An ambition for equality and justice drives Turn90’s founder and Executive Director, Amy Barch. She has a bachelor’s in Law, Societies, and Justice from the University of Washington and is currently pursuing a master’s in Criminal Justice from Arizona State University. While volunteering at South Carolina’s Charleston County Jail in 2011, Amy began developing a program model following evidence-based practices shown to reduce recidivism.
Teaching restorative justice classes, she expanded them to include learning skills to develop emotional coping, thinking, and problem-solving skills.
Hundreds of men enrolled in the jail-based program and judges soon considered reducing the prison sentences of these program graduates. Over the next three years, Amy built up a local base of support that included law enforcement and the City of Charleston’s Mayor’s Office.
She ultimately quit her day job and devoted herself fully to launching an alternative to prison program.
With in-jail group cognitive behavioral classes and post-release assistance,
she opened a home base location and landing place for her students, where they could be supported, continue therapy, and pursue vocational opportunities upon reentry.
As the program evolved, she and her growing team opened a social enterprise print shop and began employing participants. Men were paid for the entire workday in cognitive behavioral classes or working at the print shop.
With weekly supportive service sessions, 150 hours of behavioral classes, transitional work in the print shop, and placement into a livable wage job, the program was impactful. The percentage of men staying free from arrest, crime-free, and out of prison was so significant that funding became available to replicate and expand the program into additional cities. Columbia, South Carolina, was selected for the second location, which opened in 2021.
As social enterprise and supportive services continue to thrive and hundreds more men are successfully participating, Turn90 is looking ahead to this new year for the continued development of their business model and outreach.
Turn90’s “therapeutic social enterprise model of reentry” has the potential to change the entire prison reentry landscape. Addressing risk factors with incarceration as well as external barriers upon release from prison, your approach provides the ‘wrap-around’ support other agencies often tout or try to implement. In this capacity, what do you feel most differentiates Turn90 from these other organizations working to reduce recidivism?
Reducing recidivism is just really, really hard. For a program to be effective, it must have the right pieces in the right places delivered to and by the right people. That’s a lot to get right! Our social enterprise model is a big part of our success. The business allows us the time and flexibility to work with people over extended periods. But we don’t view employment as our primary intervention, and I think that’s one place where we stand out. We use employment as an engagement strategy and a way to immerse a person in a prosocial environment. CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) classes are held daily and embedded into the workday. Graduates on staff deliver job training and social services, acting as mentors and supervisors. We view Turn90’s businesses as the place where change happens, not as the change agent itself.
Serving USA recognizes that many of our partner leaders like yourself have had a significant calling to their work. Briefly share what transpired in your background or what initially motivated you to volunteer at the jail and pursue law. What continues to inspire you to study criminal justice while you also lead a successful and rapidly growing nonprofit?
Yes, this is something I am asked about all the time. Many people are surprised to find out that I have no personal connection to the issue of incarceration. Neither I nor anyone I knew while growing up went to prison. I was born into a very stable and loving family. I felt compassion even at a very early age for those who did not get the head start that I did. My first experience seeing a homeless person had a lasting impact on me. I always knew I did not want a career that was focused on personal gain but wanted to use my privilege in service of others. A deep connection to the issues of equality and justice led me to study criminal justice in college. I chose an internship at the county jail and was blown away by the people I met. That was 18 years ago, and my passion for this work continues to grow.
My biggest motivation is the belief that we can do so much better for people in prison, their families, and the communities they return to. Most re-entry programs are not run well, not funded well, not designed well, and not managed well. What is possible if we commit to doing it well? I believe that so much is possible, it’s hard to even imagine. There is so much talent and wonderful contribution locked behind our prison walls if we are willing to make the investment. Knowing this keeps me motivated and inspired to keep going!
Having worked alongside hundreds of inmates as your students, you have a wealth of insight into the realities they face. On the surface, can you share what you feel is the most identifiable common denominator initially leading many of them into the correctional system? During your time with the students in your program is there also an identifiable traitor characteristic displayed that helps you and your team determine if someone will successfully reintegrate?
Some of my students have now joined my staff and I consider them family. It’s hard to identify one common denominator because of course each person is different and has various factors that have played a role in past decisions. However, I think a criminal environment is one factor that is a consistent thread weaving itself through the stories of Turn90 men. Children learn from their environment – especially family, older adults, and peers. Exposure to crime, violence, drug use, and selling normalizes this behavior and contributes to problematic coping strategies and behavior.
I gave up a long time ago trying to figure out who will or will not succeed at Turn90. We take everyone at face value and give 100% into every relationship, assuming they will make it. A person will tell you through their behavior pretty quickly if they are serious about changing or not.
Evaluating the myriad of optionsavailable for offering vocational trainingand enterprising for Turn90, what is itabout the print shop business thatmakes for such a successfulapprenticeship and job-skills programfor your students?
Actually, we just launched a second social enterprise - Turn90 Logistics -because we’ve had so many issues with the print shop since opening the second location! The Turn90 Print Shop is not going anywhere, but it wasn’t an easy business to scale. We chose logistics for our new venture because it allows us to secure more consistent work with fewer sales and overhead costs. The kitting, assembly, and packaging work is also a lot less technical than screen-printing.
Ultimately, I believe many businesses can be effective within a social enterprise reentry model. Most importantly, I believe business operations should be at a site where programming and supportive services can be delivered in tandem. I do not think off-site, work-crew models are as effective because you lose the “immersive” therapeutic impact. I also think business-to-business (B2B) models are easier to run for job training purposes.
Running a social enterprise is a ton of work, but I believe it’s necessary when providing intensive community-based reentry services.
Learn more about Amy Barch and how to support Turn90:
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