When Oklahoma inmate Steve Wilbanks spoke to a reporter by phone in late July, it had been six weeks since he worked in a prison call center, placing calls on behalf of insurance companies attempting to poach business from competitors and making political calls as primary elections were underway across the country.  “I had good numbers,” Wilbanks, who is incarcerated at the James Crabtree Correctional Center in Helena, said. “I was a producer.” Wilbanks was one of four inmates who spoke with reporters about the call center work. Contracts obtained via an open records request confirm that a company called HBW Leads and the Oklahoma Department of Corrections have established several call centers since January. As of Aug. 21, call centers are active at four state prisons: James Crabtree in Helena, Mabel Bassett in McLoud, Lexington Correctional in Lexington and Joseph Harp in Lexington.  The contracts specify that the call centers may engage in “telemarketing and political polling activity.” HBW Leads agreed to pay the Department of Corrections $10 per inmate hour worked. Prisoners employed at the call centers earn $2 per hour, plus possible bonuses for generating leads or completing surveys.  The remaining $8 per hour is allocated as overhead for Oklahoma Correctional Industries, a self-supporting sub-entity of the Department of Corrections that provides work programs and job training to inmates. Three of the four Crabtree inmates, whose identities were independently confirmed, requested anonymity for fear of retribution.  “They definitely know what they’re doing is a no-no,” one of the inmates said. The inmate described calls that resemble push-polling, in which the caller masquerades as a pollster but intends to influence voters. Several polling and marketing organizations denounced such tactics. Wilbanks said there were statements specifying that calls were paid for by Make Liberty Win, a Virginia-based super PAC that aims to help elect conservative lawmakers.  “They weren’t surveys at all, they were campaigning,” he said. “They just had one question at the end of the call: ‘Do we have your vote for such and such?’” Multiple inmates said they felt uneasy making partisan phone calls. Two indicated that they had been in prison so long that they were not familiar with the names of political candidates. One was unsure what MAGA or a Trump Republican was. “We were talking about the swamp and everything like that,” Wilbanks said. “I don’t even know what a swamp is. I’ve been in prison too long to catch up on some of these terms.”  The Department of Corrections refused multiple interview requests for this story. In an emailed statement, an agency representative wrote that the calls that inmates described in interviews, including advocating for candidates, fall within the contract description of political polling. The representative added that the agency regularly reviews call center material to ensure compliance with state and federal law. RINOs and Democratic Socialists Founded in Oregon, HBW Leads was acquired by Toledo, Ohio-based Double A Solutions in 2020. In January 2025, HBW Leads launched a separate entity called Visible Trends, which specializes in live calling for political campaigns. Both share a physical address at an office in Ohio.  Federal Election Commission records show that Make Liberty Win has paid Visible Trends almost $600,000 since March for political calling services. Most of the money went toward state legislative races, though the PAC also paid the company to make phone calls supporting Thomas Massie, the Republican congressman from Kentucky who lost a primary election in May.  The super PAC touts its ability to engage in direct voter contact for state legislative candidates. “We go directly to the voters’ doorsteps, cellphones, and mailboxes to mobilize them to oust RINOs and socialist Democrats alike,” reads Make Liberty Win’s mission statement.  Barrett Young, executive director of Make Liberty Win, said the organization was unaware that Visible Trends used prison labor. He said the super PAC recently terminated its contract with the vendor due to poor performance. Make Liberty Win’s most recent payment to Visible Trends was dated June 29.  As descriptions of calls made across the country — Connecticut, Kentucky, Ohio, Florida — turned to Oklahoma, the inmates provided, without prompt, prominent names on the recent Oklahoma election landscape: Gentner Drummond, Mike Mazzei, Jon Echols, Chip Keating, Justin “J.J.” Humphrey.  “I only did a few Drummond, and a few J.J. Humphrey,” one inmate said. “Mostly it was Mazzei, because he was Trump-endorsed, I guess.” No Oklahoma candidate has reported paying Visible Trends for campaign work during the 2026 election cycle, according to reports filed with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission. Similarly, no outside group has reported payments to the company, though KFOR-TV reported that some organizations have not complied with state reporting requirements.  800 Calls Per Day It’s not the first time that prison call centers have been established in Oklahoma, for political calling or otherwise. In 2019, The Intercept published a report detailing direct payments from the presidential campaign of former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg to a third-party vendor operating a call center at Eddie Warrior Correctional Center in Taft. The campaign said it was unaware that its vendor used prison labor and severed ties with the company after the reporter’s inquiry. In 2021, a James Crabtree inmate serving eight life sentences for child sexual abuse succeeded in obtaining full internet access through a call center job and downloaded child sexual abuse material from his work computer. He received two additional life sentences for the offense in August 2022.  Oklahoma prison call centers were temporarily shut down after the scandal but were never abolished. In 2023, prison officials said they had instituted new safeguards to restrict inmate internet access and were considering relaunching the program.  The new call centers, which are not listed as Oklahoma prison businesses on Oklahoma Correctional Industries’ website, appear to be an expansion of Oklahoma prison call center operations. The inmates described the scope and conditions of the call centers. “We were talking about the swamp and everything like that. I don’t even know what a swamp is. I’ve been in prison too long to catch up on some of these terms.”Steve Wilbanks, inmate, James Crabtree Correctional Center The center at James Crabtree was average for call centers, Wilbanks said, describing a relatively clean space with 120 cubicles equipped with computers and dialing systems. At first, they worked from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., then hours were expanded to 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wilbanks said. The inmates said they made as many as 800 calls per day, of which 500 might connect. Of those 500, perhaps 20 calls would be passed off to a waiting insurance agent after key information was obtained. Information visible to inmates on their computer screen included names, addresses, phone numbers, and current insurers. “If you get everything right on the paper, get all the information from the customer, you get the birthday, and the email address, it’s like a $2 bonus,” one inmate said. On political calls, the inmates said only names and phone numbers were visible. Wilbanks said inmates could also be subject to penalties if they missed quotas or failed to meet managers’ expectations. Reached by phone to respond to the inmates’ claims, a representative from Visible Trends said “no comment” and hung up. Executives for HBW Leads did not return messages seeking comment.  “Threw Me For a Loop” Prison telemarketing is a few decades old. Prison political calls date to at least the 1990s, when a Washington–based organization employed inmates to place calls on behalf of a congressional candidate. “Leading up to the November 1994 election, WMG prisoner telemarketers called voters in Republican congressman Jack Metcalf’s congressional district to conduct a phony ‘opinion poll’ designed to inform voters that Metcalf supported the death penalty while his opponent did not,” said a 1998 Prison Legal News report. Prison telemarketing has its champions. Call center organizations cite reduced recidivism rates, durable and transferable skills, and opportunities for inmates who are anxious to learn.  “Operating these programs makes it possible to help as many adults in custody as possible gain work skills and be prepared for a successful release,” reads a statement on the website of Oregon Correctional Enterprises. By way of contrast, an ACLU report on prison labor highlighted legislation nationwide that enabled various industries to exploit workers behind bars. “The United States has put in place a system of domestic laws and policies designed to exploit the labor of those incarcerated rather than to strengthen their capacity to productively participate in society,” the report said.  Wilbanks said he decided to leave the job because it became monotonous, but the nature of the calls left a mark.  “It was stuff like you don’t want to have your kids around creepy such and such, or they believe in transgender ideas not protecting your children,” Wilbanks said. “It’s like, whoa. That threw me for a loop there.”  Despite the concerns of exploitation, one inmate said they did not feel coerced to work at the call center.  “It’s just better money,” the inmate said. “It’s the best money on the yard.” J.C. Hallman covers a variety of topics for Oklahoma Watch.. Keaton Ross covers democracy and criminal justice for Oklahoma Watch. Contact him at (405) 831-9753 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @_KeatonRoss. The post Who’s Calling? appeared first on Oklahoma Watch. ...read more read less