On the south coast of California, you’ll find FutureStitch’s cutting-edge factory where the people who are carefully knitting blank uppers for footwear and printing patterns for the likes of Crocs, Toms and Everlane are mostly formerly incarcerated women.
The business’ other knitwear factories around the world also aim to smash stigmas surrounding the manufacturing industry by looking more like tech start-ups—complete with basketball courts and libraries—than what comes to mind when you imagine a factory.
But FutureStitch’s founder Taylor Shupe knew he wanted to push his company's inclusivity mission one step further after working with a charity that takes children to visit their incarcerated parents.
Currently, around 505 per 100,000 people are behind bars in the United States. It’s one of the highest rates in the world.
Meanwhile, according to Shupe, 20% of Californians are justice impacted—individuals who have had interactions with courts, jails, or prisons including drug courts, child protection cases and probation—and he think’s “it's freaking ridiculous”.
“Why are we Americans spending $60,000 a year in taxpayer money and to keep somebody locked up when they could be on the outside becoming valuable members of the community, creating more jobs downstream?”
So that’s exactly what Shupe started doing last July.
Today, around 50% of the staff employed at his 10,000-square-foot Oceanside factory are formerly incarcerated women.
It marks the beginning of Shupe’s mission to end “the cycle of incarceration”.
But from a business standpoint, Futurestitch is already experiencing heightened levels of retention and engagement.
“There's something magical about the culture you create when you hire people that have been beaten down, neglected, and thrown out by the system,” he tells Fortune, while detailing why (and how) businesses should start employing ex-convict women.
Incarcerated female new hires are low risk
People from all walks of life are encouraged to apply to work at FutureStitch—except ex-convict men.
Why? Because Shupe believes that women are unfairly passed up on job opportunities after serving time in prison, more so than men—and especially if they’re caregivers.
“The majority of the men have support systems when they get out but women don't,” Shupe says while adding that it means women end up trapped in low-wage roles to take care of their families.
Meanwhile “men can go out and get a job at any construction site,” he adds.
Among criminals “that probably should be locked up” for serious crimes like murder, rape and pedophilia, Shupe insists that women are “almost non-existent” among the numbers.
He’s not entirely wrong.
Statistically, women account for around just 2% of sexual offenses and make up around 5% of the total prison population.
Similarly, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime found that men accounted for about 98% of all homicide perpetrators worldwide.
Knowing that it’s highly unlikely formerly incarcerated female candidates have committed a serious crime, opens up the possibility for a shame-free onboarding.
“We don’t ask any questions,” Shupe asserts when Fortune asks whether Futurestitch vets what crime candidates have committed during the hiring process.
Instead of focusing on the past, onboarding is all about the future.
Intrapreneurs in training
Not only are prospective employees not asked to divulge the details of their crime, but prior work experience (or the lack thereof) is also not questioned.
“The majority of the individuals coming out of the system are very entrepreneurial and have a lot of street-built skill sets that you would want for your workforce,” Shupe says. “But they're not classically trained.”
So new hires are asked to fill out a series of surveys tasked with pinpointing their passions, skills and what they actually want to do, before being enlisted in relevant training programs.
In the end, staffers should be so well equipped that they could find new employment or launch their own businesses.
“That sounds sort of counterintuitive because we want to retain talent,” Shupe says. “But those entrepreneurial skills are absolutely essential to succeeding as an intrapreneur in the long term.”
Through the various programs, Futurestitch’s formerly incarcerated hires are now working across printing, knitting, production, and management.
“It gives them buy-in to the company,” Shupe says while pointing to his low churn rate. “In an environment that [usually] has an 80% turnover, we have had next to zero.”
Since Futurestitch started hiring formerly incarcerated workers, none have gone “back to the system” or completely left the business.
“Giving somebody a second chance creates loyalty,” he concludes. “You're never going to find a workforce that's more grateful.”
