Health Beyond the Blog: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

On Last Week Tonight, John Oliver Examines Prison Healthcare

by Aanya Ravichander

For as long as I can remember, I would walk downstairs at home, grab a glass of chocolate milk, and join my dad as he watched the latest episode of Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, or John Oliver. I would sit down with him and pretend to laugh at jokes that I was too young to understand. Only in the last couple of years have I started to appreciate this form of media and its skill in describing current issues.

Recently, I watched an episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on prison healthcare, which was released on the streaming platform Max in October 2023 and is available on YouTube. Oliver discusses the lack of healthcare in many of the incarceration centers in the United States. From the start, he hooks the viewer by pointing out the flaws in our system, saying that the only place in America where healthcare is guaranteed are prisons.

The care in these facilities is appalling: Often, he explains, states contract prison healthcare to private companies, which are incentivized to provide the legal bare minimum of care to cut costs and increase profit. Oliver cites a lawsuit against the state of Arizona where prisoners were told to “pray” to be cured, while others were told to drink energy shakes to treat cancer symptoms. He also describes an incident where healthcare professionals from Corizon Health, a private company, packed a healing C-section wound with kitchen sugar. He also details the story of an incarcerated individual needing cataract surgery in both eyes who was told to choose an eye because one eye was “enough.”

Oliver challenges us to see that medical care options for incarcerated people are so poor because of who the care is for. He does a great job in grabbing the viewer and pointing out something that is our unfortunate reality in a light-hearted, palatable manner. His combination of satire and political critique creates a personal connection with the audience, making the segment effortlessly engaging.

Watch this episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver here.