Startup Gets Tech-Industry Experts to Mentor Convicts
Most parolees are rearrested within a year. Defy Ventures says with entrepreneur training it’s 3 percent.
One hundred men in this prison of 2,145 are learning small-business skills.
Photograph by John Francis Peters for Bloomberg Businessweek
The California City Correctional Center, a medium-security lockup for 2,145 in the high desert north of Los Angeles, isn’t going to be confused with Disneyland. Still, a small program here sometimes produces a similar kind of whispered awe.
In the U.S., most parolees are rearrested within a year. But the recidivism rate is just 3 percent among those who’ve gotten tech industry and entrepreneur training from Defy Ventures, a nonprofit that also works to finance businesses for some of the ex-cons who’ve gone through its program at California City. “That’s unheard of,” Chief Executive Officer Catherine Hoke isn’t too modest to point out.