Prison Labor: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Prisoners as Cheap Labor
When it comes to prisons, many might assume that incarcerated people spend their days in their cells or outside, with their time being almost free of any burdens. However, the video segment of John Oliver on prison labor shows a different picture of inmates’ lives and their daily activities. According to Oliver, “over 60 percent of people in prison actually have jobs,” and “prisons are basically operated by the inmates” (LastWeekTonight, 2019, 1:05). The host provides examples: when inmates have such jobs as doing laundry, working in the canteen, emptying trash cans, or vacuuming.
However, as John Oliver mentions, the pay of those outside prisons and the inmates varies greatly. “The average wage in prisons is around 63 cents per hour,” and yet it is noteworthy that payment differs across states, meaning that southern states pay their inmates much less if they even do so (LastWeekTonight, 2019, 2:02). For instance, Beth Schwartzapfel, staff writer, emphasizes that “in Texas, Georgia, Arkansas, and Alabama prisoners are not paid for their work at all, and in some places, they’re required to work under threat of disciplinary action” (LastWeekTonight, 2019, 2:11). In this case, inmates cannot even refuse to do the work, which is required of them by the local administration since they might be put in isolation.
John Oliver proceeds to illuminate the situation of minimum wage and inmate options further, accentuating the fact that many prisoners work outside of prison, performing the same duties but being paid much less. For instance, in 2018, during the wildfires in California, inmates were hired as firefighters, and “around 12 of the firefighters were current inmates” (LastWeekTonight, 2019, 4:39). The women who were interviewed claimed that this process was rewarding since they “were able to save houses from burning down, to have a woman come out to her backyard and thank [them] for saving her house” (LastWeekTonight, 2019, 4:51). The women stated that it made the inmates feel like they were doing something special for the community. Still, it is evident that they will be paid several dollars a day for the same dangerous duties that they perform.
Similarly, another situation shown by the host illustrated how, instead of working on the premises of the prison, inmates choose to work in the fields with animals, giving performances of how the bulls chase them. When Virgil Smith was asked about the reason why he chose this type of work, he answered the following: “I’m broke, I’m trying to get a private investigator” (LastWeekTonight, 2019, 6:48). Therefore, the entire video shows how inmates are used as tools for free or low-cost labor, and even a lack of credentials does not stop the administration from putting them to dangerous work.
Opinion and Solution
Throughout the video segment, one can see the attitude of the host and audience toward such preposterous phenomena. For instance, John Oliver calls this slavery, and yet in his further explanation, he states that Consitution refutes this claim since “the 13th amendment states that slavery is abolished except as a punishment for a crime” (LastWeekTonight, 2019, 3:01). As a result, the host finds it almost comical that inmates are used as providers of free labor, and the government document makes it legal.
John Oliver intensifies his opinion by making an argument that a lot of pressure is put on prisoners. He agrees that they are not “a naturally sympathetic group of people” (LastWeekTonight, 2019, 3:24). Yet, after hearing the government official ridiculing the request of inmates to increase their pay by stating that crime doesn’t pay, Oliver noted that while it “does sound like common sense but it’s much much more complicated than that” (LastWeekTonight, 2019, 4:06). The host provides several examples to further show the inequality that the incarcerated individuals are facing.
The first example made by the host was the fact that women in prisons were denied free personal hygiene products. In a video of a woman standing in front of legislators and explaining the reason why she needs access to affordable hygiene products, Oliver states that “it is utterly ridiculous” that a woman must corroborate her statement about menstruation and her rights to nine men (LastWeekTonight, 2019, 11:09). In another example, the host called Jpay a provider with “dickish transaction fees” (LastWeekTonight, 2019, 12:22). The reason why this is so is that for a family to send their loved one in prison a sum of money, such as $40, they will have to pay $20 in fees. Moreover, Oliver claims that it is unfair for a child to be able to communicate with their parents for at least $1 a minute, which could accumulate to a sum worth a pack of diapers. This is the fee charged by Jpeg’s parent company, Securus.
In the end, Oliver states that resolving the issue of human labor in prisons is not an easy task. However, the host is sure that mass incarceration will persist if the government does not solve this problem. This issue is advantageous to the government due to underpaid labor, and yet it drains families of their money for the sole purpose of communicating with their loved ones. Thus, by ridiculing the treatment of inmates as free labor, Oliver calls the authorities to action.
Reference
LastWeekTonight. (2019). Prison labor: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO). Web.