They Kept Getting Rejected. So They Built Los Perejiles Instead.
Mateo, Franco, Mauricio, and Leandro couldn't get hired in Argentina. So they built their own pizza catering business — and proved that disability isn't the barrier. Opportunity is.
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The Keys Were Always on the Inside
# The Keys Were Always on the Inside April is Second Chance Month. The month we talk about redemption, reentry, and giving people a fair shot after incarceration. So let’s talk about Jesus Reyes. Reyes is a 45-year-old California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officer. This week, he was charged alongside an alleged drug…
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5 Actionable Steps to Give Someone a Second Chance Today
April is Second Chance Month, but if you’re running a business, you know that “second chances” shouldn’t just be a calendar event. It’s an operational philosophy. At Breaking Free Industries, we see it every day in our shop: men and women who have been counted out by society coming in and out-working everyone else because…
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The Fabric of a Second Chance: Why What You Wear Can Change a Career
Discover why quality custom apparel is a foundational tool for professional transformation and second-chance entrepreneurship. Zero order minimums.
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5 Rights You Can Get Back After Incarceration in California
Most people walk out of prison thinking their civil life is over. The reality? California law provides a clear legal pathway to get your voice, your career, and your reputation back. It isn’t automatic, and nobody is going to hand it to you—you have to go get it.
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The Full Circle: How Kerwin Pittman is Turning a Prison into a Beacon of Hope
In the world of business and social impact, we talk a lot about “disruption.” We talk about flipping the script. But rarely do we see someone literally buy the script, tear it up, and rewrite it on the same 19 acres where the original story was staged. Enter Kerwin Pittman. Kerwin spent 11.5 years of…
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Scaling the Second Chance: JBJ Soul Kitchen’s New Chapter in Asbury Park
Meta Description: Discover how JBJ Soul Kitchen is scaling its pay-it-forward mission in Asbury Park. Breaking Free Industries explores the power of second chances and community impact. URL Slug: jbj-soul-kitchen-asbury-park-expansion-bfi Scaling the Second Chance: JBJ Soul Kitchen’s New Chapter in Asbury Park Alt text: A professional kitchen setting symbolizing the community-driven mission of JBJ Soul…
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Beyond the Courtroom: Rethinking Careers in Criminal Justice
We tend to present criminal law as a binary: you’re either putting people in the system, or pulling them out of it. But the reality is, the criminal justice system is an ecosystem—and some of the most meaningful, life-changing work happens outside the courtroom. From dismantling ‘moral character’ barriers in professional licensing to building the next generation of legal tech for expungement, the ‘Second Chance’ economy is wide open. For those drawn to justice but not necessarily to trial work, it’s time to look beyond the binary.
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From Cell to Patent: How David Baldwin ‘Used Time’ to Invent the Future
There’s a massive difference between “doing time” and “using time.” Most people look at a 10-year prison sentence as a decade-long pause button. For David Baldwin, it was a 3,650-day incubation period. While the world outside was moving at a breakneck pace, David sat in a cell and did something most entrepreneurs with full access…
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Felon. Manager. Shooter. Why the Kansas City Wendy’s Story Is More Complicated Than the Headline
Late on a Thursday night in Kansas City, Missouri, a drive-thru interaction devolved into a shooting that nearly cost a man his life. The headlines were immediate and predictable: “Convicted Felon Managing Northland Wendy’s Accused of Shooting Customer.” At Breaking Free, we operate in the “second chance” space every day. We know the weight those…