The Last Mile (prison rehabilitation program)

The Last Mile (TLM) provides in-prison technology education and post-incarceration mentorship to justice-involved people across the United States. The organization, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, originated in 2010 at San Quentin State Prison, California, United States with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and works with state-level correctional facilities for men, women, and youth. The Last Mile’s mission is to reduce the rate of recidivism in the US by teaching marketable skills inside prisons, helping participants qualify for and secure gainful employment after incarceration. Six states have active partnerships with The Last Mile (California, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, Michigan, and North Dakota).[1]

History

The Last Mile began on December 18, 2010 as a result of Chris Redlitz and Beverly Parenti visiting a business class at San Quentin State Prison. The program was founded to address the rate of recidivism in America by empowering people who are incarcerated with the skills needed to succeed in today’s job market.[1]

Entrepreneurship

The Last Mile was initially modeled as a pro bono startup accelerator inside San Quentin with restrictions imposed to meet prison security protocols. With mentorship from Redlitz and Parenti, each participant conceptualized a business, developed a business plan, and prepared a business pitch. In May 2012, the inaugural TLM Demo Day was held at San Quentin State Prison[2] with six program graduates pitching their startup ideas in front of 350+ business and tech C-Suite executives, entrepreneurs, government officials, and news organizations.

Computer Coding

In 2014, The Last Mile launched its coding program, the first fully inclusive computer programming curriculum available in a US prison, in partnership with the California Prison Industry Authority.[3] Code.3730 was implemented at San Quentin as a career training program with the goal of teaching students to become software engineers, improving their opportunities for self-sustaining employment when they returned home. It has since evolved to become The Last Mile’s Web Development program.[4]

Expansion

After launching at San Quentin State Prison, The Last Mile continued expanding amongst California’s correctional facilities for men, women, and youth. In 2018, The Last Mile launched in Indiana[5] and has since expanded to Oklahoma, Kansas, and Michigan.[1] The Last Mile focuses on implementing its program at the state level with a combination of public and private funding.

Locations

Current FacilitiesStateYear LaunchedServing
San Quentin State PrisonCA2010Men
Ironwood State PrisonCA2015Men
Folsom Women's FacilityCA2017Women
Pelican Bay State PrisonCA2018Men
Ventura Youth Correctional FacilityCA2018Young Adult
California Institute For WomenCA2018Women
Indiana Women’s PrisonIN2018Women
Pendleton Correctional FacilityIN2018Young Adult
O.H. Close Youth Correctional FacilityCA2019Young Adult
Topeka Correctional FacilityKS2019Women
Mabel Bassett Correctional CenterOK2019Women
Putnamville Correctional FacilityIN2019Men
Rockville Correctional Facility IN 2019 Women
Plainfield Correctional Facility IN 2019 Men
Parnall Correctional Facility MI 2019 Men
North Dakota State Penitenentiary ND 2020 Men

[6]

Programs

TLM utilizes a custom-built remote instruction software and Learning Management System (LMS) to deliver educational programming into correctional facilities across the country. The organization’s staff creates and delivers course content with coordination support from classroom facilitators, who oversee students’ daily activity in person.

In-Prison Education

  • Web Development Program -- A 12 month coding program in which students learn full stack software engineering using a platform that simulates the internet. The course curriculum includes web development fundamentals, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, and Bootstrap, as well as MERN, a software stack that includes four open-source technologies: MongoDB, Express.js, React, and Node.js.

Reentry Mentorship

  • Career development -- Support in areas such as resume writing, interview prep, and soft skill building.
  • Job placement support -- Connections to apprenticeship and employment opportunities, as well job search assistance.
  • Alumni community -- Access to TLM’s network of alumni who share and discuss common obstacles and goals in the reentry process, particularly relating to career development.

Impact

Second-Chance Hiring

The Last Mile is regarded by advocates of both prison reform and workplace diversity, as the program's results have proven to reduce recidivism and mobilize nontraditional career pathways. After decades of incarceration, alumni have been hired by Slack, Zoom, Dropbox,[7] Adobe,[8] the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI),[9] VMware, Fandom, and Checkr,[10] among other companies, after becoming qualified full stack developers through TLM's in-prison program.

Media coverage

The program has been covered in Reuters,[11] The Atlantic,[12] BBC News,[13] ReadWriteWeb,[14] TechCrunch,[15] and other newspapers and magazines.[16]

The program was also discussed by Neil Cavuto in his TV show for the Fox Business Network.[17]

References
  1. "About". The Last Mile. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
  2. Shontell, Alyson. "There Is Now A Startup Demo Day For Prison Inmates". Business Insider. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  3. Farivar, Cyrus (2014-11-14). "How 18 inmates at California's notorious San Quentin prison learn to code". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  4. "What it's like at San Quentin's coding school". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  5. Skrzycki, Symone (2019-12-19). "Tech Talk: Embracing the Last Mile". Indiana Chamber of Commerce. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  6. https://thelastmile.org/our-work/#expansion
  7. October 6, Owen Hughes in Developer on; 2020; Pst, 3:00 Am. "From prison to programming: How coding can help inmates find a path out of crime". TechRepublic. Retrieved 2021-01-11.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. Madrigal, Alexis C. (2018-08-29). "Big Tech's Newest Experiment in Criminal-Justice Reform". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  9. "After a 14-Year Bid in San Quentin, He Is Now Coding Apps for Mark Zuckerberg's Foundation". Black Enterprise. 2018-02-22. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  10. Crockett, Zachary (2019-10-19). "How one man went from a life prison sentence to a $100k+ engineering job". The Hustle. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
  11. Shih, Gerry (February 25, 2013). "Inmates go high-tech as startup mania hits San Quentin". Reuters. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
  12. Madrigal, Alexis (March 20, 2012). "Bringing San Quentin to Social Media". The Atlantic. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
  13. Walters, Alexander (June 7, 2012). "San Quentin's Silicon Valley: From inmate to entrepreneur". Retrieved March 26, 2014.
  14. Devaney, Tim; Stein, Tom (July 16, 2012). "From Inmates to Entrepreneurs: The San Quentin Startup Accelerator. Prison inmates have all day, every day, to sit around and think. It could be the world's largest pool of untapped brain time. Chris Redlitz decided to put it to productive use. He founded the Last Mile startup accelerator program at San Quentin State Prison in California". ReadWriteWeb. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
  15. Constine, Josh (February 22, 2013). "San Quentin Prison Demo Day Gives Entrepreneurs Behind Bars A Second Chance". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
  16. "News". The Last Mile. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
  17. "Turning Prisoners into Entrepreneurs". Fox Business Network. March 6, 2013. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
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