The Oklahoma Department of Corrections contracted incarcerated individuals to work for a call center vendor performing telemarketing tasks for a conservative super PAC.
In early September 2026, reports emerged detailing an arrangement in which prisoners in Oklahoma were hired out to a telemarketing company conducting outreach for a conservative political action committee.
Conversations across social media platforms highlighted specific financial figures, noting that while the Oklahoma Department of Corrections collected $10 per hour from the contractor, the incarcerated workers themselves were only compensated $2 per hour.
The public attention coincided with the Labor Day holiday period, which historically honors the labor movement.
Verification of the arrangement came to light through an official service agreement established between the state prison system and a telemarketing firm named HBW Leads.
The existence of this contract was brought to light by Oklahoma Watch, an independent nonprofit investigative news organization, in an article published on August 24, 2026.
Among the sources cited in the investigative piece was Steve Wilbanks, an inmate currently housed at the James Crabtree Correctional Center in Helena since 2015, alongside three anonymous incarcerated individuals.
According to the findings, the call center operations were stationed inside four state correctional facilities: James Crabtree, Mabel Bassett Correctional Center, Lexington Correctional Center, and Joseph Harp Correctional Center.
The official service contract outlined the scope of work for the inmates, which included:
1. Making outbound calls focused on marketing lead generation; and
2. Executing or assisting with political opinion polling, in compliance with relevant legal guidelines.
Furthermore, the documents indicated that Oklahoma Correctional Industries—a self-funded branch of the Department of Corrections tasked with providing employment and training for offenders—billed $10 for every hour worked by an inmate. However, the department maintained the authority to withhold up to 80% of those wages, resulting in the $2 hourly pay reported by the workers.
The initial reporting detailed the financial breakdown clearly: HBW Leads compensated the corrections department $10 per inmate hour, with workers receiving $2 an hour plus potential performance bonuses. The remaining funds went toward operational overhead for Oklahoma Correctional Industries.
Inquiries directed to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections sought further clarification regarding the wage structure and why telemarketing services were omitted from the agency’s official roster of program offerings.
Publicly available information on the HBW Leads website describes the Oregon-based enterprise as a generator of insurance sales leads through telemarketing, with representatives typically spending several minutes engaging prospects with qualifying questions. Although political campaigns are not explicitly advertised on their main site, an Ohio-based subsidiary called Visible Trends—registered by HBW Leads in January 2025—focuses specifically on polling, fundraising, and voter outreach.
(Ohio Secretary of State)
Documents and federal filings revealed that between March and June 2026, the conservative super PAC Make Liberty Win issued numerous payments totaling over $400,000 to Visible Trends, aligning with the operational timeline of the state prison contract. Make Liberty Win specializes in voter mobilization for primary and general elections.
While the partnership between the corrections department and the telemarketing vendor was well-documented, independent verification could not entirely confirm whether every political call made by the inmates directly served Make Liberty Win. Nevertheless, reporting indicated that some participants felt the scripts utilized push-polling tactics designed to subtly influence opinions under the guise of neutral surveys.
Representatives for Make Liberty Win stated that leadership was previously unaware of the utilization of prison labor for their campaigns and subsequently terminated the vendor agreement over performance concerns.