Meet the Disruptor: Quaker City Coffee

A cooperative in Italy has repurposed land once owned by the Mafia to produce pasta and organic vegetables, and its employees are using this land to reclaim their lives. Beyond the Dreams’ provides meaningful work for former prisoners, mental patients, and addicts, who cultivate these agricultural products. The revitalization of the ruined land and employment opportunities deliver symbolic blows to organized crime.

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.

A company in Portland, Maine works to "dignify temp-work" through the employment of former convicts, addicts, and other individuals in rough transitional phases of life. The company operates as a for-profit business working for social good and facilitates a daily meeting for workers to check in with each other and form a supportive community.

South Fulton is the only city in the U.S. to put black women in charge of its criminal justice system—from the judge, to the prosecutor, to the public defender. “The result: A focus on community policing, pretrial diversion programs and assigning public defenders to all cases.” Ultimately, the aim is to divert black people from entering the prison pipeline, and establishing a model that can be replicated in other cities.

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.

After serving time in prison, finding a job can be a major challenge. Road 22 aims to help. The luxury clothing brand employs eight formerly-incarcerated women and plans to hire more as business grows.

Kenya's overcrowded and poorly maintained prisons offer some educational and rehabilitative programs to inmates, but the nuns of the Dimesse congregation provide something else to try to transform the lives of those who committed crimes: religious instruction, with a side helping of basic humanitarian supplies. Along with food, underwear, and sanitary pads, the nuns use regular visits to men's and women's prisons to hand out bibles and give faith-based instruction aimed at reintegrating shunned citizens once they return to their communities.

The state of Mississippi has taken drastic steps in reforming their criminal justice system, pointing to a nationwide cultural shift as a driving force. State legislation, such as expanding parole eligibility, eliminating mandatory minimum sentences, and barring licensing boards from discriminating against individuals who used to be incarcerated are just a handful of policies the state has championed. The reform has led to a prison population decrease of 11% and state savings of $46 million

After San Joaquin County adopted a slew of criminal justice reforms, crime dropped by 20 percent, the lowest number in a decade. One of the things that was implemented were speciality courts aimed at decreasing arrest time and helping “former prisoners find jobs, housing and treatment for mental health and addiction problems.” Other measures include ending cash bail and racial bias training. “Crime has always been issue No. 1, but the narrative in this city is one about being a second chance city.”