judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, a major storm -- fiona grows into a category three hurricane and barrels into more caribbean islands after causing devastating flooding and dame in puerto rico and the dominican republic. then, crimes of war -- uaine's top prosecutor discusses mass graves and other evidence of russian atrocities that have been discovered in areas recaptured by ukrainian forces. and, rethinking college -- prisoners are set to become eligible for federal grants, opening up new educational opportunities. >> to sit inside a classroom with liberal arts professors,

and students from around the world, and it's just, it does someing for you. it builds confidence in yourself. judy: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." >> major funding for the "s newshour" has been provided by. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no-contract wireless plans designed to help people do more of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the "newshour."

>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. judy: the northern caribbean is still under the onslaught of hurricane fiona tonight. sustained winds have grown to 115 miles an hour as the storm pushes north.

and it's dumping more downpours in its wake. so far, officials report at least two deaths. william brangham has our report. william: parts of the caribbean washed away, as heavy rains and winds from hurricane fiona bombarded the islands early this week. the storm hit the smaller turks and caicos islands tuesday, bringing government-issued curfews and flood warnings. fiona made landfall in puerto rico, before sweeping over the dominican republic and then making its way north on tuesday. officials say it may grow stronger still as it heads to bermuda, where it's expected to hit friday. in the dominican republic, some began cleaning up from the storm after it wrecked homes and toppled trees and power poles. the massive amount of rainfall brought historic levels of flooding. juan: it was very strong as it passed through here, very strong. it destroyed the majority of homes.

william: puerto rico saw some of the worst of the storm's wrath. homes, roads, and businesses were still underwater after days of rain. rivers flooded dangerously high and residents struggled with the devastation left behind. tito: it was too much. i didn't expect this. a lot of people lost everything. very, very rough. william: the national guard rescued hundreds of residents trapped by floods. by monday, around 2300 people remained in shelters. carmen: everything was flooded. we had to run out in the rain, we had to leave emergency, and thanks to a neighbor who helped us, we could get out. william: the storm triggered an island-wide blackout on sunday and cut off clean water to about two-thirds of the population. by midday tuesday, most of the island was still without power. governor pedro pierluisi warned it could be days before the power grid was fully restored. he announced his request to

president biden to declare puerto rico a federal disaster area. fema's administrator is scheduled to visit the island some time on tuesday. the island, still reeling from hurricane maria five years ago, received up to 25 inches of rain, with more still coming. for some, fiona was a chilling reminder that puerto rico is still too lnerable, even five years later. adi martinez roman is with the university of puerto rico's resiliency law center. to her, it was clear the island was not prepared for another storm. adi: it has been five years since two category five hurricane hit the island. and the recovery process has not been effective, and has not really created the conditions that communities can withstand other disasters. all of puerto rico lost electrical service.

and this is a category one hurricane. and we lost -- all the island lost electrical services. william: the failure of the island's power grid came despite billions of dollars spent to bolster the system in the years after maria. members of congress today gathered to remember the five-year anniversary of that hurricane and to address the shock of facing yet another destructive storm. democrats called for more federal assistance to the island. sen. schumer: unfortunately, today, unfortunately, we're confronted once again with another devastating natural disaster, hurricane fiona. enough is enough. the puerto rican energy bureau must push prepa and luma not only to restore power, but to once and for all create a distributed, more resilient grid, and we will back them up. william: as leadership on the island grapples with fiona's aftermath, adi martinez argues that recovery from this storm has to be done smarter than the last.

adi: disaster recovery is not done in an efficient way, if those billions and billions of dollars for recovery from disasters are not used to build back better, to build back more resilient infrastructure that actually is accessible and ensure essential services to the most vulnerable, climate change will definitely mean that oppressed people, black and brown people are going to be left out, displaced from their communities. and that's exactly what we need to avoid. william: for now, the people of puerto rico are again left stunned in the wake of fiona's ruins. for the “pbs newshour,” i'm william brangham. stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with newshour west. we'll return to the full program after the latest headlines. pro-russian separatist leaders in ukraine called for a vote,

starting friday, on officially becoming part of russia. referenda are set for the occupied kherson, zaporizhzhia, donetsk, anduhansk regions. they represent about 15% of ukraine's territory. in washington, u.s. national security advisor jake sullivan said it shows moscow's desperation. jake: the bottom line is that russia is throwing together sham referendums on three days' notice as they continue to lose ground on the battlefield, and as more world leaders distance themselves from russia on the public stage. stephae: sullivan also said the white house is aware of reports that russian leader vladimir putin might be considering a general mobilization, calling up far more manpower for military service. on the pandemic, new york city is lifting its vaccine mandate for private sector workers as of november 1. mayor eric adams announced the change today, nearly a year

after the mandate was imposed. city employees, including firefighters and teachers, still have to be vaccinated. federal authorities in minnesota have charged 47 people in the largest fraud scheme yet linked to pandemic aid. they're accused of stealing $250 million from a program that offered meals to low-income children. federal officials say some of the usual requirements for the program were waived during the pandemic. world leaders got a stark warning today, as they gathered in new york to open the united nations general assembly. secretary-general antonio guterres gave an alarming assessment of the war in ukraine, climate change, and poverty. sec. gen. guterres: we have a duty to act, and yet we are gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction. excellcies, progress on these issues and more is being held hostage by geopolitical tensions. our world is in peril and paralyzed. stephanie: guterres also warned

that social media platforms are monetizing outrage and anger and compromising democracy. the fight over documents seized from former president trump went before a special master in new york today. the trump legal team objected in advance to federal judge raymond dearie's questions about the documents' classification status. mr. trump has claimed, without evidence, that all of the material was declassified. alaska residents received more than $3000 in annual oil-wealth payments today. that payment included a one-time benefit of $662 from state lawmakers to help offset high energy costs. the individual payments, distributed from alaska's investment fund are the highest amount ever given in state history. an elected official in las vegas, robert telles, has been arraigned for the murder of a journalist. he allegedly stabbed jeff german to death earlier this month, for

writing critical articles about him. telles did not enter a plea today. he was orded held without bond. and, baseball has lost a legend. los angeles dodgers great maury wills died last night. the shortstop was a seven-time all-star, and his base-stealing helped l.a. win three world series. wills led the national league in stolen bases every year from 1960 through 1965. and, in 1962, he became the first player to steal 100 bases in a single season. maury wills was 89 years old. still to come on the "newshour," iran cracks down on protests over the death of a young woman who was arrested for violating the nation's dress code. adnan syed's lawyer discusses what his release from prison after more than two decades says about the criminal justice system. a 12-foot puppet walks the streets of new york to raise awareness of the global refugee crisis. and much more.

>> this is the "pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: today in washington, attorney general merrick garland signed an agreement with his ukrainian counterpart formalizing u.s. support for war crimes investigations. but finding justice in war is a long and difficult process. nick schifrin sits down with ukraine's prosecutor general, as the world is witnessing another horror, a mass burial site in eastern ukraine. and a warning -- images in this segment are disturbing. nick: it is the ultimate dehumanization, human beings buried in unmarked graves. more than 400 of them left behind by occupying russian forces in izyum in eastern ukraine, discovered when ukrainian forces liberated the city last week. investigators are now exhuming the graves and say 99% were

killed by violence and some of the bodies show signs of torture. it is just the latest sign of apparent war crimes in ukraine. the ukrainian official responsible for trying to hold russia accountable, the equivalent to the attorney general, is the prosecutor general, andriy kostin. and he joins me in the studio. andriy kostin, thank you very much. welcome to the "newshour." i spent the last week in kharkiv, where we visited villages that have just been liberated from russian forces by ukrainian troops. we met a woman who had to witness the exhumation of her own son, who had been tortured and murder by russian soldiers. we visited a room right there that russian occupiers used for rture, and now that mass burial site that we see there in izyum. so, what evidence of war crimes so far right now are you seeing at that site in izyum? andriy: we see people who were killed, civilians. we see people who -- with bound hands.

we saw bodies of people with broken limbs. and we also see bodies with the clear traces of torture. nick: and this is both soldiers, but also many, many civilians. andriy: as for now, for now more civilians than soldiers. but the work is ongoing. our teams are exhuming about 50 -- to 50 to 60 graves per day. we saw the same examples practically in every town and village of liberated kharkiv region. nick: moscow has responded to this. dmitry peskov, the kremlin spokesman, said -- quote -- you know, it is the same scenario as in bucha, the suburb of kyiv where we saw an earlier mass grave. he said -- quote -- it's a lie. and, of course, we will defend the truth in this whole story. how do you respond to that? andriy: i think that peskov said the truth. it's the same scenario that we see in bucha.

the truth is, wherever russian army steps in, they turn everything into bucha. nick: how difficult is it not only to collect the evidence that you're collecting in izyum, also preserve it in a way to try and hold russia accountable? andriy: we have enough facilities to preserve evidences. the more complicated part of our job in investigation is to find out the exact perpetrator, the exact war criminal who committed if we have resources from, for instance, our intelligence, or they fled so, so quickly, that they leave some documents. and then we also use a lot of open source intelligence information. but what we also rely on is our counteroffensive, when we have a

chance to capture a lot of them. nick: ukraine has 34,000 documented war crimes since the february invasion began. but as far as we found, 160 individuals have been charged as suspects and only 21 have been indicted. why is it so hard? andriy: it's difficult to exactly prove that specific person committed specific crime, especially when you have no access to this person. nick: in terms of holding russia accountable, why does ukraine believe that a special tribunal for the crime of aggression is the best way to find justice against russia? andriy: we need this tribunal, because, otherwise, legally, we can't punish anyone for the crime of aggression. due to legal constraints, it couldn't be prosecuted by the international criminal court.

so, the only possibility is to have a tribunal. the crime of aggression is the mother of all of other war crimes, because, without crime of aggression committed, there could be no other war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide acts. nick: explain a little more, though, why you need a new institution, a new tribunal that would have to be approved by the general assembly -- there's very little precedent of that -- when the international criminal court can go after russia for war crimes, for crimes against humanity and even genocide. andriy: it's about the immunity of higher political leadership on the international level. and this immunity also exists within the -- in the international criminal court. nick: some legal scholarare skeptical about a tribunal being able to go after a state leader, for example, vladimir putin, let alone get anyone from moscow, from the senior leadership of russia in front of a tribunal. how do you respond to that? driy: this is a difficult question. i usually hear this concern. but, first of all, let me -- let me say like this.

our counteroffensive could lead to a result that we capture people from the higher command. nick: you think that the ukrainian troops can capture senior russian officials or generals? andriy: generals. andriy: it's -- i think it's enough starting point. we need everything to be prepared, because, when lawyers will deal with details, it will take some time. nick: the u.s. so far has not publicly endorsed your idea of a tribunal. what are you saying to the u.s. government, as it kind of waits to see how much international support that you can gather? andriy: if we all understand that crime of aggression was committed, then we need, all together, to punish the persons who were in charge of committing this crime. we have no other way.

the ukrainian nation will not understand why countries which believe that crime of aggression was committed don't want to be the part of such tribunal. nick: andriy kostin, thank you very much. andriy: thank you. judy: anti-government protests have swept across iran in reaction to the death of a 22-year-old woman in the custody of the regime's morality police. it happened after she was arrested for not wearing the required hijab, or head covering. amna nawaz is here witmore. amna: in videos being shared on social media, women are seen leading the protests in iran, taking off their headscarves, chanting slogans and calling for an end to compulsory hijab. is this a turning point for the

women's movement there? to discuss this, i'm being joined now by iranian-born actor nazanin boniadi, an amnesty international ambassador and a longtime human rights activist for her homeland of iran. nazanin, welcome to the "newshour," and thank you for joining us. after the death of that 22-year-old woman, who, we should note, is named mahsa amini, we have seen these protests spread from her homeland, her home province of kurdistan all the way across the country, dozens of cities now. is what we're seeing unfolding now, is it different from previous protests we have seen, for example, back in 2019? what do you see? nazanin: what i see is history repeating itself. we know we have seen the death of neda agha-soltan. we have seen pouya bakhtiari. have seen navid afkari. the list goes on and on. and i think people have just reached their boiling point. a brave iranian actress from inside iran, katayoun riahi, recently gave an interview where

she didn't wear the hijab, in solidarity with mahsa and this movement. and she said it best. she said people are no longer fearful of prison because iran has become a prison itself. amna: and, nazanin, you were born in tehran just after the revolution. your family then fled, but you have been a persistent and a vocal critic of the regime from outside the nation. you stay in touch with many people on the ground, though. what are they telling you about this moment? nazanin: you know, i get hundreds of messages from inside iran every day. and all they're asking for is solidarity. they're asking for their voices to be amplified. as a longtime human rights activist, as you said, that's the only responsibility i have. as an actress, i feel obligated to the people. i feel responsible to them. they are the ones, the people, who put us in these positions where we have a microphone in our hand and we can communicate to the masses. the least we can do is stand with them. and i think in this moment in history, we need to remember

that, when george floyd was killed by police in america, there was global solidarity. you saw images from inside iran, inside syria, places where they themselves are in dire straits showing solidarity. the least we can do on the west is to show solidarity to the people inside iran. amna: let me ask you about this enforcement of compulsory hijab inside iran, because officials there defend it. they say it is part of iranian culture. you and many others in the diaspora have taken to social media to dispel that. you have been sharing pictures of your own families before the revolution, before 1979, one of your grandmother, your aunt, your mother, we're seeing there, your mom working in 1975, your parents' wedding. what is important to understand about the role of hijab in iran and iranian culture? nazanin: i think, before 1979, when women had the freedom to choose, you saw a coexistence of women who chose to wear the hijab and women who didn't wear the hijab coexisting peacefully together.

there was a freedom of choice. and that's what we're fighting for. i think it -- to a call it a cultural dress code of kinds, which the former foreign minister zarif and countless other iranian officials have tried to sort of tell the wide world, the global public, that's a myth, that's a lie, because what kind of cultural norm has to be controlled through batons and through threats of death and imprisonment? you don't need to subjugate people for a cultural norm to exist, if the majority of women actually chose the hijab. but what you're seeing is people risking their lives, you're seeing people taking to the streets and risking imprisonment. and, in mahsa's case, her head was bludgeoned against a wall, and she went into a coma and died. amna: nazanin, also iranian president raisi is going to speak before the united nations general assembly in new york this week. what do you hope other world

leaders' message to him will be? nazanin: a lot of iranians will be there, amna, to protest his presence, a lot of prominent iranians and iranians in general. and what we are hoping is that western officials, especially women and journalists, when they meet with raisi in new york, that they don't follow these protocols and these parameters that are being set for them, simply in solidarity with the people of iran. you don't need to wear a headscarf out of respect for a man who doesn't respect the rights of his people or women in general. amna: nazanin, you are currently starring in amazon's "lord of the rings" tv series. and when it launched, you said that you were dedicating your work, you were inspired by the brave women in iran who you said risk everything for a better tomorrow. how worried are you that they will now face another brutal crackdown, as they have in the past?

nazanin: i'm extremely worried. but when people have nothing left to lose, they will risk everything. they have nothing else to risk. so i think that's what we're seeing, is, when authoritative states crack down to this degree, where people feel completely hopeless, and they have nothing left to lose, they will stand up. they will rise. amna: that is nazanin boniadi, an actor and human rights activist, joining us tonight. nazanin, thank you for your time. nazanin: thank you. judy: a judge in baltimore has overturned the murder conviction of adnan syed, who was convicted in the 1999 murder of his high school classmate hae min lee. it's a case that has received national attention in recent years after syed's story was chronicled by the popular true crime podcast serial. lisa desjardins has more. lisa: judy, after 23 years in prison, adnan syed was released yesterday with a cheering crowd of supporters to greet him.

a judge vacated his sentence after prosutors said last week that his conviction should not stand. the state's attorney for baltimore says the original prosecutors did not turn over evidence that could have helped syed. that includes problems with past evidence about syed's location and information on other possible suspects. marilyn: through our review, our reinvestigation revealed that the original prosecutors and the subsequent prosecutors in the attorney general's office failed to disclose relevant information about alternative suspects, one of whom threatened to kill the victim and had motive to kill the victim, and both of whom had a pattern of violence against women. lisa: she and other prosecutors now have a month to decide if they will retry syed. i'm joined now by his attorney, erica suter. she also serves as the director of the innocence project clinic at the university of baltimore school of law. erica, this is quite a sudden turn in this nationally known case.

but questions about this case have been raised for years. why do you think it took so long to get here? erica: i think -- well, first, thank you so much for having me. anybody who works in the innocence space and for many criminal defense attorneys, reversing a wrongful conviction can take years, sometimes decades. and so, for the public, though it seems like this is unusual that a case would take that long, it's actually sort of consistent with our experience in these kinds of cases. lisa: one of the issues here are so-called brady violations, when prosecutors don't tell the defense about evidence, in this case, about two other potential suspects and information they had about them. how critical is that information here and generally? erica: it's absolutely critical. the prosecution has an obligation to turn over brady evidence. so, brady evidence is evidence that could be exculpaty, meaning evidence you didn't do it, or it could be mitigating -- impeaching, meaning evidence that could challenge another witness' testimony.

and it's important because we should have a fair system, a just system. and when the state is hiding evidence that you should be able to use to defend yourself, the result is what we have in adnan's case, where somebody could spend years or decades in prison for a crime they did not commit. lisa: and this was evidence that none of his previous lawyers knew about, is that right? how did -- when did you first learn about this? erica: well, the state and i in this case were working collaboratively in this inveigation. and the assistant state's attorney, becky feldman, reviewed the state's file. there were numerous boxes, and she turned over this information to the defense, as she should. and it was during that time that we came across these documents. lisa: for the family of the victim, hae min lee, of course, this has been a nightmare as well. here's their attorney speaking yesterday and saying that prosecutors really didn't give them any warning this was coming.

steven: they absolutely did not want to afford this victim any meaningful opportunity to address this motion. my clients, all they wanted was information. they want the truth to come out. if the truth is that someone else killed their sister, daughter, they want to know that more than anybody. lisa: also, maryland's attorney general, who previously worked on this case, said that no one called him or other prosecutors who've worked on it before. and my question to you is, what do you think of this criticism, both from the victim's family and from other former prosecutors, that the state's attorney's office didn't reach out, really didn't talk to them about why they did what they did? erica: well, of course, i could say, on behalf of my client, and, of course, just as a human being, we have enormous sympathy and compassion for what the victim's family is going through. and, as far as what the state did or shouldn't do, our system is set up as an adversarial system, and there are obligations of the state and

there are obligations of the defense, and there are rules and regulations about sort of what our different roles are. and so we, in terms of being able to have contact with the victims, in terms of being -- of giving notice to other prosecutors offices, those all fall within sort of what the state's duties and obligations are. and so, that, i would just sort of defer to the state. lisa: this is your client, but this is also your field of expertise. you mentioned brady violations. how rare is this kind of change and how rare are those violations? erica: so, they're actually not rare at all. in 44% of exonerations throughout the nation, 44% are the result of the state withholding evidence of innocence. so, nearly half of all exonerations throughout the country that are in our registry of exonerations involve somebody -- involve the state keeping evidence of innocence from the defendant. and in baltimore, in particular, 80% of exonerations on record involve withheld evidence.

so it is extraordinarily common. and it shows how sort of important it is that the state follow their obligations, because, when they don't, you have cases like adnan syed's. lisa: how's your client doing today? he has not been declared innocent yet, i should say. how are you both doing and what happens now? erica: so, adnan syed has been incarcerated since he was 17 years old. when you think about 23 years of life and how much of a different position we're all in then from 23 years ago, just imagine that he is processing that sort of minute by minute. he is extraordarily grateful to all of his supporters, all the people who believed in him. he's very happy. but this is a lot to process. and so he's doing well, but he's really just kind of taking it step by step. lisa: are you concerned that he could be retried? erica: i think, in the moment,

this was a long-fought battle, a long time coming. and so we're really focused on the joy of this occasion. and what the state decides in the future to do is a decision for another day, but whatever they decide to do, we will be prepared. lisa: erica suter, a momentous day for you and your client. thank you for joining us. erica: thank you so much. judy: many american -- excuse me -- many american colleges are gearing up for a spike of interest in prison education programs. that's because incarcerated people will be eligible for pell grants starting next summer. it'll be the first time in 28 years that prisoners can access that federal funding for higher education. stephanie sy has this report for our series rethinking college. stephanie: pedro rivera is a senior at pitzer, a private

college in claremont, california, with a picturesque campus that rivera has never stepped foot on. pedro: it's not easy. like, i put in the work and i obsess over the details and i prepare. stephanie: he's earning his degree while in a medium-security prison, the california rehabilitation center, more than 20 miles away. pedro: i was convicted o multiple counts of bank robbery from incidents that happened in 2005. stephanie: rivera has been incarcerated for 16 years. a few years ago, he was tching pbs when his ears perked up. it was a pbs series called "college behind bars" featuring bard college's prison initiative in new york state. pedro: more than anything after watching this program, that's what i wanted. like, i signed up for everything i could. and, finally, someone saw something in me that i didn't see in myself, and they was like, we're going to give you this opportunity. stephanie: 43-year-old rivera is now just a few classes away from

his bachelor's degree. he is part of a pioneering program that brings students inside prison together with students from the outside. professor nigel boyle runs the program. nigel: outside students, traditional students will learn more from a class taught inside prison than they would in the same class taught conventionally. and, similarly, the inside students will learn an awful lot. and it's this learning across often generational differences, as well as obviously the difference in legal status, that is very powerful. stephanie: the inmates pursuing higher education here get to live in a dedicated section of the facility, the prison equivalent of a college dorm, where there's anxchange of ideas and a common scholastic pursuit. section 308 is a special place. textbooks and school supplies litter the bunks. about 48 incarcerated men here are enrolled in higher education courses.

>> we have students in this classroom that are -- stephanie: that number may be about to balloon. for decades, pell grants, federal financial aid to help low-income students pay for college, were off-limits for incarcerated men and women. it was a vestige of the controversial crime bill sponsored by then-senator joe biden and signed by president clinton in 1994. but that ban is being lifted next year. margaret: the reintroduction of federal student aid through pell grants is going to be transformative. stephanie: margaret dizerega is a researcher at the vera institute of justice. margaret: with the new law, all people in prison are going to be eligible for pell, regardless of the conviction type or sentence length, which is huge. in the criminal justice reform field, we rarely see this type of victory that is inclusive of everybody who's incarcerated. stephanie: some half-a-million incarcerated people will be able to apply for a pell grant next

year, aid that will allow them to earn a college degree, before being released from a prison like this. research by the rand corporation has shown that providing prison education reduces recidivism by 43%. and dizerega says it also addressedeeper inequities. margaret: there's so many reasons that these colge programs are important. there's a very strong argument to be made for racial disparities in terms of who is impacted by the justice system, who is left behind from our education system. stephanie: one of those left behind was kenny butler. he describes middle school in watts when he was a kid. kenny: it was a gang factory, pretty much. they had the lapd on campus in the middle school, which was unheard of before, but they actually had the lapd at this campus. stephanie: jumped by a gang when he was only 10 years old, the script was written for him. kenny: a lot of people are

forced to be part of the gangs. they may not want to, but you get jumped on enough times, you're going to be looking for protection from somewhere. stephanie: he was 12 when he first went to jail. in june of last year, at 48, he was released early from the california rehabilitation center, having spent 15 years in prison for the charge of aiding and abetting homicide. kenny: reading was a way to break up that time, break up the monotony of prison. and so i just fell in love with it, started studying etymology, and realizing the origins of words, and things like that. stephanie: butr became a standout scholar, earning his associate's degree from norco college and graduating from pitzer with his bachelors degree. he was one of the first inside out students. kenny: a lot of us doubt ourselves in that space, if we're really educated or not. and so to sit inside a classroom with liberal arts professors and students from around the world, and it just -- it does something for you. it builds confidence in yourself.

that's all. that's the difference, i believe. stephanie: he recently won a prestigious fulbright scholarship for research on a ugandan prison. he's never been out of the country. prison administrators say stories like kenny's prove what incarcerated people are capable of if given the chance. shannon: all of a sudden, you learn that skill and you can catapult forward. stephanie: shannon swain runs the education department in the california department of corrections and rehabilitation office. shannon: correctional education is transformative, and higher correctional education is -- it's mind-boggling what you see in the classroom. so, i believe correctional education is a big key component to public safety. stephanie: with pell grant money becoming available, colleges around the country are expected to pounce. nigel boyle says that can create a quality control problem. nigel: there's more to a college education than just accumulating x amount of credits. so, i think we have a concern that academic standards are

upheld and this is a high-quality bachelor's education that inside students are receiving. >> so, how did this make sense to you? >> so, we get a system based off a story. stephanie: if done right, a higher education is the best chance at rehabilitation, says warden glen pratt. some people might say, this is a prison. it's supposed to be about punishment. why should they get access to educational opportunities? glen: the reality is these people -- these men here at crc are going to be our neighbors, and we have to provide them with successful tools to be productive citizens when they are released. jack: for most of my life, i have mostly just been around people with really similar experiences as me. stephanie: pitzer sophomore jack, who, for safety, is allowed to use only his first name, was impressed. it was his first time setting foot in a prison. jack: it puts me outside of my comfort zone. nobody likes to thinks about, like, systems of inherent injustice. but being here and hearing

different points of view is really impactful to me. pedro: it's about bring the community inside these closed institutions, right, equally. and equality is a big thing. so, no one's response to a question is more important than the next person's. we all respect each other in that space. stephanie: shared respect, and, for pedro rivera, an opportunity to earn more than just a degree. pedro: prior to coming to prison and winding up in this situation in my life, i have dishonored myself and i have dishonored my family. and this is how i see i can bring honor back to my name. stephanie: a name, like those of many other inmates nationwide, that will soon be written on a college diploma. for the "pbs newshour," i'm stephanie sy, reporting from the california rehabilitation center in norco, california.

judy: in florida, some local school boards have implemented policies that critics say are ostracizing lgbtq students as the new school year gets under way. other states are taking similar steps, including most recently in virginia. william brangham is back now with our look at its impact for some students in florida. william: students and teachers are back in school in florida for the first time since that state's parental rights in education law took effect. known by critics as the don't say gay bill, it bans discussions of gender identity and sexual orientation in kindergarten through third grade or any instruction that is not deemed age-appropriate. it also allows parents to sue school districts over any material they feel violates the law. in some school districts, teachers have removed certain books and rainbow flags from classrooms, and others are obligated to report openly lgbtq

students to their parents. so what has this meant for lgbtq teenagers in florida? i'm joined by will larkins, a senior at winter park high school in orange county, florida, and javier gomez, who graduated from a miami high school earlier this year and is now at the fashion institute of technology. welcome to you both. thanks for bei here. willthank you for having us. javier: thank you for having us. william: so, will, to you first. can you just give us a sense of how things have changed in florida, from your perspective, since this law passed? will: i have noticed an uptick in anti-lgbtq hate crimes and general attitude toward people. i have always dealt with homophobia at high school. i have always been called slurs and stuff, but it has gotten worse since the school year started. a lot of things have happened. most recently, my sister and i were followed home after a football game by 1guys, who caed us slurs, told us to kill ourselves. it was really scary.

they said they were going to beat us up. they chased us. we got lost in the trees. the other thing i have noticed really -- really that i know for a fact came from this is more of the rhetoric that's coming from the state legislature and our governor, such as the grooming rhetoric, calling queer people pedophiles, has now trickled down to the high school level, and high school bullies are using the same language as our politicians, who are pushing for this bill and other anti-lgbtq laws. william: those are horrible experiences. i'm sorry. javier, have you seen similar kinds of things? javier: i have, actually. i mean, from my school, i have noticed that there's been a divide against a lot of students with the anti-gay rhetoric that's been spewed around by so many people. i have noticed the langues that are being used. there's the grooming pedophiles, et cetera. and i definitely think that there's been this precedent set by this bill in particular and other states nationwide. and it's been trickling down to, like will said, the gh school level, where a lot of kids are

using that language and thinking it's appropriate, and going at queer kids. and it's really traumatizing, to a point where it hurts me and it hurts -- and i can't imagine the pain that other people are feeling. and i'm not in high school anymore. william: will, i want to double back on this point, because, as you're both pointing out, people have expressed hatred towards queer people, trans people, gay people from time immemorial. why do you think it's specifically, though, this law that his created this atmosphere that you're both describing? will: i think it's interesting, because, most recently, for the first time ever, queer people have become mainstream. this is a new thing. this is 2010's onward. and we have gotten to a point where we're being generally accepted by society. so now homophobic and anti-queer legislators and lawmakers are put pushing back against it. and when they're pushing back against it, it is dignifying and it is backing up these bullies.

it is telling them that you are right in being homophobic, when, before, we were at a point where these people knew that they were wrong. but now they're being backed up by r desantis. william: just basically sort of given some official sanction, you believe? will: absolutely. the law itself is terrible, because it sends a message to the queer community that there's something wrong with us, that there's something inherently perverse with being queer or being trans. and th is not true. but it also sends that same message to the bullies who want to hurt us and want to kill us. william: javier, i'm not trying to condone bigotry or hatred by any stretch here. but there are some people who look at that law and support it and think they genuinely believe that those laws are protecting their children in some way from something that they think is inappropriate. to those people, what would you say? javier: i think parents don't understand their kids.

and i think it has gotten to a point where they think it's -- this parental right to education, this right to knowing what their kids are doing, but i think that parents are not understanding that some kids, that it may not affect their kids, but it has a drastic effect on other kids and other queer youth that are in statewide in florida. there's a lack of just communication among both parties of what is really best for queer youth. and that's going to cause this immense and drastic change to how queer youth see themselves, their mental health, their education. william: which we know is already a problem. javier: absolutely, yes. will: queer teens are four times more likely to die by suicide than their straight counterparts, and 52% of trans youth last year said they seriously considered suicide. so where's that coming from? that is coming from these laws. that is coming from this rhetoric, and that is coming fromhe bullies who see it on tv, see it on fox news and pick it up, and use it to harm people like us. javier: yes, of course. william: can i ask you how you're both -- how have you been

dealing with this? do you have family, friends, other allies that are there for you? will: i will say it's been hard. seeing the way that people talk about me and my community, getting, honestly, hundreds, thounds of messages telling me horrible things, and dealing with it on a day-to-day basis is not easy. but you just have to remember, and i -- this is what i do. i just remember, these are people who are misguided. and i have been in places where i have felt hate toward her people. and i know how horrible it is to li like that. and so i'm living a life where i'm free, because i will see everyone as a person and i will not see a queer person the street and be upset about it. i was at a rally. i spoke at a rally in early june in orlando. and a woman came up to me looked at me wearing a dress and started crying and started praying and got down on her knees. i -- she caused herself so much mental distress because i

existed. and i -- honestly, it may sound cliche, but i feel bad for these people. i don't live like that. and they do. william: javier, how are you dealing with this? javier: it's overwhelming. sometimes, i sit to myself and contemplate and reflect on why i do this. but there's always an answer, a direct answer, to me. and that answer is just to help other little javiers that -- to not go through what i did when i was younger and my trauma, my queer trauma as a child, and how that reflected on to who -- the person that i am today. i want to be that role model that i never had when i was younger. and i'm dealing with that. i'm dealing with it, but i'm dealing it with pride, because, the more you're proud of yourself, the more happy you are with yourself, the angrier they get, the angrier they perceive. but that doesn't matter to me, because i'm living my life authentically. william: javier gomez, will larkins, thank you both so much for being here. will: thank you so much for having. javier: thank you.

thank you for having us. judy: to bring awareness to the global migrant crisis, a theater project is using a different kind of stage and a puppet of a young syrian girl to stand in for millions of refugees. now, she has come to the u.s. amid an annual gathering of the world's leaders at the united nations general assembly. jeffrey brown has the story for our arts and culture series, canvas. jeffrey: a 10-year-old girl, alone in the world, arrives in a new country. she falters, unsure where to turn. she's called "little amal," though at 12 feet tall, she's hardly small in stature. and at jfk airport in new york last week, she was greeted by the musicians and children's chorus of the metropolitan opera.

now, again, she has her own role to play, walking through a city, attracting attention, stopping to greet other children, as a symbol of the world's refugee crisis. amir nizar zuabi is artistic director "the walk productions." amir: i can tell you that on a personal level, the first time i walked with her down a street, i felt something very deep. jeffrey: which was what? amir: which was -- hope is not a cliche. and empathy, albeit not such a fashionable word, is very important in today's world. jeffrey: hello, amal. is she shy? craig: she can be very shy when she meets somebody for the first time. jeffrey: well, welcome to new york. we got a behind-the-scenes look at amal and the international team working with her, at st. anne's warehouse, a performing arts institution in brooklyn. new york is just the latest stop

of an astounding journey. an artistic idea that grew out of the real-life experiences of migrants from the middle east and africa living in a camp in calais, france with an uncertain future. turned into a theater project, called "the jungle." and finally, the character of little amal, a syrian girl who fled her war-torn home and made a 5000 mile journey from the syrian-turkish border, through europe, to britain, in search of her mother. she was usually greeted warmly, including by the pope. but, as in real-life, was at times a target of caught up in the anti-immigrant politics of our era. for zuabi, a veteran palestinian theater director, amal is also an embodiment of the power of art. amir: for me, this is the act of theater, the first ingredient in it is you need to have something important to say, or else why should i come and spend an hour of my life.

i think she has something important to say. she doesn't say it in words. but maybe that's the idea. that she doesn't need to speak because we can listen to somebody who isn't speaking as well and then our words matter. jeffrey: amal is the creation of handspring puppet company, a south african performance and design group. craig leo, senior puppeteer for the project, explained the mechanics. a three-person team that operates amal's movements. including one puppeteer inside on stilts, controlling her breathing and facial expressions, a shy smile, even eye rolling. craig: we spend a lot of trying time trying to access those emotional states and find out what we need to do to get that to read to an audience. jeffrey: leo and many other members of the team have been with amal the entire journey, now in new york. craig: new york is an insane

city for a little nine-year-old. jeffrey: how much does she know about new york? craig: not very much. jeffrey: really? craig: yeah, she's going to find out. jeffrey: she'll have a busy 17-day schedule. more than 50 events in diverse neighborhoods of every borough, including jamaica, queens, coney island, times square, often coordinated with local community groups. yazmany: when i think about my own story of growing up in colombia and being displaced by violence, it's an incredibly personal story for me. jeffrey: you connected right away. yazmany: that's right. jeffrey: colombian-born yazmany arboleda, who serves as the first people's artist of new york city's civic engagement commission, helped coordinate amal's schedule and imagine her potential impact. yazmany: immediately when they asked the question, what would a little syrian girl do when she comes to new york? i immediately thought, gosh, i know that most people who i know aren't coming from syria, but they're coming from columbia, venezuela, mexico, honduras. so it was really important to make the bridge into migration and immigrants in general. right, like, all of the

different things that displace us as humans in the world. jeffrey: of course, just as with her earlier walk in europe, little amal steps into an extremely contentious issue here. even as she arrived in new york, news stories showed busloads of migrants from the mexican border also arriving, sent north by texas and arizona officials, part of our own divided politics. for artistic director amir nizar zuabi, this again is what makes the project so powerful. amir: i said it from the beginning -- they said, do you think it will change anything? and i went, i n't know, but if it changes two people across 8000 kilometers, it's worth doing, it's worth walking. i hope, i think, i know we affected more than two people. but, you know, one of the most beautiful sayings in the old bible is -- [speaking hebrew] this is in hebrew -- if you save one soul, yohave saved the world entire. and i don't think we're saving anyone, but we are opening eyes and we're tugging the strings of

the heart for people. jeffrey: little amal will be in new york through october 2. and her creators hope to bring her to other parts of the country next year. for the "pbs newshour," i'm jeffrey brown in brooklyn. judy: and what a beautiful story. and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the "pbs newshour," thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. >> architect. beekeeper. mentor. a raymondjames financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well-planned.

>> carnegie corporation of new york, supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security, at carnegie.org. the target foundation, committed to advancing racial equity and creating the change required to shift systems and accelerate equitable economic opportunity. and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> this is the "pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> you're watching pbs.

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