Fresh Ideas

     A few nights ago, I had the privilege of having dinner with Robert Egger of the L.A. Kitchen.  It was part of an event at Baldwin Wallace University and the Campus Kitchen project in cooperation with the NEO LaunchNet and the Center for Innovation and Growth.  The reason I was invited was because Mr. Egger is also a proponent of reentry employment and training.

     I have to say that it was refreshing to hear some of his ideas, and I felt validated.  He has given several TED X talks on his innovative use of food to draw people together to solve social issues.  It reminded me of Edwin's Leadership and Restaurant Institute here in Cleveland, as well as the soon to be launched Bloom Bakery.  His idea was similar but had a twist.  He uses the L.A. Kitchen to address the issues of hunger, nutrition, and reentry.  He is especially interested in the issue of elderly hunger.  With a quickly aging Baby Boomer generation who generally do not have enough saved to support them for the duration of their extended life expectancy, this is becoming a major issue.

     The way he addresses these issues is by preparing healthy and delicious meals that emphasize plant based nutrition as a method of preventing disease.  He felt that the traditional model of a food pantry was not a sustainable model, and that it did not really provide good food to those who need it.  It is usually made up of leftover canned goods and such that no really wanted in the first place.  There was little in the way of fresh produce.  He also realized that the single mother with one or more jobs was the emerging face of hunger in America.  They often did not have time to prepare fresh produce, so he decided to cook the meals for them using these healthy ingredients.  Mr. Egger has done this in both Washington DC and Los Angeles.  He also realized that the traditional model of nonprofits relying on grant funding and donations was also likely to fail in the future.  Giving is down across America, so he believes in the social enterprise model, as well.  Lastly, he often uses ex-offenders, former addicts, and the homeless to cook the products after training them in culinary skills. They learn a valuable skill and receive pay when they work for him.  This last part is what really called to mind our local culinary nonprofits that help with reentry.

     The conversation turned to the use of social enterprise to solve the funding shortfall.  He seemed generally supportive of the idea, but he posed an interesting question.  What about nonprofits that are not able to use this model in their particular area of focus, such as a day care for the poor?  The point was a valid one.  It made me wonder what nonprofits like that will do to supplement lost funding.  While there may be other ideas out there, I think it will call on nonprofits to be ever more creative.  While the IRS generally frowns on social enterprises that aren't mission related, there is some leeway.  Think about Goodwill as an example.  Goodwill uses its stores, which are not mission related, as a training tool for clients, which is mission related.  I think the real challenge lies in using social enterprise for nonprofits where the client is completely unable to work, like severely mentally and physically disabled persons or children.  I'm not sure what the answer is to that particular problem, but I have faith in the creativity of America.  In the case of reentry, I believe social enterprise is the best solution.  Most returning citizens are physically and mentally capable of learning a marketable skill and working in the social enterprise that is run by the nonprofit.  I would take that one step further.  Many of the formerly incarcerated were very entrepreneurial in their previous lives, and often demonstrate the aptitude for business ownership.  I think a great tool to long term reentry success would be not only to train them in job skills, but also in the skills of owning one's own business.  Nonprofits could then franchise the business to qualified former clients, who in turn could hire mission employees of their own.  This model could create a real sustainable solution to the reentry employment problem.

Criminal Justice Reform

February 15, 2015

By Rich Alvarez- Executive Director Comprehensive Reentry, Inc.

There seems to be very few things that politicians at the national level can agree upon these days.  There is one glimmer of hope though.  There appears to be a glimmer of hope in the form of bipartisan support for criminal justice reform.  As a former police officer, I can attest that the law rarely changes, except to add new restrictions on a supposedly free people.  The results of the ever increasing restrictions have ended up imprisoning a higher percentage of our population than any nation on Earth.  I'm not just talking about other nations that are like us, but I am including repressive regimes like China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.

     You might wonder how the bastion of freedom in the world has gotten to that point?  It was mostly the result of the "get tough on crime" mindset and the "War on Drugs" that began in the 1980's.  I believe these policies were well-intentioned but not very well thought out.  The result has been an overly punitive justice system that has, advertently or inadvertently, become another racist institution in the ugly history of race relations in our great nation.  We imprison persons of African descent at a higher rate than South Africa did during Apartheid.  Furthermore, we continue to punish people after they are released from prison through employment discrimination, housing discrimination, college financial discrimination, and voting disenfranchisement.  If one cannot find a job, find a place to sleep at night, go back to school to better themselves, or even elect representatives who might be sympathetic to their plight, how can we expect them to become productive citizens again?

     Republican and Democratic law makers are sponsoring legislation that may help alleviate some of  these harsh conditions.  The criminal justice reform proposals include reductions in mandatory sentencing, easing up on juvenile penalties, giving judges more discretion, and improving reentry programming. (See: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/10/will-criminal-justice-actually-be-reformed/408538).  Unfortunately, the bill appears to have been forgotten about in this election year.  It is the victim of our broken political system.  On the state level, some states have taken action on their own.  In Ohio, Gov. Kasich passed a Certification for Qualification for Employment bill, which allows ex-offenders to obtain a letter from the court that convicted them, if they've demonstrated rehabilitation, that will remove collateral sanctions.  In fact, at least 30 states have engaged in some sort of criminal justice reform recently. (See http://sentencingproject.org/template/index.cfm.)  Most recently, Maryland voted to remove voting disenfranchisement from those who are out of prison on parole or probation, restoring voting rights to 40,000 people.  Unfortunately, 35 states do not allow this practice resulting in 5.85 million people being disenfranchised from the political process.  Many have alleged that this is the new equivalent of the poll tax, because it is so slanted against minority citizens.  In fact in Florida and Virginia, one in five black adults has had their voting rights revoked.

     The climate appears to be changing, but the process is usually slow.  It is encouraging to see that the states are also moving on criminal justice reform, but much still needs to be done.  It took many years to develop these structures of discrimination and the accompanying prejudices that are experienced by ex-offenders, so it will likely take many years to correct the problem.  That being said, I think it is necessary to encourage your senators and representatives to keep working on the criminal justice reform bill.  Please do not allow it to get lost in the confusion of election year politics.

Transitional Reentry Employment and Reduced Recidivism

February 10, 2016

By Richard E. Alvarez
Executive Director, Comprehensive Reentry, Inc.
www.comprehensivereentry.org


     Our recent discussion about social enterprise transitions to this topic very well.  The real question in many people's minds is whether or not employment really has a significant impact on recidivism reduction.  A recent study regarding the employment program at the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) indicates that it does.  In fact, even a temporary job, combined with workforce development training, can have a significant impact.

      Here in Cleveland, Ohio, there are a few social enterprises that actually offer transitional employment and on-the-job training all at the same time.  Edwins Restaurant and Culinary Institute is one such example.  Founder Brandon Chrostowski offers culinary training both inside the prison system and outside the walls.  The reentry portion involves training at his high-end French style restaurant for which the student is paid.  They are trained in all aspects of the restaurant industry, and they are eventually placed in local culinary jobs.  Towards Employment is launching their own version of transitional employment training with their social enterprise, Bloom Bakery.  They have retained a world-renowned gourmet baker, Maurice Chaplais, to train the staff in high-end baking techniques.  The Bloom model is a little different in that they will pay a very competitive wage while the students learn and gain experience in the production and retail portions of the business.  They have visions of expanding, and they may retain some the trainees in permanent positions.  Towards Employment also has a long history of teaching workforce development skills, helping with legal issues, and job placement and retention.  They would be most similar to the CEO program.

     The CEO program started out as a New York based program and study on the impact of transitional employment training and workforce development training.  The results were encouraging, so they expanded to five locations in New York, California, and Oklahoma, and they repeated the study.  The results were very similar.  One of the most interesting things about the program was:  "While CEO work crews offered some opportunities for skills training, they functioned primarily as jobs, with the habits and competencies that make for a good employee emphasized through the routine of reporting for work each day, cooperating with colleagues, and following supervisors’ directions." The other truly surprising finding was that "Between 2004 and 2010, MDRC conducted a rigorous random assignment evaluation of the New York City CEO program. The three-year evaluation showed large increases in employment during the first year of follow-up, while participants had their transitional jobs. Those impacts faded the longer participants were out of the program, but significant reductions in recidivism persisted despite the fading effect on employment. It is likely that this recidivism effect resulted in part from the structure and employment participants received from CEO after their release from prison. Based on these findings, CEO and MDRC worked together to strengthen CEO’s job placement component, to improve its ability to help participants make the transition to unsubsidized employment."  This seems to imply that just learning the important lessons gained from employment and the esteem building that occurs from the same can help reduce recidivism.  These are both unexpected and meaningful results from this study that could have major impacts on how reentry and recidivism reduction is addressed in the future.  They should also encourage enterprises like Bloom and Edwins to continue their good work, knowing it is having an impact on reducing the recidivism rates of its participants.

     When I get the question about why someone should care about a bunch of criminals, I often have to explain why reentry employment is important to them.  Reducing recidivism has an impact on us all.  Even if you don't believe in second chances, it's hard to argue with the fact that preventing people from returning to prison reduced the tax burden on all of us.  Enforcing the law, prosecuting the crime, and imprisoning the violator costs an extraordinary amount of money to say nothing of the impact that any future crimes would have on the victims.  If we can prevent the recurrence of criminal activity through a little job training and transitional employment, who wouldn't want to do that?  That's why reentry employment should matter to all of us.

Is Social Enterprise the Answer to the Reentry Problem?

   Social enterprise, or business with a social purpose, is a relatively new term that is getting a lot of play lately.  There seems to be a social enterprise to support just about every type of cause now, so the unique power of this tool of social good is often lost until one really digs down deeply.  Just to make sure we are operating on the same page, one should realize that there are two types of social enterprise, but they share a lot in common.  The distinction is in who the profits eventually end up benefiting.  The first type of social enterprise is one owned by a traditional non-profit organization, like the Salvation Army's clothing stores.  The clothing store operates just like a traditional business, except that it hires and trains disabled workers as part of its mission.  It pays taxes on any profits, just like a traditional business, but the profits are then either re-invested in the business or distributed to the larger non-profit organization.  This type of business arose out of necessity, when grant funding started becoming more scarce.  It serves as another revenue stream beyond donations and grants.  No single individual or group of individuals can benefit directly from the profits, except to receive a competitive salary.  The second type of social enterprise is almost exactly like the first in that it might train and employ a certain demographic of disadvantaged workers or it might donate a pre-determined percentage of its profits to a social cause, but it is owned by private individuals.  After paying taxes on the profits, the owners are then free to determine what the profits are used for, including benefiting the shareholders financially.  It is just like any other business in the marketplace, but it has the additional mission, beyond benefiting the shareholders, of having a social cause.  There is even a business structure in some states called a benefit corporation that allows the management to prioritize the mission over the benefit of the shareholder, which is different than the traditional fiduciary duties of the corporate officers.

     These types of businesses seem to particularly fit the plight of returning citizens.  It is often difficult to generate interest or sympathy for non-profits that deal with reentry, so it is natural that social enterprise has emerged as a method of generating revenue for non-profits that serve this demographic.  It is also a great way for returning citizens to overcome the traditional barriers to employment that they face.  Discrimination against returning citizens in the workplace is rampant, so they must rely on social enterprise to train, employ, or place them in jobs that fill marketplace gaps.  Both types of social enterprises have emerged to help tackle the employment problem in reentry, and I think they can serve as a model for the nation in that regard.  Some examples of successful social enterprise in reentry include Columbus, Ohio's Hot Chicken Takeover, a fast food restaurant, (See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/molly-tavoletti/the-hot-chicken-takeover-_b_5973976.html) and Clean Turn, a social enterprise that does landscaping, demolition, and cleaning. (See: http://www.cleanturn.org/.)  In Cleveland, one of the most outstanding social enterprises, which is also a nonprofit, is Edwins Restaurant and Culinary Institute.  They have a fine french dining restaurant on Cleveland's historic Shaker Square, but they also run a culinary school both inside and outside of the prison walls.  Owner Brandon Chrostowski learned from culinary masters around the world, and he started Edwins to help returning citizens receive a marketable skill after he had a run-in with police as a young man.  He has even solved the problem of housing for his students by recently opening a dormitory for them.  While he does a lot of good, don't mistake Chrostowski for a softy.  He demands hard work and long hours from his students, which he says weeds out those who are not really serious about changing their lives.  If they complete his program, they have received training in all aspects of working in a restaurant, and he places them in jobs around town. (See: http://www.cleveland.com/morris/index.ssf/2016/01/edwins_restaurant_is_saving_li.html.)  Long-time local non-profit Towards Employment has decided to join the social enterprise game too.  They are starting a high-end bakery, called Bloom, with the aid of world renowned baker Maurice Chaplais, who has started many such bakeries around the world.  They will follow a model similar to Edwins where they train their mission employees in the techniques of this type of baking as well as the operation of two retail locations and then try to place them or retain them.  The whole project is being managed by serial social entrepreneur, Logan Fahey, who was hired to get this project off the ground.  It should launch in February 2016.  (See: http://www.bloombakery.com/.)  This author also has a small for-profit social enterprise called the Lakeside Holdings Group, LLC.  We seek to train and employ those with barriers to employment in the landscaping, painting and janitorial services. The landscaping portion has taken off more than the others, and we turned a profit in our first year with no debt and low overhead. (See: http://lakesidegrounds.com/.)  These are just a sampling of some of the successful reentry social enterprises, and combined, they are doing a great deal of good in training a workforce, employing those facing barriers, and reducing recidivism.

     It really doesn't matter which type of social enterprise is performing the work, they must still compete with all of the other businesses out there in the marketplace.  This means that they have to be more efficient or profit less than traditional businesses, but that doesn't seem to bother these entrepreneurs.  There is something satisfying about helping others while still conducting a profitable business.  Capitalism isn't always about greed.  Many entrepreneurs have a heart, and they use their businesses to do good for the less fortunate.  I think that's what America is about.  We use innovation and business skills to solve problems.  In this case, it is a social problem, like recidivism, that has a high cost to all of us.  It has been demonstrated that returning citizens who are employed are less likely to re-offend, so we are reducing the costs associated with criminal behavior by training and employing this segment.  We are also teaching the value of responsibility and hard work, perhaps for the first time, in some of these people's lives.  So, it seems that social enterprise can have a big impact on reentry, and it will likely continue into the future.  Ultimately, I would like to see entrepreneurship taught to returning citizens.  With the skills taught by social enterprises and the knowledge of entrepreneurship skills, returning citizens could start their own businesses, which is really the ultimate freedom from employment discrimination.  Lakeside has plans to franchise in the future to workers it has trained, and I think this will be a starting point down the path to that ultimate freedom for the right person.

Richard E. Alvarez

Executive Director, Comprehensive Reentry