According to a report from The Intercept, 2020 Democrat presidential candidate former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg “exploited” prison laborers to make phone calls on behalf of his campaign.
The report reads, “people incarcerated at the Dr. Eddie Warrior Correctional Center, a minimum-security women’s prison with a capacity of more than 900, were making calls to California on behalf of Bloomberg. The people were required to end their calls by disclosing that the calls were paid for by the Bloomberg campaign. They did not disclose, however, that they were calling from behind bars.”
The Bloomberg campaign regretfully confirmed the arrangement, saying it wasn’t aware of the prisoners making calls, and the campaign ended the relationship on Monday.
“The use of prison labor is the continued exploitation of people who are locked up, who really have virtually no other opportunities to have employment or make money other than the opportunities given to them by prison officials,” said Alex Friedmann, managing editor of Prison Legal News and an advocate for incarcerated people’s rights, as reported by The Intercept.
According to the Department of Corrections, the maximum monthly wage for incarcerated individuals is $20 a month, where another policy document claims prisoners are paid $27.09 per month.
The move comes as Bloomberg has plummeted millions of dollars in his campaign, and the call centers may very well be a major oversight, or the campaign may have been aware of the situation.