QI (Quite Interesting) is a British comedy panel game show hosted by Stephen Fry, which brings together four comedians a week to share anecdotes and trivia.
In this clip, Fry asks the panelists “Where are 1% Of Americans?”, which kicks off a conversation about mass incarceration, bringing to light unsettling details and statistics on racial disparity in the criminal justice system and the three-strikes law.
“No society in history has imprisoned more of its citizens”
While it’s illegal to import good made by forced labor or prisoners, American prisons produce “100% military helmets, bulletproof vests… and other items of uniform … 93% of domestically produced paints… 36% of home appliances”. It could be said that America “reinvented the slave trade”; these prisoners are paid way below minimum wage, allowing the country to compete with factories in third world countries.
“5% of the world’s population is American, 25% of people in jail worldwide are American.”
Though QI is a comedy show and this particular conversation ends in a laugh, it doesn’t detract from the gravity of the pervasive existence of racial discrimination and the business side of the American criminal justice system.