Laughing Bear Bakery has a recipe for a fresh start out of prison

Most employers might not hire former inmates, but one grocery store in Philadelphia is looking to do just that. Brown Store’s Inc. has made it a company mission to hire people out of prison. Employment is an important factor to keep former inmates from returning to prison.

What does a business like IKEA do if they want to hire former prisoners? They listen to a panel of people who have already done it.

Recipe for Change is a program that teaches incarcerated people Italian cuisine skills, which is meant to help them gain employment when they reenter society. An estimated 200 people have gone through the program. Similarly, other programs are focusing on helping formerly incarcerated people gain employment.

In 2018, San Francisco county forgave $32 million worth of criminal justice administrative fees. These fees are issued to formerly incarcerated individuals upon release from prison, most of which are not employed and without stable housing. The coalition pursuing this policy change cited economic justice for those that have already paid their societal debt and an overall state savings in collection costs as the primary reasons to end this practice.

How do you find a job when you get out of prison? For some, it’s almost impossible. But, UpLift Solutions trains former offenders, and if they pass the six week course, they get hired at ShopRite, a grocery store. For some, the program is life changing.

Furnishing a Future offers furniture making classes to former inmates. The program was created with the intention of giving former prisoners job skills, who often leave prison with no work experience. “If these guys are trained in how to make a resume, and how to make it outside, but have no skills, they’re just not going to get a job.”

One of the hardest parts of being in prison is not knowing what to do when you get out. By pitching ex-cons as good for business, the Eastern District of Missouri’s prison-to-work program has become a model for inmate re-entry nationwide.

Considering the overwhelming number of low-income inmates awaiting trial in Nigeria due to lack of legal representation, Heafort Foundation takes up such cases and provides legal services free of cost. Since 2019, the foundation has helped about 200 inmates get out of jail while also supporting them with the means to complete their education or learn new skills so they can restart their lives again.

The Detroit Justice Center is providing a comprehensive approach to breaking the cycle of poverty in the county. The nonprofit law firm provides immediate support, like paying back child support and posting the cash bail payments that keep those experiencing poverty trapped in a cycle of debt and imprisonment. The group also aims high in their larger efforts to disrupt the criminal justice system, like suing the county to prevent the building of a new jail complex, and provides their clients and the community the chance to reimagine what the city could look like with transformative and economic justice.

A piece of bipartisan legislation was introduced to the United States’ Senate in February 2018 that would give individuals in incarceration access to Pell Grants, thus increasing their college education opportunities. While the bill was not enacted, it is part of an ongoing process of reinstating access to Pell Grants for prisoners from the Obama administration, who gave limited access in its Second Chance program. This bill speaks to the largely bipartisan cultural shift that embraces the need to invest in correctional education in order to prevent recidivism.