corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thanks for joining us. senate republican leaders are working to get votes to pass their replacement for obamacare, as five of the 52 republican senators publicly oppose the bill in its current form. the senate bill, like the house bill that passed last month, phases out extra federal funds going to 31 states that expanded medicaid-- the insurance program for the poor-- under obamacare. both bills keep the obamacare rule preventing insurance companies from dropping anyone with a pre-existing condition, but allow states to make up the costs by dropping essential benefits. both versions repeal the mandate that everyone have insurance. the online news service, vox, reported today one possible change in the senate bill: penalize people who allow a lapse in their insurance coverage, by making them wait six months to be eligible to buy a new policy. in his weekly address, president trump said the republican plan will lead to lower insurance premiums and more insurers participating in the marketplace. >> democrats in congress created this calamity, and now if we don't act, millions more americans will be hurt by obamacare's deepening death spiral. >> sreenivasan: saudi arabia says it has foiled a terrorist plot targeting the holiest site in islam. saudi security forces said today they thwarted a would-be suicide bomber who intended to blow himself up last night, at the grand mosque in mecca, where millions of worshippers have gathered this weekend to mark the end of the holy month of ramadan. saudis officials say the attacker was cornered in a three-story apartment building near the mosque, and when he refused to surrender, he blew himself up. the building collapsed, and eleven people were injured. saudi officials did not identify the plotter, though isis militants have carried out attacks in the kingdom as recently as last year. both isis and the taliban have claimed responsibility for yesterday's end of ramadan car bombing in pakistan, at a police checkpoint in the southwestern city of quetta. the attack killed 14 people, including seven soldiers. pakistani officials said today the death toll from separate, twin bombings in a crowded market in the city of parachinar has risen to at least 67 people, with many of the wounded in critical condition. a different sunni extremist group claimed responsibility for those attacks. in southwestern china, more than 120 people were missing under tons of mud and debris today after a landslide buried their village. rescuers searched for survivors after the side of a mountain in sichuan province suddenly gave way after heavy rainfall. early on, they recovered 15 bodies from the rubble. this was the biggest landslide in the region since the massive earthquake there in 2008. in syria, two small steps toward reconciliation in the country's six-year-old civil war. today, the government of bashar al-assad freed 672 prisoners after they agreed to syrian rule. some of the released prisoners said they'd been arrested for anti-government actions. separately today, a fledgling civil council expected to govern the city of raqqa once isis is vanquished there, pardoned 83 of the group's jihadist militants. the civil council, expected to take over raqqa once it falls to u.s.-backed rebels, said it pardoned the captured militants-- the youngest only 14-- as a goodwill gesture. a french television journalist covering the fight to retake the city of mosul from isis has died. veronique robert, working for the france-2 channel, was wounded in a mine explosion on monday. she was later flown to a paris hospital for treatment. the same explosion killed another french journalist and an iraqi colleague. robert was 54-years-old. she's the 29th journalist killed in iraq since 2014, according "" reporters without borders." >> sreenivasan: military veterans' groups are applauding the bipartisan-backed law president trump signed yesterday to improve the veterans administration. it creates a new v.a. accountability office, and makes it easier for the v.a. to fire problematic employees, in a department whose hospitals have been criticized for lapses in care for america's 19 million veterans. associated press reporter darlene superville has been covering this story and joins me now from washington. this is kind of a rare glimmer of bipartisanship. >> it is a rare glimmer of bipartisanship. and bipartisanship is easy to achieve when you're talking about military veterans and the people in this country who voluntarily go into harm's way in defense of the united states. remember-- you may remember that the v.a. secretary, david shulkin, who is a holdover from the obama administration, when he went before the senate to be confirmed to become the veteran affairs secretary, the confirmation vote was 100-0, and that's something that donald trump talks about quite a bit when he's talking about veterans' issues. >> sreenivasan: i remember the scandal that started this. i mean, this was in phoex. this was a few years ago, it even caused secretary eric shinseki his job. refresh us a little bit on what caused this. >> well, it was uncovered that at the v.a. medical center in phoenix, staff there were keeping separate waiting lists of veterans that were waiting for appointments. they were trying to cover up the long waits that were-- that it was taking for veterans to get their appointments with their doctors. data was being falsified, and throughout a lot of this, it was found that some veterans actually died while they were waiting for care. it cost eric shinseki his job as v.a. secretary, as you mentioned, and caused congress to start thinking about ways to transform the v.a. and to help get veterans the care that they need and to get it faster. >> sreenivasan: and this law >> sreenivasan: and this law also offers some protection for whistleblowers. it's often the way we hear about these things, problems in the v.a. or veterans who are the victims of poor care or lack of care or people inside who want to see something change. >> right, it does offer some new protections for whistleblowers. president trump is also creating a complaint hot line at the white house, which is undergoing some testing right now, for veterans and others to call in with complaints and that kind of thing. so he's putting a little bit of a premium on protecting whistleblowers and the kind of people who bring these situations to light. >> sreenivasan: you know, how long did some of these employees have this sort of protection and who was opposed to this kind of legislation? is it the-- is it the kind of unions that are-- these employees are members of, or kind of career service individuals? >> mostly, it's been the employee unions, the unions that represent the career workers in the united states government, some of whom are afraid that some of the changes under this law would do two things-- one, would allow the v.a. secretary and other top officials in that department to sort of target employees for political purposes, rather than actual job performance issues, which is what this is supposed to be about. and the other issue that concerns a lot of the unions is the fact that they see what's happening or what is about to happen at the v.a. as part of a broader push across the government to change civil service rules, make it easier to get rid of employees. as you may know, donald trump, president donald trump, wants to shrink the size of the federal government, and a lot of agencies are currently looking for ways to do that. >> sreenivasan: all right, darlene superville of the associated press, thanks so much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: before he left office, president obama ended the practice of incarcerating people convicted of federal crimes in privately-run, for profit prisons. earlier this year, the trump administration reversed that. the obama administration said the decision was based on declining prison populations and safety concerns. but as the trump administration intensified its crackdown on illegal immigration, and pushed to preserve stiff sentencing practices like mandatory minimums, attorney general jeff sessions said the government needs the flexibility and resources provided by private prison companies. in tonight's signature segment, newshour weekend's ivette feliciano takes a closer look at the debate. >> reporter: tucked between oil fields in central california's kern valley is the taft correctional institution. craig apker has been the warden for the past three years. >> i simply want to run and be part of the best prison ever. >> reporter: taft is a low- security prison that has dorm- style housing, a medical unit, and offers prisoners high school equivalency classes and work- training programs. warden apker asked us not to record video for security reasons, but he allowed us to take these photos-- later reviewed and cleared by a prison official. >> it really comes down to how we operate our institutions. do we have mngful programs? do we have a respectful relationship with the inmates? >> reporter: on the surface, taft looks a lot like the more than 100 facilities overseen by the federal bureau of prisons. but this one is operated by a private, for-profit company: management and training corporation, or m.t.c. as with all privately-run federal prisons, taft has two bureau of prison monitors on site to enforce compliance with federal guidelines. before starting his job with m.t.c., apker worked 28 years for the b.o.p., including ten as a warden. >> i didn't just change how i view my responsibilities, my belief in what we do here, because i'm in the private sector. i brought with me the same need to try... try to achieve excellence. >> reporter: taft is one of the 11 low-security federal prisons run by m.t.c. or two larger private prison companies, corecivic and the geo group. saving money was one reason the government initially turned to private prisons. the bureau of prisons says they cost on average $17 a day less per prisoner to operate, suggesting those 11 facilities save taxpayers $144 million a year. a 2016 study by the brookings institution found those savings are achieved primarily by hiring fewer correctional officers and paying them less. another reason for turning to private prisons was overcrowding. between 1980 and 2013, with the advent of harsher sentencing laws like mandatory minimums for drug crimes, the federal prison population increased eight-fold. a big part of that increase was a massive spike in prosecutions of immigrants accused of coming back to the u.s. after deportation, or "illegal reentry." the b.o.p. relies on those 11 private prisons, like taft, to house non-citizen offenders. at two of those prisons, in texas and in mississippi, there were riots in 2009 and 2012 following the deaths of several inmates in custody. the incidents sparked investigations by the justice department's inspector general, michael horowitz. >> in one of those riots, a... a correctional officer was killed. many other inmates and correctional officers were injured. several of these riots had followed complaints by inmates about staffing, correctional staffing, healthcare staffing; concerns about the provision of food and other services. the b.o.p. had not held the prisons accountable and made sure that they had in fact taken the actions that they needed to take. >> reporter: the inspector general's findings after the riots led to a broader four-year investigation that compared federal privately-run prisons to similar government-run facilities. the report revealed that, per capita, privately-run facilities had more contraband smuggled in; more lockdowns and uses of force by correctional officers; more assaults both by inmates on other inmates and by inmates on correctional officers; more complaints about medical care, staff, food, and conditions of confinement; and two facilities were housing inmates in solitary confinement to free up bed space. the findings also highlighted chronic understaffing as the root of many problems. >> it goes right to the core of making sure that there are enough correctional officers to watch over the inmates; to make sure that... that all inmates are maintained in a secure and safe environment; and that correctional officers, very critically, are safe from the inmates. >> reporter: horowitz also faulted the b.o.p. itself for failing to hold the companies accountable to their contract requirements, contracts worth more than $500 million each year. so, how are these things falling through the cracks? >> because there isn't effective oversight going on. the responsibility primarily falls on the b.o.p. with ntracts.are substantialontracts, >> reporter: the bureau of prisons agreed to implement his recommended reforms, but the companies disputed the inspector general's findings, telling newshour weekend what they told the justice department-- that the investigation didn't account for how their largely non- citizen inmate populations are more difficult to manage. one positive note for private prisons: the inspector general did find their inmates passed more drug tests and faced fewer accusations of sexual misconduct than inmates in government-run institutions. last august, president obama's justice department decided all b.o.p. contracts with private companies would be phased out. >> i was disappointed. i... i think the critics tend to view a private corrections company as being bottom line- driven to the extent that shortcuts, in an effort to save money, lower quality. but i have never been asked to take a shortcut to address any bottom-line concerns here at taft. never. >> i know that you want safe neighborhoods where the streets belong to families and communities. >> reporter: this year, the trump administration reversed the decision to phase out the bureau of prisons' private contracts. stock prices for corecivic and the geo group, which had plummeted after the obama directive, have soared since election day. >> for the private prison industry, the trump administration is an enormous gift. >> reporter: carl takei heads the american civil liberties union's prison project. >> all of the expansion of immigration detention, the revival of the war on drugs, the increased criminal prosecution of immigrants, and the longer sentences for immigration prosecutions, all add up to an enormous boondoggle for the private prison industry. >> reporter: immigration and customs enforcement already houses more than 70% of its detainees in privately-run facilities, and president trump supports a new mandatory minimum sentence of five years for illegal reentry. takei is concerned the companies have a profit incentive to keep prisoners in the criminal justice system longer. >> you could end up in a circumstance where you get arrested, held in a geo group jail, serve your sentence in a geo group prison, get released to a geo group halfway house, and then end up supervised on a geo group g.p.s. monitor. and this is extraordinarily dangerous because it allows the private prison companies to manipulate the demand for their own products. >> reporter: while the federal bureau of prisons incarcerates about 20,000 individuals in private facilities, state and local governments house more than four times that amount, with over 90,000 people in private institutions. texas is among the top states using private prisons. the industry's contracts here in the state are worth hundreds of millions of dollars every year. texas, which has the nation's largest prison population, began using private prisons in the 1980s and houses the highest number of state inmates inside them. have you been satisfied with what you've seen? >> so far, everything's been working good. >> reporter: since january, sheriff mark johnson has overseen the 96-bed fannin county jail in bonham, texas. he says hiring the geo group to run the jail is saving the county money. >> it is expensive to operate one of these things. is there money to be made in it? yeah. >> reporter: the money the companies make often includes reimbursements from local governments for jail and prison beds that go unused, falling short of occupancy quotas in the contracts. would you recommend geo to a neighboring county that was looking to deal with overcrowding? >> absolutely. i think it would be a... a benefit to them. i haven't seen anybody here that i wouldn't be happy to have on my team working for me. yes, it would be a huge concern to think that they weren't doing what they're supposed to be doing and that the prisoners weren't being treated right, being given their basic needs, their everyday needs that are required by law. >> reporter: a 2008 report by the texas legislature found that staff at private prisons were generally paid less than their state counterparts and had much higher turnover rates. since 2011, with a declining prisoner population, the state has closed three private prisons, and, to save money, the legislature has proposed closing three more. >> sheriff. >> reporter: sheriff johnson says whether his jail is run by the county or a private company, ultimately, he's the one responsible for oversight. >> under law, there's no getting out of it. it says the sheriff is the conservator of the people and shall maintain and operate a jail and to be responsible for those inmates, and that... that is our responsibility. but when something bad happens to one of them, the lawsuit is going to have my name right at the top of it. >> sreenivasan: currently, 30 states have laws on the books that allow geographic communities to break away from large public school districts and form their own. as a result, a growing number of predominantly white, middle class neighborhoods are doing just that, and taking their local property taxes with them. that makes racial and economic disparities in adjacent school districts even worse. almost 50 communities have seceded since the year 2000, according to the nonprofit" edbuild" and a story this week in "u.s. news and world report"" u.s. news" education reporter lauren camera wrote that story, and joins me now from washington. lauren, let's just break down how secession of a school district works. you took a look at a story in alabama. >> this recently came to light when a school district in alabama, jefferson county school district, which includes birmingham, a community there, which is majority white, and middle class-- it's called gardendale-- and for a while, they have been wanting to splinter off under the guise of controlling more of their local property taxes, which, of course, make up the bulk of any school's budget. and as you mentioned in your introduction, hari, this is actually legal in 30 states. there are policies on the books allowing communities to do this if they so wish. and, actually, you know, it's not just in alabama. we're seeing this happen across the entire country. since 2000, more than 70 communities have tried to do this. 47 have succeeded. >> sreenivasan: i'm assuming that the rationale behind it is, "hey, we want to keep our schools great. we are pouring all of our property tax into it. we want to keep this around where our kids are actually going to benefit from it." but there's a flip side to that. >> yeah, absolutely. when a community that is wealthier or has higher property tax rates, when they splinter off from their larger school district, that creates this financial hole in the school district that they leave behind. you know, in education policy, we talk a lot about subgroup performance and achievement gaps, and a lot of times that focuses on the difference between students of color and white students, for example. but really the fastest growing gap is between socioeconomic indicators. so, poor students and their wealthier peers, that is the fastest growing gap in the u.s. today. >> sreenivasan: you point out there are nine active secession is list across the u.s.:ff. alabama, california, georgia, louisiana, north carolina, tennessee, vermont, and wisconsin. do the states, of the 30 that allow for this, have to study any sort of potential impact? what happens when a secession occurs to those surrounding school districts? >> only a handful actually require that the district look into the impact of the racial-- the racial impact, the socioeconomic impact, and the financial impact of the communities splintering off. in tennessee, for example, the only thing that they require for a community to splinter off is that the municipality must have more than 1,500 students. and, also, the majority of the residents in the municipality that wants to splinter off, they must agree with that move. so that means they're not taking into account anyone, any of the residents who live in the larger school district that they're splintering off from. >> sreenivasan: lauren camera, thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> this is pbs newshour weekend, saturday. >> sreenivasan: since a june 14 high-rise fire killed 79 people in london, british authorities have inspected more than 600 similar apartment buildings across england. so far, 34 apartment towers have failed fire safety tests. and last night, 4,000 residents in one london community were abruptly ordered to evacuate. itn's mike griffiths has more. >> reporter: gathering what they could, they made their way into the night. thousands of people facing weeks of uncertainty. fire experts say the cladding outside is possibly unsafe. inside, poor insulation on gas pipes, missing fire doors, along with other defects. some residents, like shirley phillips, spent the night in a neighbor center. >> i think we're all running on adrenaline, and we're getting stressed out at the moment, because we're not being kept informed what's going to happen, where we're going. >> they said the building is going to be investigated until two to four weeks from now. so they said that they'll try their best to provide us temporary accommodation. >> it's disgusting! absolutely awful! all these kids are homeless! >> reporter: the prime minister says the u.k. government will support councils but stopped short of saying all costs will be covered. >> the government is working with those local authorities affected by this issue to ensure that they're able to do what is necessary on the ground to reassure people about the safety of their blocks, if it is necessary to evacuate people and take action to make those-- those tower blocks safe. and the government is supporting local authorities to do that. >> reporter: campaigners say the defects are proof that current regulations need to change. >> we do not have the checks and balances required for what is essentially complex building works in modern day. >> reporter: that debate will continue. the residents have already spent one night away from home. they face many more before they can return. >> sreenivasan: finally, cyber security officials in britain are investigating what they ca"" a sustained and determined" cyber attack on parliament. they say hackers tried-- and failed-- to identify weak email passwords used by house of commons members. and here at home, one-of-a-kind crime memorabilia was auctioned off today in boston. on the block were such items as al capone's sparkling pocket watch, featuring the mobster's initials spelled out by 23 diamonds. and belonging to bonnie parker, of the bonnie and clyde barrow bank-robbing team, a jewel- studded promise ring with a three-headed snake. that's it for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust-- supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. announcer: explore new worlds and new ideas through programs like this, made available for everyone through contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. 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