Prison Labor: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

prison

and if for some reason you are not familiar with the concept, I will let a beloved children's artist explain it to you in a clip that has in no way gone wrong. All those people who are in

prison

right now were children like you. and then somewhere along the way they did something bad, something stupid, whatever it was, it probably started small and got bigger, maybe they even got away with it at first and thought they would never get caught, they were wrong, Now they are in prison, yes, they are. It's almost like they really should have seen this coming and watched this show that we've talked about before about the problems of mass incarceration, but this story isn't so much about who is in prison or if they should be there, but what they are. doing while they're in, which means that, broadly speaking, it's a story about prison

labor

because over 60 percent of the people in prison actually have jobs, in fact, prisons are basically run by the inmates, as you would know if you have ever seen an episode of lock up raw on msnbc the most common jobs are working in the kitchen or some form of cleaning service, you know, cleaning carpets, vacuuming trash, emptying trash, I work in the laundry room here five days a

week

, Monday through Friday, he recently landed one of the most coveted inmates.

Staff Canteen Clerk Jobs I didn't go to prison with a staff canteen job. I started in food service in the dish room and worked my way up the ranks. Oprah didn't get her start on the Oprah Winfrey Show, so I mean she's right. Of course, Oprah didn't get her start on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Oprah began when a glowing magical orb consolidated all of the earth's energy into a fascinating, perfect beacon of light, then she lit the orb and the result was Oprah, that's Oprah's origin story right there, but there are some important differences between the jobs that people do in prison and the jobs that they do outside, especially when it comes to money, the average wage in prisons is about 63 cents an hour and remember that's the average, which means there are states where The prisoners earn considerably. except in texas, georgia, arkansas and alabama, prisoners are not paid anything for their work and in some places they are required to work under threat of discipline, if they say no, I'm not going to work, they can discipline you for that . they can send you to solitary confinement for that's why that's slavery work for free yes and then they can and they can put you in solitary if you don't work or write you up for not working yes for free why that's not slavery yes that's not good because why that's not slavery ?

It's one of those questions that, even if you have to ask it, something has already gone very wrong, like how many swastika tattoos or which of Mom's nightstand giveaways you opened. Things are already bad, we just have to find out. find out how bad and the answer to why this isn't slavery is good, it's not exactly slavery because it turns out that treating prisoners as slaves is literally written into the constitution, the 13th amendment states that slavery is abolished except as punishment for a crime and the The amendment that abolished slavery is really not the one you want to include suddenly the word accept and look, I know that for many inmates they are not a naturally supportive group of people, in fact, there was a pressure to get a salary higher for those who worked behind bars.

A few years ago, these people at Fox thought it was funny that inmates behind bars are now suing for minimum wage for the work they do behind bars, in case it's a crime, they say they deserve minimum wage, like If crime paid, why let crime pay exactly? crime should not pay is very simple common sense is very simple this is common sense is very simple look first of all if you look at that in silence you would definitely assume it's a panel on erectile dysfunction and even with sound you can do it. I'm definitely not saying it isn't, but somehow I understand that crime doesn't pay sounds like common sense, but it's much more complicated than that, the truth is that when you combine the low or non-existent wages that prisoners earn pay with these shockingly high costs that they and their families can incur while within the current system can end up costing us all and

tonight

we are going to look at how prisoners earn and spend money and the companies that have done so.

I managed to get rich off of them and let's start with the fact that prison work can take many forms: often it's the cleaning or cooking work you saw before, but in some states prisoners actually work as firefighters, in fact, in the California wildfires

last

year about 12 of the firefighters were inmates and I must say that many of them find fighting fires very rewarding. The other day we were able to save houses from a fire and a woman came out to her backyard and thanked us for saving her house. Feeling like we are now doing something, being able to give back and potentially save lives is huge yeah and that makes sense, being able to save lives must be very satisfying, that's why Batman always seems to be in such a good mood and what his catchphrase is. us, I'm Batman, how great is fact in crime, it's great, I love it and honestly that seems like the best scenario for people who work in prison and who are happy to work contributing to society and learning new skills, although they are worth pointing out.

The base salary for firefighters is only three to five dollars a day for such dangerous work, and if you think about it, at least they are learning skills that will help them get a job outside, which is often not the case. California law mostly prohibits it. people with criminal records become licensed first responders, which means that being a firefighter in prison is no different than being an art history student in college; It might be fun while you're there, but you won't do it once Sal, you hear that Thessaly thing, you're going to work in human resources, you're going to have a favorite cup of coffee and a cushion that says it's one o'clock somewhere and you're going to look around the corner. window longing for the sweet. release death like everyone else, and, by the way, fighting fires is far from the only dangerous job prisoners do at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.

Some participate in a prison rodeo where the entertainment can be crazy. They take convict poker. Four inmates sit nervously at a gaming table while a very restless bull chooses his target, the

last

one standing or sitting wins, so why do you make this money? Yes, I'm broke. I'm trying to get a private investigator for my keys. He earns two cents an hour working in the prison camps. but he can make hundreds in that holy month, that's really shocking too and look, this really isn't the biggest problem, but if you're going to have a game where a bull attacks a group of people, you don't call him a convict.

Poker, whatever, dodgeball, again, not the biggest issue, not the biggest issue, but I wanted to bring it up and see that getting attacked by a bull for entertainment is clearly an outlier, most prisoners perform routine work for little or no money, the problem is that it can lead to them being seen less as human beings who pay their debt to society and more as a group of practically free

labor

and don't take that away from me, listen to Louisiana Sheriff Steve Prater when the state as part of prison reform. The program began releasing some inmates. He made an unusual complaint public in addition to the bad guys and I call them bad guys.

In addition to them, they are releasing some good ones that we use every day to wash cars, change the oil in our cars. cooking in the kitchens to do all that where we save money well they are going to let them out the ones we use in our work release program they are going to let them out just think about what he is saying there he is saying some people I need to stay behind bars because they are too valuable as a source of free labor, which is exactly the same plan as the villain in Shawshank Redemption.

Normally, to qualify as a Stephen King villain, you have to be something much less stupid like an evil car. or a guy who forgot to wear a coat and look, many prisoners prefer having jobs to just sitting in their cells all day, which again makes sense, so getting rid of prison labor completely is not the answer here, paying prisoners more could help, although that will be very difficult Prisons now rely so heavily on their workforce. Moving to a competitive wage could cost hundreds of millions of dollars each year and I know there are those who could say well what prisoners need money for, but the answer to that question.

It's actually very important here because while it may seem like you're living free in prison, in reality you may have a lot of expenses, like legal fees or basic necessities like soap or shampoo, and as lawmakers in Arizona recently discovered, Prisons were actually requiring women to purchase personal hygiene products. There is a new bill in the legislature that would make the state pay for all feminine hygiene products and the first to hear the proposal was a committee of nine men, some of them a little apprehensive about taking on the task, I suppose, upon hearing the Bill.

It was something I didn't expect, I didn't expect to hear about pads and tampons and period problems, okay, so two things first, period problem sounds like the title of a medical textbook written back in the day. We used to treat female emotions with electrocution or drowning, and secondly, I'm frankly surprised that a man who voluntarily chose that haircut isn't more of an expert on women, but the fact is that until last year, female prisoners in Arizona They were allotted only 12 pads per month, which as I'm going to say, at least half of you know, is often not enough and the extra hygiene products were not a minor expense.

Base pay for prisoners starts at 15 cents an hour, which meant buying an extra pack of sanitary pads took about 21 cents. hours of work and, in theory, women who needed more could simply ask prison guards or get a medical waiver, but the problem is in Arizona, since in many places prisoners also have to pay a co-pay to see to a doctor and I'll let a former prisoner addressing that panel tell you how that actually turned out. The most important thing if I want to apply for medical entitlement to receive more pads because let's say I have a heavier flow this month than last month, I would have to pay four dollars just to be seen by doctors now that I'm making nine cents uh after taxes , you really have to think about whether I want to put my entire month's income toward hopefully allowing me to approve additional pads if they think I deserve it.

Look, not only is it completely ridiculous that she needs to pay to prove that she deserves access to sanitary pads. Just think about having to discuss the details of a heavy flow on this bewildered face, so it's pretty clear that for many prisoners there is a huge gap between what they earn. at their job in prison and having enough for basic needs now, if they are lucky, they might have family or other people on the outside willing to help them by sending them money, but even that is more complicated than it seems and this brings us to the absurd end. . element here are for-profit companies that stand between prisoners and the outside world because let's say you want to send money to your incarcerated son or daughter.

One of the largest companies that allows families to do that is Jay Pay, but there is a problem with many. Of the states, families have to go through jp to send money to a prison, for almost 450,000 families, jp is the only way to send money to an inmate and the company charges them fees of up to 45 to give them 50. send 70 on my card is harder for people like Pat Taylor, who are barely getting by. I just let go of a bill. I let a bill go and pick it up later. It's true. It costs her 20 just to send 50.

So you know what? That means beware of ticketmaster when it comes to idiotic transaction fees, there's a new thing in town and charging families to transfer money isn't the only way businesses can make a profit. JPEG's parent company, Securus, is also a leader in the field of charging prisoners for phone calls and video visits, which represents a $1.2 billion-a-year industry. Sakuras has ads that sound like a shitty apple commercial, but they make it seem like a warm and fuzzy company focused on human connections, and honestly, it's nice that they fully recognize how important that is to people. connecting with others on the phone is frankly a lesson you would do well to take boom, you suck at business, dad, business, baby, I never stand in line, this baby is dirty, wow,where I'm fussy, don't rub my belly, I won.

Where won't be decided, but what that announcement doesn't make clear is how expensive they've successfully made those vital connections. Telephone calls within states can exceed a dollar per minute and facilities staffed by security guards have had rates of more than three dollars for the first time. minute and 16 cents for each additional one and that can really add up, which can be a huge problem for families of prisoners who may have limited resources. Shaina Palace is married to a man who is currently facing a seven and a half year sentence in Palace Prison. been paying high phone rates trying to keep her daughter connected to her father as best she can, we're done, but for six dollars a call, keeping that connection is not easy, you know, some people may not see six dollars a day, it's a lot , but when you have a baby, you know that six dollars a day is half a pack of diapers and that's hard, you shouldn't have to choose between letting your child talk to his father and buying him diapers, which is pretty much the definition of a shit, shit situation, and if you restrict or eliminate that connection, it can have serious consequences on life inside the prison, as those who have been there can tell you, all a lot of guys do when they're incarcerated are those phone calls , those letters, those visits.

That's what they live for, that's how they spend their time. I've seen kids in that family. I didn't go see him for a

week

or two and the next thing I knew they ended up in a hole for 90 days because they were just lonely. Because you feel alone, you can't build a family in prison. Correct contact with families is incredibly important and without any relationships in the hole for 90 days, that's how Sting describes a quickie and if you're thinking right, wait, maybe families can avoid phone charges by visiting their loved ones in person, although that is also changing.

Prisons and especially jails have been gradually eliminating in-person visits in favor of video visits, meaning you can show up to see a loved one and still have to sit in a different room and talk to them in a screen. Incredibly, this is something that security experts have. Contractually mandated until 2015, some of their contracts with facilities had promised them to eliminate all face to face visits and that is simply an evil machine that makes money by preventing people from seeing their families, sounds like an item on the top of satan's wish list on amazon. right before the cauliflower rice with superbed bugs and just the actual existence of Amazon and while this sounds inhumane, the people who run these facilities will insist that the reason is purely a matter of safety if you limit the people coming in, uh, you go a limits smuggling attempts, you don't have to worry about contraband, if you're doing a video visit you won't be able to bring contraband into the jail, okay I get it, so it's a smuggling problem, the problem with that The explanation is that research shows that installing video visits does not reduce smuggling, probably because it is easier for it to enter through other means, such as through guard staff and occasionally through owls, although it is true that it is mainly an azkaban problem, so why push video visits so hard?

It's hard to say. I will point out that it seems notable that jails and prisons often take a cut of the profits from phone and video calls, and while they will point out that the money goes to an inmate welfare fund, that fund is often used for other purposes. things. In addition to inmate welfare, one county spent nearly three-quarters of that money on staff salaries, while another spent it to purchase Tasers, which really stretches the definition of inmate welfare to a literally shocking degree and When you put this all together you end up with a scenario where you are not only hurting the people incarcerated, but you are hurting everyone around them.

One in three inmate families reported going into debt to pay for phone calls or visits, which is terrible and doesn't really prepare a prisoner. to be successful once they are published, look, the current system of low wages and high costs is clearly not good for anyone except the companies that are somehow managing to make massive profits from this and there are things we can do here, small and large, in New York City. I recently made free phone calls from prisons and Connecticut will consider similar legislation next year and if we want to make bigger changes, like paying prisoners more, we could do that although, as I said, it would be undeniably expensive and very unpopular.

You saw people arguing. crime doesn't pay, that's just common sense, but part of the way mass incarceration persists in this country is by keeping the true costs off the books and we're currently doing that through a combination of low-paid labor by the prisoners themselves , financially draining families. who have done absolutely nothing wrong and occasionally manage to monetize prisoners being thrown into the air with cattle and at that point I would say we have come a long way from common sense.