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7650 Newcastle Road
Chad Shop 19/20
Stockton, CA 95215

Phone: (888) 332-6531
Fax: (209) 946-0901
Email: info@meritpartners.org

 

Starting Over

Merit ePartners’ work program gives new life to computers as well as to the young men
who refurbish them.

By: Leslie Dunn

 

June 14, 2011

 

When 20-year-old Freddie Costa was sent from the streets of East Los Angeles to N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility in Stockton two years ago, he didn’t expect to be working on computers. He’d never had a job. In his neighborhood, crime was a way of life.

A few months after arriving, Costa began working at Merit ePartners, a non-profit on-site surplus electronics management operation that employs and trains young adult offenders ages 18 to 25.

He has learned basic technical skills, as well as11 teamwork, communication, and other important “soft skills” necessary for gainful employment. Out of the minimum wage Costa earns, he pays taxes, restitution to victims and contributes to his own room and board. “Basically the tools you need to live a normal life on the outside,” Costa said.

The Merit program was conceived over a decade ago by Tom Gammon, a Silicon Valley executive. He saw the high-tech industry investing billions to develop offshore manufacturing facilities. They were hiring and training workers in developing countries. “Meanwhile,” Gammon said, “more and more prisoners were languishing in California prisons at a very high cost to tax payers, only to be eventually released back into our communities with no job skills or money and little option but to resort to crime and to getting locked up again.”

 

Gammon wondered: Why aren’t we hiring here? Why don’t we give qualified prisoners job training and pay a fair market wage? With chronic recidivism costing California taxpayers almost $11 billion a year, finding cost-effective solutions should be a priority.

Along with Dr. Suzy McCausland, an expert in programs targeting at-risk youth, Gammon launched Merit Incorporated, a non-profit social enterprise that began operations in the Chaderjian facility eight years ago near Stockton, California. The idea was to create a self-sustaining enterprise that would demonstrate the employability of young offenders, as well as how profitability and job-training were compatible objectives.

Merit ePartners’ Chaderjian operation became self-sustaining shortly after its inception. Fewer than 18 percent of Merit employees have been re-incarcerated for a new crime or parole violation. That figure compares with 57 percent for their peers.

 

The Program

Through Merit, an ISO9001/14001 operation, outside companies (mainly Fortune 500) liquidate or dispose of their surplus electronics—everything from office equipment to electronic components and sophisticated test and measurement tools. Per the company’s instructions, Merit employees inventory, segregate and prep the material for resale, refurbishing or certified destruction and recycling.

 

Computer equipment is refurbished by the employees for resale. All other equipment is either sold through authorized dealers or recycled through approved recycling partners.

 

Merit ePartners’ employees work close to 40 hours a week and are paid a fair market wage as set by the state. After taxes, 20 percent of their income is taken for restitution for victims of violent crimes; another 20 percent goes towards room and board on site; 20 percent goes to family support if appropriate, and up to 40 percent to a savings account in the worker’s name.

 

“Clients benefit by knowing their equipment won’t wind up in a landfill. In fact, some request revenue sharing,” Gammon said. All clients have access to Merit’s sophisticated “on-demand” tracking system so they can follow every stage of their inventory until it is either resold or recycled. All profits go back into Merit ePartners for training and wages.

 

McCausland remembers the early days as being tough, because prison staff knew little about Merit and its mission. As time progressed, Merit employees became role models within the prison. Instead of walking out of prison with $200 and no sense of purpose, they were leaving with $5,000 saved, job skills, behavioral skills and confidence that they could do something with their life.

 

The Employees

Not every ward is eligible. A Merit worker has to be a high school graduate or have completed his GED. He also must be in good standing on the living unit. At present, there are ten ward employees.

Arriving at 8 a.m., they process loads, input data, test computers and rebuild equipment that can be economically salvaged. Slower days are filled with job training, certification and counseling.

“For many of the guys it’s their first experience with a job,” said Bobbie Kenoly, Merit’s floor manager. A former lieutenant in the Department of Youth and Justice Correctional System, Kenoly admits she has a steely exterior but an empathetic heart. She loves her work and often tells the employees “Don’t be remembered by the mistakes you made. Be remembered by what you learned from the mistakes.”

A lot of her job is teaching them how to behave professionally, to be responsible. ”If they don’t show responsibility then they can’t come to work here,” she said. “You can’t keep a job if you can’t learn how to work in an environment with other people.”

She says that for many, paying restitution makes them think about the people whose lives they have affected.

“It’s good,” said Costa, who grew up in a series of foster homes. “Learning to deal with people and to communicate is new. I’ve progressed in here.” Scheduled for release in 2012, Costa plans to apply for college and study graphic art.

 

The Challenges

Because Merit ePartners works only with young prisoners who have a high school education and are complying with rules, its employees have a better chance for success, acknowledges Gammon. Even this select group, however, faces steep hurdles after release—from steering clear of gangs, to avoiding drugs, to finding a job and following strict parole guidelines.

 

Merit’s prison work model isn’t new. In the late 1980s under California Governor George Deukmejian, a program initiative was put together with the Legislature that provided for gainful employment of inmates by private industry. It was designed to hire, train and employ inmates in real-world jobs. It also addressed most of the concerns the public, including labor unions, had regarding prison labor.

 

Merit ePartners is only one of two such programs in California currently operating with young offenders.

McCausland is confident the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation values Merit ePartners’ Chaderjian program, but Gammon admits frustration with the lack of tangible support from the State: “Merit is benefiting taxpayers, our business partners, and giving hope to our employees, and yet we haven’t found the key to getting any of the State’s own surplus electronics. We’re not giving up.”

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ordered the release of a fourth of California’s prison population, communities will soon deal with an influx of unskilled parolees.

 

Implementing work programs where prisoners learn skills to become productive members makes sense. The potential is huge. It benefits the prisons, the taxpayers, private industry—and the young offenders.

“It’s up to me to create the life I want,” said Costa. “Working here helps me learn what I need to get started.”

Copyright 2011 Merit ePartners, Inc.