Oklahoma Prison Inmates Staffed Insurance and Political Call Centers Behind Bars

NewsData.io · United States · Aug 30, 2026

A nonprofit investigative report reveals that Oklahoma's Department of Corrections contracted with HBW Leads and its affiliate Visible Trends to operate call centers at four state prisons, where inmates made insurance telemarketing and political calls for as little as $2 per hour. The arrangement, which paid the DOC $10 per inmate hour with $8 allocated to overhead, highlights ongoing ethical and legal questions around prison labor as a low-cost staffing alternative. Super PAC Make Liberty Win paid Visible Trends nearly $600,000 for political calling services before terminating the contract, claiming ignorance of the prison labor involvement. The story echoes a recurring pattern — including a 2019 Bloomberg campaign controversy — of political and commercial clients unknowingly or knowingly using prison-based call center labor sourced through third-party vendors.