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I grew up on the Lower East Side of New York City. By the time I was 19, I was running a multimillion-dollar drug delivery business and making more money than I knew what to do with. But at age 23, I was arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison. That was a wake-up call.
My sentence was eventually decreased and I was released after four years. The hardest part of getting out was finding a job. Out of desperation, I created my own: a prison-style fitness studio called CONBODY that employs formerly incarcerated individuals. We are now six years strong and have a 0% recidivism rate.
The challenges I faced aren’t uncommon, but most don’t have happy endings like mine. In any given year, 8,500 New Yorkers are released from prison — joining an estimated 96,000 on probation and 43,000 on parole. 53% of those released are rearrested within three years, largely because they receive little-to-no training and guidance to enter the workforce. And those lucky enough to find employment work almost entirely in manual labor jobs.
As reported in Fast Company this morning, Second Chance Studios can help more people beat the odds. Over the course of a year, we’ll work with formerly incarcerated folks like me and train them in new media professions such as video editing or podcasting, where employment opportunities are forecasted to grow 2x - 3x the average of all occupations in the next decade. When our fellows finish the program at the end of the first year, we’ll help them get a high-quality, high-paying job in the industry.
I know Second Chance Studios will change lives. Join us and share our Kickstarter on social media so we can hit our goal of raising $50,000 out of the total $1.4 million we’ll need in the first year.
That may sound like a big number, but it’s only about ⅓ the cost per fellow of keeping someone behind bars in New York State. Making it easier for incarcerated people to get jobs is the moral and practical choice.
Join us now to ensure the most vulnerable among us can get a second chance, whether or not they ever got a first one.
Coss Marte
Co-Founder & Executive Director, Second Chance Studios
CEO, CONBODY
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