John Oliver knocked it out of the park again on Last Week Tonight with this lengthy and scathing condemnation of America’s grossly overburdened, racially unequal and increasingly privatized prison system.
And because it can be frustratingly difficult to make people care about the welfare of convicted criminals — even though so many of them are behind bars for the kind of minor, non-violent drug offenses that most of us are guilty of committing on the occasional weekend out/college party — Oliver uses muppets to get his point across.
The result (“It’s a fact that need to be spoken; America’s prisons are broken”) is both funny and poignant.
Kudos to Oliver for tackling complex topics, and going for the full breakdown, rather than one quick punchline.