By: Jenee Fortier
I have a very serious love of travel - any opportunity to see a new part of the world, I take. Last year I found a flight deal to London, so my partner and I spent the week before Christmas on a quick tour of the UK. (I can’t say that I loved the enormity and energy of London, but that’s a story for another time.) When I’m traveling, I also take great pride in seeking out local artists, shops, and mission-driven enterprises that we can support. Purely by chance (I so wish I could say it was planned), we walked into Redemption Roasters. It was a beautiful, large space that felt like the perfect place to work, read, or gather with community before graduation (as people were, in fact, doing).
“The coffee you’re drinking was roasted on the inside by our Roastery Team inside HMP The Mount.”
It is also the first social enterprise I’ve heard about that truly serves incarcerated individuals across the continuum: training valuable and transferable skills from the inside and supporting the transition out with access to meaningful employment.
Redemption Roaster programming includes in-prison roasteries and barista academies that teach practical skills, build confidence, and provide above-average wages (with a portion saved for release). They also offer community barista training and job placement services, including ongoing support for sustainable employment through caseworkers who address wellbeing, development, financial, and legal needs. Their unique model combines training with direct employment opportunities within their own coffee shops and partner network. At the close of 2023, Redemption reported their employed Participant’s reoffending rate at 4% compared to the national average of 42%. And, they hit a new milestone of 20% of all hospitality staff being Participants.
“We train prison leavers and people at risk of offending with the skills they need to gain secure and meaningful employment.”
Individuals with criminal records, particularly applicants of color, face significant barriers in the job market, resulting in disproportionately high unemployment rates due to the associated stigma. According to a 2023 report in the Journal of Labor and Employment Law, 87% of all employers surveyed said they do background checks and 60% would not hire someone with a criminal record. As a result, 60 to 75% of people who were formerly incarcerated remain unemployed a year after leaving prison. If reentry is to be defined as “the process by which a person in correctional confinement prepares for release and transitions back into the community” (NIJ), then we have a responsibility to support that transition in meaningful ways, beginning well before release. Coffee roasting and barista training is just one of thousands of trades we could bring into the carceral setting, and these types of public-private partnerships are critical to enhancing economic empowerment for formerly incarcerated individuals and fostering pathways to self-sufficiency.
Similar coffee shops you can support here in the United States:
Underground Coffee | Mt. Vernon, WA
Fringe Industries | Hamilton, OH
I Have a Bean | Wheaton, IL
Read about similar programming based in US carceral facilities:
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