Applying for work after having served time in prison can be incredibly discouraging. Business owners can be quick to judge ex-convicts, and worry that they can’t be trusted. The irony is that this lack of faith on the part of the business community contributes to criminal recidivism. Without gainful employment, ex-convicts are likely to end up committing a crime that will send them back to prison. But there are many examples of businesses who proudly employ ex-convicts. These businesses have developed a loyal customer base, managed to prosper in an uncertain economy, and changed the lives of the men and women hired. The federal government offers a substantial credit on income tax on wages paid to each former inmate a business hires, which certainly helps with their bottom line. Here are eight businesses staffed by ex-cons:

Sweet Beginnings: Frustrated at the lack of job opportunities for former inmates, Brenda Palms Barber, director of the Chicago-based non-profit North Lawndale Employment Network, started the for-profit Sweet Beginnings to temporarily hire and train ex-offenders. Sweet Beginnings produces honey and honey-based skin care products. Workers raise bees and perform sales, manufacturing, and customer service related tasks. Potential employees must complete NLEN’s job-readiness program before being hired and receive job-placement services as their time with Sweet Beginnings, which can last anywhere from 90 days to a year, comes to an end.

I Have a Bean Coffee Store: Located in Wheaton, Ill., where 20,000 prisoners are released every year, I Have a Bean Coffee Store, formerly Second Chance Coffee Company, was created to “positively impact the lives of post-prison men and women” and the communities in which they live. The company roasts, sells, and ships their brand of premium coffee. In addition to hiring ex-offenders, I Have a Been works closely with post-prison support organizations to provide additional counseling and other support for their employees.

Moovers, Inc.: Moovers, Inc. was founded in the Bay Area of California by former residents of Delancey Street, a nationally acclaimed residential facility that helps former ex-convicts as well as substance abusers and homeless men and women turn their lives around. Moovers, Inc. has since grown into a cross-country moving company, offering services on both the east and west coast. In addition to offering very competitive moving rates, their staff has a straightforward, no-nonsense approach to customer service.

Felony Franks: Chicago-based businessman Jim Andrews started the Felony Franks hot dog stand after a positive experience with hiring ex-convicts to work at his paper company. The hot dog stand opened in 2009, and features menu items like the “Misdemeanor Weiner” and “Pardon Polish” (as in Polish sausage). Andrews encourages business owners not to unfairly judge ex-convicts. “The ones that want to stay out of jail and make a better life for themselves just work harder,” says Andrews. “They don’t want to go back and sit in prison.”

Belay Enterprises: Belay Enterprises, a faith-based nonprofit located in Denver, Colo., has created businesses to employ ex-convicts, including Bud’s Warehouse, which supplies building materials, and Baby Bud’s, a secondhand children’s clothing store. Executive director James Reiner states on his blog, “Our positions are reserved for people who are shut out of the job market because of significant barriers to (being employable), including addiction, homelessness, and prison.”

Virgin Group: Über-businessman and wanna-be spaceman Sir Richard Branson has publicly encouraged the managing directors of his Virgin Companies to hire ex-convicts. The United Kingdom organization Working Chance has worked with Branson to place ex-convicts in positions at Virgin. “I’ve had people at Virgin who have been caught stealing, and I’ve given them a second chance,” says Branson. “One kid was taking albums sent to us by record companies. … [By] giving him a second chance, he became one of the best employees we ever had.”

Triple Thread Apparel: Located in Nashville, Tenn., Triple Thread Apparel was started in 2010 by Vanderbilt University senior Kyle McCollom, who was volunteering at Dismas House, a residential facility housing both college students and former prisoners. McCollom understood there will always be a demand from college campuses for custom T-shirts. That demand helps him to achieve his overriding goal of helping ex-convicts turn around their lives. Triple Thread Apparel’s net profits are invested back into Dismas House.

Dave’s Killer Bread: Baker Dave Dahl has spent 15 years of his life in at least 10 different prisons for various drug-related offenses. His brother Glenn was hopeful when Dave began to turn around his life, taking medication for depression and enrolling in vocational classes while finishing his time in prison. After Dave’s release, he, Glenn, and Glenn’s son Shobi became partners in the family baking business. Dave surprised everyone with an original recipe for what Glenn immediately called “killer” bread. The name stuck. Dave’s Killer Bread, packaged in a bag with Dave’s story printed on its label, is sold through the brothers’ Healthy Bread Store at Killer Breadquarters in Milwaukie, Ore.

*Today’s article brought to you by www.criminaljusticedegreesguide.com

“I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Breaking Up is Hard to Do,” “Dance the Night Away:” these are three of the most well-worn lyrical themes found in pop songs. But dig a little deeper into the 20th and 21st century songbook, and you’ll discover a large and varied repertoire of music directly inspired by the prison experience. In fact, there are so many examples in blues, country, rock, and hip hop of songs about prison, that you could argue getting locked up is as common a subject for a song lyric as boy meets girl. Here are 10 classic songs, most of them widely known, that support this point.

1. “Folsom Prison Blues (Live)” performed by Johnny Cash

   This is the opening number from the 1968 live album At Folsom Prison, recorded by the late great Johnny Cash before a loud, rowdy, and — as you can hear right after Cash introduces himself — thoroughly appreciative audience. “Prisoners are the greatest audience that an entertainer can perform for,” writes Cash in the album’s liner notes. “They’re not ashamed to respond and show their appreciation.”

2. “Mama Tried” performed by Merle Haggard

   Merle Haggard’s classic “Mama Tried” simply and concisely conveys the feelings of its guilt-ridden narrator, a young “one and only rebel child,” who ignores his mother’s pleas to straighten up and behave and ends up in prison serving “life without parole.” The respect the young imprisoned man now affords his mother comes across in Haggard’s lyrics and delivery, and offers a glimpse of redemption in the bleakest of circumstances.

3. “Jailbreak” performed by Thin Lizzy

   Probably the cheeriest song on this list, Thin Lizzy’s “Jailbreak” is more of a metal club banger than a realistic account of escaping from an actual brick-and-mortar prison. It’s quite possible Thin Lizzy lead singer Phil Lynott just liked the threat and aggression implicit in the word “jailbreak” and crafted a lyric around it. “Jailbreak,” along with “The Boys Are Back In Town,” made Thin Lizzy international superstars, and both songs enjoy eternal rotation on American FM radio.

4. “Chain Gang” performed by Sam Cooke

   Singer Sam Cooke composed, arranged, and produced nearly all of his recorded output. He’s also responsible for some of the most powerfully socially conscious songs of the 20th century, including the well-known “A Change Is Gonna Come.” “Chain Gang,” released in 1960, was inspired by a chance meeting with a chained group of prisoners working on a highway Cooke was traveling during a tour. The background chant is quite consciously reminiscent of the rhythm and cadences heard on field recordings of actual prisoners, including “Po’ Lazarus,” included on this list.

5. “The Mercy Seat” performed by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

   Recorded while lead singer Nick Cave was in the throes of heroin addiction, the first-person lyrics of “The Mercy Seat” describe the conviction and impending electrocution of an unrepentant prisoner who may or may not be innocent of his crimes. Cave and the Bad Seeds have performed this song in a variety of ways, sometimes slowing down the tempo and stripping down the number of accompanying instruments. The relentless panicked poetry of the lyrics and simple melody of the refrain make this song a contemporary example of prison folk blues.

6. “Murder Was The Case” performed by Snoop Dogg

   Recorded in 1994 for the soundtrack to the short film of the same name, “Murder Was The Case” dropped at a time when murder, and the possibility of gang violence, was either subtly or explicitly referenced in the lyrics of both East and West Coast rappers. On this track, Snoop Dogg is resurrected from a certain death by shooting thanks to a deal he makes with the devil who, as the devil is wont to do, sends him to prison once their deal is broken.

7. “Po Lazarus” performed by James Carter and prisoners

   Beginning back in the 1930s, folklorist and historian Alan Lomax and his father, John, visited several prisons in the South to record and archive the inmates’ work songs. This 1959 recording by Lomax of a group of Mississippi prisoners singing the work song “Po’ Lazarus” appears on the Grammy award-winning film soundtrack O Brother Where Art Thou? James Carter, the lead singer heard on “Po’ Lazarus,” was tracked down by the producers of the soundtrack, paid $20,000, and credited for his decades-old performance.

8. “Women’s Prison” performed by Loretta Lynn

   Country singer and songwriter Loretta Lynn has never been one to pull punches when it came to the lyrics of her songs. Over the course of her career, she’s written and sung songs about spousal abuse, infidelity, and the pill, much to the horror of conservative country radio, and on more than one occasion had her music banned from the airwaves. “Women’s Prison,” another great addition to Lynn’s repertoire of blue-collar women’s songs, comes from her comeback album Van Lear Rose, produced by young rock singer and guitarist Jack White.

9. “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos” performed by Public Enemy

   “I got a letter from the government / the other day / opened it and read it / it said they were suckers!” So begins Public Enemy’s “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos,” featuring a harrowing lyric by MC Chuck D describing his arrest and imprisonment for dodging the draft and an ensuing prison riot and breakout. It’s a fantasy of course, but one inspired by the reality of America’s out-of-control military and prison industry.

10. “Back On The Chain Gang” performed by The Pretenders

    While the lyrics to “Back On The Chain Gang” aren’t explicitly about prison, the background chant in the refrain, directly referencing Sam Cooke’s “Chain Gang,” and lines describing separation of two friends or lovers by “the powers that be,” speak to a poetic “prison” from which there may be no escape. This song was written as an elegy for The Pretenders’ founding guitarist James Honeyman-Scott who died of an overdose early in their career. Perhaps referring to the troubled Honeyman-Scott, lead singer and songwriter Chrissie Hynde vows that those powers will “fall to ruin one day / for making us part.”

* Today’s post brought you courtesy of www.criminaljusticedegreesguide.com

*Yes, me posting this article means that we have NO officer deaths to report this week. Fantastic news!

*Please take a moment to visit our all new Writers’ Police Academy website. Registration is set to open in a couple of days. Space is limited to the first 150 people who sign up, so please don’t delay!

2012 Writers’ Police Academy