will bernie sanders win his first day as predicted or will , hillary clinton defy the polls and pull off a surprise victory? wei am telling you, folks, can't let any lobby, we can't forany unelected force money, for guns, for drugs, for big oil, for insurance, you name it, they cannot control our government any longer. amy: we will host a debate between three guests. farmer -- former vermont governor madeleine kunin who ran against sanders in 1986 and one. she is backing clinton. on the sanders side, we will speak to former naacp chair ben jealous. d we wilbe joineby black lives matter organizer darnell brown on why the group is not endorsing any candidate. then a shocking investigation into how dozens of men have died in privatized, immigrant-only prisons. >> and some of these men died of illnesses that could have been treated had they received proper care. and like one who complained of never sawr years, doctor, and ended up dying of aids related brain infection that could've been treated had he been tested and seen a doctor. amy: we will speak to investigative journalist seth freed wessler. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. voting has begun across new hampshire for the first primary in the country. a half million voters are expected to cast ballots. just after midnight voting took , place in three small towns. in the democratic race vermont , senator bernie sanders got a total of 17 votes to former secretary of state hillary clinton's nine. in the republican race donald , trump, texas senator ted cruz and ohio governor john kasich each received nine votes. trump and sanders have been leading in almost every poll taken leading up to today's vote. on monday, sanders said he's no longer a fringe candidate. >> whewe began this campaign about nine months ago, we were at 3% in the national polls. and despite my neat hairdo and my gq-type of outfit, the media and the pundits did not quite consider us a serus candidacy. in fact, the word "fringe" s used a few times. we have come a long way. amy: meanwhile, according to a new independent analysis of campaign finance data published monday by politico, the 100 biggest spenders during this 190aign spent a total of finally dollars, more than the 2 million smallest owners combined . the leading beneficiaries of the top 100 donors were jeb bush hillary clinton, and ted cruz. the united nations has accused the syrian government of torturing and killing prisoners on a massive scale that amounts to extermination, a crime against humanity. paulo pinheiro, chair of the independent commission of inquiry on syria, said investigators also found systematic killing, rape and , torture by armed anti-government groups as well as isis and the al-nusra front. >> detainees are subjected on a mass scale in the centers. prisoners are routinely beaten and tortured, forced to live in unsanitary in overcrowded cells with little food and no medical care. many parish and detention. groups of also committed violations against detainees. they have held soldiers and members of rivaled groups in makeshift detention centers where they are ill treated, executed, or die after being tortured. amy: the report comes syrians have massed near the turkish border, fleeing russian airstrikes and advancing syrian government forces north of aleppo. turkey has kept the border closed, reportedly in a bid to pressure the united states to help create a buffer zone for civilians inside syria. the justice department has charged the iraqi widow of an isis leader with a role in the death of u.s. aid worker kayla mueller. nisreen assad ibrahim bahar, who is currently in iraqi custody, is accused of helping hold mueller hostage at her home, where mueller was repeatedly raped by isis leader abu bakr al-baghdadi. mueller was confirmed killed last year in what isis said was a coalition airstrike. canadian prime minister justin trudeau says canada will end its bombing mission against the self-proclaimed islamic state in iraq and syria by february 22, fulfilling his campaign pledge. canada will withdraw six fighter jets, but keep two surveillance planes in the region and triple the number of soldiers training iraqi kurdish forces. trudeau spoke at a news conference in ottawa monday. >> the lethal enemy of barbarism isn't hatred, it is reason. and the people terrorized by isil every day don't need our vengeance, they need our help. amy: in mexico, a crime reporter has been abducted from her home by armed men in the eastern state of veracruz. anabel flores salazar, who works for the newspaper el sol e orizaba, was kidnapped early the committee to project monday. journalists says veracruz is among the most dangerous areas in the world for journalists. in london, hundreds of people gathered for a candlelit vigil outside holloway prison, where a black woman with mental health problems died last month. the guardian reports sarah reed wrote to her family to say she was sexual assaulted while receiving treatment at a secure mental health unit. she was charged with grievous bodily harm for fighting back, and taken to prison, where she was later found dead. prison staff said she struggled herself. years ago reed had previously , been beaten by a police constable in an attack shown on security camera footage. she was buried in a private ceremony. in hong kong, police fired warning shots and pepper spray at protesters during clashes which began with a crackdown on street vendors set up for the lunar new year. police said nearly 90 officers were injured while more than 50 , people were arrested. the clashes were the most intense since pro-democracy protests demanding free elections in 2014. here in new york city, public schools closed monday to honor the lunar new year. it's the first time the city's schools have closed to celebrate the holiday. a pakistani-american who helped plan the 2008 attacks that killed more than 163 people in mumbai, india, says he met with two handlers from pakistan's military intelligence agency while plotting the attack. india has long sought to establish a link between the attacks and the pakistani government. david headley, who is serving a 35-year sentence in the united states spoke to an indian court , by teleconference. headley went to pakistan in 2002 as a u.s. drug informant. u.s. officials ignored repeated warnings about his suspected terrorist activity. in the latest sign of the revolving door between the u.s. government and wall street, former treasury secretary timothy geithner has secured a personal line of credit from jp morgan chase -- one of the banks he was previously charged with overseeing -- in order to help fund his new endeavors in private equity. geithner is reportedly borrowing the money to invest in a $12 billion fund being raised by his current employer, the private equity firm warburg pincus. and an american error -- actor and designer who follows the sikh religion says he was barred from boarding a flight in mexico city after refusing to remove his turban. waris ahluwalia said an aeromexico security official told him he could not board any of the airline's flights unless he removed his turban for a security check. the sikh coalition has demanded an apology and awareness training. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. juan: and i am one gonzalez. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. voting has begun across new hampshire for the first primary in the country. a half million voters are expected to cast ballots. just after midnight, voting took place in three small towns. in the democratic race, vermont senator bernie sanders got a total of 17 votes to former secretary of state hillary clinton's nine. in the republican race, donald trump, texas senator ted cruz, and ohio governor john kasich each received nine votes. amy: donald trump and bernie sanders have been leading in almost every poll taken leading up to today's vote. on monday, sanders urged voters to join what he has described as a political revolution. >> what does -- this campaign is about is asking people to think outside of the status quo. not to accept the fact that their veterans sleeping out on the street, not to accept the fact that we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on earth, not to accept the fact that millions of seniors in this country are trying to get by on 12,000 dollars, $13,000 year in social security, and nobody can get by on $12,000, $13,000 year, especially a senior. our job is not to accept what the establishment has told us, it is the way it is supposed to be. our job is to break through that and look at where this country should be. juan: hillary clinton also made a last-minute pitch to voters. she spoke in manchester, new hampshire on monday. willddle-class families not have a tax increase when i am president, but i'm going after the millionaires, the multimillionaires, the corporate loopholes, the gimmicks, the money through the bahamas, through bermuda. [applause] imagine that we can once again believe that it truly is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. that is what we must imagine and create together. i'm telling you, folks, we can't let any lobby, we can't let any unelected force for money, for guns, for drugs, for big oil, for insurance, you name it, they cannot control our government any longer. amy: yesterday on democracy now! , we spent the hour looking at the last republican debate leading up to today's to hampshire primary. today, we turn to a debate on the democratic primary. we are joined by three guest. madeleine may kunin served as governor of vermont from 1985 to 1991. she is a professor at the university of vermont and the author of, "the new feminist agenda, defining the next revolution for women, work and family." her new article for the boston globe is headlines "when bernie , sanders ran against me in vermont." she is the first woman governor of vermont. she has endorsed hillary clinton. ben jealous is also with us, the former president and ceo of the naacp. last week, he officially endorsed bernie sanders. he is joining us from north carolina. and darnell moore is member of the new york city chapter of black lives matter which has , opted not to endorse anyone in the democratic primary. darnell is also a senior correspondent at micnews and a co-managing editor at the feminist wire. we welcome you all to democracy now! governor, let's begin with you in burlington, vermont. can you talk about why you think was airst primary -- iowa caucus -- is so important and why you're endorsing hillary clinton? >> well, i am very pleased to endorse hillary clinton. and my answer is simple. i believe she is the most qualified and will be the most effective person in the white house. and i'm supporting her for that reason. in addition, i am thrilled that we have a strong possibility of having a woman in the white house. but i want to make it clear, i am not supporting her just because she is a woman. i don't think anybody should. but because i think she is the top qualified person for the job. and i have known her over the years. and i have also had the experience of being the first woman governor of vermont and the fourth woman in the country. and i believe there is still some gender issues at work. they are more subtle than it used to be. nobody is going to say, "i won't vote for a woman" like a barber said to me spring filled, vermont. people feel it is obvious the politically incorrect. but i think both men and women have some subtle gender issues. for example, bernie's style, waving his arms and getting there and zaidis from shouting is something a woman can't do because she would be considered hysterical. .eople don't like everyone in it there also some gender issues on the positive side that as a woman, as a working woman, as a wife, as a mother, we have different priorities on the agenda. and women's issues like child care, equal pay for equal work, paid family and medical leave, those are issues for women because we have lived them. the world still looks different through the eyes of a woman, just as the world looked different through the eyes of a black man, barack obama. not on everything, but on some key issues, there are positive gender differences because these issues will get higher attention when hillary as president. juan: governor, the pc wrote in "the boston globe," you say " women draw on a different network than men and can share an alternative definition of qualified cure go you specifically raised the composition of the actual campaign staff, bernie sanders and hillary clinton. could you talk about that? >> well, yes, as a leader you draw on your network, people you would to school with, the people you hang out with, and so when i was governor for the first time, half of my cabinet was female. hillary's advisors and campaign staff is 50% female. that matters. bernie's staff is more composed of men in the top echelons. it makes a difference. again, it is something you can't dictate but it makes a difference for how you will govern and who will be your close advisers. amy: ben jealous is also with this, in north carolina right now, and he was just recently in new hampshire. you came out last week and endorsed bernie sanders. why? >> i look at his record. for the same reason i endorsed jesse jackson years ago, i signed up for bernie this time, which is on the issue that dr. martin luther king referred to as the giant triplets of evil -- racism, militarism, and greed. bernie is the clearest and most consistent. issuewhat about the whole -- obviously, a lot of attention drawn to the fact that bernie sanders so far has very little support and african-american and latino community in most of the polls and very few major african-american leaders or latino leaders have come out to support them, keep ellison of minnesota has and arizona. but your decision to support him and why you think the impact -- what you think the effect will be in terms of the african-american and latino community as we get into the state that have many more african-american and latino voters? >> we of our to begun to see people switch down in south carolina. a state representative switched from hillary to bernie. we will see many more. i was meeting with folks last weekend and people are very excited. what is happening, people are starting to tune in. the reality is, because of their long history of connection to the black unity especially the south with bill clinton being the former governor of arkansas, a lot of loyalty and a lot of friends have been built up. black voters, we take our votes externally seriously. we are and them. if it wasn't personally, it was our pairs or grandparents. now you'll see that he is seen as a top-tier contender, we will find clinton has hit her high water mark and she will begin to lose support. how fast and how much remains to be seen. amy: darnell moore, you're with black lives matter. the group says they're not going to a dorsa candidate. why not? >> it is important to talk about the new hampshire primary in its intended purpose. what happens typically is the media, a candidate who comes out of this as a winner can get a media boost and more money for their campaign. in so many ways, the new hampshire primary is sort of critiqued for its ability to easily get the impression there is general consensus around the candidate. so given that, it behooves us to not give so easily endorsement off of an illusion in so many ways. it is clear to think about who represents who in new hampshire. it is primarily quite. it is primarily rich. and is sort of skews toward an older -- the average age is about 42%. that is not nearly representative of many of the folklore taken to the streets in this movement for black lives. beyond that, i think it is really important to get candidates this space to come andnd and really amplify break down the issues that are germane to the black lives matter movement, that happened as a related to private prisons with hillary clinton's turn in october 2015, but people want the -- amy: what do you mean her turn? >> the private prison, the sort of speaking out against private prison in the corporate backing of prisons that happened october 2015. black lives matter organizers one candidates to be clear about their positions, not just rhetorical, but in terms of policy and in ways they expect for these things to take material reality. among thear democratic candidates, what is your sense of the issues the black lives matter movement has most been involved in, especially change in the culture and the practice of policing in america, how have they been responding? >>ne of ththings ihink it's important to note isere is an iteration of a that squarely placed its critiquon the ate. is out stat section violencef many tes. itakes sense to me why it is that folks would be resistant t not only providingndorsement, but to suppting thetate and anyone representinit when e state is after the object of itiqued. there arissues beyond policing. policing, over criminalization anpolicing and communities, envinmental health conrns li in flint, mhigan, unemoyment, undocumented status of peoe of col -- the's many other areashat arof conrn that hav't tually bn sort o spelled-out anbroken down by caidatesn ways at speako the needsf blackives matr orgazers. i shoulalso say, u have t rember, this isa multeneratiol moveme. there people on the strts and involved in this movent who the the i1996 when welfare reform act was passed. they were there in 1995 -- 1994. they have a sense of how clinton had a part in the doing -- and proliferating and spreading a lot of the problems that we're talking about now. and then there are some who may have let the political consciousness was coming to it now. amy: i want to go back to 1994 when the clinton appeared on c-span to back the violent crime control and law enforcement act. with respectoing to the crime bill, i think if more americans focused on the fact that this bill would have put more police on the street, would have locked up violent offenders so they never could again, more get out prison construction money available to the states as well as to the government, but also would have dealt with prevention, giving young people something to say yes to. it is a very well thought out crime bill that is both smart and tough. i think americans are going to say, why these political games? why are we once again letting certain special interest call the shot in washington? we will eventually get a good crime bill, like the president has proposed, it will just take a little longer than it should have. amy: that was hillary clinton back in 1994. i want to turn to michelle wrote on, who recently her facebook page -- "if anyone doubts that the mainstream media fails to tell the truth about our political system, the spectacle of large majorities of black folks supporting hillary clinton in the primary races ought to be proof enough." she said, "i can't believe hillary would be coasting into the primaries with her current margin of black support if most people knew how much damage the clintons have done -- the millions of families destroyed the last time they were in the white house thanks to their boastful embrace of the mass incarceration machine and their total capitulation to the right-wing narrative on race, crime, welfare and taxes." governor, can you respond to this? >> happily i will respond. you may recall that before barack obama was elected, bill clinton was called the first black president. i think the clintons have a long history of support for civil rights. they understand the south since he was born in arkansas and hillary, early in her youth, fought for civil rights. her basic training and politics came from marian wright adaline, the children's defense fund. she has been there. she is not a recent spokesperson for black lives matter. she went to flint, michigan, yesterday just to emphasize the point that in this largely black community, it is an outrage that the water has been poisoned. so i think, you know, she has been there and he has been there, and their commitment should not be questioned. sure, there are laws that have been passed that have been detrimental. but she is for prison reform. we have to look at both the past and the present. and the same goes true for other issues. you know, she has been voted the worlddmired woman in the year after year because people respect her. people will remember the words, "women's rights are human rights and humans rights are women's rights." she tells people of color in every country. she is not a newcomer. she has been tested. the question between the two is, who can make it happen? who can really make change happen. i'm reminded of aesop fable, the tortoise and the hare. she may be the tortoise and there may be a female tortoise, but she is going to get us there. juan: governor, in terms of bernie sanders, you mentioned, one, he is not a new, on the political scene. he is been a public life now for 35 years. when he ran against you, he ran against you as an independent who basically said that both parties were useless, tweedledum and tweedledee, could you talk about that and the change now as he is running the democratic primary? >> he honestly has grown up a lot -- he obviously has grown up a lot. his basic message has more resonance today than it did in 1986, but he was so focused, like a laser beam, on income inequality that he did not want to be distracted by it or the women's movement or the environmental movement. he thought the elites were involved in these movements. so he has come a long way and i give him credit, frankly, for raising the issue of income inequality and campaign finance laws as they now exist. yes made that a major part of the conversation of this campaign. where i differ from him is how are you going to make it happen? how are you going to get it done? i think experience matters. and let's face it, it is tougher for a woman to be the first woman president of the united states, in some sense, and influence in the whole world. she gets criticized either way. either she is too tough and too masculine, or else she is too feminine and can't be commander-in-chief. somehow, she is to find that sweet spot between being strong enough to be commander-in-chief and feminine enough to be mother of the nation. a guy doesn't have to walk that tightrope in quite the same way. amy: i want to -- >> i think -- amy: i want to bring in ben jealous to go back to this point that darnell moore raise that michelle alexander wrote about, and that is the issue of the prison type line about -- high point about the clinton years around crime, the 1994 crime bill. and your assessment of this. is reallyou know, it hard to her the name of marion right the one raised to vouch for hillary clinton to be consistent on race. the reality is, at that time, in addition to what we saw, which is or speaking the talking point of the prison guard lobby, we also saw her come out -- hillary clinton -- in the super predator idea, to invoke the idea of super predators to push for these crime bills. and the super predator idea was this notion that a child at age six months could be such a sociopath as to be beyond redemption. it is a violation of the allergy and basic psychology. it was never used, as far as i know, to describe anyone white. it was always used to describe young black men as a mass. it made life very tough for us. it helped push bills, quite frankly, that have led to the biggest bike in the incarceration of women that we have seen. typically, black women. a black women's lives matter, too. that is the tough part because you want to believe she can get things done, but then you see on this, will justice issues, in 2008, she was the only democrat on stage who took the republican position of saying that if we reduced the disparity between crack and powder sentencing, that there would be no retroactivity. that was locking up mostly women, nonviolent drug addicts who should have been in rehab, and keeping them from their children. now this year, she is the only democrat on stage, back when there were three, who supports the death penalty. again, taking the republican position. i don't disagree with the governor. there are something she will simply -- she will get done subtly because she will capitulate. the reality is, no one says the republicans can't -- that they're idealists can get things done. game recognizes game. we need our idealists there so that when they compromise, it is an actual compromise. amy: we're going to take a break and come back to this discussion. ben jealous, former head of the naacp, madeleine may kunin joining us from burlington, vermont, the first woman governor of vermont, and darnell moore of black lives matter. they have not endorsed anyone. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. our guests today to debate the democratic candidates are darnell moore a black lives matter. the movement has decided not to endorse anyone. ben jealous former naacp , president is endorsing bernie sanders, and governor kunin is endorsing the clinton. i want to go back to the 1986 to the vermont benadryl race when bernie sanders challenged our guests from the sitting governor at the time of vermont. jenna campaign, sanders and kunin a few together during a call-in show on c-span. >> what we know right now is the will the state of vermont are paying less than they paid five years ago in combined state and federal taxes. when a homeowners and poor people are paying significantly more in property taxes. what you're seeing the state of vermont is an interesting tack situation. wealthy people and corporations paying less and personal income tax, homeowners and low-income people paying more in property taxes. we're proposing serious tax reform, which both governor kunin and the lieutenant governor are running away from. we are saying and will demonstrate it points we could lower the property tax burden on homeowners in the state by 20%. we can significantly incase state aid to education far more than what the governor is talking about. and we can do this without having anybody in the state of vermont -- not the richest person in the state of vermont paying more in combined state and federal taxes than they paid five years ago. i think that is the direction we should go, but we have to have the guts to create a tax system here in vermont and a let washington make the tax laws for us. >> i would just add one very important. this administration is going to enable the state of vermont that the biggest tax cut in history, 20 million dollars, as a result of getting rid of the surcharge that we enacted earlier because we retired the deficit and than our means. the mayor talks aut $300 million. simply getting that from the corporations and the rich. that is a mythology. there aren't those kinds of corporations. there aren't those kinds of rich people. those are vermonters who are paying those taxes, middle income. it is easy to talk and airy and evil at some distant place, but the vermont taxpayer isn't made up that way. you would be taking that money out of the pockets of vermonters. it is and him with blue smoke and meters. amy: madeleine kunin kept her seat as governor and defeated the mayor burlington, bernie sanders. this issue of income inequality has been -- bernie sanders issue for decades. he has not wavered. in fact, governor cunanan, this issue is certainly one that has affected hillary clinton's campaign as she changes her rhetoric around income inequality because of bernie sanders, to many surprising surge in the polls. >> well, it is a familiar tune, as you can see by that clip. and bernie hasn't changed his tune. but what has happened is the times have become even more unequal, so it has more residents -- resonance. you have to get the money from somewhere. i haven't changed my tune, either. i agree with what he says in principle, but how do you make it a reality? you know, how do we have an effective president of the united states? the word "revolution," is beautiful. i would like a revolution myself. the title "revolution" is in my but ibout women's issues, think you have to say, who is going to make it happen? who can have a temperament to be president? who can have the networks, who can be collegial? research has shown that women -- you see it in the united states senate -- they work well with each other. they work across party lines. they do their homework. you know, i have been involved in the women's movement all of my life. we were told to make it in the mans world, you have to play the game while you're changing how the game is played. and that is what she is doing as far as the incarceration issues, we all the poor what is happening. -- well the floor what is happening. we have incarcerated too many people for minor crimes. prison is firmly in the reform in sentencing reform camp as well. amy: i want to ask -- >> what distinguishes her is that she has tried and tested and vetted and that she will be the strongest candidate to face the republicans. we have to go to that next step and say, who can prevent the election of donald trump or ted cruz? who can really be on our side, not only by talking about it, but by acting on it? amy: i want to go back to the issue of bernie sanders and vermont. what is interesting in new hampshire, everyone says, of course he is winning there because it is next door to his home state vermont where he is very popular. and he is very, very popular on the ground. what is interesting, the leadership in vermont for supporting hillary clinton. yet madeleine cunanan, our guest today, patrick leahy the senior senator, howard dean who ran for president and was former head of the dnc, or someone, the current or previous does the current governor. so you have all of the leadership there. it is not so obvious. i wanted to put this question to ben jealous, why it is you see these differences all over the country, the leadership dividing from the people on the ground and what you think bernie sanders, why you think that is? not clear to me. the reality is, when you talk to voters on the ground, and asked them what they say, they say it is the establishment doing with the establishment does. i think most voters see that. the most important thing -- i think the governor is absolutely right, we need a democratic nominee to be the republicans at the poll. is every single week, it banker that bernie sanders is that candidate. it is painful for me to be on here with governors on different side because, look, if senator warren was running, we may have found ourselves on the same side. and because it is hillary clinton versus bernie sanders, what you see is a very clear choice. the establishment has tended to line up, as they do, for the ,erson who is most of their ilk if you will, but switching very quickly. and that is a very exciting thing. want tornell moore, i ask about the whole issue of black lives matter endorsement were not endorsement at this point -- or not endorsement at this point. what is been a debate within the movement on the issue of presidential elections? of course come also the issue of the congressional senate elections, which no one pays much attention to right now, but whoever gets elected president, depending on who is in the house and the senate, will determine what they can do. are you looking right now not to get involved in the primaries or is your movement also in saying with a general elections come, you don't see any need to participate or support candidates at that point as well? >> is important distinguishing which would black lives matter network, which is a collective of chapters across the country versus the movement for black lives which consists of black lives matter the network and 70 other contingencies. terms of endorsement now, i think withholding an endorsement, it is a decision we have come to collectively. one, there are folks on the street in the presence of municipal leaders who are asking a very clear thing -- we want the death of black people by police officers to stop. these are material realities. entrenchedg-standing forms of over policing and criminalization to end. and these are not rhetorical flourishing's. this is not about leaders who have a type of leadership capacity. this is like, we are needing policy recommendations and bona fide solutions. for instance, there is clear things that could be put out by candidates. the federal government does not have a universal fully how -- data tracking system for something like police misconduct in 2016. these are easy wins. it behooves us -- we do have a collective of like folk, of various incomes, different ages, and this is a potential voting base. i think what is holding an endorsement puts the -- withholding an endorsement puts the pressure on the candidate to come up with a type of policies and forms of governance they think will actually lead to change. the withholding companies that type of effect we think. juan: in terms of voter registration in general, are you advocating people to register to vote? >> oh, yeah. it is clear there are a range of folk who stand along the continuum, folk who have always been part of get out the vote effort, who are doing work in municipal elections and so much else, right? this is not a monolithic movement. but what i think it is is an opportunity for the network, black lives matter network to utilize its collective power to withhold an endorsement to put the necessary pressure on candidates to actually come up with solutions to the problems that are being put forth. amy: you wrote a letter to bernie sanders. what did you say? >> i did write an open letter. it was a letter that really offers a critique, not just a bernie sanders, but for sanders followers who really offer this point that income inequality needs to be for grounded. but part of what i wanted to get at, even when we think about income inequality, if we are not thinking about the ways income inequality is racialized and gendered, we missed the mark. for instance, when we are talking about the worker as a ,onolithic were sort of idea often network or may not be understood to be, i don't know, a black woman who is poor, working-class. the life expenses and work expenses of a black woman or undocumented woman is quite different than a white working person. these are critiques to push bernie sanders and supporters to come more intersectionally to think about the various dynamics that come to play. racial polarization, gender bias, in equity, has much to do with income inequality as anything else. ask: ben jealous, i would about the south carolina primary coming up soon. will you be campaigning there and what you think of some of the key issues as the presidential primaries switch the places like nevada and south carolina, some of the key issues you think voters will be concerned about? >> look, this entire week at was columbia,l, raquel, meeting with pastors and politicians and meeting with voters. folks on the ground are truly concerned. it ranges. you talk to young black activists. when they stand up for bernie, part of it has to do with the fact is the only candidate who is been against private prisons his entire career, who is never taken a dime from the private prison lobby. hillary clinton started out basically fine with private prisons and taking money for their lobby. she no longer does that, and we're glad that she has cha nged. we speak to the older activists, they are pleased that he is going to really take on this issue of the indebtedness our college students, because it breaks our heart and makes them weren't for the future of their families of the country. they're also pleased he is the strongest on social security and really expanding it and making it stronger. making a possible for those at the bottom to actually benefit from the purpose of social security, which is to make sure our older people do not suffer, do not have to live indignant ins of their lives because they're starving. and mostly folks are inspired to see somebody who dreams like franklin roosevelt, like jfk, and quite frankly, like many folks did at the end of the 1960's and 1970's when both of these politicians really came on the scene, as activists, that he said, yes, i will dream, but because i have been elected to office 20 times and i have served in the congress and the senate for 26 years and i have a track record of getting things done and reaching across the aisle, you can rest assured i will also get things done. , finally,s amy: responding to darnell, representing the black lives matter movement, you come out of movements as well. the power of the movement not endorsing, but making demands, especially this early on? the mosts probably important movement of our time, and it is the black lives matter movement follows very much the spirit of the founders of the naacp who decided to take on the practice of lynch mom violence will stop and you shame to the andtry out of the practice have for most of that period not endorsed. and let me be clear, i speak for myself and not for my old employers of the organization i belong to my entire life of the naacp. likehen i look at activist darnell, i'm extremely excited. i'm also frustrated because i know 20 years ago, i was in the streets in new york leading protest after the rodney king verdict. we tend to get it done in our generation, but in reality, in 20 years, we're still fighting. the anti-lynching movement took 60 years. there is going to be a baton passed that gets this done. matter,, black lives let's keep the pressure up. amy: we want to thank our guests for being here, darnell moore of the black lives matter movement, ben jealous former head of the naacp, and governor kunin, the first woman governor of vermont. when we come back, we look at the private immigration prisons in this country. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: she released it on saturday. on sunday, she performed it at halftime with 100 million people ageching, a tribute and hom to the black panthers, like the super bowl's celebrating 50 years. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: we turn now to a shocking new investigation about private prisons and the dozens of men who have died in disturbing circumstances inside these facilities in recent years. the investigation published in the nation magazine this month documents more than 100 deaths at private, immigrant-only prisons since 1998. the investigation's author, seth freed wessler, spent more than two years fighting in and out of court to obtain more than 9000 pages of medical records that private prison contractors had submitted to the bureau of prisons. the documents are stunning. they reveal more than two dozen cases of inadequate medical care that independent doctors say contributed to the premature deaths of the prisoners. one man died shackled to his bed from an undiagnosed hiv-related infection in his brain. other men died of lack of medical care for cancer and liver disease. several men were denied adequate mental health treatment and went on to commit suicide. amy: this comes as the democratic presidential candidates are increasingly speaking out against multi-million-dollar private prison contracts. in september, vermont senator bernie sanders introduced a bill to ban government contracts with private prison companies at the federal, state, and local level within three years. in october, former secretary of state hillary clinton also pledged to ban the use of private prison companies. the clinton campaign later said it would stop accepting money from lobbying groups linked to private prisons, and that it would donate the money it had already received. well, to talk about this more, we're joined by the author of the new investigation, seth freed wessler. he's a reporter with the investigative fund, and his new story for the nation magazine is called, "this man will almost certainly die." seth, welcome to democracy now! explain the title, "this man will almost certainly die." >> the title comes from a quote left and one of the medical files of 10 through open records request. i obtained 9000 pages of documents. in those documents from one of these prisons, there was a medical doctor bank who left his normal medical notes, but he also left a series of notes railing against the system that he worked in inside of one of these private federal prisons, private federal prisons used only to hold noncitizens convicted of federal crime come a sort of segregated system of prisons. in these files, he left a series of notes were he was railing against this prison system will stop basically, saying it was not providing prisoners or was in allowing him to provide prisoners the kind of care that is a medical doctor he believed he should be able to provide. these records tell the stories of 103 men who died inside of this federal subsystem of prisons. if you're convicted of a crime in the united states, a federal crime, and you are a noncitizen, considered below consider prisoner, you're likely to be sent to a different prison from all of the rest -- from citizens. those prisons are nearly the only prisons of federal bureau of prisons has privatized, has contracted out to private companies -- geo group, corrections corporation of america, management and training corporation. what i found is the federal government is applying a different and less stringent set of rules to these prisons, and that in the context of medical care, is leading to stripped-down kinds of medical clinics with lower trained, lesser paid, less expensive workers. and in dozens of cases, prisoners held inside are facing medical neglect. in 25 cases i looked at, doctors are reviewed the files said these prisoners likely would have lived had they received adequate medical care. juan: how did these develop? is ther words, what rationale segregating off the noncitizens into separate prisons? also, talk about the evolution, when did they begin to develop as a form of city celebration of inmates? >> private prisons in generals generalivate prisons in have been immigrants for years. they had resisted until the late 1990's when the clinton administration when they opposed in the 1996 budget request a plane to privatize a subset of federal prisons come to see if in fact they could save money. this was a time when the clinton administration was promising not to expand the side of the force, butrk prisons were growing. usually that means more workers. the solution was to privatize federal prisons. soon as they started to open, the federal government again to incarcerate only noncitizens inside of most of its federal prisons that of the privatize. the logic is, as recently as 2014, the bureau of prisons said that noncitizens are nigel group of people to hold in private has federal facilities that have somewhat fewer resources and services because these people will later be transferred to immigration authorities and reported after they served their time. that explicitly said that these are sort of stripped-down facilities. juan: you have noted a lot of the people incarcerated are basically, the crimes they've committed is reentry into the united states, not necessarily an actual crime here in the u.s. >> that's right. 40% of the people inside these prisons are incarcerated for the criminal offense of crossing over the border. 1990's, 4000 people were prosecuted criminally for crossing over the border. peak of thesee prosecutions under the obama administration, 91,000 people were prosecuted criminally for illegal entry or illegal reentry for crossing the border, something we usually think of as a civil offense. usually, people are detained and deported as a result of crossing the border without papers. but we have started to incarcerate, sometimes for years, tens of thousands of people. amy: to be clear, these are not the immigrant detention facilities. >> that's right. immigrations and customs enforcement overseas detention. there are additional 23,000 people in a separate prison system that is overseen by the bureau of prisons used to hold noncitizens. and i uncovered stories of people who were facing incredible kinds of medical neglect. men who complained of illness, in one case, for two years, and was never seen by doctor. this man was actually never tested for hiv, despite the fact there were signs that he should have been. in the federal rules would have it that he should have been. he was never tested for hiv until he became so sick, that he fell down while walking in the present and sent to local hospital, tested positive for hiv, and died days later of an aids-related brain infection. it is staggering levels of neglect. amy: i want to turn to your dr. john with farquhar. this was featured on "reveal" a podcast from the center for investigative reporting. >> in a critical person. started with a person. >> you said it one point, i feel that for his shabby care. >> i stand by that statement. i don't of who it is about and i cannot comment on any single record of any person, but there are times when they care was not what i wanted for any patient. a just thet on to is contractors asked him to cut down on non-number of 911 calls made out of prisons. >> i said, you know, is her way we can cut this down? i said, probably, yes. >> i could imagine that could result in the pressure do not call with somebody really needs to go to the emergency room. >> that is always the risk. that is why professional judgment, professional experience because you can't leave it up to anybody. amy: in this clip, we hear physician assistant at big spring. he was on call the night nestor garay had a seizure -- or a stroke. garay spoke about the facility's high reliance lpn's or licensed practical nurse. >> there would've been a more aggressive care for that patient , and other patients, too, if we had better training, better staff. so many things are wrong there. you had an lpn right out of school, who to corrections, trying to make an assessment. he did not have the skills. i don't blame them as a person, i blame the management system that puts them in a position. basically, what you have in essence is people that are undertrained doing jobs that they should not be doing. we do not have an infirmary for 24 hour observation. charts are often temporarily lost for a couple of days were a week or so. the companies that i work for, and they have the model of how the place is supposed to be run, and they seem to allow it. and i know you want to ask me what i would do to correct the problem. i would close this whole facility down and i would start over again. amy: "i'd close this whole facility down" says russell amaru, a physician assistant at big spring. seth, your piece, dozens of men dying in disturbing prisons. where is this all going? >> the bureau prisons has made a decision that they aren't going to apply the same rules and standards to privatize prisons used to hold immigrants that it applies to the rest of its prison system. that means these private companies are free to determine how they're going to provide care. one of the ways that happens is by employing lesser trained, less expensive workers as the person we just heard talked about. this is a system run by the bureau of prisons and there are real questions about why it is that there is a separate segregated system federal prisons for noncitizens. segregated on the basis of citizenship where people are suffering, really, incredible kinds of medical neglect. amy: seth freed wessler, we're going to do part two after this interview and post it at democracynow.org. seth freed wessler is a reporter with the investigative fund. his new story for the nation magazine is called "this man will almost certainly die." we will link to it at democracynow.org. that does it for our broadcast. we have several job openings. check democracynow.org. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to [email protected] or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. 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