with us? it's not just about millennials. have you heard about the silent generation? that's a thing. listen up, all you need is a trip down abby's road to know it's going to be a rough road for us. but here's the thing. it doesn't have to be. i will break the traffic jam. it's the story captivating the world, missing flight 370. more questions are being raised. the malaysian government seems to rule out every possible theory that comes up, including "the wall street journal" report that the plane continued flying four hours after losing contact with civilian air traffic control. the journal report is based on engine data, automatically sent back to the manufacturer. the journal also says u.s. terror experts are preparing national security officials for other possibilities, including the notion that the plane was diverted with the intention of using it later for another purpose. adding to that, a top intel

official tells nbc news nothing from our spy satellites indicates a midair explosion, calling it "one thing that is particularly vexing." remember, there's no evidence terrorism brought down the plane, but u.s. authorities are not ruling it out either. and then there's the question of the actual search zone. malaysia's defense minister says the main focus is off the east coast, where things started on saturday, but not as far east as the reports of possible debris. the pentagon says at least one of four ships is moving out of this area, heading west to the malacca strait. india is sending ships to the northern portion of the indian ocean, indicating that the search area might be growing once again. >> based on some new information, it's not necessarily conclusive, but new information, an additional search area may be opened in the indian ocean, and we are consulting with international partners about the appropriate assets to deploy. >> nbc's tom costello has the latest on the search and confusion. tom? >> hi, abby, good afternoon.

there's a lot going on with this information, but unfortunately, none of it points us any closer to the plane itself. the ntsb, the malaysian authorities and rolls-royce, the engine maker for this missing plane, all deny that report that in fact there was this report that there was this data stream coming from the engine of the plane for four hours after it disappeared, suggesting that the plane might have kept flying for four to five hours. but again, multiple denials that that is, in fact, true. those satellite images that we got from the chinese yesterday, the malaysians say they want to search for the plane in that area off the coast of vietnam. they found nothing. and now the chinese are suggesting that it was a mistake to release those images. meanwhile, the u.s. navy is now moving the uss kid over to the strait of malacca, on the west coast of malaysia, on the theory -- first of all, at the request of the malaysian government, and on the theory that this plane may have done a u-turn and headed out west towards the indian ocean or at the strait of malacca.

at the moment, the only evidence suggesting that is that radar image, which they still haven't verified as to whether that was this plane or not. what do we know? the only thing we know for sure is that this plane disappeared nearly a week ago, late friday night, early saturday morning, off the coast of vietnam at approximately 1:20 in the morning. the last data transmission from their computers regarding the status of the engine was at 1:07 a.m. beyond that, this plane is still missing and there's absolutely no sign of it anywhere. guys, back to you. >> thanks again. with us now is jim hall, former ntsb chairman, and principal at hall and associates. and david gallo. guys, it's great to have you here. >> thank you. >> few. >> so, jim, i want to start with you. there's so much confusion many this investigation. no real developments really since saturday morning. and every day, there seems to be a new narrative. the malaysian government is

finally letting the ntsb help sort through the data. how much is this going to help in the search? >> well, i feel much better knowing that the radar forensic experts from the national transportation and safety board are in the country, and assisting in this investigation. and i think at this point, everything is still on the table, but we have at least the very best qualified people to assist the malaysians in trying to identify in which direction this aircraft may have gone. >> yeah, and david, you help find flight 447 when it went down in -- air france, i should say, 447 when it went down in the atlantic ocean. how would a search in the indian ocean be different? >> well, it depends on where we're talking about. if it's the gulf of thailand, the water there is incredibly shallow. it's less than a couple hundred feet, ten times shallower than the air france 447 flight.

air france 447 was on an underwater mountain range. if you go over just on the other side where this new search is taking place, the water can get rapidly down to about two and a half miles, and both of those require very different kinds of technology and approaches. >> david, help us understand on sort of the most basic level how you actually search an ocean. are you just looking for stuff? what sort of technology is deployed? how does this actually work? >> well, you know, it's time for the big whiteboard and some nice new sharpie. i really believe that. there's so much confusion and contradictory evidence. there were no witnesses. the last known position, the lkp, and we had a good idea where that was. and then we had four minutes of the maintenance burst that has

been in the news lately, that stuff that's sent from the plane back to the base about things going wrong with the operation of the plane. and that allowed us to draw in four minutes -- and then it stopped suddenly. so we knew that the plane was airborne four minutes after trouble began. four minutes at altitude at full speed gives you about 40 miles, and so we drew a circle on that map in the south atlantic, 40 miles in radius, and it was a big search area. big haystack to find tiny bits of the needle. >> david, you did that very well. a lot of people have done pretty badly with white boards. i think that's right, krystal. you made a big deal out of that. all these searches that involve other countries are going to be shaped by the culture that they're happening in, right? and some people, abby for one was talking about in the office that the nature of a search in asia is going to be shaped by the notion of losing face, which is huge in that culture. the malaysian government does

not want to lose face, does not want to be told perhaps by the western nations, by america what to do and where to go. china has been repeatedly publicly criticizing them. how much does all that play into this sort of national identity issue? >> are you asking me -- >> quite a bit -- >> that one was to jim. david, you're next. >> okay. i think that plays a role. i had said on previous occasions that i thought this was much like the egypt air investigation. because you have a real dynamic between the military and the civilian aviation authorities. and you have a national airline. which means you have a national reputation to maintain. and unfortunately also, you have a lack of any type of independent investigative authority that can take control of the investigation, and manage

the assets and information. so that's why we're where we are today in my opinion. >> and david, one of the things that people have been wondering about is the black box that's onboard every airplane is supposed to send out a signal, pings, they call them, to help us locate the black box and potential wreckage. we obviously haven't to our knowledge been able to detect those pings. what are some of the ocean conditions that could potentially make that detection difficult? >> the oceans can play a lot of games with sound. a lot of it depends -- theoretically, you could hear those a long way away. but when you add in some thermal layers and some hills and valleys and islands, it can become very difficult. so that's -- you've got to be in the right place with the right tool at the right time to be able to, in my opinion, to be able to pick those up. but you know there's another philosophy here. not knowing where an area where

the plane isn't -- knowing an area where the plane isn't is pretty important information. and i wonder if they've begun surveying the bottom of the gulf of thailand already in thatareae can cross that off, we can begin to make a lot more sense. >> jim, you've been at the ntsb for a long period of time. understand the situation much better than any of us. have you ever seen a situation like this? and what is going through your mind right now? what do you think are some of the possibilities that could have happened? >> well, everything is still on the table. i'd pay close attention to, you know, where the u.s. navy is located and where they're searching now. i think that would be an important indicator of the best information, that at least the western authorities have. and that's why i have for a long time advocated deployable recorders that float on the water to avoid a situation like

this, which would have -- would in this case reinforce whether or not there had actually been an accident. >> david, to that same sort of concept, this seems an unprecedented situation. how many situations can you think of that we've had so many people searching and finding so little? >> well, you know, air france, it was in a very remote location with very little sea traffic in that area. and some air traffic, but not much compared to this area. and that was two years before we really got in the water and found the wreckage and the black boxes. it wasn't a two-yearlong search at sea. it was a little over eight weeks at sea altogether for our phase. but this really is unprecedented. it's rapidly becoming one of the great mysteries of searching sister an aircraft. >> it really is. jim hall, dave gallo, thank you

so much for joining us. >> you're welcome. up next, lots of politics cycling now, including the president's push for overtime pay just this afternoon. plus, florida, ukraine, a little jon stewart, too. we have got our main man as the cycle rolls on. salesperson #2: actually, we're throwing in a $1,000 fuel reward card. we've never done that. that's why there's never been a better time to buy a passat tdi clean diesel. husband: so it's like two deals in one? avo: during the salesperson #2: first ever exactly. volkswagen tdi clean diesel event, get a great deal on a passat tdi, that gets up to 795 highway miles per tank. and get a $1000 dollar fuel reward card. it's like two deals in one. hurry in and get a $1,000 fuel reward card and 0.9% apr for 60 months on tdi models.

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we've got to build an economy that works for everybody, not just for a few. i'm going to do what i can on my own to raise wages. i'm directing tom perez, my secretary of labor, to restore the common sense principle behind overtime. if you go above and beyond to help your employer and your

economy succeed, you should share a little bit in that success. >> the president just wrapped in the east room, exercising the power of the pen once again. this time he expanded the number of people eligible for overtime pay. this means more money for millions of workers. the move is in keeping with the democrats' focus on inequality this election year, and so far in the president's second term, executive authority has been his only real weapon to get anything done. with plunging poll numbers for the president in that so called bellwether win by the republicans in tuesday in florida, the question is can the president and the democrats go from defense to offense? to answer that and other questions, we turn today that millbank. thanks for joining us. >> hi, krystal. >> so let's start with that question. i think that this move by the president is really important. i think it's going to make a big difference for a lot of folks out there. it's important for our economy.

but on the politics of it, democrats have been playing a lot of defense. we've, of course, got international developments. we've got a lot of attacks on the health care law. we've got new allegations of domestic spying. is this part of an attempt to refocus the message and give democrats something to run on in 2014? >> well, certainly it is. but there's a limited extent to which this president can refocus the message. this is not going to be a great cycle for democrats. it's midterm elections, particularly in the second term of an incumbent president. almost always go badly. so i think a lot of people are looking for reasons why and saying well, they messed up on obamacare. there's a problem in foreign policy. it's the nsa. this would be happening regardless. the president and the democrats need to try to create some sort of a narrative. this is as good as any because it has the virtue of being true,

that this recovery has not helped all people as much as it has helped the wealthy and the corporations. so basically, they can do this sort of thing at the margins. it's not going to change the overall dynamic but it can help the democrats to some extent and it's also the right thing to do. >> i don't know why you say this cycle is not going to be good for democrats. abby says every day this show is good for democrats. >> "the cycle" is good for everybody. >> that's true. but to your point, florida 13, it seems to show once again that democratic voters care less in years that are not presidential elections. they had turnout of 58% there in romney precincts and 48% in obama precincts. and i think what that goes to is how you motivate voters. and i think republicans use a mixture, quite often, of fear and anger to motivate voters. and democrats will use fear and

hope. and i think what we see here, we've seen time and again that fear is a stronger motivator than hope. >> uh-huh. and fear and anger work particularly when the economy is not good, when people have insecurity to begin with. it's not going to work as well as it did in 2010 this year. but it's still not all smelling like roses, particularly down there in florida. i think it's very zie to read too much into this. greg walden runs the house republicans campaign. he said whatever happens, win or lose, we shouldn't read too much into what's going on. of course, wednesday morning he was saying exactly the opposite. the apocalypse for the democrats. >> i do think that's an interesting point, but on the heels of that election, out comes "the wall street journal" poll that paints a dreary picture for everyone involved. but democrats in particular did a good write-up of three numbers

that should be most concerning for democrats. the first one being the president's overall job approval, which is at 41%, the lowest it's been in the history of this poll. the second one was 44%, who said a congressperson's position on national issues would be more important to them than their actual performance, which was highlighted in the florida race, if you look at the negative messaging around the impact of obamacare. the third was 33%. one in three registered voters said their vote for congress will be intended to signal opposition to president obama. dana, if there's anyone that can spin these numbers into a positive, it is you. so go ahead. >> thanks, abby, i think. look, i mean, the only way i would say is nobody's disputing that this, as we were saying a moment ago, is going to be a bad year for the democrats. but let's keep this in perspective. nobody was ever saying that the democrats -- or nobody credibly saying, except for maybe five minutes during the shutdown in october that the democrats were

going to take control of the house. they need a landslide to take control of the house because of gerrymandering. so that was basically out of the picture anyway. now let's look at the senate. yes, the republicans have a chance of taking over the senate. if it hadn't been for the tea party putting in the christine o'donnells and the sharon engels of the world, the republicans probably already would be in charge of the senate. so we have to keep that perspective there. but yes, there's no sugar coating it. this is not shaping up to be a pretty cycle for the democrats. >> one of the things that i would point out is when you have a statewide race like a senate race, you're better able to distinguish yourself from the national mood than you are in a house race just because of more attention and more money. but i wanted to turn to another issue. obviously lots going on here domestically. also we've been hearing a lot of chatter and second guessing and armchair quarterbacking of the president's response to putin's incursion into crimea. does any of this sort of domestic squabbling impact our

ability to effectively respond to instances like this overseas? >> in theory, it should. it looks like luckry in this case it hasn't because it looks like the europeans are onboard with sanctions and things are moving ahead despite some skirmishing here at home. when you look at what the republican and conservative criticism is, well, the president shouldn't have gotten us into this situation in the first place, which is easy to say, because it's impossible to prove. and the criticism is not so much with what's occurring now. and it does seem that there is at least some unity. there's not a whole lot that can be done to stop russia from doing what it's doing, but a whole lot can be done to punish them for doing this. >> i also want to get your thoughts on the escalating crisis between the cia and senator feinstein and members of the senate intelligence committee. the president now has basically ducked and said well, they should declassify the torture report. of course, that's what the cia has been fighting tooth and nail against.

last time i checked, the cia was supposed to report in to the president. you had an excellent column on this, i thought. i want to read just one part of your column, what you said the president should be doing. you say first out should be the acting general counsel. feinstein said he filed a crimes report. this is house of cards type stuff, the idea that when the senate does its job to investigate, whether the cia illegally tortured and whether they obstructed justice in covering it up. to potentially send the senate staffers to jail. your thoughts and some of the ideas from your column. >> ari, first of all, i don't know who the president is saying they should declassify it. he should declassify it. he can do it in one minute. he could wave his magic wand and

declassify the report, including the internal documents that confirm this report. he can do that in a minute and he should. now, with dianne feinstein, a lot of people are saying well look, it serves her right because she supported the nsa program. i think she was wrong in supporting the nsa program, but that's really an entirely different thing here. you now have the cia snooping into the committee that's supposed to be overseeing it. that's really by definition a constitutional crisis, because we need to rely on these lawmakers such as they are to police these secret activities, otherwise we've got nothing. so it's a very serious situation. even before the notion of this guy filing the crime report, this guy was working in the cia division that was involved in the torture activities and now he's the guy overseeing the decision of how to respond to the congressional report on the

torture activities? >> yeah. >> interesting stuff. dana, thank you for your take on our political potpourri. and as we complete this segment, we leave you can jon stewart's take on feinstein versus the cia. >> if the cia wasn't purposefully destroying evidence, what happened to those files? >> the cia, when asked what was going on, first denied any interference. then blamed it on the i.t. guys. >> nerds! nerds! [ laughter ] i knew it! it was the i.t. guys. sure, the i.t. guys stole the files. bay of pigs? yeah, that was a problem in h.r. faulty iraq intelligence? ♪

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the rubble still burning in harlem nearly 30 hours after that building explosion and collapse there. five people still missing. the death toll is up to seven with more than 70 hurt in a community, a city still coming

to grips with this tragedy. nbc's katy tur has been our point person on this story from the moment it broke. she's back along park avenue with the latest. katy, what do you got? >> the rescue and recovery operations are still under way. it's hard to see, but the gap between those buildings, that's where those two buildings used to stand. firefighters and construction workers and investigators are poring through that rubble and cadaver dogs as well trying to see if there are any more survivors. most likely any more bodies. the likelihood for anyone surviving that gets lower by the hour. they were hoping that maybe some of the missing people were just not answering their cell phones. some of them that was the case, but some are still missing at this hour. there's fire still burning underneath that rubble. there's also a water main break. it's unclear if the water main break is what initially caused the gas leak explosion, or if the gas leak explosion caused the water main break. they're still trying to figure

that out. mayor de blasio toured the area a few hours ago. he also spoke to reporters and answered a lot of questions about the investigation. he said despite reports otherwise, we've been hearing from a lot of residents who said they smelled gas the day before, even a month before, and they had repeatedly called 311 about it and made reports about it. he said despite that, they have no record of any calls for any gas smells in this area except for 15 minutes before the explosion. that's when con ed was called to a building just down the street. by the time they got here, the worst had already been done. as for the gas pipe itself, he said it was inspected in june 2013. nothing was wrong with it at the time. as for the stress from all this very cold weather, he says the pipes on this street were checked as early as just a couple weeks ago. now, investigators believe at this moment that it is a gas pipe explosion, but they won't know for sure until they're able to get down into that rubble. there's two stories of rubble in there, so it's going to take quite some time. 89 apartments in the area also

evacuated. that's because the power of the blast was so strong, not only could you feel it for blocks away, but it blew out windows in a number of these apartments. also they shut off gas and electricity to this block, so you don't have any heat, you don't have any electricity and you're just not able to live in your apartments. the displaced are in shelters right now, or they're staying with friends. they're working on a long-term solution for those who won't be going back home any time soon, because there are still a lot of families that were within those buildings. 15 apartments that have nowhere to go right now. as for the air quality, it's a lot different out here than it was yesterday. yesterday there was a ton of smoke in the air. it was choking you. it would burn your eyes. the epa is out here testing. they say that it should be fine as long as you're not exactly on the site. guys? >> nbc's katy tur, thanks so much. turning back to politics now, it's no secret that americans are deeply frustrated with washington, and in turn, the direction of the country. but it doesn't end there from the economy to social issues,

there's plenty of division and that divide comes between generations of people, as profiled in "the next america," a new book full of evidence from the folks at pew research center. it's about our desires, fears, hopes, and the increasingly elusive struggle to achieve the american dream. the book's author paul taylor is with us from washington. paul, it's great to see you again. >> thanks for having me. >> so one stat that i found pretty concerning was around trust, when you asked if people can be trusted, just 19% of millennials say most people can be trusted. that's likely because of the economic as a ruvulnerability. i don't see this as a good thing. what kind of impact to you see this having on millennials down the road? >> the questions we've asked over many decades is a classic

question. would you say people can't be trusted or you can't be too careful? only one in five millennials say people can be trusted. older adults, about double that number say people can be trusted. trust has been coming down over a period of time, but the millennials are coming into their adulthood with very low levels. no one quite know what is to make of it. the leading suspects are, first of all, their racial diversity. this is the most racially diverse generation in our history. more than four in ten are non-white. minorities tend to have lower levels of trust, as do people with low incomes. people who feel vulnerable in a society for whatever reason tend to trust less because they're less well equipped to deal with the consequences of misplaced trust. the other thing we know about millennials is they are coming into an economy that has been stagnant. they themselves may be the first generation in american history to do less well than their parents and also an economy

where the gaps between rich and poor are increased. it's not that they don't like the rich. they want to be rich. but increasingly, they see the rules of the game rigged against them, but everybody. whether it's the rules by big politicians or big corporations. they feel it's a certain unfairness in society and that may be an explanatory factor as well. >> let me ask you about african-americans' views, which have changed a lot of interesting issues. views on the economy by race. we'll put it up on the screen. complete shift in how african-americans feel about the national economy. basically much more positively you note after barack obama's election. long-term data on african-americans' views on why they don't "get ahead." and a shift before barack obama's election. many african-americans saying their own conduct or the conduct of african-americans in general

is more responsible than discrimination. you contract with your reporting in south africa. tell us about that. >> well, you see the numbers on the screen, and there's no question just looking at those numbers. i was a newspaper reporter for 25 years. a lot of it covering african-american and white relations in cities like philadelphia. then i spent three years in south africa, the election of nelson mandela. my gut is -- and look, this is not my kitchen at the end of the day. i'm an observer. but i've been in focus groups. i've done a lot of interviewing with african-americans. it is hard to overstate the importance of the election of barack obama in 2008. it is an extraordinary moment. most african-americans my age or a little younger when you ask them, did you ever think you would see this day? they said no way. i do think it's that 130 million of their fellow americans, whatever their attitudes may be

towards race, and we know the long and tough history there, and it's still there to this day, in a democratic country, that's still majority white two times in a row, elected barack obama. >> not forever will it be majority white. your data shows browning of america is happening. there's always fear around an immigrant wave. but your numbers show that hispanics, second generation hispanics do show higher income, go to college more, and they're growing more americanized, so your data shows we should not be afraid of the browning of america. >> absolutely. and young americans are not afraid of the browning of america. older americans, you know, we were an 85% white country in 1960. we're going to be a 43% white country in 2060. that's a lot to adjust to and you get political and cultural backlashes. but younger folks, that's who they are. they're very comfortable with it. and i would say the country as a whole has absorbed these changes.

yes, warts and all. but it's doing a very good job of absorbing these changes. >> i wish we had more time. so many interesting stats in this book, "the next america." thank you for joining us. i'll have more on my take of that a little bit later in the show. up next, if that's not enough change for you, "time" is out with its annual issue of ten big ideas to change your life. forget being pc and make fun of everyone. sounds like we are on the right track. [ female announcer ] skin looking tired? research shows that as you age, skin cells lose energy, making skin look tired. wake it up with olay regenerist.

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>> mayor maybe this is going to be the worst day ever. >> we've all wished we could change our lives and gone searching for ways to do it at the container store or meditation or switching to a diet of nothing but free range french fries? am i the only one who tried that? really? i wish the advice of brilliant thought leaders on how to change your life was in one easy to hold magazine that was written in english, kind of like the ideas issue of "time" magazine. let's get the managing editor of "time" to unpack some of the great ideas. you've got key and peel on the cover. very interesting and perhaps dangerous idea from them. they say make fun of everyone and everyone. they say what's worse, making fun of people or assuming they're too weak to take it, a potentially dangerous idea. i'm not sure how i would see how that would change your life to make fun of others and it might perpetuate some of the

hierarchies, that we're trying to break down in the pc era. >> could put you in an awkward spot. now, key and peele are funny. >> abby, also funny. >> they talk about the fact that we're still living a little bit with a hangover of political correctness that hit the country in a wave. you were just talking about the changing nature of american demographics and this is something we're grappling with. we're all surrounded by people that are different from us and how do you make jokes about the things that make people different. key and peele say you've got to go for it. it's edgy. the truth is, there used to be television shows like archie bunker, that really -- in retrospect, would that show be on the air now? maybe not. that guy was a bigot. but it served to raise a lot of issues that were interesting and thought provoking. >> i don't know that it would

still be on the air. i watched that growing up. i would say no. sustainable farm to table cooking. this new concept that all these restaurants are putting fresh produce on the table. but this is really being thoughtful about the produce that you're buying at the store and also utilizing every piece of the animal, which they do very well in asia. not so much here. one example you guys give is using bone marrow instead of butter. you say it's a deliciously velvety upgrade. >> i'm a big fan of bone marrow myself. this is from dan barber, the wonderful chef of blue hill. he says it's not just that our buying habits have to change, our tastes have to change. we're used to meals where the big piece of meat is the star attraction. dan barber says forget the big steak, have a giant piece of turnip. the steak is your garnish. >> what? no! steak! >> but this is going to help us in terms of sustainable animal raising, crop raising.

it starts with how you conceive of what a meal is. >> you've also got a great essay here from sally krcrawcheck who was fired, saying part of that was being one of the only women in the room. she points out having more gender diversity is not just about fairness, it's also about being more profitable. >> she finds a bottom line. she says in her experience, and research, outside research also shows more diverse your corporate board, the more diverse your work staff, the more free flowing ideas, the more client responsiveness you're going to have and that's important for companies going forward. >> you say archie bunker wouldn't be on tv now, he just did it with a frown. stephen colbert does it with a smile, sarah silverman. >> they do it ironically, though. >> another step today in eric holder's crusade for sentencing justice. plus, an inside look at prisons

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there was another major step in reforming prison policy today. attorney general eric holder endorsed a man that would reduce many drug sthns sentences from o four years. the u.s. sentencing commission will make a final ruling on that in april. and the push comes as leaders in both parties are not only rethinking the war on drugs, but many are scrutinizing the very way we run our prisons.

last week, the fbi launched an investigation into overcrowding and gang violence at the largest prison in idaho run by the for profit corrections corporation of america. this week, the company asked the judge to suspend another suit against it while that fbi investigation continues. and across the nation, prison practices that have been banned in most western countries are drawing renewed scrutiny, including the use of solitary confineme confinement. as laura diamond writes in an article today, solitary confinement can lead to intense neurological and physical damage or even suicide. laura is here to discuss her article and the wider rethinking of prison policy. welcome. >> thank you. >> so you sat down and looked into this. what did you find in your reporting? >> i found that solitary confinement is an incredibly disturbing practice that is very overused in the united states. we have between 80,000 and 81,000 people in solitary

confinement right now, which is the amount of prisoners in all of the united kingdom. >> wow. >> it's mainly -- many of the cases are for disciplinary infractions. they are ridiculous. and it's thought of as a quick fix, when in reality, it causes much larger, more complex problems. >> you tell a story of a 38-year-old man. i actually got emotional reading it. it's a beautifully written piece who was ultimately put in what you call "the box" for having too many pencils and stamps in his possession. and when he was released, he described his experience like this. he said, the very essence of life is human contact and the affirmation of existence that comes with it. without it, you become nothing. who would know if something happened to me? i was invisible. as i said, i was very emotional reading that. and you actually spoke to him. what was that experience like? >> yeah, his story was awful. his original sentence for solitary was 90 days, and the infractions just built up and

built up. if you read my piece, he once got an apple, ate the entire thing, including the core and seeds and was written up because the seeds of an apple contain arsonic. that's against the rules. fear for being written up again. he got written up for refusing to eat. so it built up over time and he is just barely coming back to life. you can tell speaking to him he's very well spoken. he's incredibly polite and decent, but his thoughts trail off, his memory is damaged. >> and he's aware of that, as you point out in the piece. and you go into some of the science of the emotional toll that being in solitaire confinement takes on you. and you point out that nearly 50% of all suicides in prison happen in solitaire confinement. this despite the fact that it's only 10% of the prison population that is actually in solitaire confinement. >> exactly. i would say it's less than 10%,

about 7%, and does account for half of the suicides. the reason is when they look at autopsies of the brains of people held in solitaire, it's fascinating. they look sometimes like the brains of people who have incurred serious neurological damage. >> laura, there is another way. in the 'eighty, the brits started to move the prevent violence rather than punish it. they reduced isolation, created these wards where there's more social engagement, more tons for work and actually times for prisoners to air out their grievances, and this worked really well, this sort of idea of more humane prisons because criminologists understand prison is a big part of our crime problem. and so reducing isolation will actually be very helpful for us. >> absolutely. the united kingdom, they -- as you said, a strong emphasis on rehabilitation.

they gave lot of responsibility to their prison mer to mimic what real life would be like. roughly speaking, countries that do that have about a 10% recidivism rate, meaning criminals that will return to prison again. in the u.s. it's roughly 50% because we are not doing -- we have cut work programs, education programs to help these criminals reintegrate into the world. we're harming ourselves. 95% of people held in solitaire confinement will return to the world someday. >> and that's the law and order argument beyond the humanitarian pointious raise in your report. laura diamond, thanks for joining us. >> thank you so much. up next, the new numbers don't add up. our staff mathematician explains.

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i talk about the idea of being a millennial a lot on this show. you know the invincible 18 to p 3-year-olds. i think this clip sums it up nicely. >> he's kind of a republican which feels weird. >> what's wrong with a republican? >> ju just the same as democrat. bill clinton's the one who got rid of the stae gal act which is why our economy is in the toy let. >> i did not know that. >> read one newspaper. one newspaper. >> welcome to the world of my len ideals that's generally progressive and independent. this new report by pew research center says 50% oflymy len yals consider themselves politically independent. it says we are less religious

and less likely to trust others. millennials are different from the generations before us. we gravitate to urban cities and dream about traveling the world not necessarily about buying that first house or having kids in our 20s. sorry, mom and dad. imagine this. this is crazy. by 2060 there will be as many people over the age of 85 as there are under the age of 5. that's an enormous swing from where we are today. all of this shows the unsustainability of our current entitlement programs. this is infuriating because none of our elected officials seem to care. take president obama's latest budget. no mention of entitlement reform, none, and it's not as if the facts are a secret. i will break this down simply. social security and medicare represent about half of all the money the government spends each year. half. as we all live longer paying for these programs becomes more unsustainable. when social security was originally created back in 1935 the average life expectancy was

62 years for women and 58 years for men. today the average life is more than 80 for women and 76 for men. while we're living almost two decades longer we haven't made any real changes. the same goes for medicare. this is basic math, guys. it just doesn't add up. the money has got to come from somewhere. as it stands today we can't afford it. i'm in the alone in this concern. going back to that pew research, 51% of millennials believe they will get no benefits from social security by the time they need it. but at the same time a majority still opposed cuts as a way to address the dilemma. what about raising the retirement age to 70 or 75? it's no surprise when i say things like that i typically get bombarded with twitter messages from millennials calling me a callous republican that hates benefits and just doesn't care about the less fortunate. but before you start tweeting, here's the reality. at the rate we're spending the system will be bankrupt by the time you and i are actually eligible to get these benefits. my call for reform isn't about

killing ben if i wants. it's about sustainability. let me ask you this -- would you rather have 80% of what we have today or nothing at all? it's a simple way to think about it but an idea that never gets any air time which is crazy to me because everyone in washington understands that the current path is unsustainable. doing nothing about it will lead to none for all rather than at least some for us. that does it for us. "now" with alex wagner starts right now. as the search widens the bewilderment grows. thursday, march 13th, and this is "now." >> this investigation is very much back where we started. >> conflicting reports. >> new reports suggest the plane -- >> malaysian authorities are disputing a "wall street

journal" report. >> the plane may have traveled an additional 2,200 miles. >> the indian ocean. that's a vast area. >> about as large as the caribbean. >> we could be in a situation where we simply wait for something to wash ashore. >> "the wall street journal" is reporting up against the malaysian government. >> we've been confused by information that comes out of malaysia contradicted later. >> malaysian officials -- >> so all over the map. >> why wasn't this transponder working? >> questions without answers. >> was it turned off? >> one of the most bizarre news stories. >> it would be easier to win the lottery several times over than lose complete power in the cockpit. >> we are still unsure about what direction the plane was headed. >> it seems to the outside observer like we're back at square one. >> six days after the last contact in massive boeing 777 airliner, a