrations across the united states and around the world. marchers paid homage to the 49 people killed in a massacre at a gay nightclub in orlando, florida, two weeks ago. in san francisco, several honorees, including black lives matter, pulled out of the nation's largest pride event over the increased police presence in the wake of the orlando massacre. "for us, celebrating pride this year meant choosing between the threat of homophobic vigilante violence and the threat of

police violence," the groups said in a statement. "ultimately we chose to keep our people safe by not parcipating in any event that would leave our communities vulnerable to either." iraqi prime minister haider al-abadi says iraq's military has taken full control of the city of fallujah after it was captured by isis in 2014. iraqi forces backed by u.s. airstrikes launched the offensive to retake the city last month. the "new york times" and al jazeera report millions of dollars in weapons being shipped to jordan by the cia and saudi arabia for the intended use of syrian rebels have been systematically stolen by jordan intelligence operatives and sold on the black market. the stolen weapons were used in a shooting in november that killed two americans and three other people at a facility training facility in amman.

in somalia, a cabinet minister is among 15 people killed in an attack on a hotel in the capital mogadishu. at least 34 people were injured in the attack. authorities said officers killed four attackers with the militant group al shabab. in west virginia, at least 25 people have been killed in one of the deadliest floods in the state's history. tens of thousands have been left without power, and homes and roads have been destroyed. president obama has declared a major disaster in the state. a teacher kristin richman described the damage. >> some people slept in their car last night. at our animals and children with them and they slept in their cars. theravance the people that just

have not been able to even return to their homes at all to see what is there. amy: actor jesse williams, known for his role on the tv show "grey's anatomy," earned a standing ovation sunday night for his address at the bet awards. as he accepted the humanitarian award, williams paid homage to police shooting victims, including rekia boyd and tamir rice, who would have turned 14 on saturday but was killed by police at the age of 12. here is how williams concluded his speech. >> we have been floating this country on credit for sensory's and we're done -- centuries and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, bearing black people out of sight and out of mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like and black gold, ghettoizing

gentrifying our genius and then trying as on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of fruit. though, -- the thing is, just because we're magic doesn't mean we are not real. any code that is jesse williams at the bet awards. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. britain remains in a widening crisis days after voters chose to leave the european union. british prime minister david cameron has announced his resignation. labour leader jeremy corbyn is facing a coup within his own party as more than a dozen members of his shadow cabinet have resigned or been sacked. on sunday, hillary ben was removed as a labour party shadow foreign secretary. a good and decent man.

he is a good and decent man, but he is not a leader and that is the problem. amy: opposition leader jeremy corbyn has rejected calls to step down as opposition leader saying now is the time for the party to stand up for its values. >> our policies on trade, economy, and migration will have to change. but that cannot be left to the likes ofohnson, farage -- they will fight to ensure our agendas at the heart of the negotiations over the withdrawal from the european union that lie ahead. including the freedom to shape our economy, to work for all, maintain social and employment protections that benefit all, and that whoever leads the government is intense held to account to them a credit account throughout the whole process. amy: scotland has announced it will take any steps needed to stay inside the european union including possibly holding a , second independence referendum.

on sunday, scotland's first minister said the country will do whatever it takes to remain in the eu. meanwhile, northern ireland's deputy leader called friday for a vote tonight the two sides of the irish border. local stock markets have plummeted more than $2 trillion was wiped off global equity markets on friday in the biggest daily loss ever. earlier today, the british pound hit a 31-year-low. meanwhile secretary of state , john kerry is headed to brussels and london to discuss the political and economic upheaval caused by the brexit vote. to make sense of what's happening we go now to london where we are joined by longtime british economics journalist , paul mason who has worked at , the bbc and channel 4. his new book is titled, "postcapitalism: a guide to our future." talk about the fallout from the brexit vote, paul, and why this vote to leave the european union ever even took place. >> the vote to leave the

european union took place because repeatedly 25% of were in fairs elections -- that is, the proportional representation system, backing a party that once to leave the european union. this impacted the conservative party and made it necessary for david cameron to take a gamble of having a referendum to bury the issue for a generation, though he gambled and lost because cameron wanted to stay in the european union, 52% of british voters voted to leave. as a result, mr. cameron will go down in history as the conservative leader who first of all destroyed the european union -- i mean, we have left major block in the world economy and he is what you destroy the united kingdom as well. as you suggested an introduction, scotland will leave. the overwhelming issue behind us vote was migration. what we had was basically not just the kind of people who might support glenn beck and donald trump arguing migration

had gone too far, but as it turns out, many people who are organic and core supporters of the labour party -- the free migration from east europe and south europe into the united kingdom was brought about 3 million people over the last 10 years. in many small communities, they feel, the people who are already here, including many black and asian people, just said, it is too many. there is no way of stopping it without leaving europe. this is what tipped the vote. amy: talk about who voted for leaving and who voted for staying. also, the age -- was in it true most young people voted for staying in the european union? >> sure. people who voted, voted to stay in the european union. the only problem is, we think somewhere between 35% and 45% of that age group actually voted. much, much lower than any other age group.

the dislocation from politics meant the people for whom this is going to mean the most had the least say. many on social media are angry. there is great support among them, and forcefully, quite naive people, for the idea that parliament can cancel it all. although we can have a petition that cancels at all. it is not going to be canceled. it does happen. let me try and explain this to the united states. london and scotland voted to remain. northern ireland by majority voted to remain. what did those places have in common? a narrative that explains why remaining in europe, even despite one's criticisms of it, was a good idea. these gods have left ultra nationalism, -- the scots had a left internationalism. by march, the catholic publication voted to stay in because they see staying in europe is a link to southern ireland, which they would like to join.

who voted to leave was small towns. small towns were the bedrock. small towns with the private sector provides mainly low skilled, low-wage jobs and where there's no cement unemployment, but a high degree of sort of drabness. there are no cinemas, no stores other than the basic low rent stores. small term britain, attributed -- basically, to i think the wrong course. as the keygration thing that had changed in their lives in the last 10 years, and they said -- because some evidence points to it -- migration is hitting our wages, causing stress to our public services, we can't rent -- there's a big shortage of rent and accommodation. when people like me said the real issue is capitalism and the a liberalism, they would say, ok, but the stopping migration

makes it better. ultimately, the shock on the night was some university terms. some terms that are high public service employment, therefore, quite high unionization, maybe 30% black or asian, and with a couple of universities, voted to leave the steps of nottingham, wales, sheffield, these are places like ann arbor, michigan, and they still voted to leave. amy: what is happening to jeremy corbyn right now? in thet now behind me parliament, there is a revolt of his own mp's. he won't yield a face that down. what it will lead to is another leadership election. i think it is driven -- there's quite a bit of middle-class hysteria. the people really are feeling, my whole life was shaped around the european union, the european union is the story in britain.

many of those mps have lost their nerve. thinkay they don't germany corbyn can win. -- jimmy corbyn can win. there's no policy at the moment behind me for the conservative government about what they're going to do about negotiations with europe, about what they're going to do about public finances. there effectively is no budget, the chancellor on borrowed time. a strongould be position, but his own party wants a civil war, so they will have that. i think we will have an election in the autumn. if corbyn survives this leadership change, from a big country -- i'm absolutely sure these challenges to corbyn are being called by the political representatives of big business ttip and free trade. that is who is behind it.

who they put up to challenge him, we will find out by the next 24 hours. amy: can you talk about who could be the next prime minister? mp,ell, this conservative former mayor of london boris johnson, became the figurehead of the leave campaign. he is come out this morning with a very emily a position. the leave campaign was saying, let's walk way from europe and sign a free-trade deal and go global. today johnson is saying, let's not luckily from europe. he has implied that dishonesty go market deal with europe that would keep them within most of the european union's regulations. i think he is looking like the favorite. from the remaining -- remain side, there's a female minister who is our justice minister right now. i think she will be the one who puts up -- ultimately, this is a shattered party. they just destroyed -- they're called the conservative and unionist party.

as result of what they did, we will leave europe and scotland will leave the u.k. amy: talk about the effect on northern ireland and ireland, what is happening there with northern ireland come alike scotland, saying no to brexit. >> northern ireland did not collectively say no. many said they wanted brexit. the main unionist party, which is the more hardline, sectarian, protestant party really did campaign for leaving europe. why? the border -- or listeners and readers will know or viewers will know the border between it has been the subject between two civil wars, 20 year-long civil unrest anger alone warfare. the point is, with the european union, that porter was being eroded economically you could cross it -- people could travel that really having to go through check points.

those kind of developed. the understanding, you know, northern ireland and southern islands, despite years of warfare, probably has a commonly shared destiny. though for the catholic population and the anti-unionist population, many one a referendum to reunite with ireland. there is no party at the moment in britain that is going to deliver that. it has left -- what we have been seeing over the weekend, the interesting thing, within the --testant community thomas committed to, the more middle classes, every protestant in northern ireland have the opportunity to apply for a southern ireland passport. in other words, we are seeing an amazing almost cultural shift among the northern irish oblation towards the king about what their future is once

britain, as it will, leave the european union. amy: on saturday, greek prime minister said he did not blame the british people for voting to leave the european union but rather he blamed eu leaders. >> the chronic deficiencies of european leadership, the insistence on extremely unjust assertive policies and knee-jerk xenophobia reflexes, and anti-immigration rhetoric had been feeding populism, chauvinism, and nationalism for a long time. as much as the decision troubles and saddens us, we must considered a completely respectable decision, one that confirms there is a crisis of identity in europe. amy: that is the greek prime minister. paul mason, your response? is essentially right. 52% of the people who voted to leave the eu, not all of them are racist and xenophobes. and legitimate economic concerns and many of them, likan union'sr

greece. this drove the left and right wing response to europe, which i tried to stop. i thought it would be a bad idea to leave now, but most people -- 52% said they wanted to leave. tsipras is right, this is essentially a crisis of neoliberalism. we have governments in the center of europe committed to austerity, even as their own economy goes down the tubes. the lisbon treaty, the founding treaty of the european union, mandate they have to do the opposite of what janet yellen has done or democratic treasury secretary under obama did, which is expanding economy. in a crisis, they are mandated to shrink the economy. this is killing the ideal of europe. tsipras's right to worry about the backlash, but even more urgent now for us is what this is going to do. today, its response is not about britain.

it is what happens to be european union. we've seen wave after wave for other referendums. the -- 500 million strong economic block in which is supposed to function and be one of the keystones, the capstone event of the global world economic system, is disintegrating. only that european union stands behind the banking system if the european union breaks off into separate nations, that each of them will have to stand behind their own banking system in their own banking system is 30 have collapsed. that is what is frightening the markets. amy: i want to ask you about trump's visit to scotland to push his two golf courses. he has banned your colleague, ewen maccaskill of the guardian. ewen maccaskill and his photographer. he is known for interviewing edward snowden when he was in hong kong. and also his response to the

brexit vote where he faced a barrage of protests and a boycott by a series of politicians including scotland's , first minister. trump commented on the brexit vote during a news conference at his trump turnberry golf resort. >> nobody knows. if the town goes down, they're going to do more business. more people are coming to turnberry, frankly. the pound has gone down. let's see what the impact of that is. i think places like scotland and england and different places in great britain, i think you're going to see a lot of activity. withdonald trump saying the pound going down, that would be good for his golf course. can you respond? >>'s visit has just been relentless comedy, i'm afraid. those who think he might become president of the united states

need to worry. he arrived and said, what a great -- he is in scotland. scotland voted to remain. scotland will probably now leave the united kingdom. as for what he said about the pound falling being a good thing, if we were an export driven economy and had an interesting left, -- margaret thatcher destroyed our economy -- that might be true. but we're largely importing and service driven which can only really carry on their own current economic model, the financial services trayvon model, if we remain part of europe. most threatening the british banks is the fear that they will lose the ability to trade in europe. trump is completely wrong. the way he has blundered in here. i remember, remember sarah palin in 2008 referendum -- election in the u.s. did not know much about the rest of the world, could not really tell you much

about, for example, russia. this guy has come into our country and gone to the very place and to the very opposite thing skin care to reality. -- in compared to reality. no major politician has met him because he is not only toxic, he is seen as a racist. we have a muslim mayor and the city i'm sitting in an the muslims under trump's proposal would not be a lot of visit the united states. amy: how does trump supporters compare to those in the britain first movement in britain who are pushing for brexit? >> the britain first movement is a tiny fascist group which wears uniforms like these people that have been perpetrating crimes today in the united states. they are ultra-rightist, almost ku klux klan-like group. the leave campaign, 52% of people voted leave -- this is a way broader than trump.

and then this party that has one member of parliament the very influential, they are more like the tea party. you have to say, what we have in britain -- there are some extreme social conservatives who would want to ban abortion and have very reactionary and racist views on ethnic minorities, but really, they're much smaller minority and therefore even the people who wanted a hard exit from europe and the one migration, they're very careful about using any kind of language that is racist. it is often what we call. was sold racism -- doc whistle racism. the 52% vote to leave the stuffy equivalent as if trump the election. it is way more broader than that. amy: paul mason, thank you for being with us, journalist and filmmaker. his recent opinion piece for the guardian is headlined "corbyn , delivered the labour vote for remain -- so let's get behind him."

mason's new book is "postcapitalism: a guide to our , future." when we come back, mother jones has devoted its hold next issue to an undercover investigation of a louisianaor-profit prison run by the corrections corporation of america. an unusual independent journalist went undercover. his name is shane bauer. he was in a prison -- well, he was imprisoned in iran for two years. and now he has come back to serve as a prison guard to investigate the prison. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "between the wars" by billy bragg.

you can go to democracynow.org to see her interviews with the british rocker. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we turn to a stunning new expose and mother jones magazine, looking inside the world of privately run prisons. >> no structure. unsafe. just a bad place. hell. in a can. crazy. prison is beyond anything i ever imagined. amy: mother jones senior spenter shane bauer performance working undercover last or as a guard at louisiana cca's --winn correctional facility.

between two thousand nine in 2011, he was locked up and in and rainy prisoner is one of the jailed american hikers. louisiana's winn facility is a oldest medium security privately operated prison, having the world highest incarceration rate . more than 800 prisoners per 100,000 louisiana residents. during shane bauer's investigation, winn was run by the corrections corporation of america, the nation's second-largest private prison operator. in one of the videos in the mother jones series, bauer explains how he landed the job, using his own name and personal information, despite his years as an award-winning journalist. for prison guard jobs. a week later, start getting calls. i was surprised how quickly it happened. how long i'm going to be doing this. i don't know where it is going

to take me. i don't know what my job will entail. 20 14, shane bauer applied to be a guard at corrections corporation of america, the nation's largest -- the largest private prison company and used israel name and personal information. their kind of notoriously secretive. >> began around 1983. >> cca operate more than 130 facilities nationwide. >> the combined revenues of these two companies reached $3.3 billion in 2014. amy: shane bauer's story offers a never-before-seen look at the for-profit-prison industry, exposing conditions that include violence among prisoners poor , medical and mental health care for even the sickest prisoners, mismanagement and lack of , training for staff. well for more we're joined by shane bauer. welcome to democracy now!

talk about this process that you went through. truly astounding given you yourself were imprisoned for a most two years, that you decided you would go back into prison as a prison guard. >> well, i had been reporting on prisons for several years. was constantly coming up against a wall. it is difficult to get information from prisons in the united states. if you go inside, you are on carefully scripted tours, records requests sometimes take months -- sometimes they don't come back at all. there have been occasional reports about private prisons from the department of justice, some media reports showing higher levels of violence than other prisons. a high degree of understaffing. i had the idea to put an application, specifically at a private prison company. these private prisons are even

more secretive than the public counterparts. a lot of public access laws don't apply to these prisons because they're not public institutions. i went online and filled out an application for the corrections corporation of america using my real name and personal information. i was getting calls within a week, doing interviews on the phone. these interviews were the kind of interview you might expect from a walmart. they did not ask you about why wanted to work in a prison. they did not ask me about my job history. they would just ask the questions like, if your supervisor tells you to do something you don't want to do, how would you respond? the only question that i actually was asked that had to do with prison was, what is your idea of customer service and how does it apply to inmates? amy: i want to turn to another clip from the video that accompanies shane bauer's story in mother jones. this offers a look at winnfield, louisiana, near the cca-run winn correctional facility.

>> this part of america in particular is very poor. the main employers in the area are the lumber mill, walmart, and cca. >> yackley have to go out of town to find a job. >> lumber mill. >> either you have a job or you are selling dope. that is it. >> people are willing to take very dangerous jobs for nine dollars or $10 an hour. amy: shane, talk about going into the jail, who the prison guards are, who the prisoners are false -- prisoners are. medium security prison. the average sentence is 19 years. people are in for about 55% of the prisoners are there for violent crimes. i met prisoners that were there for having too many dui's, so it is a wide range of crimes.

the guards are mostly poor people from the town. it is nine dollars an hour. $25,000age income is year for a family. despite how poor the town was, the prison had a really hard time keeping up staff. people would start the job and leave pretty quickly. there was a high rate of turnover. staffare also a set of that were people who had been in law enforcement or corrections and had been disciplined for prior infractions. i met one guard who had worked in a juvenile detention center and had been let go after he uppercut a 16-year-old kid and shattered his jaw. so there is this set of people who can't get work elsewhere, so they take this low-paying job. when i was in training, the head of training actually said to us, she said, people say cca

scraping the bottom of the barrel. if you're breathing and have a drivers license and willing to work, we're willing to hire you. amy: tear gas explain the exposure to tear gas in the prison. >> while i was in training, i had to be exposed to tear gas to chyna prepare us in -- to chyna prepare us in case we were exposed to it inside. when i worked in the prison, i saw a lot of use of pepper spray. there was work for it tactical team -- there was a corporate tactical team sent and while i was there. when they came in, the assistant warden said to us in a morning meeting he said, i believe that pain increases the intelligence of the stupid. if these inmates want to act stupid, then we're going to give them some pain to increase their intelligence level. during the time i was there, cca

used three times more chemical agents, pepper spray and tear gas, then the runner-up in louisiana. amy: during your undercover investigation at winn correctional facility, shane, you come across a prisoner who lost his angers and legs due to lack of proper medical care. >> mr. scott complained about that for months to the medical staff at winn. they gave him the equivalent of a couple of motrin and told him to go away. >> he is now suing the prison. >> the people that are working there as nurses and all that, they're really not that qualified. >> there are doctors they can hire, the doctors who are more or less affordable. i did some background checking on them and one of them was a pediatrician who had lost his

privileges to treat children. amy: cca said it is committed to ensuring that all individuals entrusted to our care have appropriate access to medical services as needed. shane bauer? >> robert scott, he had lost his legs and fingers to gangrene. i ended up getting access to his medical records through his legal case, and it showed he had made multiple requests to see a doctor. he would go to the infirmary complaining of intense pain. his foot was blackening. he was just given motrin. he was trying to go to the hospital, but he kept getting sent back. he says he was accused of faking it -- which was something i heard a lot at winn. ,art of the issue is that cca

when they send prisoners to the hospital, they have to foot the bill. the state does not cover the cost. when you're bringing in $34 per inmate per day, taking them to the hospital is a huge expense. amy: we're going to talk about prison breaks, escapes, riots when we come back. we're talking to shane bauer who has the exclusive full issue of mother jones investigation of cca-run prison in louisiana. it is headlined "my four months guard,"rivate prison chronicling his time as an undercover correctional officer at louisiana's winn correctional center, run by cca. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. , the talked to shane bauer undercover investigative journalist who served four years as a prison -- four months as a

prison guard in a for-profit prison in louisiana run by cca, corrections corporation of america. during his time as a guard at the winn correctional facility, there was an escape of a prisoner. in this clip shane talks about , the incident and speaks with former winn prison guards dave bacle and jennifer callahan. >> today was my 12th day of training and i found out as soon as i got to the prison that yesterday, there was an escape. >> he was out on the basketball side in the yard, where you play basketball. to climb over the fence. >> he went up the fence, got on the roof of the building, double chain-link fence, over both razor wires. >> ran through the forest, stole a hunter's truck. >> gave himself away and got

busted. >> the prison staff did not actually know he escaped for two or three hours. >> none of those people were security. >> there are four or five guard towers around the prison. around four years ago, the company decided to replace the guards in those towers with cameras. if there had been guards and those towers, they would have almost certainly seen somebody trying to jump the fence. >> no if's, hands, or butts about it. amy: shane bauer, talk about this and what happens with escapes. >> well, when i was working at winn, i would commend every morning at 6:00 and go to a morning meeting where all security staff that were showing up for the shift would show up at this meeting and there were .ays that there were 24 guards some days there may have in 28. this is for 1500 inmates.

this is far below the number of guards that cca is required to have by its contract. so, you know, this person in the middle of the day was able to climb over a fence without anybody seeing him. before they even knew he was gone. when the perimeter alarm went off in the control room, the person who is watching the cameras just turned the alarm off and went back to what she was doing. this goes back to some of the issues with training. i went through four weeks of training there. some days we literally sat there all day long doing nothing. many days we would get two hours were somebody would be standing in front of us reading company policy. i felt very well prepared to really go into this job -- ill

prepared to really go into this job. amy: tensions grew high at the facility while you are there. and this video, it goes inside during the turmoil. >> the prison has been on lock down for about a week. cca sent in sort teams from prisons around the country to try to bring winn under control. >> is like a wrecking crew. dress them in black. later.ss and take names >> they're going thoroughly and methodically through the prison. >> match them up. whatever they need to do to find any contraband. >> strip searching, searching toilets, searching their lockers, people getting angry. they are lashing out. i thought there was going to be a riot. that is how we are treated. gethey were supposed to

canteen today, which they are not have or three weeks. they just kind of start freaking out. they said we are going to riot. >> their inability to be a little run this place in a professional manner. people here are so lazy. their solution to the problem is , lock everybody down. come on, man, you need a brainiac step somebody that can think, someone who can come in and run the prison. amy: shane bauer, talk about what ultimately happened. lot --e have been a while i was there, there was more and more stabbings. there were weeks that were multiple stabbings happening. i saw people stab each other in

front of me. when i was in training, we were two that when we see inmates stabbing each other, our job is just to tell them to stop and radio for backup. we're not meant to intervene. our trainer told us that it is not worth it. we don't make enough money to put ourselves in that situation and what is important and what is important we go home at the end of the day. he asked lee said to us, if these fools want to cut us up, happy cutting. want to cut each other up, happy cutting. would come in,s they swept through the prison and were searching for contraband and weapons. they found in the first two months of the year, 200 weapons at winn. that is more than 20 times more than angola, the

maximum-security prison in louisiana. violence, the us get, a lot of incidents happening at winn to the attention of the state department of corrections, so they also eventually took over. at one point, the prison was in run by corporate tactical teams and guards from around the state as well as the local staff. amy: shane, democracy now! reached out to the corrections corporation of america for response to your article. cca director of public affairs jonathan burns issued a statement. it reads, in part -- "this story, how it was developed and what ultimately was published says more about the reporter's activist agenda and the publication's low journalistic standards than it does about our company or the very real challenges facing our criminal justice system in america. from the start, mother jones clearly intended to publish a deliberate hit piece to advance a predetermined premise at the expense of numerous laws, widely accepted journalistic standards, a fully informed readership and even the safety and security of

a correctional facility. this point is underscored by the numerous examples in the piece in which the reporter clearly admits failing to perform the security duties of his job, which were intended to keep inmates and his colleagues safe." again, though the words of the georgia public affairs for the corrections corporation jonathan burns. your response, shane bauer? >> when i started at winn, my job was to work as a prison guard. promotionted out for within just a few months. right before i left, i was offered a promotion. was oneure at winn where guards did not do security checks. there were guards that were recording the security checks were happening every half hour, which is what was required. that meant guards were required to walk through the units, to

walk to the dorms and check up on everybody. that did not happen. there wasn't enough staff for that to happen. and i went to winn, i noted documented in detail what i saw. while i was at winn, one guard i worked with actually said to me, i wish that an investigative reporter would come and investigate this prison. widespread frustration, not just with inmates, but also staff on how the company was running the prison. the things i saw her long-standing. i mean, these were not issues that started when i arrived there. you havee, the video from inside, explain how you got it. >> well, my lawyer would not be happy with me if i talked in detail about where the video comes from. i have to protect mother jones

and our sources from retaliation, but i will say it was very important to me given the stakes of this investigation to document very accurately what and what ing there was seeing and hearing people say. amy: you even write about a pen you used that you put in your shirts that was an audio recorder. recording devices while i was workingthere. amy: shane, your undercover investigation at winn correctional facility ended abruptly. this is footage. >> what kind of pictures do you got there? >> there my pictures. >> what you took don't belong to you.

amy: shane, this brought your investigation to an end. explain what happened. >> i went home that night to get some sleep because i do the next morning at the prison and found out in the middle the night that james had been arrested. hes been 24 hours in jail -- spent 24 hours in jail. when he was released, we basically packed up my apartment and headed straight to texas. i called in and resigned.

the head of hr said you know, she said she was surprised to hear a was quitting because she thought i was going to promote. amy: you are going to be promoted? >> right. shane, i want to ask if you could talk about how you are self were affected by being a guard, from being a prisoner in iran to being a guard here and you're changing mentality? >> the psychological aspect of working there ended up taking most of my energy. i went in there as a reporter and over time, more and more of my attention was focused on the job of being a guard -- which was externally difficult. i was working at a unit with 350 prisoners with just one other floor officer. i saw myself over time hard and and become more and more strict

and really just numb to the needs of the prisoners. i was focused on how to get through how to survive in this really dangerous environment. amy: shane, i wanted thank you for being with us. we will link to the whole issue of mother jones magazine and the amazing reports, video reports from james west. shane bauer award-winning senior , reporter at mother jones. his most recent article is titled, "my four months as a private prison guard," which chronicles his time as an undercover correctional officer at louisiana's winn correctional center, run by the corrections corporation of america. shane also is co-author of the memoir, "a sliver of light: three americans imprisoned in iran." that does it for our show. happy birthday jon randolph. democracy now! is hiring a news producer and an office -- senior video news producer job opening. find out more at democracynow.org.

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