- The United States has the highest number of prisoners in the world, with over 2 million people currently incarcerated.
- The prison population has grown eightfold since 1970, largely due to factors such as the dismantling of mental health systems, mandatory minimum sentences, and drug offenses.
- Drug laws in the US are seen as draconian and racist, with African Americans being sent to prison for drug offenses at a much higher rate than white people.
- The conditions and safety of prisoners are often disregarded, and jokes about prison rape are common in popular culture.
- Private subcontractors, such as Aramark, have taken over services in prisons, leading to issues such as food shortages and substandard healthcare.
- Arizona's privatized prison healthcare system resulted in a significant drop in medical spending and staffing levels, leading to an increase in prisoner deaths.
- In one instance, a prisoner had a C-section and was treated with kitchen sugar instead of proper medical care.

- The video highlights the issue of running prisons as businesses and the negative consequences it has on the treatment of prisoners.
- Private firms like GeoGroup and Corrections Corporation of America run nearly 9 percent of prisons in the US.
- These companies prioritize profits over prisoner rehabilitation, as high recidivism rates benefit their investors.
- The low pay and staffing ratios in privately-run prisons lead to abusive and unconstitutional conditions.
- The video criticizes the state of Florida for awarding GeoGroup for cost-saving practices, despite their history of abuse.
- The prison system in America is fundamentally broken, with racial profiling and overcrowding being major issues.
- The video concludes by emphasizing the need for change and highlighting the neglect and lack of political courage that have contributed to the broken system.

America's prisons are broken. Just ask John Oliver and several puppets.

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-♪ ♪ -♪ -♪ ♪ Our main story tonight concerns something Americans simply can't get enough of, prison.

We love to be entertained by it, from Orange Is the New Black to seemingly MSNBC's entire weekend programming to the TNT classic, Tim Robbins stands shirtless in the rain, the movie.

We love prison so much, a shocking number of Americans are currently inside 1.

As we learned last week, during a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

Our nation now has the greatest number of prisoners of any country in the world.

Nearly 1 in every 100 adults in America is in prison or jail.

We have over 2000000 people behind bars right now.

We have more prisoners at the moment than China.

We don't have more of anything than China, other than, of course, debt to China.

Our prison population has expanded eightfold since 1970.

The only other thing that's grown at that rate since the 70s is varieties of Cheerios.

You trumped up Froot Loops and you know it!

And look, look, our prison population has exploded for a number of reasons, from the dismantling of our mental health system, to mandatory minimum sentence laws, which help explain why 97% of people plead guilty to federal crimes, rather than risk going to trial, to, of course, drugs.

Because half the people in federal prison are there on drug charges.

And it accounts for a quarter of admissions to state prisons.

And of course, it's tricky to know how to feel about all this, because

1 hand, the war on drugs has completely solved our nation's drug problem, so that's good.

But on the other hand, our drug laws do seem to be a little draconian and a lot racist.

Because while white people and African-Americans use drugs about the same amount, a study has found that African-Americans have been sent to prison for drug offenses at up to 10 times the rate, for some utterly known reason.

It reminds me of a joke, you know, black people who commit drug offenses, they go to jail like this.

Whereas white people don't go to jail at all.

In fact, so many people, so many people are incarcerated in America right now that it's become 1 of the things that Sesame Street has to explain to children.

When I was about your age, my dad was incarcerated too.

Incarcerated is when someone breaks the law, a grown-up rule, and then they have to go to jail or prison.

We now need adorable singing puppets to explain prison to children in the same way they explain the number 7 or what the moon is.

And at least Sesame Street is actually talking about prison.

The rest of us are much happier completely ignoring it.

Perhaps because it's so easy not to care about prisoners.

They are, by definition, convicted criminals.

In fact, it's so easy not to care that we are really comfortable making jokes about 1 of the most horrifying things that can potentially happen to them.

And do not, I repeat, do not drop the soap.

If we were in prison, you guys would be like my bitches.

We're going to federal pound me in the ass prison.

Puss, you got any idea what they do to eggs in San Ricardo prison?

The egg's gonna get fucked against its will.

Now, wake up your children and explain that joke to them.

Look, we are somehow collectively able to laugh about references to the fact that 4 percent of prisoners reported being sexually victimized in the past year.

Now, that might not sound like a lot, but think of it like this.

If every time you bought 2 dozen donuts, 1 of them had been raped, you'd be pretty upset.

And those are pastries, prisoners are people.

If you don't know a prisoner, though, or think that you're ever likely to become 1, then their safety and health is not gonna be high on your list of priorities.

You don't need to know anything about the conditions that they live in.

And yet, watch him almost comically struggle to recall a basic detail about 1 of the most mentally excruciating things prisoners can be subjected to, solitary confinement.

I'm trying to get this, is the human thing we're talking about.

You're looking for the space of what the...

The size of the cell that a person is kept in.

As far as I can remember, you're just asking what the style of the fucking cell is.

And to be fair, he did eventually get an answer.

The average size should be equivalent to...

That is the length of a six-foot party sub by the length of the amount of that party sub that's left over the following day, because nobody wants party subs.

Look, people put their hands all over them, they're disgusted, no 1 wants, that's not the point.

But thankfully, a few minutes later, the record was corrected.

Plenty of room for a ping pong table and an imaginary opponent as your mind slowly becomes untethered.

-♪ ♪ -♪ What is clear so far is that we are doing a terrible job of taking care of people that it is very easy for all of us not to care about.

Increasingly, we aren't taking care of them at all.

Private subcontractors have steadily been taking over certain services, like the Aramark Corporation, who provide food to prisons, and a promise that, with Aramark, you can expect more.

And, hey, look, when you're being thrifty with food costs, what's the worst that can happen?

Record shows 65 instances where Aramark employees failed to provide food or ran out.

The private vendor Aramark changed recipes to include cheaper, sometimes substandard ingredients.

Aramark Correctional Services made headlines recently after maggots were found in food served at prisons here in Michigan.

The only time when you are happy to hear the words, maggots were found, is when you are a maggot whose family was lost at sea.

We floated 3 days on a piece of bread, but we never lost hope.

Medical spending in prisons dropped by $30 million, and staffing levels plummeted.

50 people died in Arizona Department of Corrections custody in just the first 8 months of this year.

Compare that to 37 deaths in the previous 2 years combined.

At this point, you could hire the people who pretend to be doctors on Grey's Anatomy, And you would probably have a lower mortality rate and a lot more intrigue.

-♪ ♪ -♪ Cutting costs has led to some incredible things happening in Arizona.

1 prisoner had a C-section in jail, And this is how she says they treated her.

What do you mean they used kitchen sugar?

The packets, like McDonald's, the sugar, They would open it, pour it inside, and put gauze over it and tape it up.

1 of the doctors learned it from, I don't even know, I don't know.

Sugar was used to treat wounds before the advent of antibiotics, back in the early 1900s.

Yeah, but then we all decided it was no longer an acceptable medical practice.

Yeah, he's not really doing much of anything anymore.

You will never pay a political price for treating prisoners like this woman badly.

Here is how 1 Arizona lawmaker responded to her story.

That doesn't sound like a true allegation.

You know, prisoners have, you know, 24-7 to think up allegations and write letters.

I'm not saying that, that some of them can't have a basis in fact, but you gotta take them with a grain of salt, or in the case of the hospital, maybe a grain of sugar.

Somewhere in hell, Satan just sharpened his pitchfork and said to his secretary, do me a favor, Janice, and let me know when that guy gets here, okay?

Many states are even contracting out entire prisons.

Nearly 9 percent of prisons are currently run by private firms like GeoGroup and Corrections Corporation of America, who had combined revenues of over 3000000000 dollars last year.

And while their marketing materials emphasize how much they do to help their prisoners rebuild their lives, their pitch to investors has been a little bit different.

In a recent investor presentation, CCA pitches its unique investment opportunity.

Another reason investing in the jailing of people makes good financial sense, high recidivism.

That is a great way to reassure your investors.

Look, look, look, we see your concerns, you know, What if we fully rehabilitate the prisoners and they become fully functional members of society?

Well, don't worry, that's not the kind of company we're running here, don't worry.

Once we're done with these prisoners, they're like human boomerangs.

They're broken right in the middle and they keep coming back.

Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on

♪ the key problem with running prisons as businesses is that prisons are then run as businesses.

Pay and staffing ratios are so much lower that a GEO Group youth facility in Mississippi sometimes had just 2 officers overseeing as many as 256 prisoners.

That facility eventually closed, but only after a federal judge wrote that physical and sexual abuse was rampant there because its operators had allowed a cesspool of unconstitutional and inhuman acts and conditions to germinate." Now, I know that G.O.

Will say that presents an unbalanced picture of their company, so in the interest of balance, I will point out that they got an award from the state of Florida citing their bold and innovative cost-saving business practices.

Although I think we all know, when the state of Florida gives you an award, that award is basically sarcastic.

--LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE --In fact, a quick side note, the award was signed by Florida Governor Rick Scott, who has led the drive for prison privatization in his state, but on 1 condition.

What I've said all along is that, yeah, this is an opportunity for the taxpayers of the state to save money.

There is no way we'll do this if we don't save money.

As you know, what the bill says is that if we don't save at least 7 percent, we don't do prison privatization.

Listen, if you think Rick Scott is gonna look the other way for a company with a history of the physical abuse of minors for savings of a mere 6 percent, you don't know Rick Scott, okay?

Now, if you happen at all to be interested in asking Rick Scott about the conduct of the GEO Group, for goodness sake, Don't do it tomorrow night.

We actually checked, and he's going to be at a fundraiser at the home of, and this is true, the CEO of Geo Group.

I believe the theme of that fundraiser is a cesspool of unconstitutional and inhumane acts.

Private prisons are bad, yes, but the whole system just seems fundamentally broken.

I think, if you don't mind, I need a minute.

I actually need some help understanding this, if you don't mind.

It's just, I've been looking at the prison conditions in America and the whole system is just so horribly broken.

My daddy's in jail right now for a low-level drug offence.

You see, that's exactly what I'm talking about, Timmy.

Well, my daddy's in jail because he killed 4 people.

Yeah, well, okay, he's actually a dangerous individual who needs to be in jail, so That's not really the same thing.

My daddy's in jail and people pay money to see him.

Hey, John, how badly broken is the prison system?

I can't believe I'm gonna say this but 1 prison actually put sugar in a woman's c-section.

Oh wait wait wait, you mean like the letter C?

Would it make you feel better if we sing about it


Speaker 0: -♪ ♪ -♪ -♪ ♪ Our main story tonight concerns something Americans simply can't get enough of, prison. We love to be entertained by it, from Orange Is the New Black to seemingly MSNBC's entire weekend programming to the TNT classic, Tim Robbins stands shirtless in the rain, the movie. We love prison so much, a shocking number of Americans are currently inside 1. As we learned last week, during a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

Speaker 1: Our nation now has the greatest number of prisoners of any country in the world. Nearly 1 in every 100 adults in America is in prison or jail.

Speaker 0: That's true. We have over 2000000 people behind bars right now. We have more prisoners at the moment than China. Than China. We don't have more of anything than China, other than, of course, debt to China.

And... And... It didn't... It didn't always used to be this way. Our prison population has expanded eightfold since 1970.

The only other thing that's grown at that rate since the 70s is varieties of Cheerios. Fuck you, fruity Cheerios! You trumped up Froot Loops and you know it! And look, look, our prison population has exploded for a number of reasons, from the dismantling of our mental health system, to mandatory minimum sentence laws, which help explain why 97% of people plead guilty to federal crimes, rather than risk going to trial, to, of course, drugs. Because half the people in federal prison are there on drug charges.

And it accounts for a quarter of admissions to state prisons. And of course, it's tricky to know how to feel about all this, because

Speaker 2: On the

Speaker 0: 1 hand, the war on drugs has completely solved our nation's drug problem, so that's good. But on the other hand, our drug laws do seem to be a little draconian and a lot racist. Because while white people and African-Americans use drugs about the same amount, a study has found that African-Americans have been sent to prison for drug offenses at up to 10 times the rate, for some utterly known reason. It reminds me... It reminds me of a joke, you know, black people who commit drug offenses, they go to jail like this.

Whereas white people don't go to jail at all.

Speaker 2: -...at all. -...at all.

Speaker 0: In fact, so many people, so many people are incarcerated in America right now that it's become 1 of the things that Sesame Street has to explain to children.

Speaker 3: My dad is... My dad's in jail.

Speaker 4: When I was about your age, my dad was incarcerated too. Incarcerated is when someone breaks the law, a grown-up rule, and then they have to go to jail or prison.

Speaker 0: -♪

Speaker 5: We will be your friends

Speaker 0: ♪ -♪

Speaker 5: We'll help you through... ♪ -♪ You're not alone...

Speaker 0: ♪ Just think about that. We now need adorable singing puppets to explain prison to children in the same way they explain the number 7 or what the moon is. And at least Sesame Street is actually talking about prison. The rest of us are much happier completely ignoring it. Perhaps because it's so easy not to care about prisoners.

They are, by definition, convicted criminals. In fact, it's so easy not to care that we are really comfortable making jokes about 1 of the most horrifying things that can potentially happen to them.

Speaker 6: Go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

Speaker 3: And do not, I repeat, do not drop the soap.

Speaker 0: -♪♪ -♪

Speaker 2: Help!

Speaker 0: -♪♪ Look, cabloons! Don't drop them.

Speaker 7: You know what? If we were in prison, you guys would be like my bitches.

Speaker 8: We're going to federal pound me in the ass prison.

Speaker 6: Puss, you got any idea what they do to eggs in San Ricardo prison? It ain't over easy. Oh...

Speaker 0: 0... Do you get it? Do you get it? The egg's gonna get fucked against its will. That's why it's funny.

Now, wake up your children and explain that joke to them. They'll love it. Dooo! Look, we are somehow collectively able to laugh about references to the fact that 4 percent of prisoners reported being sexually victimized in the past year. 1 in 25.

Now, that might not sound like a lot, but think of it like this. If every time you bought 2 dozen donuts, 1 of them had been raped, you'd be pretty upset. And those are pastries, prisoners are people. If you don't know a prisoner, though, or think that you're ever likely to become 1, then their safety and health is not gonna be high on your list of priorities. You don't need to know anything about the conditions that they live in.

But you know who should know? Maybe the director of federal prisons. And yet, watch him almost comically struggle to recall a basic detail about 1 of the most mentally excruciating things prisoners can be subjected to, solitary confinement.

Speaker 2: How big is a cell? How big is the average cell in solitary?

Speaker 9: You say the average size?

Speaker 2: Cell, yeah, the size of the cell. How big is it? What is it? I'm trying to get this, is the human thing we're talking about. We've got a lot of statistics.

How big is the cell?

Speaker 9: The average size of a cell is... I guess I'm trying to find... You're looking for the space of what the... Yes.

Speaker 2: The dimensions in feet. In inches. The size of the cell that a person is kept in. I want to get some idea of... I don't know...

Am I asking this wrong?

Speaker 0: No! No, you're not. You are not asking it wrong. As far as I can remember, you're just asking what the style of the fucking cell is. But it was a long time ago.

And to be fair, he did eventually get an answer.

Speaker 9: The average size should be equivalent to... 6 by... 4.

Speaker 0: What? 6 by 4? Couple of things there. 1, that was clearly a guess. And 2, 6 by 4 is barely an elevator.

That is the length of a six-foot party sub by the length of the amount of that party sub that's left over the following day, because nobody wants party subs. Look, people put their hands all over them, they're disgusted, no 1 wants, that's not the point.

Speaker 6: That's not the point.

Speaker 0: But thankfully, a few minutes later, the record was corrected.

Speaker 9: For the actual, it's 10 by 7... For the cell size.

Speaker 0: Ooh, 10 by 7? Step this way, your highness. Plenty of room for a ping pong table and an imaginary opponent as your mind slowly becomes untethered. -♪ ♪ -♪ What is clear so far is that we are doing a terrible job of taking care of people that it is very easy for all of us not to care about. But here's the thing.

Increasingly, we aren't taking care of them at all. Private subcontractors have steadily been taking over certain services, like the Aramark Corporation, who provide food to prisons, and a promise that, with Aramark, you can expect more. More savings! And, hey, look, when you're being thrifty with food costs, what's the worst that can happen?

Speaker 10: Record shows 65 instances where Aramark employees failed to provide food or ran out.

Speaker 4: The private vendor Aramark changed recipes to include cheaper, sometimes substandard ingredients.

Speaker 10: Aramark Correctional Services made headlines recently after maggots were found in food served at prisons here in Michigan.

Speaker 0: That is not good. The only time when you are happy to hear the words, maggots were found, is when you are a maggot whose family was lost at sea. We floated 3 days on a piece of bread, but we never lost hope. And it's not just food being privatized. It's prison health care, too.

Arizona tried that. Guess how it turned out.

Speaker 8: Medical spending in prisons dropped by $30 million, and staffing levels plummeted. 50 people died in Arizona Department of Corrections custody in just the first 8 months of this year. Compare that to 37 deaths in the previous 2 years combined.

Speaker 0: 50 deaths? At this point, you could hire the people who pretend to be doctors on Grey's Anatomy, And you would probably have a lower mortality rate and a lot more intrigue. Ooh. -♪ ♪ -♪ Cutting costs has led to some incredible things happening in Arizona. 1 prisoner had a C-section in jail, And this is how she says they treated her.

Speaker 11: They decided to use sugar. Kitchen sugar.

Speaker 8: What do you mean they used kitchen sugar?

Speaker 11: The packets, like McDonald's, the sugar, They would open it, pour it inside, and put gauze over it and tape it up. And I'd had to do that for like 3 weeks.

Speaker 8: And they poured them in your c-section? Yeah. Did they tell you why they

Speaker 0: were doing that?

Speaker 11: 1 of the doctors learned it from, I don't even know, I don't know. Basically it's a home remedy.

Speaker 8: Sugar was used to treat wounds before the advent of antibiotics, back in the early 1900s.

Speaker 0: Yeah, but then we all decided it was no longer an acceptable medical practice. Like curing a child's cough with heroin. Well, look, he's not coughing anymore. Yeah, he's not really doing much of anything anymore. And I can't find any of the good silver.

But look... -...look... -...look...

Speaker 2: -...look... -...look...

Speaker 0: You will never pay a political price for treating prisoners like this woman badly. You don't even need to pretend to care. Here is how 1 Arizona lawmaker responded to her story.

Speaker 12: That doesn't sound like a true allegation. That sounds ridiculous. You know, prisoners have, you know, 24-7 to think up allegations and write letters. I'm not saying that, that some of them can't have a basis in fact, but you gotta take them with a grain of salt, or in the case of the hospital, maybe a grain of sugar. AUDIENCE GROANS

Speaker 0: Somewhere in hell, Satan just sharpened his pitchfork and said to his secretary, do me a favor, Janice, and let me know when that guy gets here, okay? I just want to be ready. Many states are even contracting out entire prisons. Nearly 9 percent of prisons are currently run by private firms like GeoGroup and Corrections Corporation of America, who had combined revenues of over 3000000000 dollars last year. They're publicly traded.

And while their marketing materials emphasize how much they do to help their prisoners rebuild their lives, their pitch to investors has been a little bit different.

Speaker 7: In a recent investor presentation, CCA pitches its unique investment opportunity. Another reason investing in the jailing of people makes good financial sense, high recidivism.

Speaker 0: Oh, that's... That is a great way to reassure your investors. Look, look, look, we see your concerns, you know, What if we fully rehabilitate the prisoners and they become fully functional members of society? Well, don't worry, that's not the kind of company we're running here, don't worry. Once we're done with these prisoners, they're like human boomerangs.

They're broken right in the middle and they keep coming back. -♪

Speaker 2: Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on

Speaker 0: ♪ the key problem with running prisons as businesses is that prisons are then run as businesses. Pay and staffing ratios are so much lower that a GEO Group youth facility in Mississippi sometimes had just 2 officers overseeing as many as 256 prisoners. That facility eventually closed, but only after a federal judge wrote that physical and sexual abuse was rampant there because its operators had allowed a cesspool of unconstitutional and inhuman acts and conditions to germinate." Now, I know that G.O. Will say that presents an unbalanced picture of their company, so in the interest of balance, I will point out that they got an award from the state of Florida citing their bold and innovative cost-saving business practices. Although I think we all know, when the state of Florida gives you an award, that award is basically sarcastic.

--LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE --In fact, a quick side note, the award was signed by Florida Governor Rick Scott, who has led the drive for prison privatization in his state, but on 1 condition.

Speaker 2: What I've said all along is that, yeah, this is an opportunity for the taxpayers of the state to save money. There is no way we'll do this if we don't save money. As you know, what the bill says is that if we don't save at least 7 percent, we don't do prison privatization.

Speaker 0: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Listen, if you think Rick Scott is gonna look the other way for a company with a history of the physical abuse of minors for savings of a mere 6 percent, you don't know Rick Scott, okay? Ricky needs 7. Ricky wants 7. Ricky likes 7, okay?

Now, if you happen at all to be interested in asking Rick Scott about the conduct of the GEO Group, for goodness sake, Don't do it tomorrow night. He's busy. We actually checked, and he's going to be at a fundraiser at the home of, and this is true, the CEO of Geo Group. I believe the theme of that fundraiser is a cesspool of unconstitutional and inhumane acts. -...look...

Speaker 2: -...this is...

Speaker 0: This is... This is all so depressing. Private prisons are bad, yes, but the whole system just seems fundamentally broken. You know what? I think, if you don't mind, I need a minute.

I actually need some help understanding this, if you don't mind.

Speaker 3: Oh, hey, John. You seem sad.

Speaker 13: Yeah,

Speaker 0: I am sad, Timmy. It's just, I've been looking at the prison conditions in America and the whole system is just so horribly broken. Yeah,

Speaker 3: I know what you mean. My daddy's in jail right now for a low-level drug offence.

Speaker 0: You see, that's exactly what I'm talking about, Timmy. That's crazy.

Speaker 5: Well, my daddy's in jail because he killed 4 people.

Speaker 0: Yeah, well, okay, he's actually a dangerous individual who needs to be in jail, so That's not really the same thing.

Speaker 14: My daddy's in jail and people pay money to see him.

Speaker 0: Yeah, that's actually a zoo. That's different. He's in a zoo, okay?

Speaker 14: It looks the same to him.

Speaker 0: Well, let's not conflate the 2. 0, he's gone.

Speaker 3: Hey, John, how badly broken is the prison system?

Speaker 0: Yeah. I can't believe I'm gonna say this but 1 prison actually put sugar in a woman's c-section.

Speaker 13: Wait a second, what's a c-section? Oh wait wait wait, you mean like the letter C?

Speaker 0: Yes, yes, yes that's what I mean. That's exactly what I mean. Yeah

Speaker 5: Would it make you feel better if we sing about it

Speaker 0: Well, it can't hurt

Speaker 15: It's a fact that needs to be spoken. America's prisons are broken. It's a hard truth about incarceration. Prisons are needed

Speaker 2: For a

Speaker 13: civilized nation. But mandatory minimums for heroin and crack.

Speaker 3: Stack the system against Hispanics and blacks.

Speaker 0: Our prison population is bigger than Slovenia.

Speaker 5: Because we put people in jail instead of treating schizophrenia. It's true.

Speaker 13: No, I know. They put my dad in jail because they say he's a monster.

Speaker 0: What did he do?

Speaker 13: Nothing. They just said he looked like a monster.

Speaker 0: Well, that's racial profiling and that's wrong too. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 15: It's a fact that needs to be spoken America's prisons are broken

Speaker 0: Prison conditions are a national disgrace With violence And maggots

Speaker 13: And possibly rape And we shouldn't lock up reptiles just to look at their face.

Speaker 0: Those are zoos Those are zoos your dad is an alligator in a zoo.

Speaker 13: I'm a crocodile I'm a crocodile

Speaker 0: No, that's not what I'm saying,

Speaker 6: that's not what I'm saying, but no no

Speaker 0: you can't put that on me That is clearly not what I was saying.

Speaker 13: That's so ignorant. Oh,

Speaker 0: come on.

Speaker 13: As we were saying...

Speaker 15: It's a fact that needs to be spoken. America's prisons are broken.

Speaker 5: America's broken prison system is brought to you by decades of neglect.

Speaker 3: A lack of political courage.

Speaker 13: And a generous donation by the Geo Group.

Speaker 0: As well as viewers like you. Yes! We did it!

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Prison: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)