This week,

We hired our first currently incarcerated individual this week. We have long held a policy of hiring felons and have previously had some employees who were on house arrest and could work with an ankle monitor. But we are upping the ante, and now have our first employee who is currently incarcerated in a local jail.

WHY? Because we aren’t at the prison abolition stage of things just yet, but we CAN take action to improve lives, reduce recidivism, create bright spots in a dreary world, and get more people trained to do our work.

If you run a business, please consider hiring folks from local jails through the work release programs. If you have a friend or family member in jail, or in court facing charges, see if they can ask about getting court mandated work release. Inmates who did work release programs have a 14% lower recidivism rate than those who did not. It allows them to build a better life while still incarcerated.

Take actions that are rooted in your beliefs.