In Sunday’s episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver pointed out the dire need for mandatory minimum reform in our country’s prison system. He put the spotlight on a handful of first-time offenders serving horribly long sentences for the minor crimes they conducted.
Of the prisoners he highlighted, only one received a pardon from President Obama, while the others — including Kevin Ott, a prisoner serving life for dealing three grams of meth — are still stuck. You know it’s bad when some of the judges involved in handing out the punishment don’t even believe in said punishment.
Oliver summed up the hypocrisy quite nicely by saying:
“Just think about how annoyed you get when people who get seated after you at a restaurant get served and leave before you. Only in this case, the food is prison food, the restaurant is prison, and dinner takes 55 f*cking years.”
Hey, at least the turkeys are getting off easy. Talk about progress.
(Via Last Week Tonight)
