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Richard Matt Wrote to Daughter before Escape; Law Enforcement on Alert Across U.S.; Greeks to Vote Sunday on Bailout Offer; Feeding America's Children. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired July 03, 2015 - 10:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[10:29:58] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Wow. Jean Casarez reporting for us right outside the prison -- thank you.

Let's talk more about this investigation with Patrick Johnson. He is a former warden at Chautauqua County jail. Thank you, sir for being here.

PATRICK JOHNSON, FORMER WARDEN AT CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY JAIL: Good morning.

HARLOW: Talk about the letter -- wow. I mean this letter reportedly sent from Richard Matt days before his escape to his daughter and we now know from Jean's reporting that New York State sort of prison policy is you don't screen outgoing mail unless the superintendent thinks this person is a security risk.

Richard Matt killed two people and had escaped from prison before. Isn't that a letter that should be read?

JOHNSON: Well, unless you have some type of evidence that there's something going on with that person that's going to raise a security question, we really cannot screen the mail of outgoing prisoner mail unless we have some reasonable cause to believe that there's something going on. And that's kind of set in stone in our department through the New York State Commission of Corrections.

We're not allowed to censor their mail. They're allowed to write in the county jail system anybody that they want to. If we have a reasonable belief there's something in the mail that would raise a security concern, then what we have to do is inform the inmate in writing that we're going to read their mail, outgoing and incoming mail. And that we also have to notify the people that they're writing to that we're going to be reading (ph) their letters.

HARLOW: Yes. And you can understand the sort of privacy concerns, right? But this is someone who had escaped prison before.

JOHNSON: Yes. I realize that but, you know, policies are policies, and things are kind of written in the law that what we can and can't do and it's just not a matter of us circumventing that system. It's there in place for a reason, and we have to follow certain due process in order to start reading inmates' mail.

HARLOW: Understood.

So let's talk about the honor block, where Richard Matt ended up -- right. Where you have a lot more sort of privilege to walk around the facility more freely, more interaction with the guards and other staff at the prison there, more privileges on what you can take in and out of your cell, ability to cook in your cell, have a hot plate, et cetera, et cetera. Do you think that that should be reassessed for some of these people with very, very serious convictions like murder convictions?

JOHNSON: Well, you know, looking at the honor blocks, and we certainly had honor blocks in the jail that we -- that I ran in Chautauqua County. And I would have to look at their policies on what they were allowing. Certainly some of the things that went on there raised concern when you're having inmates working on electrical systems so that they start popping breakers to cook and allowing, you know, fresh meat or frozen meat to come inside the housing unit is certainly a concern.

We allow inmates in some of our housing units, there's microwave ovens in the common area, so it's under the correction officers' control and supervision to heat products that they buy from our commissary. But we certainly don't allow any food from the outside, from friends or family or officers to bring food inside the housing unit.

HARLOW: Before I let you go, they are cleaning house, if you will, at that prison, a new boss. They have 12 people they have either let go or put on paid administrative leave. Does that sort of from the top down fix the problem?

JOHNSON: No, it doesn't fix the problem and, you know, I have been listening to a lot of interviews from supervisors that worked at Clinton and some of the problems that's going on. And that sometimes the superintendents just don't have the ability to do things without permission from their superiors up in Albany. And you have to let administrators run the jail or run the prison. And if you have to turn to higher-ups for every little thing and then they consider what you want to do and make decisions yes or no, then you're taking control away from the prison from the superintendents. And, you know, this guy who is coming in, he's got a great opportunity to take a bad situation and try to make it into a winning situation --

HARLOW: Right.

JOHNSON: -- and make Clinton Prison the best prison in New York State. You know, he should be pretty excited about this opportunity. And I think that the staff members at Clinton, you know, I know there's a lot of great correction officers working there --

HARLOW: Yes.

JOHNSON: -- who got mud on their face right now at no fault to themselves, and they should be looking forward to having somebody come in and do everything in their power to assist to make that prison run the way it's supposed to.

HARLOW: That's a good point. Patrick Johnson -- thank you, sir. Have a great holiday.

JOHNSON: Thank you. Happy Fourth of July.

HARLOW: Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, we dig deeper into that terror threat this holiday weekend. And ISIS has vowed to wear down the West. Are ramped up security measures actually a propaganda win for the terrorists?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:39:10] HARLOW: All right. More now on our top story this morning. From the nation's capital to New York to Los Angeles law enforcement boosting security for the Fourth of July. New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo urging his city to be on high alert, also increasing monitoring operations across the state.

Even though authorities point out there is no specific credible threat, they do want to make sure that ISIS or any lone wolf followers do not try to carry out any attacks as millions of Americans celebrate Independence Day.

Let's talk about this more with CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen. He joins me from Washington.

Peter -- the way you put it is what makes ISIS different is their ability and desire to carry out these smaller attack and this aim to really attack us with as you call it "death by a thousand cuts" and wear down the west. How does that change how we respond?

[10:40:02] PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, it's very difficult to respond to people who may be radicalizing in their basement, you know, because they're getting online propaganda from ISIS. And if they're not in communication with other militants there's not much you can do. Which is why, you know, authorities have put out this alert this weekend in the context of ISIS calling for attacks during the month of Ramadan which will continue past the July 4th weekend into mid-July.

So that's why the authorities are putting this out. Now, will anything happen? You know, I think we're all going to wake up on Monday morning and probably nothing will have happened. We've seen a lot of these alerts in the past several years, and usually when the government puts one out, nothing happens.

Now, maybe you can argue it might have interrupted something that was in progress or maybe there was nothing really there in the first place. It's hard to prove negatives. But as a general proposition, these kinds of big alerts don't then result later in some kind of attack that was related to the alert.

HARLOW: So then why did we hear former CIA deputy director Mike Morell on CBS this week saying, quote, "I wouldn't be surprised if we're sitting here a week from today talking about an attack over the weekend in the United States. That's how serious this is." BERGEN: You know, Mike Morell is a very able U.S. government public

servant. He had a very distinguished career at the CIA. That's his view. I can't really explain why he thought that, you know. I think you'd really have to ask him directly about his reasoning.

HARLOW: One thing that also grabs attention is the fact that, you know, does the propaganda machine of ISIS gain ground just by the fact that this is our top story today, that the media has been talking about this all week that the nation's attention is focused on this? Is that in and of itself a win for ISIS?

BERGEN: It can be. Look, I mean terrorism -- that's a very good question, Poppy. Terrorism doesn't work if people aren't terrorized. And if we're kind of doing the work of the terrorists for them, sort of terrorizing ourselves, I'm getting e-mails from people saying, you know, should I go on vacation. And I'm saying, of course, you should. I mean this is not a kind of problem that would involve people canceling their vacations.

So, you know, we need to calibrate this pretty carefully. The authorities are probably doing something that I would do or anybody else would do if they're in a position of responsibility. But we have to understand as you said earlier, Poppy, there's no specific intelligence about anything right now except this general call.

HARLOW: Does the fact that this is the holy month of Ramadan increase the risk simply because these terrorist organizations, ISIS included, could be promising people double the reward, double the reward in heaven, et cetera, if you kill yourself now for the cause or if you risk everything for the cause?

BERGEN: Absolutely. I mean just a week ago we saw in France and in Kuwait and, you know, the attacks that were attributable to people either inspired by ISIS or claimed by ISIS. And, of course, the most -- one of the most deadly terrorist attacks in recent memory in Tunisia which was also carried out by somebody acting sort of under the inspiration or perhaps even the direction of ISIS.

So these people certainly thought that there were some extra brownie points, as it were, for an attack on Ramadan. Of course, that's not a view shared by -- it's only an extremely small minority of people who are going to inspired by these ideas.

HARLOW: Right.

BERGEN: But the fact is that there are some people out there and they can be deadly.

HARLOW: All right. Peter Bergen -- thank you very much.

BERGEN: Thank you.

HARLOW: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, days away from a nearly $2 billion decision. We head live to Athens, Greece ahead of a monumental vote for that nation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:47:53] HARLOW: Greece is now days away from a huge decision. On Sunday the country will vote on whether or not to accept a bailout offer -- a bailout offer that comes with a heavy, heavy burden of cutting pensions and other benefits in a major way. The country's debt crisis has grown so dire it has a crowd funding web page that has raised more than $1.7 million in just five days. That is a long way shy though of the more than $1.7 billion that it owes to the IMF.

Isa Soares is live in Athens ahead of the vote. And Isa look, just moments ago, earlier today, the prime minister there, Alexis Tsipras came out and said vote no to the people, vote no for this. He says voting yes for this bailout agreement, which means a lot of cuts for the people there, is a quote, campaign of terror. It's a pretty powerful statement. Which way does he think people will fall?

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's quite hard. It's the first time -- Poppy -- it's the third time we're seeing Alexis Tsipras speak in two days, so some probably could interpret that as the fact that he's slightly worried that it might go the yes way. But he's been pushing very hard and the party has been pushing very hard for the no.

Like you said, he does not want any more austerity. He says he believes that by voting no, he will strengthen his hand come Monday when it comes to the negotiating table. Perhaps he says he can get a better deal for the Greek people if people vote no.

But those on the other side, Poppy, on the yes camp, they say he is being -- he's risking -- putting their lives at risk, their economy is at risk, and they're worried that by voting no, it will push them out of the euro and it's very, very risky.

So that is the concern, but many people here very confused which way will they vote because that referendum question is so hard to understand in the first place, Poppy.

HARLOW: For the Greek people, right, we talk so much about the politicians and what they're deciding. Look, Alexis Tsipras was voted in and he had this very sort of radical left-leaning agenda. The same people that voted on him will now decide if he's right.

Are they willing -- do you get the sense from the people on the streets -- they're willing to take these cuts? Cuts in pensions, having to work later until they retire, having a lot of lot of those benefits that they have relied so much on cut.

[10:50:08] Do they see it as that dire that they need to be able to live with that?

SOARES: From the people I have spoken to, no, they've had enough Poppy. And the numbers seem to suggest that. The majority of people were even backing yes saying in euro they don't want -- even those people who want to stay in euro, they don't want more austerity. They want to stay in euro, but with less austerity. They have made so many cuts already. I mean pensions here have been cut drastically although we're hearing of one small cut. People have seen their pensions cut, their wages cut. We've got unemployment at 25 percent, youth unemployment over 50 percent. The economy has shrunk 25 percent Poppy. And that just gives you a sense of how tired, how exhausted the people are here today.

So many people both on the yes and on the no camp will want no austerity regardless of where the negotiations go on Monday.

HARLOW: Absolutely. All right. Isa Soares, live in Athens, Greece. She will be there throughout this -- the big vote happening on Sunday. Thank you -- Isa.

Now turning to a crisis happening right now across America. Listen to this number, one in five American children in this country rely on food stamps -- that is more than in 2010. So if the economy is getting better, why is this still happening to our children?

We take a look at what it takes to feed America's most vulnerable children.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: The largest economy on earth, the land of opportunity, and yet too many children are going hungry in America.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a big problem in this country. I'm telling you, a lot of kids come to school hungry. And it affects everything. You're not going to be productive if you're hungry.

HARLOW: The United States has one of the highest child poverty rates in the industrialized world. One in five children here now rely on food stamps. And right here in Bridgeport, Connecticut, it is double that, 40 percent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The desperation in a city like Bridgeport is intense.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Children get up in the morning. Many of them don't have food.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Their grades and their ability to focus plummet when they're not having adequate nutrition.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You want to live in a society where we take care of our children. I think most Americans would agree with that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't like my neighborhood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's always going to be needs in a low-income neighborhood.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It has to stop somewhere.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't want them to struggle.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's an important part of our culture to feel like we're giving all children a chance to be successful.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got to get (ph) a lot to get a chance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is their reality.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We should step into their shoes so that we can understand them. That's why we need to go there and see what's going on.

HARLOW: So we did. We followed a family as their children ate breakfast and lunch in school for free as 19 million other children do nationwide. We saw how these lunches are made with limited resources and strict guidelines. We went shopping with their single mom on a food stamp budget where healthy food is hard to come by or afford. We had dinner with them at home.

It's all happening in one of the wealthiest counties in the country, in one of the wealthiest states, Connecticut. This is the story of how we feed our most vulnerable children for only a few dollars a day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What kind of society is this? Is this America?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Our special report "FEEDING AMERICA'S MOST VULNERABLE CHILDREN" airs tomorrow 4:30 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:57:41] HARLOW: And we want to leave you with this today. Avocado lovers everywhere pretty much horrified. A "New York Times" article suggesting people add peas to their guacamole.

Jeanne Moos tells it like no one else can.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Holy guacamole, why would anyone take perfectly good guacamole and add peas?

You won't even try it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I don't like peas.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, that's good.

MOOS: The food fight started when the "New York Times" ran a recipe for pea guacamole, and tweeted, "Add green peas to your guacamole. Trust us."

Instead of trust they got mockery. "Put Miracle Whip on your New York pretzel, trust me." "Add cilantro to your cannoli."

President Obama tweeted, "Respect 'The New York Times', but not buying peas in guac."

This anti-peas sentiment is bipartisan.

JIMMY FALLON, THE TONIGHT SHOW: Ever tried peas in your guacamole?

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We don't do peas in guacamole, my man.

MOOS: Leave guacamole alone was the battle cry.

(MUSIC)

MOOS: Chipotle tweeted, "Let there be peas on earth but not in guac."

Give peas a chance --

Peas have their defenders. Former Congressman John Dingell asked, why would anyone add guacamole to perfectly good peas?

Pea guacamole seems to have originated at the highly regarded Manhattan restaurant, ABC Cocina.

IAN COOGAN, CHEF DE CUISINE, ABC COCINA: Can you close your eyes and say, there are peas in there? Maybe not so much, but there are nuances. Again, it's a little lightness, a little sweetness that I think is very pleasant.

MOOS: TV hosts were taste testing madly.

TV ANCHOR: Try it, try it. You are going to love it.

MOOS: But we took our taste test to the streets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow.

MOOS: You're making that up. Can you tell they're in there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Honestly no.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tastes the same.

MOOS: Do you even taste the peas?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

MOOS: Go ahead and sing your pea guacamole protest anthem.

(MUSIC)

MOOS: Peacamole perhaps? Or maybe --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Guacamol-pea.

MOOS: Spoken like a true appeaser.

Jeanne Moos, CNN -- UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am a pea person.

MOOS: That's good to hear.

New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[11:00:00] HARLOW: Clearly. Clearly. Happy Fourth of July, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow. Thanks so much for being with me.

"AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan starts right now.