Laboring behind bars for Bloomy
Mike Bloomberg’s big-bucks presidential campaign is putting prisoners to work.
The Bloomberg campaign admitted Tuesday that it inadvertently used inmates at an Oklahoma prison to make calls on its behalf through an arrangement made by one of its vendors.
The billionaire’s campaign contracted New Jersey-based call-center company ProCom, which has operations in the Garden State and Oklahoma.
Two of the Oklahoma call centers are operated out of state prisons, according to a report published by The Intercept.
A source told the Web site that inmates at one of the two prisons — the Dr. Eddie Warrior Correctional Center, a 900-inmate, minimum-security facility for women — made phone calls to California on behalf of Bloomberg, the former threeterm New York City mayor who launched a late entry into the Democratic presidential primary last month.
The female inmates disclosed at the end of the phone interviews that the calls were paid for by the Bloomberg 2020 campaign — but did not identify themselves as convicts calling from behind bars.
The Bloomberg campaign fessed up to the goof after claiming it was not aware it was paying inmates to make phone calls.
“We didn’t know about this and we never would have allowed it if we had,” said Bloomberg campaign spokeswoman Julie Wood.
“We don’t believe in this practice and we’ve now ended our relationship with the subcontractor in question,” she said.
It’s unclear precisely how much the inmates were paid for aiding Bloomberg. A ProCom official told The Intercept it pays inmates the hourly minimum wage of $7.25 in Oklahoma, though the state prison system lists a stringent cap on how much inmates can make per month.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg was roasted on social media for using prison labor.
Rival Democratic candidate Julián Castro and backers of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders were quick to pounce.
“My criminal-justice plan calls for closing private prisons and paying fair wages to incarcerated individuals. A concern for people, not profits, should govern our criminal justice policy,” Castro tweeted.
A top Sanders aide indicated that relying on prison labor was so bizarre it was like a scene out of the British “Twilight Zone”-like TV show “Black Mirror.”
“This episode of ‘Black Mirror’ looks really disturbing,” David Sirota tweeted.
Conservative backers of President Trump also took Bloomberg to task.
“If Trump did this the media would lead with it for a week and claim he’s disqualified because of it. What’s the bet this story disappears by tomorrow and is never heard about again?” tweeted Raheem Kassam.