BRINGING EDUCATION BEHIND BARS
COMPANY: Jail Education Solutions
HEADQUARTERS: Chicago
FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES: 13
I.T. STAFF: 3
DESCRIPTION: Jail Education Solutions provides a tablet-based learning platform, called Edovo, that allows inmates to educate themselves at their own pace. Founded in 2013, the startup offers a broad range of educational content, including K–12 and introductory college courses and vocational training. JES recently won a contract to pilot Edovo in Philadelphia’s correctional system and aims to roll out the service to several other facilities.
At a Glance
Jail Education Solutions provides tablet-based learning to inmates to improve post-release job prospects and reduce recidivism.
JES decided to move its educational content onto tablets to provide greater interaction with inmates, says Michael Cornstubble, the company’s vice president of technology.
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Brian Hill learned at an early age the impact education
can have on prisoners. His father, a community college
professor, taught a class in California’s Folsom State
Prison for years. As bedtime stories, he’d read to Brian the
inmates’ personal essays. Father and son would discuss
the prisoners’ lack of hope and their potential if given
another chance.
“They were thirsty for knowledge, but I remember my
father made clear that the system was not well designed to
help these individuals,” Hill recalls. “He was doing what he
could with the short window of time he had with this small
percentage of the population.”
Today, Hill is following in his father’s footsteps. His
effort to educate prisoners began with the launch of Jail
Education Solutions (JES), a Chicago-based company
that provides tablets to inmates who want to pursue an
education or vocational training. His aim is to provide
prisoners with the skills and knowledge they need to
succeed when they are released.
More than half of those released from prison are
rearrested within a year, and more than three-quarters are
arrested again within five years, according to the Bureau
of Justice Statistics. But studies show that convicts who
receive education in correctional facilities are less likely
to be incarcerated again and more likely to find jobs after
their release.
In fact, there is a 43 percent reduction in recidivism
among inmates who participate in correctional educational
programs, which in turn saves taxpayers money, according
to a 2013 Rand study.
“So many prisoners go away at 17 and come out at 32.
They have not seen the latest advances in technology.
They’ve lost their friends. They have to be a grown-up
and live in the real world,” says Hill, a co-founder of JES.
“We want to help bridge that gap and make it possible
for them to be better prepared, so when they come out,
they are used to making decisions and are prepared both
academically and from a digital literacy perspective.”
From TVs to TabletsJES’ initial business strategy was to educate prisoners
through the television sets in prison common areas.
Prisoners spend much of their free time watching daytime
television; Hill figured that prisons could swap out the talk
shows and soap operas with educational programming.
The startup piloted educational TV programming at the
Cook County Jail in Chicago in fall 2013. Content specialists
and academic experts developed and curated educational
content and worked with prison staff to create a schedule
for classes, but they soon discovered that the TV approach
had limitations.
Trying to teach as many as 60 inmates in a room
with one 32-inch television was not an optimal learning
environment. Some inmates couldn’t even hear the TV
because of the noise, says Michael Cornstubble, vice
president of technology at JES.
To be more effective, JES needed to individualize learning
and be able to track each prisoner’s progress, so in 2014
the company developed tablet-based learning software to
address these needs.
“We did not reach the population like we wanted with
television, so we decided: Why don’t we take some of the
same content, make it on-demand, enhance it with greater
interaction and shift it toward a tablet?” Cornstubble says.
JES’ first customer for its new tablet-based learning
system is the city of Philadelphia, which began a pilot in
September 2014. While prisoners are in a prison common
area, they can rent JES’ tablets at minimal cost and use
the company’s learning software, called Edovo, to take
education or vocational training courses.
The company, which has created course content
and also partnered with universities and nonprofits for
educational materials, offers hundreds of classes, including
K–12 and introductory college courses. Edovo also offers
nonacademic instruction such as legal information and
parenting classes, Hill says.
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more likely to be employed after their release from prison,
according to a 2013 Rand study.
Former inmates who participated in vocational
training were
28%
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Startup Emerges from Chicago IncubatorJail Education Solutions (JES) got its start through Impact Engine, a Chicago-based incubator that focuses on
startups addressing societal or environmental challenges. Impact Engine provides a 16-week program that
includes seed funding, meetings with mentors and business-building workshops. JES was a great match
for the program, with its goal to educate prisoners and reduce recidivism.
“They were incredibly helpful. It was really a game changer,” says Brian Hill, co-founder of JES. “They
have a very powerful mentorship program, providing advice on everything from the structure of the
business to raising capital, and they put us in front of investors.”
In fact, the incubator program was instrumental in helping the startup get its first two rounds of
funding from investors, he says.
JES has since moved to its own corporate office. But as part of the incubator program, the
startup initially worked out of 1871, a 50,000-square-foot co-working space for startups. “It
was an incredible space, where every interaction you have leads to another opportunity,” Hill says.
“It was full of bright entrepreneurs making things happen.”
CDW, a sponsor of Impact Engine and 1871, was introduced to JES executives while the startup was going
through the incubator program.
“CDW has made a commitment to the startup community. By sponsoring Impact Engine, we are able to help
companies like JES move forward and hopefully change the world,” says CDW Executive Account Manager Edgar
Mendoza.
Many classes are video-based, but some coursework
includes reading material and audio lessons. When
prisoners finish a course, they are rewarded with games,
music or movies, Hill says.
Deploying and Managing TabletsJES turned to CDW to purchase the technology that powers
the learning system, including tablets, mobile device
management (MDM) software and IT infrastructure.
After considering several tablets, Cornstubble
standardized on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4. He chose
a 7-inch tablet instead of a 10-inch because it’s more
affordable and has a longer-lasting battery, and its smaller
size makes it safer in a prison setting. “The 7-inch provides
the screen real estate, weight and battery life we needed,”
he says.
JES protects each tablet with a customized case to
prevent inmates from breaking the devices and turning
them into weapons.
The company is using AirWatch MDM software to lock
down the devices and ensure that prisoners can’t tap into
any wireless Internet connections or text or email each
other on the devices. Inmates can use only Edovo’s stand-
alone application to access JES content.
“Communications in jails and prisons are highly regulated
and monitored. We have to ensure that inmates are unable
to engage in outside communication on the tablets,”
Cornstubble says.
JES chose AirWatch because it offers tight integration
with Samsung’s SAFE (Samsung for Enterprise) 3.0
security features and Knox 2.0 security platform, he says.
Combined, AirWatch and Samsung’s built-in security
features allow JES to turn off the home button and menu
keys. The technology also disables the power button and
prevents inmates from trying to turn off the device and
perform a factory reset in an attempt to gain access to the
Internet or communications software, he says.
JES also purchased LocknCharge EVO 40 tablet carts
and charging stations, which are placed in prison and
jail common areas. Corrections officers supervise the
distribution of tablets during the day and lock them up
inside the carts at night, he says.
Cornstubble says CDW helped him immensely during
the technology buying process. While he had a vision of
what he wanted and specific technologies in mind, CDW
Executive Account Manager Edgar Mendoza and CDW
Advanced Technology Account Executive Trent Clemen
guided him through numerous options.
“Michael is extremely bright, very sharp and technically
savvy,” Clemen says. “He asked to look at different options,
so we presented him with the best technologies available
within CDW’s portfolio.”
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Clemen and Mendoza introduced Cornstubble to
vendors, so he could see live demonstrations, meet with
engineers and learn more about their current technologies
and future product plans. Cornstubble says that allowed
him to thoroughly evaluate his options and make the right
technology choices for the company.
“CDW is phenomenal,” he says. “I could not have done
the technology assessments as quickly as I did without
my account managers, CDW’s internal resources and their
connections to external resources.”
Hill agrees. “CDW has been fantastic. They’ve just been
completely at our side helping us with all our hardware
needs and ensuring that everything works,” he says.
Mendoza says CDW was excited to help JES’ executives
achieve their desired results.
“Technology drives their business, so they knew they
could not shortchange their IT needs when it came to
working with jails,” Mendoza says. “They had to make sure
it was right and worked the first time out. We were happy
to be a part of their effort.”
Fast Growth ExpectedJES got on the city of Philadelphia’s radar through
a $100,000 competition that Mayor Michael Nutter
launched in 2014, in which he asked entrepreneurs to
develop innovative ideas to help solve the city’s crime
problem.
The company was one of three winners and was
awarded a $30,000 contract to pilot its tablet education
program in Philadelphia’s correctional system. Philadelphia
launched the pilot by making 15 tablets available to inmates
at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility.
Philadelphia has a limited education budget for
prisoners, so JES’ technology will help expand educational
opportunities to inmates and allow the prison system to
meet educational demand, says Story Bellows, director of
the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics in Philadelphia.
“We are excited to have JES’ technology in our prison.
We have limited funds for prisoner education. In a
time when it is a challenge to fund our schools, asking
taxpayers to support better programming services
for inmates is not an easy task,” Bellows says. “JES’
technology allows us to have access to different types of
educational programming at a low cost. It’s not a burden to
the taxpayer. We think it’s an interesting business model
and that it will allow us to better serve the inmates that
we’re working with.”
If the pilot meets expectations, Philadelphia would like
to increase the number of tablets it makes available to its
prison population, Bellows adds.
Hill believes the company will be successful through
its tablet rental model, in which inmates are charged a
nominal fee each day to use the tablets. He’s offering
the tablet learning service at no cost to prisons or to
taxpayers.
JES executives expect to roll out services to several
more prisons throughout the United States and to have
about 1,000 tablets deployed to prisoners by the end of
2014. They also hope to work out a way for prisoners to
take the General Educational Development tests or other
certifications.
“We want to make sure people have the opportunity
to learn and achieve, so they have a fighting chance when
they exit,” Hill says.
To learn more about how to effectively integrate mobility into your
organization, download the CDW Tech Insights app by visiting
Solutions.CDW.com/Tech-Insights-Mobility.
“CDW has been fantastic. They’ve just been completely at our side helping us with all our hardware needs and ensuring that everything works.”
—Brian Hill, Co-Founder, JES
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