nation's cities. >> woodruff: paul solman returns to new york city's riker's island to explore one way to keep teens from returning to jail: behavioral therapy. >> if we want to change outcomes we have to change behavior, and if we want to change behavior for the long run, we have to change the way we think. >> ifill: margaret warner looks at a billion dollar trove of picasso and other important cubist works, given by one man to the metropolitan museum of art. >> woodruff: and we close with a cuban activist's reflections on freedom, oppression and life as a dissident in her home country. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. tnk y. >> woodruff: the obama administration has rolled out a new budget, but it was clear today the plan is in for a bumpy ride. democrats objected to provisions to save money on medicare and social security. republicans dismissed any talk of raising taxes again on the well-off. "newshour" congressional correspondent kwame holman begins our coverage. >> reporter: the president's plan arrived at the capitol this morning, bearing a price tag of $3.8 trillion for the coming fiscal year. and the chief executive made his pitch, in the white house rose garden. >> if we want to keep rebuilding our economy on a stronger, more stable foundation, then we've got to get smarter about our priorities as a nation. that's what the budget i'm sending to congress today represents. >> reporter: the blueprint aims to reduce the deficit by another $1.8 trillion over ten years. that's on top of $2.5 trillion in reductions agreed to at the end of last year. the cuts in this new budget also replace most of sequestration-- those across-the-board spending reductions that already have begun taking effect. to make it all possible, the president would raise $580 billion in new revenue from higher taxes on the wealthy. and, he anticipated republican objections. >> if anyone thinks i'll finish the job of deficit reduction on the backs of middle-class families, or through spending cuts alone-- that actually hurt our economy in the short-term-- they should think again. when it comes to deficit reduction, i've already met republicans more than half-way. >> reporter: but on the senate floor this morning, republican leader mch mcconnell rejected the president's math. >> when you cut through the spin and get to the facts, it looks like there's less than $600 billion worth of reduction in there and that's over a decade. all of it coming, not surprisingly, from tax increases. in other words, it's not a serious plan. >> reporter: mr. obama hoped republicans would appreciate $400 billion in savings from medicare and other health programs, plus lower cost-of- living adjustments for social security. >> i don't believe all these ideas are optimal, but i'm willing to accept them as part of a compromise, if and only if they contain protections for the most vulnerable americans. >> reporter: house speaker john boehner said he does give mr. obama some credit for moving on entitlements, but not at the price of higher taxes. >> i would hope that he would not hold hostage these modest reforms for his demand for bigger tax... hikes. listen, why don't we do what we can agree to do. why don't we find the coon ground that we do have, and move on that. >> reporter: while speaker boehner and other republicans welcomed the president's offer on entitlements, many democrats voiced displeasure. they said the changes in social security and medicare would hurt seniors and other americans struggling to make ends meet. arizona representative raul grijalva is co-chair of the congressional progressive caucus. >> quite frankly, social security does not cause the deficit. it should be a separate discussion away from this whole budget issue. and it's been a trophy the republicans have wanted since i've been here for ten years, to begin to undo social security. i don't think democrats should hand them that opportunity readily. >> reporter: the budget does include new spending that democrats can support-- on jobs, infrastructure and expanded pre- school education. that last item would be funded by a 94-cent increase in the federal tax on a pack of cigarettes. now, it falls to the president to try to sell his plan to both sides. he's scheduled to host a dozen republican senators at the white house for dinner this evening. >> ifill: for reaction to the president's budget, we go to capitol hill and the white house. representative cathy mcmorris rodgers of washington state is the chairwoman of the republican conference. i spoke with her a short time ago from the capitol. >> ifill: for the view from the cathy mcmorris rodgers, welcome. thank you for joining us. as we look at the president's budget proposal today, who do you think are the winners and losers? >> i thought the winners were those people wh that-- well, see, it's hard for me to quickly think of winners. i thoug t losers at least were the american people in the aspect that it wassa lots of the same old from the president. it was more taxes, more spending, another stimulus. these policies have not got our economy growing, and just look at the jobs report. it was-- it showed that we have the least number employed today as we have since 1979. we're not headed in the right direction. and so it's hard for me to think of the winners right now. >> ifill: the president said today he feels lee's go halfway, especially by offering entitlement reform what, he had on the table before when he talked to house speaker boehner. do you agree with him on that or disagree? >> but the rest of that story that was he also was demanding more tax revenue, and the president got $600 billion in new tax revenue on january 1. and the republicans, we believe it is time to address the other side of this equation, the spendings, the out-of-control spending, the record deficits, and that's why we put forward a budget that balances within 10 yearsand we challenge the president, we challenge the senate democrats, to come up with a budget that balances within 10 years. and part of that may be tax reform. it may be entitlement reform, making sure that these programs are available for our seniors, important safety net programs. but the president continues to demand more tax revenue instead of looking at the spending sides of this equation. >> ifill: i want to ask you with some of that, because one of the details in his plan would call for a couple of retired couples to earn more than $170,000 a yr t p a higher medicare premium. is that not the type of entitlement reform huin mind? >> the republicans, we want to work on this. we believe it is important that we address medicare and we put it on a path so it is going to be available for our current seniors and the next generation. and we need to have this type of discussion with the president. he's been very reluctant when push comes to shove, though, to really move forward on these kind of reforms without their being-- he continues to say there has to be more tax revenue on the table. >> ifill: speaking of tax revenues, one of the things he suggested is raising the cigarette tax, doubling the cigarette tax to pay for pre-k initiatives. that is not a trade-off you will agree with? >> again, he always comes back to raising taxes. the american people-- just on january 1, every american family saw that their paycheck was reduced because taxes went up. and so we need-- we need the president to join in aneffort to really look at the spending side of this equation. his default always seems to be taking more money. and the federal government continues to grow. it means it makes it hard or families. they have to tighten their belts. >> ifill: no matter what the money is being raised for, raising taxes itself is a problem. >> yes, the republicans recognize that we have a spending problem. the president-- early on in his time said he wasoing to reduce the deficit in half by the end of his first term. and we need the president, we need the democrats to look at the spending side, the trillion-dollar deficits. they jeopardize our opportunities and economic growth and opportunities for young people graduating from college, and it jeopardizes important safety net programs for our seniors. so that is where the republicans are standing firm. the president got revenue on january 1. we need to look at the spending side. >> ifill: one of the things you talk about, about safety nets. one of the safetyets is social security, and democrats are unhappy with the president's plan to change the formula for cost of living increases to social security. do you think that's the right approach? >> it's certainly one i think we need to look at closer. and that is a-- you know, republicans and democrats i believe we may be able to find some common ground here and those are the kind of solutions that do give me hope moving forward that we can find the common ground so that these programs are secure for many generations to come. >> ifill: bottom line, do you see any difference from where the president's plan was today from when it was when you were negotiating with him in december? >> i-- i was disappointed that he continued to make it all dependent upon their being new tax revenue. and that has-- you know, from the republicans' perspective, he got $600 billion on january 1. and we need the president to join us in looking at the spending side. >> ifill representative chy mcmorris rodgers, thank you so much. >> thank you, gwen. >> ifill: for the view from the white house i spoke with gene sperling, director of the president's economic council. gene sperling, thank you for joining us, the president said today in the rose garden what he was proposing is not optimal, is the word he used, but he needed to go this far for compromise. so far, both sides seem to be rejecting this. well, the president rightly said that he was putting forward today something that was unquestionably a compromise offer to speaker boehner to try to get a balanced deficit reduction package that would get us out of this very harmful sequester, deal with some of our long-term fiscal challenges, and put us on a path to both lowering our deficit, but also still investing in jobs right now, by accelerating infrastructure investmentes, and investing in our long-term competitiveness. and the president said all along that we're not going to get that type of a compromise unless everybody is willing to give a little. no one is going to get 100%. and the presidt's very clear-- this is not his ideal proposal but it shows his willingness to take a balanced approach. it does ask for the most fortunate to have a little bit less tax expenditures and tax loopholees, and sensible entitlement reforms and again measures he might prefer not esou need to have out to be part of a bipartisan compromise to see if we can move our country forward. >> ifill: we just spoke to a member of the house leadership, cathy mcmorris rodgers, and she said she couldn't think of any winners in this budget proposal. >> well deficit reduction is never easy. we inherited this terrible deficit along wall street-- a great recession, and we're fighting our way out of it, and the question is how to do in a way nagets the balance right, and the balance is about having sensible entitlement savings, but also having revenues as part of a fair deficit reduction plan. the balance is also about making sure your fundamental goal is about economic growth and job creation, and the type of plan the president has does have targeted investments to create job, investments for worker training. you saw his preschool proposal. that would be very important. and it does maintain investments in our future, in manufacturing, and in the skills of our workers. but the fact is, we all have to try to get ourselves back on a long-term fiscal path so we can give people more confidence that america is still the place to create jobs and make your future. and that's going to require some tough choices. >> ifill, and yet republicans are not happy because they say this is all about taxes going up again, and some democrats are not happy because they think you're hurting the poor. you'rnot winning on either side of this. >> gwen, i look at it in a different way. when you see the president of the united states looking what he should do-- lead-- bring both sides together. and, yes, this is not going to be ideal for everyone. but the question is not whether it's ideal for democrats or ideal for republicans but whether it is an honorable compromise that is good for jobs, good for growth, good for the american people. and that's gog require everyone to give a little and be unhappy on a few measures. if in doing that, we can replace the sequester that is harming millions of isn't people, hurting job growth, and replace it with something that is good for job growth, has a balance of entitlement savings and revenues and helps put our deficit on a strong path, that's going to give more confidence. that's going to be good for jobs. that's going to be good for our competitiveness, and that's our bigger perspective that all of us have to take if we're going to try to get by divided government to do something that's unified that can help us strengthen our economy. >> ifill: before you get by divide governme youave have agreement. you have an agreement that you say you had on the table last year with speaker boehner. it didn't go through then. taxing the wealthiest didn't work before. how is it going to work now? >> you know, despite all our problems and all our challenges, gentlemen, we actually have lowered the deficit by $2.5 trillion, and that has been a mix of $600 billion in revenues on high-income individuals, there have been spending cuts and reduced deficit on lower projected interest costs. it has been tough but we have made progress and we have to stay at it, and i think that's going to be the challenge. now, the president tonight is going to be meeting and having dinner with 12 republicans, because the president is looking at every moment for what he calls the caucus of common sense. and i will repeat that one thing we have going for us is that the american public wants us to work together. they want to us compromise. they want us to have a balanced plan that's good for growth, invest in our people and deals with our long-term deficit. and i think that that's what this president is trying to do in putting forward the budget he did today. >> ifill: let me ask you finally, tonight's dinner, is that the first step towards the grand bargain everyone is talking about or another step towards business as usual in the budget? >> i think it is under stef in the president's outreach to look for those who want to be part of a solution. and he did a previous dinner with 11 or 12 republicans, that i think was very good in creating some trust, starting to see that there can be some common ground, and moving toward where's i think the american public would like, which is to say us in washington, even with divided government, willing to make honorable compromises that are going to be good for our economy and good for job creation, and i think we'll all be better off, and his budget is an important step in doing that, and his outreach is one more step again in looking for that coalition of the willing, that caucus of common sense, that is willing to work together and try to strike compromise that's good for jobs and the economy. >> ifill: gene sperling at the white house, thank you so much. >> thank you, again. >> woodruff: still to come on the "newshour": combating urban violence; keeping teens out of jail; giving a billion dollars worth of art and living as a cuban dissident. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: thousands of people gathered in washington today, pressing congress to approve immigration reforms. senators hope to finish work this week on a bill that grants a path to citizenship for 11 million immigrants living illegally in the u.s. supporters rallied at the u.s. capitol, with signs that read "time is now, all in for citizenship". rallies also took place in at least 18 states. a new warning came today, amid the tense waiting for north korea's next move. the foreign minister of south korea said chances are considerably high that the north will launch a mid-range missile soon. it could coincide with next monday, when the communist state marks the birth of its founder. meanwhile, in washington, defense secretary chuck hagel weighed in at a pentagon briefing. >> north korea has been, with its bellicose rhetoric, its action, has been skating very close to a dangerous line. the actns and wor have not helped defuse a combustible situation. >> sreenivasan: north korea has warned all foreign diplomats to leave its capital, pyongyang. but the european union said today there's no need to take such steps. in economic news, there was word the u.s. federal reserve wants to keep longterm interest rates low through at least mid-year. the news came in the minutes of the fed's last meeting. the report gave wall street an early boost, and it never looked back. the dow jones industrial average gained 128 points to close at 14,802. the nasdaq rose 59 points to close at 3,297. saturday home mail delivery is back on for now. the u.s. postal service said today it's delaying plans to end saturday service because congress will not allow the change. back in february, the postal service said it would have to cut back to five-day-a-week delivery by august, to rein in costs. the agency ended its last budget year with a record loss of nearly $16 billion. the university of connecticut today celebrated its eighth national championship in women's basketball. the huskies beat louisville in a rout last night in new orans, 93 to 60. it was the most lopsided win ever in the women's national title game. louisville had been trying to add to the men's championship it won the night before. u-conn remains the only school to win both titles in the same season. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to judy. >> woodruff: we turn to the other big political story of this day: gun control legislation and a new proposal for expanding background checks. the president said in a statement late today the plan unveiled by a pair of senators did not go as far as he wanted, but he welcomed it as significant progress. other gun control groups said they too hoped it could serve as a tipping point in the senate. the bipartisan deal was announced by democratic senator joe manchin of west virginia and republican senator pat toomey of pennsylvania. manchin said the december school shootings in newtown, connecticut, demanded a response. >> this amendment won't ease the pain. it will not ease the pain of the families who lost their children on that horrible day. but nobody here, and i mean not one of us in this great, great capitol of ours with a good conscience could sit by and not try to prevent a day like that from happening again. and i think that's what we're doing. >> woodruff: under the proposal, federal background checks would be expanded to include gun show and online sales. all such sales would have to be channeled through licensed firearms dealers who'd be charged with keeping records of the transactions. but, in a major difference from the president's proposal, the senators' plan would not require background checks for private sales between individuals. >> i don't consider criminal background checks to be gun control. i think it's just common sense. if you pass a criminal background check you get to buy a gun. it's no problem. it's the people o fail a criminal or mental health background check that we don't want having guns. >> woodruff: senators toomey and manchin also would create a national commission on mass violence. >> this commission is going to be made up with people with expertise. people who have expertise in guns, people who have expertise in mental illness, peoe who have expertise in school safety and people who have expertise in video violence. >> woodruff: the manchin-toomey proposal takes the form of an amendment to a larger, democratic bill. senate majority leader harry reid plans an initial vote tomorrow, to bring that measure up for debate. senate republicans are divided on whether to try to block the action. and on the house side, speaker john boehner wasn't tipping his hand today. >> we'll wait and see what the, what the senate does. it's one thing for two members to come to some agreement. it doesn't substitute the will from the other 98 members. so we'll wait and see what the senate does. >> woodruff: others were quick to react. mayors against illegal guns-- founded by new york mayor michael bloomberg-- said it strongly supports the amendment. but the national rifle association condemned the proposal, saying, "expanding background checks at gun shows will not prevent the next shooting, will not solve violent crime and will not keep our kids safe in schools." the n.r.a. said it would support a proposal by republican senator susan llins and democratic senator patrick leahy. it cracks down on gun trafficking and on so-called straw purchases-- when someone buys firearms for those barred from owning them. all of this, as first lady michelle obama returned home to chicago, addressing a conference on young people and gun violence. >> we need to show them not just with words, but with action that they are not alone in this struggle. weneedo show them that we believe in them and we need to give them everything they need to believe in themselves. >> woodruff: the first lady also visited harper high school on chicago's south side, where 29 current or former students have been shot in the last year. eight died. last february, the first lady attended the funeral of 15-year- old hadiya pendleton. she was killed just days after performing with her school band at the presidential inauguration. for a closer look at the rsisnce of inn citgun violence, we turn to paul barrett. he is the author of "glock, the rise of america's gun," as well as assistant managing editor and senior writer at "bloomberg business week" magazine. and del mcfadden, outreach coordinator for the columbia heights-shaw collaborative-- a community support organization in washington, d.c. welcome to you both. and, paul barrett, to you first. for all the publicity around these horrible mass shootings, we know most gun violence takes place asne-on-one shooting. tell us, where do these take place? who is doing the shootings, and who are the victims? >> well, there's a very wide variety, but you're absolutely right, as a general matter, out of the 30,000 gun deaths we have a year, some 10,000 or 11,000 are gun homicides. many of those take place in unsafe, poor neighborhoods, and often involve gun play between one gang and another gang, drug traffickers, but they also-- you have gun crime that take plays all across the country in other settings as well. >> woodruff: i should have said, of course, so many of the gun violence in this country is suicide, people turning a gun on themselves. delbert mcfadden, you work every day in an urban community in washington, first, tell us what the collaborative does. >> it is a nonprofit organization located in northwest d.c. we started in 1996 supporting families, making sure that families were strong and healthy through capacity building and advocacy. now we bring the workforce development for ex-offenders, and we also have youth violence prevention and intervention program, which i am one of the outreach managers for. >> woodruff: and what does gun violence look like to you? >> well, let me kind of set the tone. in the last five years of me being outreach manager for this position, we have buried 32 african american andula tebow youth. and a lot of the issues, now that we have soc media, now that we have school closures in the district where kids from communities have to coexist under one roof, and we have functions that may happen with kids coming in contact, and there's conflict. and it's peculiar to me in the sense of we work closely with different partners. and for each one of those 32 youth, we can find the burial assistance funds within 48 hours to bury those kids. d soy ting is, why can't we have the same resources to sustain life? >> woodruff: to keep this violence from happening. what would you add to, that paul barrett. help fill out that picture of what's going on in our inner cities now. >> well, i think, as with many social issues, there's a down side and an up side, and, obviously, we've got far too much gun violence in the inner cities. we have far too much gun violence in other segments of society. but it's also important to put on the table and to think about as wenaly how to move forward, the fact that in the aggregate, actually, gun violence is going down sharply and has been going down since the early 1990s. violent crime overall in this country is at about half the rate it was in 1980. and big cities, though they still do have pockets of terrible violence and social dysfunction, overall, are actually safer today than they were 20 years ago. >> woodruff: is it known why that's hapning >> well, there's a great deal of debate over that. it is almost certainly not any one factor. determining why crime levels shift is a very, very difficult challenge for social scientists. but ingredients probably include higher rate of incarceration, which has been very pronounced over the last couple of decades. shifts in police practices, targeting certain neighborhood where's there's a lot of violence as opposed to just kind of randomly patrolling the streets, and aso improvements in certain cities in social programs and in improving public housing and in some cities there has been very, very concentrated public housing that has been disbursed to some degree. and i'm sure the circumstances vary a great deal from city to city. >> woodruff: i see you nod, delbert mcfadden, about what he's saying about the reasons why violence decreased. having said that, it is still happening. you cited what you see here in the nation's capital. what is causing it to still happen? what do you see are the dynamics in these community betweens young people that cause people to kill somebody? >> i think there are environmental triggers, "stressors, different situations that may happen in these communities. like i stated, it's a different environment of factors, risk factors that play a part in that, and with the youth in the district of columbia, where i work, i think it's just those different issues, those needs that are not being met within those households. those needs not being met in the community and school system. i think that's a big part of it. if you lok at the incarceration rate-- we have around 2.4 million americans arrested. almost half of that is african american. so when you look at those households, those are individuals that are no longer there. those are fathers. those are brothers, and that really plays a part in the erosion of those family units. >> woodruff: and to the extent guns, paul barrett, are part of this, how do they get injected into this picture? how available are they? >> well, we have 300 million firearms in private hands in the united states. so we are a society that is permeated by guns and gun ownership. the vast majority of those firearms owned legally and are not cause anything particular problem, buof but millions are owned illegally, are on the black market, and are readily available in neighborhoods where there's a lot of crime. so we have a very high level of gun homicide compared to similar industrialized societies. and yet at the same time we have an improvement over time so that thtrends are actually quite complex. and i think one thing we need to focus on is the need to ask if the crime rates are coming down, particularly in big cities, as they are, why is that happening and how can that be replicated? if police departments are doing a somewhat better job, what are the keys to that success and how can it be repeated? >> woodruff: it's a huge subject, and we only have a little bit of time left, but del mcfadden, what are some of the questions the rest of us should be looking at right now, in addition to the available of guns? > i think there'vailability, and i think we need to look at the outlets that play a part in fueling the influx of those weapons into these communities. i think we also have to look at the mental health piece. i think we've been failing tremendously looking at the psychological trauma that these kids endure over long periods of time. i have young men groups, and when you take to these union men you ask them how many individual they knew or were close with, asking them how many have passed in the last five years. they can rattle off 35 names. and that is something that definitely has to be looked at in a deeper sense. >> woodruff: these are young men. >> yes, these are young men. i think, also, on the side of law enforcement, watching-- i think the case closure rate is around 93%. it's very high, which does play a part in violence reduction. but there's no way we're going to wrest our way out of the situation. we're mainly dealing with the by-products of generational poverty, social economic disparities and deprivation. but we have to get to the core of these issues and buildn self-worth and positive self-image. >> woodruff: derk l mcfadden and paul barrett, we thank you both. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> ifill: now, the second of a two-part look at efforts to prevent felons from returning to new york's riker's island jail once they've served their time. last night, "newshour" economics correspondent paul solman reported on a new way of creating private financing for such public programs. tonight, he explores how the program hopes to keep participan froending up in jail again. it's part of his on-going reporting "making sense of financial news." >> reporter: high school on new york city's riker's island, the world's largest jail. though they make up just 6% of the population, the teen inmates here pose some of the biggest problems. >> they contribute to 28% of all of the fights which is the most common form of misconduct in a jail setting. >> reporter: dora schriro is ny city corrections commissioner. >> this group, one of the areas where they are terrifically weak is in decision making and problem solving and their propensity to impulsively rely on fights rather than insight, really contributes to how they got here and why it is that every one out of two are likely to come back pretty quick. >> reporter: in other words, nearly 50% are back in jail within a year of their release. that's why new york city officials have just launched a program that puts every 16- to 18-year-old entering riker's-- almost as soon as the bars slam shut-- into a class called moral renation therapy, or m.r.t., a form of behavioral modification to improve decision-making. >> if you could go back in time, and change one thing, what would it be, what year would you go back to, and why? >> reporter: now, cognitive therapy like m.r.t. isn't new; it's been around for decades. but it is new on riker's. also new: the cash-strapped city is using an innovative private investment vehicle called a social impact bond-- a type of loan-- to fund it. >> we're going start from here. >> reporter: m.r.t. starts small: drawing pictures of happier times, like a real or imagined sky diving jump. talking about feelings. >> when i get nervous i feel like i want to shut down and not do anything. >> reporter: because they're minors, we can't show student faces. it's all part of a 12-step process that moves from the most basic psychological concepts to higher goals. studies show that m.r.t. can reduce recidivism by 20% to 30% and the more steps they master, the more likely these kids will be to stay out of jail. >> you got everything working with you. and you're moving in a positive direction now. >> reporter: jafar abbas and karimah nichols are counselors with the osborne association, the nonprofit hired by new york to run m.r.t. on riker's. >> it starts out slow with pictures and stuff but as it progresses through 12 steps is that they get more difficult, and that's what we want. we want you to get out of the box that you put yourself in and start looking for higher things. >> just the fact that they were willing to talk in group. like, that is a big step for someone at that age, that's a sign of real maturity. >> reporter: as when this boy was asked to recount his best of times. >> one is winning my first basketball championship when i was in middle school. second is i got my first job. third is when i got my middle school diploma. and when i went to high school and got my first computer. >> reporter: and worst of times? >> first is jail. two is going to court and not knowing what is going to happen or when you go home, the jail bus ride, being in a place where you're treated like an animal, you're literally caged up most of the time of the day. >> do you notice the connection between the best times in your life and the worst times? what's the relationship between those two? pattern? >> well the pattern with the worst things of my life is there's little things i never thought was big until i came here. and jail, i can't control the outcome that's going on when i'm here. >> none of these kids want to be in jail and our message to them is you have control. >> reporter: susan gottesfeld helps n thosboe association. >> cognitive behavioral therapy is not a coddling, huggy, touchy, feely, fuzzy intervention. it's an evidence based therapy that works for lots and lots of different people, for lots and lots of different things. >> reporter: what's the key to the cognitive change? >> if we want to change outcomes we have to change behavior, and if we want to change behavior for the long run, we have to change the way we think, right? and for a lot of these kids its a realization: i can choose to do that in a good way or i can oose to do that in a negative way. >> reporter: but will it keep enough kids from coming back to riker's to save the city enough money to pay back investors? let's face it: transformation does not come easy. at riker's, says commissioner schriro: >> you never know for sure until they day they leave how long they're going to be there. so, we really needed to figure out how to make the most out of every day. not wait for our next class to start, grab them, you know, the minute they get in, engage them right away, and keep them engaged right to the time they go back out to the streets. >> reporter: those released from riker's have the option of continuing their 12-step therapy at offices in brooklyn and the bronx. dwayne arthur has been seeing counselor victoria phillips since getting out of a two-week stint at riker's in january. >> for the ice breaker today i want to know what are some of the things that you try to control but can't control? >> um, first is my urges. sometimes you can't control yo emotions. >> okay. sometimes you can't control your emotions. but can you control the actions that follow the emotions? >> yes. >> and since you've been here are we starting to see that you are controlling your actions? >> yes. >> reporter: but who has he hurt when he couldn't control them? dwayne shared his workbook with us. >> oh, the first one was my mother and i'm her son and i have damaged this relationship by letting her down. >> reporter: because you wound up in riker's? >> yeah. >> reporter: and what else does it say? >> to be a good successful son. that's my goal in this relationship. >> reporter: dwayne's mother, sharon goveia, had watched our interview. what did he mean did you think by-- that he had let you down? >> because he knows i have high expectations for him. i want him to be something, i want him to, you know, strive and be the best that he can be, you know, so. >> reporter: and being in riker's is not a part of that... >> exactly. but, i think he learned from it. >> reporter: but to learn, you've got to attend. it takes dwayne arthur more than an hour to get here. >>eoplcan only help themselves. but, if they come here, it's going to help them. >> reporter: of 100 people who take this program, what percentage, how many do you think would not, will not, go back to riker's? >> if they came to the program? 90 of them. 90 out of 100. >> reporter: but how many actually come? when this taping was first scheduled in december we had lined up another boy, named carl, to interview. but we had to reschedule for february, and by then carl had stped comingegularly. that raises a red flag to social impact bond skeptics like marc rosenman. >> ultimately it will result in creaming. >> reporter: creaming? >> cherry picking participants, selecting the easiest people to work with and no matter how well intentioned you are, if you know ultimately that being able to repay your investors is dependent on how well you meet a narrow benchmark, the temptation of beginning to operate in a way that is more likely to produce those outcomes i think, is gnifant. >> reporter: that's gaming the system? >> it will be gaming the system. >> reporter: but as susan gottesfeld points out, the m.r.t. program, and the social impact bond issue that funds it, seek to reach every young person on riker's island, period. and the evaluation will look at whether, overall, it reduces recidivism, or it doesn't. the skeptic would say, "these are great goals but you're likely not to achieve them." >> well, i would say thai believe we will. we see change every day in our classrooms and, you know, in a year from now, two years from now, we'll really see for sure. >> reporter: and so we will. stay tuned. >> woodruff: next, a treasure trove of cubist art and a record gift for the metropolitan museum of art in new york. margaret warner has more. >> warner: philanthropist leonard lauder-- heir to t estee lauder estate-- is giving the met his entire collection of cubist art. the 78 paintings, drawings and sculptures are valued together at more than $1 billion. they include 33 pieces by pablo picasso, like "woman in an arm chair" from 1913. 17 works by georges braque, including "bottle of rum" from 1914 and other major pieces by fernand leger and juan gris. for more on the collection and its significance, we turn to rebecca rabinow, a curator from the met's department of modern and contemporary art. she joins us from san francisco. thank you for joining us. what is the-- how unusual and how important is this bequest, both as a body of work and in itself, and also for the met? >> it's extraordinary in every possible way. on the one hand, you have eye collector who has really focused so intently, and so in-depth at one particular moment buying the best of the best. so it's an extraordinary collection. andn ving it to the metropolitan museum of art, mr. lauder has transformed our holdings. especially the 20th century art. he understands this was a big lack of the collection, and by gives us extraordinary works, cubist works it can can help i tell the important story of modern art. he also understands it is an encyclopedic museum. so from our point of view, this is a transrmative gift of the highest caliber. >> woodruff: and help us understand cubism. it's often described, of course, as revolutionary. what was revolutionary in the way cubist artists portrayed the world? >> so, you're talking about george brack, and pablo picasso, two young artists working in paris. in 1908, there was an exhibition of brack's work, at a gallery in paris. and it was at that gallery that a critic coined the term "cubism." he felt brack was using geometric shapes to reproduce objects of art in that sense. by 1909, brack and picasso were inseparable. they became great friends. they went to each other's studios each day, they vacationed together, and they began to look at art and art's possibility in an entirely new way. they began to emphasize that two-dimensional aspect of a painted surface. they were interested in break up contours and creating a facetted surface, looking at one work o art from multiple points of view simultaneously. so what the cubist did was absolutely revolutionary for themselves, but also in the way it inspired other artists. >> let's take picasso's "nude woman in a chair." how does that illustrate cubism as you just described it. >> that painting which is a masterpiece in and of itself, about three feet tall, is a perfect example of how cubism bridged late 19th century art into the 20th century, beau picassoas ver interested in the art of sezahn. sezahn had recently died. there was a ret prospect 55. and what picasso is doing in that painting is he is looking at cezan's paintings of his own life. but now picasso is starting to break apart the forms. it's clearly identifiable as a woman and yet he's showing her from multiple perspectives simultaneously. he's starting to reduce or simplify parts of her anatomy into geometric forms. that painting really in many ways is aonderful link. it shows picasso looking back to what came before and also looking forward to see his new direction. >> warner: could any museum, even with a large budget for acquisitions, go out on the market today, and acquire a collection of this kind of size and depth in one field? >> it would be absolutely impossible to replicate mr. lauder's collection. these important cubist works are simply not on the market. inrivate hands. his collection is not only about fantastic works of art. he bought the best of the best. but he was a scholar collector in many ways. he was interested not only in sort of the formal values, how these pictures look, how they function within an artist's career, but interested in them as objects as well and histories, and this collection has works that passed through the most important cubist hands, the most important cubist collector's works. he had pictures in his collection that were exhibited in historic exhibition, like the armorexhibiti of 1913, which introduced modernism to american audiences. so his collection is a collection of firsts. it's a collection of masterpieces. it is absolutely impossible to replicate, and we are just thrilled to be able to have it at the met for the enjoyment of everyone. >> warner: and the public will get to see this next year in a special exhibition. thank you so much. >> woodruff: and you can find a slide show of works from the lauder collection online on art beat. >> ifill: finally tonight, a conversation with a cuban dissident. >> one of the most famous living cubans not named castro. for the six years, the online posts about life in cuba have reacted millions of readers in the world. in 2002, sanchez fled cube abut unlike most cubans who leave, she returned two years later to press for change on the island. the last decade has seen change. earlier this year, the gernment lifted theravel ban allowing most citizens freedom to come and go. sanchez is now in the middle of a three-continent tour where she's openly criticized the cuban government. while in new york, she sat down with one of our media colleague as wliw in new york. he talked with sanchez about life under a totalitarian re. >> you wrote when you returned to cube awe promid yourself you would live in cuba as a free person, regardless of the consequences. what have been the consequences. >> ( translated ): well, yes, i told myself that i wouldn't return to the mask, i wouldn't return to the pretense. i tbhowltd return to the silence. from that moment a new chapter began in my life, one that brought with it many reprisals and consequences. forecast being watched. being stopped by state security, knowing that anywhere i go there could be someone informing, filming and photographing what i do, and losing many friends, friends who are afraid to come close to my house or to me. also, the arbitrary detentions, the arrests, the insultz, the threat, the not being able to leave my country for five years. >> reporter: how much have things changed in cuba since fidell handed over power to his where the brother raul, almost seven years ago. >> i can categorically say nothing has advanced in terms of civil rights. i do notice a change in the repression. there has been a change in style rather than the change or t better. raul's style is repressing without leading legal finger prints. people are condemned to long prison stbsz, while raul has used more cult methods. >> how do you respond to those who say the very fact that you're here speak freely and critically about the cuban government shows there have been profound changes in cuba? >> ( trslat ): think the fact they and several other activists have been able to leave cuba in the last few weeks and have been express ourselves through the microphones of the world is not a sign of transformation but of weakness. the cuban government can no longer hold back what's happening. it can't stop it for many reasons, but fundamentally, because of the growing number of critical voices within cuba, and also because technology has allowed us to gain visibility, which is protecting us. social networks like facebook and twitter now terse as a protective shield for us. >> reporter: but as you know, a lot of the supporters of the government say that there hasn't been a manifestation, a rebellion against the system, because many cubeans, or most cubans, if not all, support system and they support it because they want to protect the social conquests of the revolution, like health care and free education. how do you respond to that? >> ( translated ): well, let me respond with a metaphor i like very much. the metaphor of the bird in the cage. to say that cubans have settled for a change of limited liberties in exchange for some bird seed and wat-- which would be in this case the education and health care systems -- i think would be very unjust. it's very unjust to reduce us to a condition of serveility, of incapable of enjoying liberty. this is completely false. cubeans want to fly. we want to leave the cage, just as any individual in any part planet would want. the problem is the cage is very well made. the bars very thick. and by the way, neither the bird feed nor the water is all that woerfu either. >> reporter: the man who many considered the havel of cube adied last year in a car accident under very mysterious circumstances. are you in any way afraid of your physical well-being, of your safety, when you return to cuba? >> ( translated ): when you live under a totalitarian regime and know that danger and risk can come from everywhere, the fear of death, of physical harm, of stress to your family, of social and physical death can lead you to paralysis, to doing othing, inhe hope that one day, the regime will forget about you or forgive you. or you can simply continue to struggle. there are many ways to react to fear. i tell my friends that since i was very little, whenever something frightened me, i would run towards it. others may hide or stay under the bed, but fear will never stop me from doing what i do. >> reporter: what are your hopes for the future of cuba? >> i would be happy with a pluralistic cube aan inclusive cuba thatan fit all cubans. basically a cuba that is difficult to govern, where there are long discussions in the legislature, just to change one line of a law, and where those who govern don't see themselves as chosen mesigh as, or think they have the right to exercise any power other than that grant them as sovereign citizens. i would be happy with that, with a cuba that accepts plurality and accepts it. >> ifill: you can find a link to the full version of that interview on our website. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day: president obama unveiled his 2014 budget plan, calling for savings in medicare and social security, plus more tax hikes for the wealthy. and a bipartisan proposal emerged in the senate, expanding background checks to nearly all gun buyers. >> ifill: it's spring in washington, and the cherry blossoms have arrived. hari sreenivasan tells us how scientists are working to keep the trees blooming. >> sreenivasan: more than one million visitors flock to washington, d.c. each spring to view the cherry trees. but the stock of original trees is rapidly depleting. oncience wednesday, learn about the effort to not just replace them, but to clone them. all that and more is on our website: newshour.pbs.org. gwen? >> ifill: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. on thursday, we'll cover the full senate debate on new gun laws. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. we'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening. thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> more than two years ago, the people of b.p. made a commitment to the gulf. and everyday since, we've worked hard to keep it. today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone to enjoy. we shared what we've learned so that we can alproduce energy more safely. b.p. is also committed to america. we support nearly 250,000 jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. our commitment has never been stronger. >> support also comes from carnegie corporation of new york, a foundation created to do what andrew carnegie called "real and permanent good." celebrating 100 years of philanthropy at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. 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