Joint Venture, Mutual Benefit

Most people deserve a second chance, and with the Joint Venture Program, inmates are given an opportunity to right some wrongs. The statewide program is managed by the California Prison Industry Authority and allows prisoners to gain work experience and job skills training while contributing to worthy causes.

In Marin, a partnership between Labcon North America and San Quentin pays offenders wages comparable to what they would earn if they were working outside of prison. Their earnings are divided equally after taxes for inmate prison room and board, an inmate trust/canteen account, victim family support, mandatory inmate savings and victim restitution.

The Jeanette Prandi Center, Marin Advocates for Children, and the Center for Domestic Peace were the 2015 recipients of the victim restitution funds in Marin. “We know that many of today’s prison inmates were victims of child abuse. Left untreated, today’s victims can become tomorrow’s victimizers,” says Marin County District Attorney Ed Berberian. Here are the numbers.

1990 PROGRAM STARTED

EARNINGS TO CRIME VICTIMS 20%

$11,102 TOTAL 2015 CONTRIBUTIONS

3 Local charity recipients

9% INMATE RECIDIVISM RATE


Kasia Pawlowska

Kasia Pawlowska loves words. A native of Poland, Kasia moved to the States when she was seven. The San Francisco State University creative writing graduate went on to write for publications like the San Francisco Bay Guardian and KQED Arts among others prior to joining the Marin Magazine staff. Topics Kasia has covered include travel, trends, mushroom hunting, an award-winning series on social media addiction and loads of other random things. When she’s not busy blogging or researching and writing articles, she’s either at home writing postcards and reading or going to shows. Recently, Kasia has been trying to branch out and diversify, ie: use different emojis. Her quest for the perfect chip is never-ending.