According to an Oklahoma Watch investigation, Oklahoma inmates were paid $2 an hour to make political phone calls from inside state prisons promoting MAGA political messaging.
The call centers operated at four state prisons through a contract between the Oklahoma Department of Corrections and HBW Leads. The contract specifically allowed telemarketing and political polling.
But inmates interviewed by Oklahoma Watch said some calls were not about polling at all, but about promoting MAGA ideology in an effort to influence Oklahoma voters.
Some inmates said they were uncomfortable with the political messages they were being asked to deliver. One inmate described the work as campaigning because callers would deliver political messaging before asking whether the person intended to vote for a particular candidate.
HBW Leads is connected to Visible Trends, a political calling company that received nearly $600,000 from the conservative super PAC Make Liberty Win for political calling services. Make Liberty Win told Oklahoma Watch it did not know prison labor was being used.
Inmates independently recalled working on calls involving Mike Mazzei, Gentner Drummond, Jon Echols, Chip Keating and J.J. Humphrey. One inmate said most of his calls involved Mazzei because he was the Trump-endorsed candidate. Inmates also described scripts discussing “the swamp” and transgender issues, with some calls criticizing certain candidates while presenting others more favorably.
Do you think inmates should be used to make partisan political calls?
