John Oliver makes a practical and a moral case why you should care about coronavirus spikes in prisons and jails

There's been "a series of alarming spikes" in coronavirus cases across the U.S. in recent weeks, "but one particular kind of place has been getting hit especially hard," John Oliver said on Sunday's Last Week Tonight. "The five largest clusters of coronavirus are correctional institutions." Federal, state, and local prisons and jails collectively house 2.2 million inmates, who tend to have higher health risks, he noted. "Inmates feel like it's just a matter of time before they get sick, which is terrible, because we don't punish people by giving them diseases."

"Tonight let's talk about a few things: Why the coronavirus has spread so rapidly behind bars, the impact that has on absolutely everyone, and what we can and should be doing about it," Oliver said. "And I know that if you are fortunate enough to have little to no familiarity with the prison system, it can be easy to ignore this problem. And that attitude is actually reflected by some in local government." But among other things, he said, because about 445,000 people work at prisons — at least 9,100 of them have contracted COVID-19 — and jails are revolving COVID-19 incubators, "coronavirus doesn't stay behind bars, it travels easily."

"The fact is, we should be depopulating prisons and jails as quickly as we can right now — and I know how that sounds," Oliver said. "Because we were all raised hearing that 'you shouldn't do the crime if you can't do the time,' but in our current system, you're never just being sentenced to time: You're being sentenced to a lifetime of social stigma, futile job interviews, and roadblocks to necessities like housing. All of that is immoral enough. There is frankly no reason whatsoever we should now also be sentencing people to die from a virus, because that's not justice, it's neglect." There is NSFW language. Watch below. Peter Weber

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