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Zero Six Eight is a for-profit business incubator with a unique mission. To get in, you have to be an ex-offender or be willing to hire ex-offenders. Zero Six Eight derives its name from the last three digits of ID numbers that identify federal prisoners from the Pittsburgh area. The business is nurturing 10 young startup companies now, as well as its own modular-home building business, Work Pittsburgh.
Daniel Bull founded Zero Six Eight after serving 21 months for mail fraud. His position is unpaid; he earns his paycheck as a partner at Canonsburg-based Nello Construction, which supports Zero Six Eight with tools, contacts and insurance.
Because of Mr. Bull’s record, he cannot collect investors. “All of the businesses we work with are partners whose contributions include a portion of the payroll,” Mr. Bull said. He compared the arrangement to a cooperative. “We can never raise private capital, so we must adapt to survive.”
Please click on the link for the full story...
Or click on the link below to see Daniel's TED-x talk inside SCI Chester, a PA state prison.

Bull talks about his prison experience and the decision, after his release, to use his skills by helping ex-offenders channel their gifts and talents through a start-up incubator investment business, which he calls “profiting in humanity.’’

The report in Mr. Loomis’s case was produced by a product called Compas, sold by Northpointe Inc. It included a series of bar charts that assessed the risk that Mr. Loomis would commit more crimes.
…a report from ProPublica about Compas that concluded that black defendants in Broward County, Fla., “were far more likely than white defendants to be incorrectly judged to be at a higher rate of recidivism.”
Compas and other products with similar algorithms play a role in many states’ criminal justice systems. “These proprietary techniques are used to set bail, determine sentences, and even contribute to determinations about guilt or innocence,” a report from the Electronic Privacy Information Center found. “Yet the inner workings of these tools are largely hidden from public view.”

“This is a historic day. With the release of this report and the support of the mayor as announced on Friday, we can now say that the dream of closing Rikers will become a reality.” said Melissa Mark-Viverito, the City Council speaker who created the commission.

What can be done to keep people from cycling back into the system? Let's start with jobs. Sustainable employment may be our single best opportunity to significantly reduce recidivism.

We need to ask ourselves "What is the purpose of 'corrections'?" and "Are we achieving our goals?"

With the company's vice president, Kenyatta Brame, and Jahaun McKinley, formerly incarcerated and lean manager at Cascade who has been with the company for six years.

....we're raising awareness of the importance of reentry strategies that increase public safety and fulfill our nation's promise of redemption...which can reduce crime and make our neighborhoods better places to live.

Does the United States have more than 2 million people in prison? Are most people locked up for drug offenses? This report offers some clarity....

A cooperative in Puerto Rico's Guayama prison, started in 2003, has helped dozens of incarcerated individuals reduce their sentences and return to their communities. Inmate Gordon Nembhard said "The co-op provides a different point of view. It's not 'me against the world'. It's the co-op and my fellow members working and thinking together. That is transformational."