Michael Bloomberg campaign uses Oklahoma prison inmates to call voters, says it was done 'unknowingly'
Billionaire presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg was in for an embarrassment as his campaign ended up using prison laborers to ring voters to boost his chances.
The former New York mayor later said that his campaign did it “unknowingly” and that he had terminated ties with a vendor that runs two call centers in the state jails.
According to a report published by The Intercept on Tuesday, December 24, prisoners at Dr Eddie Warrior Correctional Center, Oklahoma—a minimum-security women’s jail—were making the calls to California on Bloomberg campaign’s behalf. The prison workers revealed during the call that they were paid for the act by the campaign but not the fact that they were confined.
In his defense, the 77-year-old presidential hopeful said he came to know about the company’s use of prison labor only after the media brought it to his notice.
“We didn’t know about this and we never would have allowed it if we had. We don’t believe in this practice and we’ve now ended our relationship with the subcontractor in question,” the campaign later told The Intercept in an email.
Bloomberg joined an already crowded Democratic presidential fray only in November and has made massive expenses behind television ads. According to The Intercept report, using a third-party vendor, Bloomberg hired call-center firm ProCom to make the phone calls for his campaign.
The firm runs two centers in the state prisons of Oklahoma and, according to one unidentified source that spoke to The Intercept, imprisoned people were asked to make calls from at least one of these prisons.
Matt Elliott, a spokesperson for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections was quoted as saying by CBS News that the inmates could earn up to $1.45 an hour working for call centers and it helps them prepare themselves for release.
Stu Loeser, a long-time spokesperson of Bloomberg, tweeted in a tone of mockery saying the campaign had no idea that “a vendor of a vendor of a vendor used prison labor”.
Bloomberg is ranked fifth among the Democratic candidates with five percent support, according to a recent survey by Real Clear Politics.