President Barack Obama is making history as the first sitting president to visit a federal prison. In an upcoming HBO special set to air Sunday (Sept. 27), President Obama will meet with prisoners inside the El Reno Federal Correctional Institution to discuss civil rights in Fixing The System.
Stemming from a Vice column, "America Incarcerated," the media conglomerate has partnered with HBO to air the special that "details the mounting civil rights crisis taking place in our criminal justice system." The special will follow President Obama as he tours the Oklahoma prison and meets with prisoners who tell their stories leading to conviction and weigh in on the prison system.
Vice founder and correspondent, Shane Smith, will accompany the POTUS as he conducts interviews with the inmates and documents their stories. According to the site, "the first clip to go live" shows the moment President Obama meets six inmates for the first time and allows the men to introduce themselves by name before they all sit to begin the conversation.
HBO retweeted the introductory clip on Monday Sept. 21, promoting the special which will air this Sunday.
Our #VICEonHBO special report "Fixing the System" will air this Sunday at 9pmET. Tune in: https://t.co/zoF5RW25mK pic.twitter.com/p8aGZjVITf
— VICE News (@vicenews) September 21, 2015
Huffington Post shared statistics which set the tone for the show reporting, "...federal mandatory minimum laws have disproportionately hurt poor and minority communities, with long prison sentences issued for nonviolent drug offenses."
President Obama addressed his beliefs on the prison system and what motivated him to be involved in the project.
"The system, every study has shown, is biased somewhere institutionally in such a way where an African-American youth is more likely to be suspended from school than a white youth for engaging in the same disruptive behavior, more likely to be arrested, more likely to be charged, more likely to be prosecuted aggressively, more likely to get a stiffer sentence," he said.
Smith and Vice plans to publish more than 50 pieces on prisons and institutional reform in the next few weeks.
