Thanks to a joint venture agreement with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Turn 2 You Inc., a nonprofit, has been able to employ inmates to operate a tech business behind prison walls. RebootSQ is comprised of eight offenders: seven to work as software engineers, developing real, client-driven products, and one as the project manager.
The goal of the program is to offer inmates, who are expected to parole, a skill set that will make them employable in a high-tech competitive market, said Chuck Pattillo, general manager of the California Prison Industry Authority, the agency that oversees the program.
“We really try to offer rehabilitation courses and programs that will make the inmates marketable when they hit the streets — and in computer coding, it’s never been done in the world,” he said. “This type of work is being off-shored by a lot of companies, so there is a demand for programmers.”
The hired engineers have already completed Code.7370, a course that has been offered at the prison by The Last Mile, a San Francisco-based nonprofit. They have learned computer languages, such as HTML and JavaScript, and have experience building apps and websites.
The coding class cost about $200,000 to launch, including equipment and installation expenses, although it has hardware sponsors including Hewlett Packard, Aruba Networks, and Reduxio. The program accepts about 20 students per class. The prison now has two training programs, as well as RebootSQ.
The plan is to not only expand the program with more employees at San Quentin, but to introduce it to four other prisons this year, including Ironwood, in Southern California, and the Folsom Women’s Facility.
To work, the inmates are not given internet access, but write code and test applications in a simulated environment to build their products.
Upon release they could be eligible to be part of a software engineering business, comprised of paroled offenders.
“It hasn’t been established yet, but ideally it would be run and managed by graduates of the program,” said Chris Redlitz, co-Founder of The Last Mile and Turn 2 U programs.
Pattillo said part of the success is that the program supports itself.
“It is one of our zero-cost rehab programs,” he said. “The profit goes right back into funding the program. This kind of self-sustaining rehab is really the future for corrections.”
The engineers earn industry comparable wages, but that is deducted to pay for room and board, family support and other expenses, he said.
The joint venture program was established in 1990, after voters passed Proposition 139, an initiative aimed at reducing recidivism by providing offenders work experience and job training.
The CalPIA provides training and work for approximately 6,500 offenders in California. The cumulative recidivism rate among the programs is 7.13 percent.
“The message behind this is that these guys are completely capable,” Redlitz said. “The perception that they aren’t great employees is false. They are great employees. This is money well spent.”
©2016 The Marin Independent Journal (Novato, Calif.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
