John Oliver Breaks Down How the US Bail Bond System Screws the Poor

On Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, John Oliver took on America’s bail bond system, pointing out that it often jails poor innocent people for not being as wealthy as known criminal Robert Durst—instead of crimes. And because Americans love entertainment, we’ve carved out a cottage industry of bounty hunter television shows to profit from what’s really a gross miscarriage of justice.

Oliver uses the example of a man named Miguel who was arrested for charging with a suspended license, given $1,000 bail and, because he was couldn’t pay that sum, was sent to Rikers Island, the place where prison officers were charged with abusing prisoners and leaving people in solitary so long that this happened.