First-Of-Its Kind Tech-Focused Reentry Program and Live-in Career Campus for the Formerly Incarcerated Launches in Oakland

Creating Restorative Opportunities and Programs (CROP), a nonprofit organization designed and led by formerly incarcerated individuals to provide recently released individuals with full-service reentry support, today launched a first-of-its-kind reentry program designed to reduce California’s recidivism rate and jumpstart successful tech-focused careers for justice-involved individuals. 

Over the next three years, CROP plans to support over 200 formerly incarcerated individuals through the Ready 4 Life program at CROP’s new live-in career campus in Oakland. Participants will receive leadership training, financial coaching and money management skills, job training, full-time tech-focused jobs that offer living wages, and pathways to permanent housing.

“Holistic services aren’t just important–they’re paramount. It makes communities safer. It makes families closer. This is the pathway into more success for the community beyond the person who is formerly incarcerated,” said Terah Lawyer, CROP Executive Director. “You talk about the ripple effect of crime. This is the ripple effect of amends. This is how we repair our communities. This is how the voices of those who have been impacted by their own poor choices and incarceration can turn around and give back to their communities that are still struggling with crime.”

The program, which will be offered in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, is being funded with $28.5 million in workforce and housing grants from the State of California, which Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles) helped CROP secure. Of the $28.5 million, $27 million funds the Ready for Life program, including programming and housing costs, and another $1.5 million supports improvements and renovations at the career campus. 

“I am honored to work with CROP on the launch of the Ready for Life program, a landmark project that will positively change the lives of justice-impacted individuals,” Carrillo said. “The State of California has done a lot of work to end regressive policies that have for decades disproportionately impacted low-income communities and people of color. Through the state budget, the Legislature created a justice and values-driven budget that puts healing and people first. CROP’s $27 million state budget allocation will provide us with real-time data for effective oversight as we work on tackling re-entry issues like housing insecurity, skills and confidence building, workforce development and ultimately reduce recidivism. Investments like this are the necessary actions needed to undo the harms created by over policing in communities and statewide policies that have fueled mass incarceration and the growth of the prison industrial complex in California. Today is a new day in justice reform.” 

CROP Executive Director Terah Lawyer (L) and Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (R) cut ribbon to commemorate a new live-in career campus in Oakland.

Every year, about 30,000 incarcerated people are released from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and the recidivism rate is 53%. CROP is eager to scale its reentry services and workforce development programming across the state to reduce this statistic. 

On average, individuals released from prison earn $10,090 in their first year at home–barely a third of an annual minimum wage salary in California. Recidivism is rooted in the lack of opportunities for rehabilitation and skill-building while in prison and during reentry, where resources are siloed and often inaccessible.

“We are honored to help CROP participants achieve their dreams, whether it’s homeownership, retirement savings, or starting a business,” said Kat Taylor, co-founder and board chair of Beneficial State Bank, which partners with CROP and the Ready 4 Life program. “By taking a truly holistic approach to reentry services from a self-destructive prison environment, CROP values the whole person and prioritizes restorative justice over mass incarceration. CROP’s model is designed to create economic mobility by providing the network, support, and financial tools for wealth building.”

Additional Quotes about CROP and Ready 4 Life: 

“Ready 4 Life invites people into a safe space to examine harmful beliefs while building personal leadership qualities needed to thrive professionally and interpersonally in the broader community,” said Claudine Sipili, program alumnus and Director, Lived Experience & Innovation at Destination Home, a Silicon Valley nonprofit dedicated to ending homelessness. 

“The personal leadership training in CROP’s Ready 4 Life program helped me reinforce my commitment to live authentically and pursue my vision for a future worth having. Today I work for a successful tech company and utilize the program’s perspectives of personal responsibility, commitment, and leadership to add value to my family, work, and community,” said Vinh Nguyen, Sales Development Representative at Checkr and a program alumnus of the Ready 4 Life pilot program.  

“The community the pilot program created was a place of commitment, authenticity and accountability to ourselves and the people in the world around us. It was powerful to be with a group of people who all wanted the same thing and held a high standard of our collective and individual potential,” said Jesse Foshay, Ready 4 Life Coach Manager and a program alumnus from Ready 4 Life’s pilot program.  

“As a person with 21 years of incarceration and six months of transitional housing, I know what it’s like to feel the weight of an indescribable oppression; CROP’s career campus is the antithesis of oppression. This is a place where returning community members will experience hope, opportunity, newness, value, and be free to choose the direction of their future,” said Richard Mireles, Director of Outreach and Engagement at CROP.

“Creating the kind of environment that invites peace, protection, and prosperity is not always easy. Our campus and each room in it will provide peace of mind and the space to dream about possibilities. It will be just the beginning of prosperity,” said Michael Stone, Ready 4 Life Program Coach.