Country. Our criminal Justice System isnt working. Laura President Trump, the one those folks ran races against, has already taken major steps towards fixing that system. Last december he signed in a law called the First Step Act. The legislation reduces mandatory minimum sentences in certain instances and expands on good time credits for well behaved prisoners looking for shorter sentences. It also instructs the department of justice to establish a risk and Needs Assessment system to classify risk and provide guidance on housing, grouping and program assignment. This summer, President Trump unveiled the Second Chance act. Its a program that encourages employers to hire formerly incarcerated individuals. The goal is to reduce the Unemployment Rate for those folks over the next five years. They are here today to announce a vital new action that we are taking to help former inmates find a job, lives a crime free life, and succeed beyond their wildest dreams. Now we must make sure that those returning from prison get a true Second Chance. Right . America wins when citizens with a criminal record can contribute to their communities as lawabiding members of our society. When the former inmates come home, the single most important action we can take is to help them find a really, really good job where they like the job and they want to go in and make a lot of money, and that is what is happening. Second chance hiring is about safer communities, a stronger workforce, and a thriving economy. We believe in the dignity of work and the pride of a paycheck. Without a Second Chance, i dont know where i would have been. Im not sure if i could have stayed sober. I certainly know i couldnt have contributed at the level i did. Im married and i have the ability to be standing here with you, mr. President. Thank you for taking on criminal justice reform. Folks, this is the Public Safety issue of our time, this is the justice issue of our time, this is the civil rights issue of our time, this is the prosperity issue of our time. Mr. President , thanks to you its all of our time. We want to make sure every american is prepared for the jobs of today and for the industries of tomorrow and together we are expanding the blessings of america for every citizen from every background and every community and every walk of life. We are breaking down old barriers, tearing down yesterdays obstacles, and replacing the failures of the past with the bright and limitless future. That is what we have going, a limitless future. So many people in this room and so many people outside of this room has been given a second and in some cases a third chance and i will say they are really really making it. I never thought i would be standing here on this podium so im going to suck all of this moment up while im standing here. [cheers and applause] this is why im so grateful for what happened around the country. With the First Step Act and what we are doing outcome of the Second Chances, even once that came home, and it was still very challenging for me to get a job. After i finally found a job at a paint store, minimum wage job, i was very grateful just to be able to get a job and it was really only because of the way they worded one of the questions on the application. It allowed me to be able to eventually start my First Business at the prison which was the painting business. We ended up hiring over 18 employees and we realized the first 15 were all returning citizens just like me. It while we were building opportunities for other men and women to come home and have a great place to be able to work we wanted to venture out a little bit further in the 2012 we started our first tech business. That is now a Venture Backed Company that connects families back to their incarcerated loved ones the same way that my mom wrote me letters and pictures when i was in prison. We have connected over 140,000 families around the country and im so grateful because of the reinforces that are flowing back into these prison cells, using our tech and building the next generation of entrepreneurs leaders, Business Executives like me, and great employees that some of you all at this credible conference. I am thankful to be a small part of the solution because we do understand this crisis is huge but with you guys and your leadership, i feel very optimistic about the future. Laura the u. S. Locks up more people per capita than any other nation at 698 per 100,000 people. Now there has been a 700 increase in our prison population since the 1970s. Annually, nearly 50 billion per year is spent on prisons for state and federal institutions. The recidivism rate is over 55 . Entrepreneur, chris read lives wants to do something about this. He is the cofounder of the nonprofit the last mile and it started with one class in san clinton. I gave inmates a Second Chance once they were released and today, there are more than a dozen programs in five states across the country closing the gap between incarceration and future employment and get this. This program, so far, has a 0 recidivism rate. I recently had the chance to sit down with him in indiana where the last mile program just graduated its first class of women. Tell us how you started this thing called the last mile, why we call it the last mile, and where it began. It began about ten years ago. I run a Venture Capital firm in San Francisco and a friend of mine was doing some tutoring to some men inside san quentin prison and she said that a lot of the men were asking her about business and questions about starting a business and so forth and she said i cant answer your question but i know somebody who might be able to and she asked me to come in and talk to the men and my initial reaction was no, why would i want to do that . I dont have time to do that and you know, i dont think they are even going understand what im talking about, but she was pretty persistent so one night i went in and i spoke to a group of men, about 50 men, and i was supposed to speak for about 30 minutes. I got in there and it turned into not a presentation but a conversation, and they had so many great questions, they were hit handing me Business Plans and that 30 minutes turned in the three hours, and it was probably one of the most engaged groups that have ever spoken to you and i want out that night thinking this is completely different from what i expected. I went home, my mind was spinning, and i walked in the front door and i told my wife beverly, beverly, i think we can do something in san quentin. And she said to me, chris, i cant exactly tell you what she said to me but she said no way am i going into prison because we Work Together for many years and i knew if i did something i had to do it with her is that i was kind of how it started. Laura in that experience those three hours, take us to the first day were you were able to launch your first program. Yeah, really the goal was to help some of those guys i met. We worked a lot with young entrepreneurs as investors so i thought maybe we could just take some of that practice, put it inside, teach them how to build a business plan, sell it when i get out, and start a business. So we got permission from san quentin and administration to go into go nights a week just beverly and me, and we went in and we kind of made up as we went out based on our experience and we had a deadline day in 2012 and i invited a bunch of my venture friends to come into th prison to hear the presentations. Its definitely not my dads barbershop. Laura did they think you were insane, like we will give you money to do this but were not doing this . Yeah. So we had five guys that presented and they were amazing presentations. Because they werent just presentations they were basically a chance to tell an audience and really connect. I have found my identity. Ice a lot, you have to take it from here and here to put it here and thats what they did and people walked out and they said these are some of the best presentations i have ever seen and that was really when we knew we had something. Laura the average inmate who gets to this vaunted place in your program, explain how they get there. Good behavior, all of the things that they have to check. Yeah so behavior is really important. They have to have good citizenship, no infractions, two years prior to applying, and they cant have an infraction while they are in it. So we really consider it a zero Tolerance Program in that respect. And now that we are in the coding program, you know, its really not necessarily the College Education you had, its your desire to perform and be a part of this. Its really a commitment level and was about education level. But now that we are years down the road, there is a long line of people that want to be part of this. We have many people inside ordering books and studying and learning before they even get the program so desire is a key component to success. Laura how has this changed you . Its changed me in so many ways. I think its allowed me to become much more empathetic its really not could you say dont judge a book by a cover thats taken to an extreme now because you are talking to populations and people that i never wouldve crossed in my normal life and one of the things thats really important for us is that every classroom has every ethnicity and cultural background that we can draw from. When you go to prison, you going to prison yard, its very segregated, and we really felt it was important that those people in the Program Learn to work with each other because they have to do that on the outside and thats been an amazing change for them inside to understand that that person i would never talk to you, i can actually work with, and that person can be my friend, but theres a huge amount of people in prison who need a Second Chance. Over 90 of the people are getting out so we have to figure out who we want them to be when they do get out so you know thats really part of it that i didnt really start this and when i did this with beverly, it wasnt started to change stereotypes, but what i saw initially was this idea of hope within the first month or so that we started a program. One of the guys came up to me and said if i never get a job its okay. T iid t u you actually are treating me like a human being for the first atime by someone from outside. And i have hope. Laura how many graduates have actually gone on to work in the communities . How do you keep 0 recidivism . What we are trying to do is educate and prepare people to be successful. People that arent in prison make mistakes too so thats our goal. It may be seen unrealistic but thats our goal. What we know we are going to do is reduce recidivism. We know that for a fact. Laura what about this has impacted you can compare experience . Theres nothing that ive experienced in business that can replicate the feeling of seeing someone get out of prison walking through the gates, and being free. There is nothing like that. Business cant be compared at all and one example, darnell hill who was in one of our first groups, he served 24 years in prison, he actually was a cellmate with his dad at that point which is kind of amazing. So he grew up, his dad was a criminal, he recruited his son so theres a chance just like you never really had a first chance, but his wife waited for him for 24 years and im standing next to her when darnell walked out the gates. You can have an ito, thats great, but nothing like that is going to compare. Laura where is he working . He works for us but he is our reentry department. Laura the white house criminal justice reform, the president really didnt campaign on it a lot butri it has becomea really important cornerstone ofd what he wants to do. How important is that . The encouraging part is that its an indication that both parties can Work Together. So as we are setting examples for other things, hopefully we can set examples that this can happen. You cant depend on politicians and government to make changes. You have to have this relationship between business and bureaucracy in government to make it happen because innovation does happen in private sector and that needs to sort of transition and be part of this discussion so there needs to be more and more of the private sector involved in really resolving these issues. Laura and scaling up across the country and other correctional facilities, thats already happening, but indiana the governor was settingit three or four other institutions where they are going to be rolling this out. Incredible. We are in five states not, we want to be across the country and we want to be in at least 50 classrooms in the next five years. I think we can make that happen. We have a lot of private donors and so forth that are helping that happened but im reallys hopeful that this will become a National Program and really give hope to many, many populations across the country. Laura what do you say to the folks who might be watching those w who are in prison today who are saying this who maybe have lost hope and thought there would be no place for me, nobody will trust me again . I think we have shown there is hope, absolutely. You is someone who is incarcerated, you need to continue to do the right thing for you. Study hard, be a good citizen do whatever you can to change her life because you never know when that is going to happen because bills change,ch laws change, your chance might come up and you need to be ready so never, ever give up because ive seen this happen multiple multiple times where someone thinks im never going to get out and sure enough, they do and they are preparedth to be successful. Laura chris, inspiring. Thank you so much. Great to talk to you. Up next, meet the women who decided to make their timeme behind bars count and are working toward their Second Chance at life when this special edition of the ingraham angle continues. Is your business still settling for slow internet . Well time is money. Switch to comcast business now and get a great deal when you get fast, reliable internet. With a 30day moneyback guarantee, installation when it works for you, and 24 7 customer support. So what are you waiting for . Get this great deal when you sign up for fast, reliable internet. Call 18005016000 today. Comcast business. Beyond fast. Laura in april of 2018 the last mile program expanded for the first time outside of the state of california, this time giving inmates at the indiana womens prison a Second Chance. The summer, the first class graduated and the ingraham angle was there and four women receive their diplomas and share their personal stories with me. You for and seemed to be many others are proving that indiana is a state that works for all. Congratulations. I cant wait. The best is yet to come. I began to get a fuller understanding of what it was i was doing. I have created the conference center. I wanted to create a space where people would be able to go and feel safe unequivocally. Whats the most important thing you learned about yourself in this program . I really excel in academia. I am just really good. Laura how the heck did you end up here then . You excelled in academia and you end up in prison, how does that happen . Well i had an addiction problem for most of my adult life and i have been sober for about six and a half years. Might i got lung cancer and i took care of him for a year and have until he died and when he died i can explain it. I dont like to blame thater because thats not his fault but it definitely hit me on an emotional level that i wasnt prepared to deal with so i turned to what i knew would numb me and long story short, your i am. Laura when you get out . I will receive my bachelors degree in december and that makes me immediate relief. I hear theres no such thing as immediate relief but they are saying the process may be possible. Laura how excited are you . Im excited and anxious ihi because ive been locked up for over seven years and everything has changed out there. I left with small children and im going home to adults. The life that i had before coming is completely demolished and gone through the relationships that i had before coming are very fragmented and need to be repaired or rebuilt and so im just stepping out of prison as a clean slate and thats a little nerveracking. Its not stepping into the familiar but stepping into the unknown. Laura how has this help you with those skills communication skills, honesty we are all broken, all of us but you know you went through your thing, we have all gone through something. Thats really important. I just think that realization that you just expressed is important to express to everyone. People watching us are going to have a different view of incarcerated people. Yono i think thats good because when we are thinking about incarcerated people, we need to remember they are just people and everybody going out im saying . Most people dont make a lot of bad choices but more and more we are saying that they do and if we put them in a box forever then we are not allowing them to change the world. Laura how important is it for you to succeed out there for those still here who you will leave behind . Its really important for me because i feel like its important to give backe end because i feel like in the board and give back and ive made it a point here to teach classes and do things that allowed me the opportunity to help others more the beginning of their process and so i know that my success is going to have a huge impact on the women coming into the future of the Pilot Program and so all eyes are on the people of the Pilot Program, seeing that they can succeed. Its definitely very important to me to be successful so that number one, they dont mistake me, and so the number two people know these kind of programs exist. Laura what does it feel like today . You at all of these people in the room, elected officials business leaders, what was that like . Breathtaking, really. I was speechless almost. Ive been waiting for this day i love opportunities like this and anytime its resented itself im going to grab it. It was a great day. Laura how do you feel about yourself and your own trajectory