HBO's "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" looks nothing like any other late night show currently on television. Every week during the show's season, Oliver committed a full 18 minutes to whatever topic he deemed important, including the United States' flawed criminal justice system. Oliver dedicated more time to this subject than any other late night host on television and even earned a nomination from The Crime Report for the Criminal Justice "Newsmaker of the Year."
Throughout the previous season of "Last Week Tonight," Oliver spent a large amount of time passionately discussing the criminal justice system and how it needed to be reformed. Oliver was the only television host to make The Crime Report's list of nominations, which also included President Barack Obama, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and Eric Holder, the fourth-longest serving Attorney General in U.S. history. Oliver was nominated for his "extraordinary portrait of the state of American criminal justice today."
On "Last Week Tonight," Oliver devoted a lot of time to "the kinds of topics that criminal justice reformers have long dreamed would find coverage, ranging from mental health challenges in jails to prisoner reentry," according to The Crime Report.
The British comedian is a well-known opponent of the American prison system, as HNGN previously reported. Last month, Oliver dedicated the first 18 minutes of his show to the challenges that prisoners faced when they were released from prison. In the detailed exposition, Oliver specifically concentrated on the many state regulations that were instituted in the 1990s that make it incredibly difficult for a former prisoner to find a place to live, get a job, keep the job and work with his or her parole officer.
While Oliver discussed the topic many times during his previous of "Last Week Tonight," the subject was brought up as far back as July 2014.
Check out some of Oliver's passionate monologues about the criminal justice system below:
