surrendering. in a mentally ill prisoner dies in solitary confinement in new york's rikers island. >> when you put a person in the shu brought to two months, six months, you are breaking this person's mental capacity down to zero. he did something bad, fine. but treat him as a human being, not like an animal. he has rights. >> we will look at mounting pressure on jails and prisons to reform their use of solitary confinement. we will speak with the psychiatrist who is helping to reduce violence and prisons in the president of the texas correctional employees, the union which represents texas prison guards. they have called for the state to reduce the use of solitary confinement, including on death row, saying solitary confinement makes prisoners more violent. then we go to the us-mexico border where a phoenix man who was deported to mexico will attempt to reunite with his family today by crossing back into the united states. i think they deported me for the hunger strike that was happening at ice and all the pressure they were creating. i want to return because i family is there, more than anything else. >> all of that and more coming up. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the sign-up deadline for health insurance under obamacare closed monday with a surge in enrollment nationwide. hundreds of thousands of people flooded the federal website as well as local offices in multiple states. the obama administration says it expects to will surpass its original goal of 7 million enrollees. at the white house, press secretary jay carney said the program had overcome the botched rollout of six months ago. >> there has been a remarkable story since the dark days of october and november, which has resulted in a situation where here on the last day of enrollment, we are looking at numbers substantially larger than 6 million. i'd hear say there are few people in this room, including some of the folks who work in the white house, would have predicted that we would get to that number. >> the federal website stopped working for several hours monday after software glitch. the deadline has been extended until mid april for those who tried to sign up, but were unable to complete their in roman. some estimates have put the number of previously uninsured receiving coverage under obamacare at as high as nine .5 million. the program marks the nations largest expansion of health coverage since the creation of medicare and medicaid in 1965. leaked details of a still classified senate report on bush era torture and edition show the cia misled the public and the extent of its prisoner abuses in the intelligence gained as result. according to "the washington post," senate investigators have concluded that cia's torture produced no information on top al qaeda leaders, including any information that led to the discovery and killing of osama bin laden. one u.s. official said -- in certain cases, cia operatives continued to torture prisoners even after it was decided they had no more information to provide. the report also exposes previously undisclosed torture tactics, including repeatedly dunking prisoners in tanks of ice water. the report has set off a public clash between the cia and the senate intelligence committee, with accusations of cia's spying on the panel's work. the intelligence committee is set to vote this week on whether to recommend to classifying the report summary and key findings. motorso giant general faces congressional hearings today on the safety scandal behind at least 12 and possibly hundreds of deaths. gm has recalled millions of cars after a knology and faulty ignition switches shut down engines and disabled airbags. documents released over the past several weeks show gm mess -- misled victims families, despite being made aware of its vehicles flaws. federal regulators also took no action despite the findings of its own investigators. ahead of today's hearing, or christian, the mother of a 16-year-old gm crash victim, spoke out to reporters. >> i talk to gm again. i simply wanted to give them my contact information to the other families, the other victims families, the hope to get us all together and maybe he'll a little bit. but they pretty much have refused to do that. apparently, the only thing that would listen to are things that affect their bottom line. it is just a shame that corporations like gm feel that they might be large enough to hide the truth from the public, but in this day and age, there are many people like me who will seek to uncover that information. there is no more hiding. >> her 16-year-old daughter amber died after crashing her 2005 chevrolet cobalt in july of that year, month after gm had internally recognized the models to effective ignition switch. on monday, another 1.5 million cars were recalled, this time over power steering column. around 6 million gm cars of nubbin recalled this year. secretary of state john kerry visited israel and the occupied territories on monday in a bid to prevent the collapse of u.s.-brokered peace talks. some 26 palestinian prisoners were due for release over the weekend, but israel says it will now only release them at the palestinian authority agrees to extend the talks beyond next month's deadline. israelffort to convince to follow through on its pledge, the obama administration is reportedly considering an early release for the jailed spy jonathan pollard. pollard is a former u.s. intelligence officer convicted of passing u.s. secrets onto israel. he is due for release next year, but could be freed under a rumored agreement to salvage the peace talks. at the white house, press secretary jay carney declined to deny that pollard did see an early release. -- could see an early release. >> on the release of prisoners, this is a complicated issue that is being worked through with the parties. i'm not going to get into details about that. with regards to mr. pollard, he is a person convicted of espionage and serving his sentence, and i don't have any update on the situation. >> russia has begun what it calls a partial withdrawal of forces from its eastern border with ukraine. around 500 troops are said to a pullback so far. the buildup of russian forces has emerged as a key point of contention between russia and nato countries in the aftermath of last month's annexation of crimea. nato countries are meeting a brussels today to discuss additional measures in response to the standoff with russia. the world court has ordered japan to stop whaling in the antarctic, rejecting claims of scientific research. shepherd conservation society welcomed the ruling. >> i did not know if japan would proceed with their whaling. they may find it for graham in the future. but at the moment, i feel that they should fulfill their obligations. [indiscernible] three al jazeera journalist appeared in an egyptian court on monday where they were allowed to testify for the first time since being detained at last year. peter greste and two others are accused of a longing to orating the muslim brotherhood deemed by the government a terrorist organization. in brief testimony, the three denied having ties to the brotherhood them and cited her longtime work as journalists. the trial is been adjourned until next week. a death row prisoner several execution of mississippi has won a new trial. michelle by room was convicted of killing her husband, even though her son confessed to the crime. her execution was slated for last week. on monday, the mississippi supreme court said she is entitled to a new trial before a new judge. a wealthy heir to the du pont family chemical fortune has avoided prison, despite been convicted of raping his three-year-old daughter. the delaware superior judge jan sparedsaid he should be jail time because he would not fare well behind bars. he ruled the treatment exceeds the need for punishment. a reasoning almost never used in the case of child rape is. he is the great-grandson of billionaire family patriarch. the case has drawn comparisons to last her sentencing of a wealthy texas teenager who avoided jail time for killing four people while driving drunk after claiming he suffered from affluenza. the u.s. is facing renewed pressure on financing climate aid for poor countries in the aftermath of the human report running of global warming has impact. they said on monday would have dire consequences for the world's poorest countries and urged rich countries most responsible for greenhouse emissions to help them adapt. the report cited a world bank study calling on rich countries to provide climate aid of as ,uch as $100 billion per year of which the u.s. would be responsible for up to $30 billion. the panel chair said climate change is becoming an issue of global security. >> there is a reason for the thed not really neglecting findings of this report, because they are profound. let me repeat once again, we have said categorically in this report the implications for human security, we have reasons to believe that the world doesn't do anything about mitigating the emissions and the extent of climate change theinues to increase, than very social stability of human systems could be at stake. >> and the malaysian human rights activist orang fernandez has died at the age of 67. fernandez faced government persecution for her devotion to championing the rights of women, migrants, and a mystic workers. she endured malaysia's longest ever trial on charges of spreading "false news" after criticizing the treatment of migrant workers. after 13cquittal years. she was awarded the right livelihood award in 2005 "for her outstanding and courageous work to stop violence against women and abuses of migrant and poor workers." and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with renee feltz . >> welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. we begin today's show in albuquerque, new mexico, where hundreds marched over the weekend to protest the spate of deadly police shootings. the march began peacefully, lasting at least eight hours. it ended when police fired tear gas at demonstrators who blocked traffic. albuquerque is one of the highest per capita rates of fatal police shootings in the country. in the latest incident, police killed a homeless man named jens boyd who appeared to be surrendering to them at a campsite where he was sleeping. >> video from a police helmet camera shows boyd picking up his belongings and turning away from the police when the officers deployed a flash grenade and fire six live shots at him from yards away -- after he picks of his belongings and appears to turn away. elyse fired bean bags and let loose a police dog is boyd lay on the ground, still alive, pleading with officers not to hurt him and saying he could not move. this is a clip from the albuquerque police video of their encounter with james boyd. boyd died from his injuries the next day. after footage of the police shooting him with viral, the hacker group anonymous called on people in albuquerque to protest. has beenly, a video released to the public which shows albuquerque police officers murdering a man in cold blood for illegally camping. this man, which was schizophrenic, had no intention of hurting these police officers . on the contrary, this man looked as if he is simply attempting to protect himself from militarized thugs. we drastically need to address the growing police that has occupied our country. when will we say no more? how many more citizens will be murdered? naturally, the police will look to label anonymous as a tourist organization for our demands of justice. the question has to be asked, who do we terrorize? is it not a growing police state that terrorizes its own citizens? claimednday, anonymous responsibility for taking down the albuquerque police department's website for several hours. the department has come under federal scrutiny for being sinceed in 37 shootings 2010 -- 23 of them fatal. this week the fbi confirmed its investigating the killing of james boyd, and the justice department has already been investigating the city's police shootings for more than the year. we invited a spokesperson from the albuquerque police department to join us on our program, but we did not get a response. for more we go to albuquerque, new mexico, where we're joined by two guests. russell contreras as reporter for the associated press who was tear gas while covering sunday's protest and is been following the police shootings. nora tachias-anaya is a social justice activist whose nephew, george levy tachias, was fatally shot by police while he was driving in albuquerque in 1988. she is a member of the "october 22 coalition to stop police brutality." we welcome you both to democracy now! russell contreras, talked about the protest of the last few days and the particular police incident that sparked these latest protest. >> the group reported to be anonymous released a video calling for activists to take to the streets on sunday and also bound to hack the police website the same day. on sunday around a few hundred protesters showed up in downtown, marching to miles away to the university of new mexico, at which time over the course of 10 to 12 hours a marched back and forth. police, overall, the protest was pretty peaceful. as night progressed, demonstrators got more aggressive. one particular person climbed a street pole and attempted to take it down. people were angry. they were all over the place in terms of demand. at which time later in the evening or the afternoon police in riot gear showed up. in the evening, there were some tear gas canisters fired a protesters by the university of new mexico. and again in downtown albuquerque when protesters showed up at police headquarters. over that course, it was generally peaceful, but there were interactions with demonstrators and police officers at certain spots. for the most part, police did not do much until the end. what we found out later is there was never a 911 -- there were a number of 911 calls from residents. it seems overall the demonstration was peaceful. protest e a number of ers that have family members or had friends that were shot by and experienced excessive force. one of them is requiring officers to wear lapel cameras in all interactions with the public. this has put the police under more scrutiny because now we are seeing police action in front of us, that they often now release video of various shootings and interactions with the public. now the public is seeing how police work is done. >> that is astounding because ed is a video that we've been showing and it is gone viral of the police shooting of james boyd. helmet of the the police officer, one of the police officers involved in this killing. >> last week, police chief gordon even said the shooting was justified after james boyd threatened as officers with knives. it albuquerque mayor richard berry ejected the chiefs assessment. >> he is new in this position, but that is no excuse. you should not of said that. but we all need to do on a horrific situation like this is thoroughly and copper easily go through the process. , can youl contreras talk about the reaction to the shooting from the police chief and from the mayor? the police chief is new, correct? he was recently selected from a nationwide search? roughly a is been the month. this was his first incident involving a police shooting. airing his press conference, myself and another reporter asked -- during his press conference, myself and another reporter asked if it was testified. he said yes. she recanted after the mayor said he spoke too soon. the investigation was still ongoing. after the remarks, the fbi announced they were going to look into the shooting more closely. this comes as the department itself is under a justice department investigation for more than a year over alleged cases of excessive force and a number of shootings. i think this comes at a time because we have this video and it generated so much anger and , that theiticism public is responding. >> nora, i want to bring you into this conversation, nora tachias-anaya, you're at the meeting last night of community members responded to the shooting and to all of the shootings, really. can you talk about what people were discussing last night, the reaction, and possible next steps? >> yes, we were brainstorming, trying to get something positive out of this. basically, we were trying to -- weome of the demands want to see the videos. most of the videos we have not seen. please, drop charges on the protesters because they have a right to protest. also, to indict the officers that did the shooting. >> were you meeting with the police? >> we were not meeting with the police. we were meeting with a lot of the coalitions that got ,ogether -- peace and justice some occupy were there, o22 was there. >> what are your thoughts about the mayor contradicting what the new police chief said? do you feel that he will push for a fair investigation of what has happened, not only to james boyd, but this remarkable number back to 2010 of 37 police shootings, 23 of which were fatal? kept outyor has just of it for the last two years that i have been involved. never coming out to say anything. so i have very little reliability of him. i would hope that he would finally come out and say that there are things that need to be fixed. >> nora coming you had your own experience -- >> and needed to be fixed a long time ago. >> you had your own loss in your family. can you talk about what happened, though it was years ago? >> yes. in 19 88, my nephew had just gotten out of granada in the special forces. the 82nd airborne. he was home for three months. he had a girlfriend that had gone to a party. he was at a party and there was a fight that broke out. accident,tten shot by and he carried her to his car thewas driving her down street. as he was doing so, the swat shot through the window. the trajectory was right through his heart. they both died that night. never once did they allow us to see the body. there was never closure. >> was there an explanation of why they shot your nephew dead? >> well, there were no witnesses. absolutely no witnesses. so the explanation was from what they thought might have happened. , i want tocontreras ask you about the reforms that are being proposed and the police officers who would carry them out there in new mexico. i want to read from one of your articles. you mentioned there may be a change in how the police academy trains officers from using reactive control model to what they call instead a reasonableness standard model. can you talk about this difference and what it means and what people are saying about the officers ability to carry this new model out, its practicality, and whether it might be too complicated? >> right now the state police trainingas changed its on use of deadly force. for years, this state, albuquerque police department and other agencies across new mexico, have been using the they call the reactive and troll model. this essentially puts police officers in a box. when someone draws a knife, the cadets are trained a police officer will immediately draw a gun. this old model, which is -- does not give any sort of room for an officer to use other technologies like taser's order other nonlethal force. this model has not been updated since 2003. what the state police academies attempted to do is adopt a model that has been used in other states. that means if a suspect draws a knife commit depending on where the officer he is, he or she may gun,a taser, may draw a take cover. they're basically given a number of options. this is coming at a time when state police itself was going through its own spike in police shootings. there had been press or -- pressure amongst agencies across the state to change the model. what we're seeing an albuquerque is a lot of officers involved in various shootings were trained on his old model. there has been criticism by some activists that said, well, this old model is actually easier for cadets to understand. are one of the poorest states in the country, and we have an educational system that is subpar, compared to other states. so some activists are saying, let's stick with the old model because it is easier to understand. however, it is an attempt by law enforcement agencies to say, it is time to update because it doesn't take into consideration new technologies developed. >> russell contreras, can you talk about the report i think in "the new york times" in 2012 that talked about an actual bounty, something like $1000 per killing that was given to albuquerque police officers? do i have that right? >> what would happen is when an officer was involved in a shooting, whether it was fatal or not, the officer was placed on administrative leave. the union would give the officer a certain amount of money to say, ok, here is some money to get out of town, or laxity or family -- relax with your family, digest. the union is arguing that the police officer was going through traumatic experience will stop this was an attempt by the union to say, we are looking out for you. since that broke, the union has pulled back. officials involved in that are no longer with the police union. they kind of told the story of what was happening in the culture of the police department. the reaction from elected officials was outraged because they did not know what was going on. it generally spoke to what the public was saying, look, we need massive reform. this was a couple of years ago. since then, they have -- that is one of the things they wanted to get rid of. >> talking about michael ms. who lost his son, unarmed, jubilee shooting and said, you're telling police if you shoot somebody, you're going to get paid leave and get $500. he said of the police should a person, they get this. what does the family get, the funeral bill? can you talk about who james boyd was, russell, what actually happened and the explanation that has been given when we see in the police on video as he is negotiating with police and they're telling him to come with them, he picks up his backpack. his back turns to them and that is when they shoot him six times with live ammunition as he is on the ground. they're telling him to drop a the ground. he is saying he can't move. they're hitting him with beanbags as well as stun grenade. then they sic a dog on him? >> exactly. what we know about the incident is the shooting that we see now is video that has gone viral, the end of a long standoff in the mountains in the foothills. when he was approached by officers, they approached and said they were trying to talk to him. they said you're camping illegally. video shown prior to that the police released, officers were attempting to frisk him and he pulls out a knife. the officers at the time who confronted him at first just pull out lasers. this confrontation went on for hours. according to police, he asked for a state police officer liaison. james boyd also said he was a federal agent. it seemed like the officers were concerned about his mental health. they called in some crisis management officers to come in will stop police say during the standoff, he threatened to kill a number of officers. when we see the tail end, even though he was surrendering, officers say based on what they knew, they had threatened officers -- yet threatened officers and police chief said this is the result of a number of threats. sayite that, authorities do there may have been some problems with the shooting and that is why it is under investigation now. in general, it was a long standoff. we don't see a lot of the video, but there was a lot of going back and forth with esther boyd and various officers. >> of course, what counts is what happened at the end. as they were talking this through. those moments. he was far from them, picking up his backpack will stop his back is turned to them as then they shoot him. russell contreras, thank you for being with us, ap reporter. nora tachias-anaya, thank you as well, member of the "october 22 coalition to stop police brutality." her nephew, george levy tachias, who was in the special forces in granada, back in new mexico, fatally shot by police when driving in albuquerque in 1988. we have the police video of the shooting of james boyd on our website at democracynow.org. when we come back, we're going to look at the growing movement to reform prisons in this country, particularly, solitary confinement. a prisoner at rikers island in solitary confinement died. stay with us. ♪ [music break] >> today's 30th anniversary of marvin gaye's debt. he was murdered. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with renee feltz . >> we turn now to look at mounting pressure on jails and prisons to reform their use of solitary confinement. correctionss a officer in new york city was arrested last week by fbi agents and charged with violating the civil rights of a mentally ill prisoner held in solitary confinement at the city's largest jail, cold rikers island. it was the first such arrested more than a decade. the prisoner who died was 25-year-old jason echevarria, who is diagnosed with bipolar disorder. in august 2012, he ate a packet of detergent given to him by a guard after his cell was flooded with sewage. he began vomiting and leading for medical help. according to evidence filed in the case against him, captain pendergrass repeatedly ignored reports that jason echevarria was ill. the one point he told the subordinate, he should be bothered unless there was a dead body. the next morning, jason echevarria was found dead in his cell. according to the medical examiner, the linings of his tongue and throat were burned off the soaps chemicals. >> jason echevarria's supporters recently rallied to call for pendergrass's firing. in this report, we hear from jason echevarria's father as he joins members of the jails action coalition. we also hear in detail about the use of solitary confinement at rikers island, from a former prisoner there named five mualimmak, who is since been released. >> my name is jennifer parrish. i am an attorney and a member of the jails action coalition. we are here to call attention to the death of jason echevarria, a young man who was in solitary confinement at rikers island. he was in crisis and needed medical attention all stop captain pendergrass refused data moved out of the cell. the bronx district attorney's office investigated because it was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner's office. they did not prosecute anyone. the department of corrections hires lower level officers and the captain, who is most responsible, still works at rikers island today. , i thinkr pendergrass you should've been handcuffed and taken to central booking and he should be in jail. solitary confinement to me as a torture box. when you put a person in the shu , you're breaking this person's mental capacity down to zero. they did something bad, fine, but treat them as a human being, not an animal. he's got right in this world. >> i am the executive director of the incarcerated nation campaign, which is the grassroots movement to support those incarcerated. oftentimes we let the correctional institutions paint the picture that solitary confinement contains the worst of the worse, like the hannibal lecter's of the world. the system itself is the worst of the worst. i spent 12 years in incarcerated, five years in solitary confinement. during my time in solitary confinement, i was tortured with sensory deprivation, being away from your loved ones and family members, being away from your children. my son missed me his entire life. when i first went to solitary was on rikers. there was a fight that broke out. they have a thing called prehearing detention. basically, everybody goes to the box. for a week or so you're in this cell for 24 hours a day, isolated with no property, no visitors. we are talking about city jail, not people convicted of crimes. my family has a me a book called "revolutionary suicide." that got me a ticket because i'm not allowed to have materials. i was sent to solitary for having too many pencils, too many postage stamps, for not getting out of the shower fast enough. i had a ticket for eating an apple. apple seeds contain arsenic. 4 forw 8 and 10 makes them. they add that up and you're not supposed to eat the core consort got a ticket for that. the nextel was so fearful, i did not want to eat the apple of all and i got another ticket for not eating the apple. there is light deprivation. you don't know what day turns into the next. you have a person who is emotionally damage mentally damaged, and they give you a bus ticket and $40 cash and send you back. i went from solitary confinement to one day, to the next day at 42nd street right off the bus. it is like the crash and attack on your centuries. i had been home a little over two years. you come out of incarceration, disenfranchised, you can't vote or get low income housing or city housing or federal housing. you can get social services, food stamps or medicaid. these are citizens returning back to the community. we are the financial capital the world, but also the torture capital of the world. we torture people four times over the national average. we have all of these prisons and jails. example tobe an humanely address the issues. ak,that was five mualimm talking about his time as a prisoner held in solitary confinement here in new york. in other developments at rikers island, mentally ill homeless veteran died last march -- last month as he was held in solitary mental observation unit where he was supposed to be checked on every 15 minutes. jerome murdo had been arrested for trespassing as he slept in a stairwell of a public housing building, and was kept in jail after he was unable to pay $2500 in bail. an official told the associated toss he "basically baked death" after temperatures soared and his cell. >> for more we're joined by two guests, dr. james gilligan is a clinical professor of psychiatry . last or she co-authored a report commissioned by the new york city board of correction that found the use of prolonged punitive segregation of the mentally ill in the city's jails violates the mental health minimum standards. the for that, he served on the faculty of the harvard medical school, where he was also director of the institute of law and psychiatry and directed mental health services for the massachusetts prisons and prison mental health hospital. and in houston, texas, we're joined by lance lowry. the texasident of correctional plays union, which represents taxes risen employees. in january he wrote an open letter to texas prison officials that called on them to reduce the use of solitary confinement, including on the state's death row. he said similar step should be taken in jails and prisons nationwide. texas has more than 7100 prisoners in solitary, including 2400 who are mentally ill -- among the highest in the nation. a new study by the american journal of public health found new york city jail inmates and to call it terri -- solitary confinement are nearly seven times more likely to inflict self harm and those never signed to it. welcome to democracy now! dr. gilligan, let's go back to this case. the corrections officer in the pendergrass, was just indicted. talk about what happened to this young man in solitary confinement. what happened with the soap? >> he was given a highly toxic antiseptic soap ball, which according to the jails on regulations, was not supposed to be given to prisoners the way it was. it was supposed to be diluted in gallons of water because it was highly toxic given straight. the correctional officer clearly was insufficiently trained and supervised by the administration of the jails. clearlycer was also unaware of the implications of the fact the inmate was mentally ill. you have a mentally ill man given a highly toxic substance, who then swallows it, tells the officers that he is in trouble, that he is in pain and vomiting. >> what is in the soap? >> it is an which is extremely toxic. >> special prison soap? >> it was being given because the toilet overflowed. the inmates were given the job of cleaning up their own cells with this highly toxic substance, which was supposed to be diluted so that it would not harm them. instead, it was just given him out right. he he was ignored after swallowed it. of course, this would be excruciatingly painful. it literally was burning the surface of his tongue off and killing him. he died. >> an officer pendergrass said, i'll be concerned when you show me a dead body. in thee other reports paper. i wasn't there, so i can't say. but that is what i have read. >> dr. james gilligan, you wrote this report for the city of new york board that oversees the rikers island prison where this prisoner died. we noted he was in a mentally ill section of the prison of the jail, i should say. you wrote in a report about how the nation's jails and prisons have become de facto mental hospitals for the past half-century. you say even the proportion of people in this country who are currently housed in a mental hospital or correctional about 95%there is incorrect noninstitutional and only 5% in the middle detentions , medical facilities. can you talk about the situation with the mentally ill and the use of solitary with them at rikers island and around the country? >> as you mentioned, the u.s. has criminalized mental illness. we now put the mentally ill instead of in mental hospitals, 95%,t almost all of them, and prisons and jails instead, which is the worst possible place for them, even if they are not in solitary confinement. solitary confinement alone, even in people with no history of mental illness, can provoke hallucinations or people start hearing voices or seeing things that aren't there, people can become delusional, disoriented to reality and lose touch with reality. they can also become suicidal. that are -- those are people no history of mental illness. you put someone with these problems in solitary confinement, it is the worst possible thing you can do for them. houston,lowry in texas, you represent the texas prison guards. talk about the letter you made public in january. >> we found the overall use of solitary confinement in texas was not serving its intended purposes. we went from a couple hundred locked up sells to over 8000 at one point. the state has taken measures to reduce the use of solitary. one initiative has been the use of the grab program, which is gang renouncing disassociation program where gang members are offered a chance to get out of the gangs and go back into general population. another program that has been successful here in texas has ,een our pre-release program which prepares inmates that are in solitary for number of years to get ready to be released out of the world. unfortunately in texas, we release over 1200 inmates directly out into the public. if these guys are too dangerous for our prison population, then imagine the public safety concerns when we are releasing them out into general public? >> lance lowry, we are talking with the psychiatrist in yourself who has been a longtime guard in texas prisons. you have your own laboratory with which to study these actresses you're describing for the impact of the use of solitary. i want to ask you about, as you say it, perhaps excessive use of solitary and prisons, and how this impacts the guards behavior but also the prisoners behavior and the courts ability to control their behavior? i believe you have written about this. can you describe what this is like as you see it? >> when you play somebody in solitary, you lose a lot of management control over that person. there's not much more you can do. correcting bad behavior at that point is not a positive step. you don't have the steps or ability to correct negative behavior. plus, you have the aspects of increased exacerbation of mental health issues. i have seen offenders cut on themselves, go to the point of even rubbing feces on themselves to to the rapid deterioration. there is less interest in relation and that creates -- .here is no sensory stimulation >> you are nodding your head. >> this is a nationwide problem. stories like the ones you just described -- i hear them from all over the country from massachusetts to arizona to california. it is everywhere. we in this country have made a , after we closed down the mental hospitals in this country starting in the 1960's, and to institutionalize the mentally ill, we never put in place the community resources or residences, the halfway houses, and the small intensive care units which the original community health act that president kennedy signed into law required. the sentry -- the country post on the mental hospitals and did not put anything in their place. as a result, the mentally ill ended up homeless, and jails or prisons, or dead, or overwhelming families who are not prepared and equipped to deal with some certifiably ill. >> we're going to take a break and we come back, we will continue this discussion and they go to the border dispute with a young man who was just reported, young phoenix man, now trying to come back into the united states today. i also want to ask you, dr. james gilligan, about your recent tour of rikers island. back in a moment. ♪ [music break] >> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with renee feltz . our guests are lance lowry in houston, and in new york, dr. james gilligan. is a clinical professor of psychiatry. if you could briefly say what you saw and what you feel needs to be the there when you toured the new rikers. >> the buildings themselves are outrageous. the zookeepers are not allowed to keep sue animals in the housings we put human beings and in jails like rikers island. we learned animals die when they're put in a concrete cage with bars on the walls. like gardensted and places for animals to live the way they were evolved to live. we treat human beings worse than we treat animals. then we act surprised when people behave like animals. of course, we have created a situations. it is called a self fulfilling prophecy. theyy these are animals, will behave like animals, so we treat them so they will. >> what can be done at rikers? >> first of all, about 40% of the rikers island inmates have a diagnosis of milne dell -- until illness of one sort of another. close to 80% have a substance abuse disorder, alcohol being the most severe. that is the one most associated with violence out of all of the drugs we have. islandproposed is rikers take the mentally ill inmates and create a mental hospital on the grounds of rikers island at would be staffed by professional mental health staff of, ideally, affiliated with a local medical school so they can serve as an extension of the teaching hospitals, medical schools. new york university school of medicine already provides inpatient care when they need that in bellevue hospital, the prison ward. it would be ideal if there were mental hospitals but on the ground or if about half of that joe was simply turn into a big mental hospital. as one psychiatrist pointed out, the biggest hospital is the los angeles county jail. the second largest is rikers island. if we're going to put the mentally ill there, we should turn it into a mental hospital because that is what these people need. instead, we put the mentally ill in solitary confinement. for many, that became the default leigh smith. united nations and the european court of human rights both have declared prolonged solitary confinement to be a form of torture. and it clearly is. it is psychological torture. it drives people crazy and makes them suicidal. >> lance lowry, i want to end with you. i briefly want to get your perspective on what needs to be done with the guards who are in these prisons and jails, in terms of training in how to deal with the mentally ill prisoners and those in solitary. >> we definitely need to up our training on training these officers on how to deal with the mentally ill. just like he said earlier, the largest mental health facility in the state of texas is the harris county jail right here in houston. we need to be able to train these officers to recognize, identify the inmates with mental health conditions. we also need to increase our treatment programs. these facilities like a lot of resources. this has been due to our legislative bodies not funding these entities and moving -- closing down our mental health facilities and converting them to prisons. we need to stop diverting mentally ill prison and to break them out. uslance lowry, speaking to from houston, thank you for being with us. and dr. james gilligan in new york. we will have a link to your report that found prolonged segregation of the mentally ill in the cities jails violates the dimon standards. and we will also post online mr. lowery's report, calling for reduction of solitary confinement in texas. particularly, significant as he is head of the texas guard's union. we turn to our last segment. >> we end today's show in mexico were to immigrants deported in february will try to reenter the united states today. they say their deportation came in retaliation for a hunger strike their families participated in outside the phoenix offices of the immigration and customs enforcement. they will try to reenter at a check point in the border town of nogales, which is where the u.s. conference of catholic bishops are on a three-day tour. later today, cardinal sean o'malley of boston will join them in a hike or part of it nearby desert, where undocumented immigrants are known to pass. >> for more we get a mexico joins us byvaldez video stream, one of the immigrants will attempt to reenter today at 11:00 local time in arizona in which -- in order to ask for his case to be reopened. how did you end up south of the border when you lived or grew up in phoenix? family and other families were heart of demonstrations which was a hunger strike outside the ice offices in phoenix. in are doing our part detention center. because the demonstration, they put me in solitary. after that, because of that -- >> you were already detained? your family was outside eyes on hunger strike, so they retaliated -- the authorities retaliated against you who was in detention? >> yes. that is what happened. talk about what happened after you went back to mexico, what life is like there for you briefly, and why you're attending to come back to the united states today to rejoin your parents and family? deported, it was like another world to me because i was living in the u.s. for 15 long years. i decided to come back because in my hometown, there's a lot of violence going on. the drug cartels are killing people. all of my family is in the u.s., so that is why am trying to come back here now. i'm going to try to get this message to the president to stop the deportations and to stop the discrimination and injustice in the detention centers all over the country. >> how did you end up in detention? how did you end up being deported? how are you put in need of you endn -- how to were up put it in the detention center to begin with? >> i was represented by a criminal lawyer and maricopa once i got with ice, i was misrepresented by immigration lawyers, too. anamily decided to go with organization and they started helping them with my case. that is why we were part of puenta now. >> jaime valdez, you have called this action you're going to take place today the right to return. what do you expect to happen any go to the border checkpoint in nogales? >> i hope they can hear us. i hope we can get our case reopen and then we can get human parole so we can find our case on american soil, and get reunited with our family. we want to get the message to the president obama that we are here and we're going to fight for the rights of immigrants and we are going to continue with this. >> du think you could be detained again today? .> that is possible that is definitely possible. i am not afraid of that because i have been detained for so long fighting my case. i am ready to still fight my case and be reunited with my family. >> you had a brother who was deported who ultimately died where you come from? >> yeah. .e was deported a year ago after that, he was just killed. we still don't know what happened. we don't know who did it. my family and i, we don't want to go through that kind of stuff again. that is why i'm coming back and being reunited with my family. >> and the significance of the latest news out of rome, out of the vatican, 18-year-old california girl traveled to the vatican to plead with francis for help as her father face deportation. she was then released on friday as she was getting on the plane to come back to the united states. does that give you hope? >> yeah. i have faith. i think we can expect something good from the authorities because that is why am doing these interviews, to raise awareness. >> we have to leave it there, jaime valdez. 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