President Barack Obama made history by becoming the first sitting president to visit a federal prison, in a segment that will be featured in a documentary titled "Fixing the System," which airs on Sept. 27.

Obama visited the El Reno Federal Correction Institution in Oklahoma in July to talk to prisoners about the mistakes he has made in the past, admitting that he is in his position because he had "more of a margin for error than a lot of kids do."

"I guess the honesty was what shook me the most, about how he opened up and said, 'Yes, I've done drugs ... and I didn't know my dad,''' Vice co-founder and CEO Shane Smith told the "Today."

"That's pretty unique especially as this presidential race is going on to have a sitting president go there and explain why he had empathy for these prisoners," Smith added.

Obama visited six different men who are serving long sentences for drug charges. Although Vice News recorded the encounter for an HBO special, the president initially made the trip for his campaign to reform America's criminal justice system.

"As a society, we seem to be OK with certain communities just being locked in this cycle,'' Obama told the inmates. "Our kids are being raised around drug crime, they naturally gravitate toward drug crime, they then get involved in the criminal justice system, and it just churns, and everybody thinks that's normal."

Related