ABOUT

Philadelphia Auto and Parole is a re-entry program to provide formerly incarcerated individuals and youth transitioning back into society an opportunity to earn a living wage through courses in automotive repair. In order to financially support the classes, Philly Auto and Parole functions as both a repair shop and an educational program.

In 2015, the one-year unified recidivism rate (re-arrest of a previously incarcerated individual) for people returning to Philadelphia was 33.9%. Looked at differently, this means that of the 24,089 people released to Philadelphia from the Philadelphia Department of Prisons (PDP) and the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PA DOC), roughly 8,000 people who were re-arrested at least once within a year after their return to the community from incarceration.

As of 2011, approximately 40,000 people return to Philadelphia from state and federal prison every year, and approximately 44,000 people in Philadelphia — 3 percent of the city’s population — are on probation at any given time.

That’s hundreds of thousands of Philadelphians, primarily people of color, fighting to escape the pull of gravity — the cycle of recidivism that keeps people with criminal records unemployed, at-risk of re-arrest and eventually, back in prison.

ROLES

This project will be geared more towards folks interested in project management and UX development and research. If you are interested in breaking into those fields, this is a great opportunity!