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I'm Bryan May in the Cal OES newsroom we have excessive heat warnings all across

the state of California but they are especially dangerous in Southern

California this week so joining us to explain why we are headed toward some

very dangerous conditions Kris Mattarochia who is a science and operations

officer with the National Weather Service. Chris first of all thank you

very much for joining us today and sure let's first just discuss what this

forecast is that we're looking for this week. We're looking for several days of

dangerous heat that is not usual for this time of year

even though we're accustomed to the heat this is something that only happens

maybe once or twice a year in Southern California is going to be the center of

that heat specifically around Anaheim. And they're the worst days this week

that we're going forward what are one of the worst days? The worst day is most

likely going to be Wednesday the forecasts will probably change a little

bit but any day can be bad but the worst day of the entire heat wave will be

Wednesday yes. We're in mid to late July now it's always hot in the summer but

what makes this time this week so especially dangerous? That's really a

great question we get that all the time it's hot here all the time but what

makes it dangerous is the low temperatures at night there's not going

to be the relief that we're accustomed to at night, we're going to break records

as far as low temperatures are concerned so this is something unusual that

doesn't happen and also the duration we're looking at a heatwave that could

go all the way through Friday perhaps. You at the National Weather Service have

what's called a heat risk map can you kind of talk about that and maybe even

give us an example of how you're using it and what people need to know about it?

Sure I'd be glad to it's a publicly accessible website so anybody can really

look at it so what it does is it takes a lot of different factors that go into

determining a heatwave or dangerous heat that can put people at risk for heat

related illnesses it puts it all into one place into a picture format that's

easy to read, so as we look at it here very simply purple means a very high

risk [or bad right] the entire population rate

or magenta actually but when you see that that means everybody is at risk.

Red again is bad so you'll see usually an excessive heat warning with a red or

a purple, red is more again there is a risk for the population but especially

those who are heat sensitive the very young, the very old, people on certain

medications or people who aren't acclimated to the heat. So Kris, with

these extreme heat conditions I know that's gonna make our already bad fire

season even worse can you are there any areas that you're especially concerned

about as we go forward? Yes definitely with the particular weather setup in

this scenario we have a red flag warning out for Santa Barbara County now that

means that if any fires do start there's a high risk for them to spread rapidly

and that's mostly due to the winds and as you can see here the wind direction

is coming out of the Northwest so if you look at the elevations here the wind is

going to come over the mountains and then do something what we call downslope

or sink and as that air sinks it accelerates and warms and dries out the

area even further right along the coast here if you compare this to the color

scale you know you're looking at 35-40 mile-per-hour gusts so any fires that do

happen to get started with the heat, with the very dry conditions, with the

overnight temperatures which aren't recovering that much, with the wind gusts

again there's a very high risk for potentially a dangerous situation if a

fire starts for it to spread rapidly, so we'll be watching Santa Barbara County

very closely for the potential for high fire danger with the red flag warning

which is in effect beginning tomorrow and that goes through Thursday and

that's for the sundowner winds as we referred to, usually the winds get most

gusty during the late afternoon evening times and then again during the

early morning times that's when the wind speeds would be the highest. And we've

seen very recently just how dangerous those sundowner winds can be when a fire

pops up. Very true very true, so we want everyone everyone to be reticent and

everyone to be aware the risk that is at hand with this particular event. There

are going to be, look we're still in the summertime kids aren't back in school

yet, there are going to be folks who are headed maybe either down to Anaheim,

Yosemite, where there's smoke still but going hiking, hitting the lakes, what do

people need to know if they're gonna be outside for especially extended periods

of time as we head toward the weekend? Well you definitely want to limit the

amount of time that you're outside, take frequent breaks, meaning going inside to

a cooler building, have a lot of water with you when you are outside

if you do decide to even do that. So just looking right now at Southern

California this is the outline of our excessive heat warning and you can

see there's a lot of magenta a lot of red in that area you know this includes

the big cities in Southern California looking at Los Angeles, San Diego along

the coast usually doesn't get quite as warm so if you're at the beach you're

going to be a little bit cooler but you don't have to go too much further inland

to encounter dangerous eat and again it's the duration and the lack of relief

overnight that's going to put people at risk for heat related illnesses. You

talked about that lack of relief overnight I think in some areas it's not

gonna drop even below what 90 at night right? That is very true, minimum

temperatures in some cases are going to be 15 degrees above normal, again daily

records for warm minimum temperatures look like they're pretty likely to be

broken here and just showing you here really quickly what's some of the

minimum temperatures are here this would be for Wednesday morning you know we're

looking at temperatures still in the middle 70s for some

spots, the later that we go into the week into Thursday again we're looking at

temperatures, Palmdale you can see popping up there at 78

along the coast a little bit cooler but still when we have temperatures in the

middle 70s and near 80 in some spots and that that's pretty dangerous and it's

again, those are usually the times that people will go outside during excessive

heat events where they think that they're going to have relief and

really that's not going to be the case, so again that's what's so different

about this particular heat wave compared to the one we had a few weeks ago where

the focus was mainly on the maximum temperatures during the day where this

is going to be a combination of the maximum temperatures and the minimum

temperatures at night. Kris, I know this kind of heat creates not only problems

for exposure to people but also you talk about very high fire risks this is going

to be a tax on the energy grid across the state, I know you had a conference

call with leaders from across the state earlier today what are you guys working

in coordination on looking at going forward? Well there's other things to be

concerned with too and you hit upon Yosemite, there's an active fire in that

area, anybody that's hiking up there that has any type of respiratory issues,

asthma, you're really gonna have to take it easy and and prepare and take caution,

maybe bring along and inhaler with you if you decide to go up there because the

air quality is going to be bad. Another thing to be concerned with is there is a

risk for thunderstorms across much of the Sierra Nevada pretty much all this

week especially the next couple of days so there is going to be a risk for

lightning strikes and as you know if you're hiking at a very high level, yeah,

you're putting yourself at risk for getting struck by lightning so there's a

lot of lightning safety tips that we can talk about too with regards to that all

right thank you very much Kris Mattarochia with the National Weather Service

and we've got more information about the excessive heat this week on our Cal OES website,

also flex alerts have been issued for Tuesday and Wednesday of this week and

during flex alerts you asked to use your major appliances only

after 9 p.m., turn off any unneeded lights and be sure

and turn your air conditioner up to about 78 if you can take it if at all

possible. You can find out more about these flex alerts by going to flexalert.org and for all of us at Cal OES I'm Bryan May, thanks for watching

For more infomation >> High Heat Warning for California This Week - Duration: 9:13.

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Federal Judge Tosses California's Attempt To Destroy Top American Business - Duration: 11:08.

Federal Judge Tosses California's Attempt To Destroy Top American Business

Ah, yes, California.

When are we ever not talking about this state's business-hating government?

It's bad enough that liberal California lawmakers do everything in their power to

put Americans last.

They protect illegal aliens at the risk of citizens.

Their high taxes and disastrous policies have driven many Americans to flee.

But when it comes to how they treat businesses, California liberals are in a class by themselves,

of incompetence.

You might now about efforts to force a minimum wage hike.

That terrible policy has resulted in hundreds of businesses shutting down.

Many more laid off staff and found replacements—with computers.

Once again, liberals are hurting American workers.

But perhaps the biggest waste of California's time and money has been in their attack on

this major industry.

Citing "climate change" a series of lawsuits aimed to cripple oil companies.

The good news?

At least one federal judge was smart enough to throw these suits out.

From SF Chronicle:

A federal judge Monday tossed out two groundbreaking lawsuits by San Francisco and Oakland that

sought to hold some of the world's largest oil companies liable for climate change.

In an exhaustive, 16-page ruling that touched on such scientific matters as the ice age

and early observations of carbon dioxide, U.S. District Judge William Alsup acknowledged

the problem of a warming planet but said it is just too big for the courts to solve.

The cities are trying to get five oil and gas giants, including Bay Area-based Chevron,

to help cover the costs of dealing with sea-level rise, like picking up the tab for seawalls.

However, Alsup, noting that Congress and the White House, not the judiciary, are responsible

for addressing the fallout from fossil fuels, granted the industry's request to dismiss

the suits.

Climate change has been a scam from the very beginning.

Socialist Democrats have used it as an excuse to punish private businesses.

Their real goal is to take over all industries, one bogus lawsuit at a time.

Democrats hate private wealth (that isn't their own).

They attack companies like they are evil.

Companies, by the way, that provide goods, services, and jobs to Americans.

The socialist agenda is to give the government power over everything.

That includes our land, wealth, and industries.

Oh, and personal liberties go with it.

But in this case, the liberals went too far.

Their obnoxious lawsuits tried to blame oil companies for events dating back to the Ice

Age.

Their arrogance caused them to put millions of years of global changes on the backs of

companies.

This federal judge saw right through.

This is a win for every American who values common sense.

But don't be fooled.

The left will try again.

They will not stop until they have crushed American ingenuity, freedom, and prosperity.

Unless, of course, we

vote

them out.

For more infomation >> Federal Judge Tosses California's Attempt To Destroy Top American Business - Duration: 11:08.

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What this small California town reveals about immigration - Duration: 7:56.

As anti-gentrification protests become all the more heated, they raise questions that

challenge some of the most accepted ideas of our time.

These movements are especially pronounced in areas of California, where diversity is

at its peak, arguably more so than anywhere else in human history.

These areas produce conflicts like the one we see here, which features a group of anti-gentrification

protesters in the heart of a Mexican-LA community.

What they were protesting was a local art gallery, operated by the accused gentrifiers,

who repeatedly assured the furious crowd that they were "on their side."

The clip was titled "Why Multiculturalism doesn't work in one video."

This led to some confusion and pushback.

Many viewers could not identify the link between anti-gentrification movements and multiculturalism.

In their view, the two issues are always detached: the anxiety surrounding gentrification is

economic, not cultural.

In fact, to many of these critics, multiculturalism is somehow synonymous with racial diversity.

The language that's spoken throughout the video is important to notice in order to fully

grasp why these protests in particular are merely a ripple within a rising tide of cultural

tension.

After all, language lies at the root of every culture.

Though it may not be immediately obvious, what ultimately drives this tension is the

unwillingness to conform to the template of what made America prosperous in the first

place.

Most important is a shared, universally accepted language.

In the absence of that,the inability to communicate effectively--by literally speaking the same

language--results in an obvious and unavoidable friction.

When an immigrant population believes that a substandard or nonexistent grasp on that

skill is acceptable, they damage the social fabric, and limit their range of opportunity

when English-speaking businessowners enter their communities.

This is largely what contributes to these communities' inability to compete with broader

society.

When immigrant protesters proclaim ownership of an entire community, the only language

they want to speak after living here for decades becomes suggestive of how they feel.

(2:50) As gentrifying businesses crop up in their communities, a replacement of some sort

is begun.

These new businesses--art galleries, cafes and restaurants--inevitably replace the old.

Discussing this becomes uncomfortable when the time comes to recognize that maybe those

previous establishments represented a different culture entirely.

The anger the sight of these new businesses produces is one that, they feel, mirrors the

MO of the country as a historical whole.

Protesters like these operate under the belief that malicious actors are trying to drive

out their people by raising rent and employing English-speakers exclusively.

In reality, it's a population being organically displaced by its insufficiency, and its unwillingness

to embrace the new opportunities that are flooding onto their doorsteps.

While these anxieties and misunderstandings occur in every society, multiculturalism widens

existing fault lines.

Where for some it's cynically economic, in others it's an affirmation of what was

commonly believed already.

Often within these communities, America is conceptualized as a nation of imperialistic

thieves.

Signs such as "Make America Mexico Again" populate the political landscape, and few

want to address the source of this deep seated resentment.

In their mind, Mexico's rampant violence and corruption can actually be traced, in

some nefarious way, to American foreign policy or business interests.

America isn't innately prosperous because of the philosophy that undergirds it--it's

a parasite whose tentacles strangle the life out of the country they came from, and gentrification

is another ploy to do the same in "their" communities.

Democrats' now mainstream calls to "Abolish ICE" validate this distrust and undercuts

their willingness to recognize America as a legitimate nation.

For these reasons, this group champions the importance of their separate "community",

elevating it above the national community it's situated within.

Residents of Boyle Heights, in this instance, seem to identify with that area as something

other than an American locality that anybody can join.

This somehow comes from the same people who believe in open borders, while protesting

new, innovative neighbors within their own communities.

In a perverse twist, it's a Mexican community that benefits from our institutions without

making any effort to continue or even understand that tradition.

This anger purposely ignores the opportunities now made available to those willing to conform

to the new order, while also lowering crime rates.

Not to mention, the idea of widespread displacement is a myth in the first place.

For these reasons, force, protests, and government intervention used to intimidate or preserve

their current position is, simply put, at the expense of progress and bullheaded.

But before we can have any of these conversations for the good of these communities and the

nation as a whole, we first must speak the same language.

This means creating a massive incentive to learn English, through both social stigma

and government policy.

To strengthen the social bonds of a rapidly changing America, we need to come around a

once-shared national ethos.

As the fight for free speech becomes one of the most important debates we have today,

we should also remember that this presumes our capability for speech period.

Without the ability to clearly communicate, there is no foundation for the building blocks

of our culture, and we will continue to seep into atomization, distrust and resentment.

And the unfortunate truth is that, within many underperforming border communities, over

half of its residents mainly speak Spanish.

For much larger metropolitan areas, such as that of Los Angeles, which is the 2nd largest

in the nation, that number is 36.7%.

In others, such as El Paso, TX, that number is a worrying 72.4%.

Clearly, though, language isn't where that conversation can end.

The widespread misunderstandings that surround the idea of "cultural appropriation" spring

to mind.

While those culturally attached to America are more than eager to wear sombreros and

kimonos in an exercise of cultural exchange, many still attached to hyphenated-Americanism

reject this as unacceptable.

But the historical record shows that by interweaving the elements of our origins into the broader

American story, we can overcome our differences and prosper together.

When you abandon the idea that your group "owns" a practice, you stop thinking of

life in this country as a zero-sum game of your group vs. the outgroup.

This mentality also reveals a serious lack of self-awareness when you consider the sheer

number of cultural contributions all of us now rely on either for pleasure or necessity.

While past immigrant groups faced much more hostility and lived in isolation from the

American community, those differences were mended in large by what would now be considered

"appropriation."

Our institutions--academic, cultural, and governmental, have failed at every turn to

urge immigrants to adopt those norms and traditions, and in fact make it their mission to do the

exact opposite.

This is all based on the failed experiment that emphasizing our differences is what makes

us great.

Except, our differences only put more distance between us if they don't manifest within

a shared social fabric.

Hamfistedly insisting that your communities are a chamber insulated from the broader nation

as well as its history and linguistic bonds undermines that cause.

Ultimately, gentrification, if anything, is one of the greatest calls to assimilation.

It depicts the flourishing that can be enjoyed by every member of American society if only

they're willing to embrace it.

For more infomation >> What this small California town reveals about immigration - Duration: 7:56.

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Absolutely Big Small House with Full Height Dividing Wall in California - Duration: 1:55.

Absolutely Big Small House with Full Height Dividing Wall in California

For more infomation >> Absolutely Big Small House with Full Height Dividing Wall in California - Duration: 1:55.

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Reforming solitary confinement at an infamous California prison - Duration: 18:08.

 California's Pelican Bay Prison is the most notorious state penitentiary in America

Designed and built as a "supermax" facility, it's been used for nearly 30 years to lock away inmates considered the most dangerous

 Pelican Bay's security housing unit - known as "the SHU" - is solitary confinement by another name, and inmates and their advocates have long denounced it as state-sanctioned torture

 The people who run California's prisons defended their approach for decades

But as we first reported last October, they are now at the center of a reform movement that is dramatically reducing the use of solitary confinement across the country and at Pelican Bay

 Oprah Winfrey goes inside Pelican Bay's Security Housing Unit – known as "the SHU

" CBS News  OPRAH WINFREY: Hi there. ARON FRANKLIN: Hi, nice to meet you

 OPRAH WINFREY: Nice to meet you. I'm Oprah. ARON FRANKLIN: Hi, I'm Aron

I-- I know who you are. OPRAH WINFREY: Oh, Hi Aron. On the other side of that steel mesh, inmate Aron Franklin is serving part of his 50 years to life sentence

 OPRAH WINFREY: What did you get 50 years to life for? SHU pod CBS News  ARON FRANKLIN: For a murder

 OPRAH WINFREY: Murder. ARON FRANKLIN: Yeah."We are, most of us, going to be getting out

And it would behoove the public to begin to facilitate a healing, you know? And the healing can start with, you know a basic dignity in how we're treated

" It was the murder of a fellow gang member in San Diego. But crimes you commit on the outside don't get you sent to the Pelican Bay SHU

It is reserved for offenses committed once you're in prison. OPRAH WINFREY: Why were you brought here? Can you tell me? ARON FRANKLIN: Just a little misunderstanding on the yard

 That "little misunderstanding" was an attack on another inmate with a weapon, and it earned him a year in solitary confinement

Franklin is in what's known as a SHU "pod;" eight tiny cells, four up and four down, all facing the same blank wall across the way

 DANNY MURILLO: It was created to break me, mentally, physically and spiritually

 Danny Murillo, Troy Williams, and Steve Czifra all went to prison as teenagers

They were sent to the Pelican Bay SHU for what happened after they were behind bars

  CBS News  Danny Murillo, Troy Williams, and Steve Czifra all went to prison as teenagers

They were sent to the Pelican Bay SHU for what happened after they were behind bars

Steve spit on a prison guard, Troy was part of a riot at another facility, and Danny was accused of being in a prison gang

 OPRAH WINFREY: Do you remember the first day you pulled up to the SHU, taking that long bus ride, getting off the bus and seeing the place? DANNY MURILLO: It's a big white building with a small little door

My imagination was-- a human slaughterhouse. People just going into a human slaughterhouse

 OPRAH WINFREY: What did you think, Steve? STEVE CZIFRA: It was a modern-day dungeon

There was-- I had never seen anything like it.  OPRAH WINFREY: This is-- the message is, "You're not gettin' outta here"? STEVE CZIFRA: The message is you-- you're screwed

 All three ultimately did get out of the SHU and out of prison

 OPRAH WINFREY: I think the feeling on the part of a lot of folks is that you committed a crime, regardless of what age you were

You got locked up. You deserve to be there. Can you tell me why we should care? TROY WILLIAMS: We are, most of us, going to be getting out

And it would behoove the public to begin to facilitate a healing, you know? And the healing can start with, you know a basic dignity in how we're treated

 Here inside the Pelican Bay SHU, an inmate would spend up to 22

5 hours a day in this cell, which is basically the size of a small-parking space

It's like a windowless box with a sink and a toilet. Not just for days at a time, sometimes years, and even decades at a time, in this room, alone

 Oprah Winfrey in an empty SHU cell at Pelican Bay State Prison

CBS News  Most days, the only time a prisoner leaves his cell is to go to "the yard," a slightly less tiny concrete box at the end of the pod, for 90 minutes of exercise

 OPRAH WINFREY: So, this is it. This is the yard. This is the extent of the yard? This-- SCOTT KERNAN: Yes

This is it. OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah. OK. Well, I wouldn't exactly call it a yard

 We visited the yard with Scott Kernan, who runs the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

 OPRAH WINFREY: So it would just be the inmate alone out here

 SCOTT KERNAN: Correct. On the rare occasions that an inmate leaves his pod, he first has to strip, push his clothes through a slot to be searched, then put his hands through the same slot to be cuffed

This is the only time a SHU prisoner is ever touched by another human being

 1993 60 MINUTES REPORT EXCERPT: MIKE WALLACE: They do hard time here in the SHU

Time here is like hard time in no other prison.  When Mike Wallace visited Pelican Bay for 60 Minutes in 1993, prisons across the country had embraced solitary confinement as a tool to combat violence inside their walls; there was a building boom in supermax facilities, and Pelican Bay was a model

 MIKE WALLACE: The State of California that runs it proudly proclaims it's the wave of the future, designed to isolate prisoners who, they insist, are out of control, too violent, too unpredictable to be housed with the run-of-the-mill murderers and rapists

 At its peak in the 90s, Corrections Secretary Scott Kernan says Pelican Bay's SHU held almost 2,000 prisoners

 SCOTT KERNAN: During that period of time-- I witnessed multiple murders, multiple stabbings, lives changed irreparably-- OPRAH WINFREY: Inmates stabbing each other? Stabbing corrections officers-- stabbing--  SCOTT KERNAN: All of it

 Almost all of that violence, Kernan says, was and still is caused by powerful race-based prison gangs

 OPRAH WINFREY: So the gangs rule in prison? SCOTT KERNAN: They do

The gangs rule. In an effort to break that rule, California identified gang leaders and enforcers and sent them to Pelican Bay

 OPRAH WINFREY: So the idea was to bring them here and have them in isolation? SCOTT KERNAN: Have them in isolation and deter their communication

And it worked. OPRAH WINFREY: So if any inmate was validated as a gang member, he could be held here indefinitely for years or decades? SCOTT KERNAN: Yes

 CLYDE JACKSON: 24 years, five months and six days I was there

 At California State Prison Solano, Oprah Winfrey interviewed inmate Clyde Jackson who spent 24 years in the Pelican Bay SHU

CBS News  Clyde Jackson was sent to prison at age 17 for kidnapping, rape, robbery, and attempted murder

But it was gang ties that got him sent to pelican bay. Clyde Jackson: Well, I was sent to Pelican Bay SHU because I was labeled as a validated gang member of the Black Guerilla Family

The design was complete isolation. Craig Haney: One of the first things they'd say to me was "I am struggling to maintain my sanity and I don't know how to do it

" Craig Haney is a psychology professor at UC Santa Cruz whose studies of Pelican Bay SHU inmates have become central to arguments against the widespread use of solitary confinement

 OPRAH WINFREY: So what was the most striking result of your findings in 1992 after that first study? CRAIG HANEY: That vast numbers of prisoners were traumatized by the experience

They were suffering, they were living in pain, and many of them were being psychologically damaged by the conditions of their confinement

And-- and at-- at much higher levels than even I anticipated

 CLYDE JACKSON: Your mind becomes diseased, and you start to accept the abnormal as normal

 Clyde Jackson CBS News  OPRAH WINFREY: You must know that there are a lot of people who do not care that you're in isolation five years, 10 years, 24 years

What does it matter that conditions are bad because you've got it coming? CLYDE JACKSON: Well, there's prison and then there's prison, right? The judge sentenced me to prison

He didn't sent me-- he didn't sentence me to an underground prison

 OPRAH WINFREY: But wasn't the logic that it was a serious and valid response to a very real and dangerous wave of violence from gang members? CRAIG HANEY: There was no reason to believe that that place was going to effectively address the gang problem that was growing in California

And witness the fact that it hasn't. Pelican Bay and places like it in California have been in operation now for many, many years

Decades. We have the worst prison-gang problem in the United States

So it clearly was not a solution. You might expect Corrections Secretary Scott Kernan to flatly reject that assertion

He doesn't. SCOTT KERNAN: That was a policy that was intended to save lives and make prisons safer across the system

It was a mistake, in retrospect, as we look back-- OPRAH WINFREY: But you said earlier it worked? SCOTT KERNAN: It did work

 OPRAH WINFREY: It worked in reducing crime in the general prison population? KERNAN: Yes

 OPRAH WINFREY: Why did it not work? SECRETARY SCOTT KERNAN: It didn't work because of the impact on the offenders

 OPRAH WINFREY: I'm sure you've heard that statement from Justice Anthony Kennedy, who says, "Solitary confinement drives men mad

" Does it? SCOTT KERNAN: I think it does. Remember, that's not some human rights campaigner saying that…he runs the prison system! OPRAH WINFREY: Does that make you feel any better that there's an acknowledgement from the state that it was a mistake? DANNY: It doesn't make me happy

I still been tortured. TROY: Makes you feel like you've been experimented on, really

 CRAIG HANEY: There was plenty of evidence early on that this was a failed experiment

That it was hurting people.  Pressure for change really began to build in 2011, when SHU inmates organized a series of hunger strikes to draw attention to their plight

They also filed a class-action lawsuit challenging the use of solitary confinement

 Fearing it might lose that suit, the state negotiated a settlement with "prisoner-plaintiffs" in 2015

California agreed to stop holding inmates in solitary for indefinite terms, and to stop sending them to the SHU simply for having gang ties

 OPRAH WINFREY: Now that the settlement has happened and the reforms have taken place what is the difference in the SHU now, versus then? SCOTT KERNAN: The SHU facility that we are doing this interview in is empty

We emptied the SHUs out. California's SHUs now hold 80 percent fewer inmates than just a few years ago

Only people like Aron Franklin, whom we met earlier, are still sent to the SHU, for specific infractions and limited terms

 SCOTT KERNAN: I think across the nation, people are looking at how we house restricted offenders and are making changes to that policy

 So if Pelican Bay was once a model for the widespread use of solitary confinement, it's now so empty that Scott Kernan is converting SHU pods to minimum-security units

 OPRAH WINFREY (taking off stab vest): So now we can take these off-- SCOTT KERNAN: Yes

 OPRAH WINFREY: --right? 'Cause we're going to a minimum-security unit

 SCOTT KERNAN: Yes. OPRAH WINFREY: So-- where there's less fear of being stabbed

 OPRAH WINFREY: Oh, this is very different. Wow. All the cell doors are open in the converted pods, and prisoners can move around freely

 OPRAH WINFREY: Did you ever think that would happen? CLYDE JACKSON: No

No. I thought, you know I was under the mindset Pelican Bay would be there for an eternity

 After his own eternity in the Pelican Bay SHU – 24 years -- Clyde Jackson is now in the general population at Solano State Prison, near Sacramento

 OPRAH WINFREY: What was it like the first time you were taken out of the SHU and able to experience the environment? CLYDE JACKSON: Well, Ms

Winfrey, to be honest with you, I was dizzy. It's like being born again

 At Solano, Jackson, has immersed himself in the rehabilitation programs that are now the focus of California's prison system

The state has gone from 'lock 'em up' to 'fix 'em up.' CLYDE JACKSON: I'm 54 years old

I'm finally in a position to get my GED. OPRAH WINFREY: And so you're taking advantage of everything you can? CLYDE JACKSON: Everything that I can that I missed in the past

 OPRAH WINFREY: So tell me, do you have hope now? CLYDE JACKSON: Yes

 OPRAH WINFREY: There are many who would say, "Why does an inmate deserve hope?" Because they are here because of a crime that they committed, and inevitably took some form of hope away from somebody

 SCOTT KERNAN: Over 90 percent of these inmates will complete their sentence and they'll come back out into the communities

Do you want somebody with no hope, that's involved themselves in criminal activities, doing dope, stabbing people, or would you want a guy that comes out that has an AA degree? Has addressed a substance abuse program? Has-- went to domestic violence classes? What would you want as a taxpayer and a citizen of this State? OPRAH WINFREY: How has your own personal perception of what it means to be an inmate, a prisoner, how has that changed? SCOTT KERNAN: When I first came in, that person was the enemy

Now, 35 years later, I don't view the inmates as my enemy. They're people

They're all coming out to be our neighbors. Why wouldn't we spend the resources and create an environment where th-- when they come out, they're better people than when they got here? I just think it makes all the sense in the world

It's common sense. Clyde Jackson may become part of that 90 percent of inmates to eventually be released

He has a date with the parole board in 2022. He will be 59 years old, and will have been behind bars for more than 40 years

 Aron Franklin, the inmate we met through the bars of the Pelican Bay SHU at the beginning of our story, was returned to the general prison population late last year

But then he attacked a corrections officer - and is now back in solitary confinement

 Produced by Rome Hartman. Sara Kuzmarov, associate producer.