President Obama will visit the El Reno federal prison in Oklahoma next week as part of a Vice special on the U.S. criminal-justice system set to be broadcast on HBO. The visit mark the the first ever by a sitting president to a federal prison.
Obama will tour the prison facility with Vice founder Shane Smith, who will host the special set to premiere this fall on HBO.
“There’s an emerging consensus in this country — on both the right and the left–that the way we treat criminal offenders is utterly broken and weakening our society in profound ways,” Smith said. “Visiting El Reno with President Obama — the first-ever visit to a federal prison by a sitting president — will give our viewers a firsthand look into how the president is thinking about this problem, from the policy level down to one on one conversations with the men and women living this reality. It’s going to be fascinating.”
El Reno is a medium-security prison housing 1,300 inmates.