Second Chance Net Inc, our parent nonprofit, has the mission of transitioning working prison inmates into successful working parolees in the information technology (IT) sector. We are their DBA Second Chance Incubator, and our goal is to transform correctional industries into the digital age so that inmates and parolees can earn a seat at our nation’s digital table.
We began by developing tools and techniques to address a strict regulation that inmates are not allowed unmonitored internet access. In 2017, Access2online Inc became the first correctional business in the USA to say inmate, internet, and income in the same sentence, and today it is a thriving business employing dozens of inmates and parolees as analysts.
The Second Chance Incubator is dedicated to replicating the Access2online experience through other IT businesses fielded in Oregon’s state prisons — to start. We do this much like a private-sector incubator (aka accelerator) tasked with taking a business idea through proof-of-concept to initial operation with minimal cost and few workers, but far faster and cheaper than a full operational business startup. A successful incubation transitions within 6 months into a fully functional IT business operating inside a prison with all security restrictions addressed and proven.
Each incubation project must have a plan for an in-prison unit and an external unit to provide a seamless transition into lawful society. And the business must produce IT professionals with the self esteem needed to make good life choices.
This is how we are working to change America’s correctional industry as far as inmate opportunities are concerned.