Several years ago my dad began buying Dave’s Killer Bread. The main difference between more commonly known bread companies and Dave’s Killer Bread is that the owner stresses the importance of second chances for those with criminal backgrounds. At first I was skeptical; I didn’t understand why my dad decided to support this mission. However, after doing research and growing as a person, I now understand why. Here is what I learned about poverty and incarceration and the importance of second chances.
Statistics on Poverty, Employment, and Incarceration
Research has shown that poverty and geography play a large role in incarceration, both before and after prison.
- One out of four Americans have a criminal background.
- A criminal record reduces the chance of a job callback by 50 percent.
- In the first year after release from prison, only 55 percent of formerly incarcerated people reported to have any earnings.
- Most formerly incarcerated individuals grew up in poverty and already faced barriers due to this, leading to difficulty joining the labor market.
- Growing up in poverty increases a person’s chances of incarceration.
- The neighborhood where a person grows up matters, as minority neighborhoods are disproportionately affected by poverty.
- According to The Brookings Institute, “Prisoners were disproportionately likely to have grown up in socially isolated and segregated neighborhoods with high rates of child poverty and in predominantly black or American Indian neighborhoods.”
These statistics are a brief glimpse into incarceration in the United States. One of the main purposes of the United States prison system is to punish people. Incarceration is part of the “war on crime”, which overlooks the major reasons behind crime rates: poverty and inequality. The “war on crime” originated from a stereotype about African Americans and urban disorder in the 1960’s. In the 1980s, this transformed into incarceration acting as a response to poverty and inequality.
Homelessness is a type of poverty that affects over five-hundred thousand individuals in the United States. Homelessness is overcriminalized in the United States and a person experiencing homeslessness is eleven times more likely to be incarcerated. The prison system does not remedy the issues that plague people in the United States, and this is an inherent issue of both state and federal prisons. Incarceration and the crime rate have continued to increase over the past few years, which provokes a question that I have been thinking about for weeks: “What are solutions to the poverty and inequality that help drive incarceration and what can I do?”
How Second Chances Help Break the Cycle of Poverty
Dave’s Killer Bread is the first company that I had ever heard of actively employing people who had been previously incarcerated, giving them a second chance. The owner, Dave Dahl, spent about fifteen years in prison for drug dealing. When he was released in 2005, he abstained from drugs and created his own successful line of bread in Oregon. Now, I can find this bread in almost any grocery store across the country, including my city in North Carolina. His company is proof that a previously incarcerated person is as competent a worker and business owner as anyone else.
A person should be able to show that they have grown and to have the opportunity to do so. As The Brookings Institute has shown, there are many factors that determine why someone was incarcerated, many of which stem from the lack of opportunity during childhood. Creating opportunities for previously incarcerated individuals is important to mitigate the possibility of returning to prison and poverty itself.
The unemployment rate of formerly incarcerated individuals is around five times higher than the general U.S. unemployment rate. As previously mentioned, formerly incarcerated individuals are 50 percent less likely to receive a call back from an employer. Formerly incarcerated people want to work, and employment is an important step to integrating back into society. Finding employment is difficult for people with a criminal record due to a company’s reluctance to hire someone with a criminal record. Companies and social enterprises with mission statements such as Dave’s Killer Bread are important because they focus on the person, not the record.
“We believe in Second Chance Employment: hiring the best person for the job, regardless of criminal history. We have witnessed it’s transformative power, and that giving someone who is ready to change their lives a chance – a Second Chance – gives people an opportunity not only to make a living, but to make a life.”
Dave’s Killer Bread’s mission statement
Learn More About Incarceration, Poverty, and Criminal Justice
These articles and podcasts provide a fundamental understanding of incarceration, criminal justice, and how to create long-term changes to the system itself.
- This interview with Ruth Wilson Gilmore; she addresses whether or not prison is necessary at all, a new concept for everyone to ponder.
- This NPR podcast discusses the long-term effects of incarceration in the United States.
- Learn more here about who is incarcerated and poverty in the United States.
- Check out The Sentencing Project’s statistics on criminal justice.
- Learn about seven ex-offenders who created their own successful businesses.
- Check out Emma Stapleton’s piece about person centered language.
- Listen to this podcast on how incarceration and policing has changed over time.
How You Can Support Second Chances
- If you are a business owner, consider joining the Dave’s Killer Bread Foundation and become involved in second chance employment.
- Purchase Dave’s Killer Bread at your local grocery store.
- Support All Square in Minneapolis, a nonprofit organization that invests in formerly incarcerated individuals.
- Donate to the Prison Entrepreneurship Program to help fund rehabilitative programs in the Houston Area.
- Donate to Inmates to Entrepreneurs, a program that assists formerly incarcerated people create their own businesses.
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