Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
It is my pleasure to introduce
Mr. Scott Budnick
founder of the Anti-recidivism Coalition.
Along with Sir Richard Branson
founder of the *** Group.
(Applause)
(Whistling)
(Applause)
When they sent me Richard's bio I didn't think I would need to read it
because I didn't think there was anyone in this room
that didn't know who this incredible man is.
But as I read through it there were a few facts
that I thought were truly unbelievable.
First, there're now more than 100 *** companies worldwide
employing approximately 60,000 people.
Which means he's in charge of the livelihood
of 60,000 families around the world.
I found that incredible.
Number two, he's about to start commercial space travel. This year?
R.B. (whistles) Yeah.
S.B. We're going up.
He's United Kingdom's number one Twitter user.
(Laughter)
And he's the world's most followed person on LinkedIn.
But what I thought was absolutely incredible
is that in 2004 he established his non-profit *** Unite
to tackle both social and environmental problems
and strives to make business a force for good.
Most of his time now is spent working with *** Unite his non-profit.
(Applause)
So -- (Applause)
Richard, 5 years ago I read a blog on ***.com
which completely blew my mind.
You wrote and sent it out wide
talking about how you hired former offenders
and what great work they did for your company
and how hard they worked
and you encouraged other CEOs to hire former offenders.
And then throughout the years
I saw you really dive deeply
into the discussion around the drug war.
And every time I told somebody that you were coming to speak today
the first thing everyone asked is why does he care?
I'd really like to know why Richard Branson cares about this issue.
R.B. Well, first of all I'm not an expert at all on this issue.
I've come here to listen, to learn,
and hopefully from learning to try to do more.
I think so many of us mess up in our lives.
I was lucky, I messed up when I was 19 years old.
I thought I could get away with not paying some taxes.
Not a good idea.
And ended up a night in prison.
I was fortunate, my parents had a house
they were willing to mortgage the house
so I didn't have to spend longer in prison.
And I think that's the system that's flawed.
Why should people, while they're waiting on bail,
who can't afford it, go to prison,
and people who can afford it, not go to prison.
But that's another subject.
That moment, just being in prison,
made me first of all realize I didn't like the idea of going to prison.
So, from then on
I think I've managed to make sure I make decisions
where I can sleep well at night and avoid that.
But I've also just learned
that if you give people a second chance in life,
and I had a second chance,
I wouldn't have been employing 60,000 people, I suspect,
if I had spent 2 or 3 months in prison.
If you give people a second chance
they can do great things.
And I think if you can give people the dignity of work
when they leave prison,
if you don't just dump them on the street
and tell them to make their own way to the nearest city.
If you give them a chance to stand on their own two feet,
make people realize that they're loved
and that they're cared for.
And I thought what the lady said earlier
about looking forward not looking back
is fantastic.
So I think as many companies as possible
need to get out there
and take people on and give them a chance.
I think they'll be surprised how successful it is.
S.B. Thank you.
(Applause)
So, some might say
employing someone coming out of prison is a risk.
Some might argue it isn't.
I read you sold *** Records which was your core business
and leaped into the airline business which was not your core business
and that was a risk.
We have a couple of hundred inmates sitting in the crowd today
that took some stupid risks
and have made some good decisions.
What advice would you give them in terms of what risks are worth taking
and what risks aren't?
R.B. Well, look, I've met maybe 50 or 100
fairly superficially when I came in.
And it's fantastic that
I think pretty well everybody in this room is studying.
Because A, I think it will make their time in prison
a lot more interesting to study.
And B, it's going to give them
that much better a chance of getting
a good job when they get out.
It may even turn them into an entrepreneur.
Basically an entrenpreneur is somebody
who comes up with an idea that can improve other people's lives
and make their lives better.
That's all a business is.
And I think,
you people got time here to think about
when they get out,
do they have a hobby?
What could they do to make other people's lives better?
And possibly, rather than working for somebody else
people here could actually start a business when they leave.
And start in a small way.
I started literally in a really small way.
Handing our leaflets outside ---
outside concert halls selling music.
Getting the money in from the leaflets and then sending the music out.
Just one thing led on to another.
You don't have to dream big straight away,
just try to get the nuts and bolts of your business going.
S.B. Great.
Sitting in this room today we have a lot of the decision makers
in the Governor's office and the Department of Corrections
who are really guiding this system.
And working with them I know that they really believe strongly
in turning people's lives around.
But there's obstacles, political obstacles.
A recidivism rate of around 60%.
74% if you're 18 to 25.
If you're spending billions of dollars and failing 7 out of 10 times
I'm sure you would shut that company down really quickly.
As a business man and a concerned human being
what advice would you give to lawmakers and decision makers
about how to run this differently?
R.B. I've spent the last 3 years on something called
the Global Drug Commission.
The Global Drug Commission was setup
by President Cardoso of Brazil.
It has 14 other presidents on the commission.
It has Kofi Annan, who used to be secretary of state.
And it has myself as a business leader.
And we've spent two years looking at the war on drugs.
And by the way, the reason that I'm going straight to drugs
is that so many people in American prisons
started because of some element of the drug problems.
What we've found is that,
in particular in America
the war on drugs has failed.
It's failed in particular
in the poorer communities in America.
There are alternatives and yet
America seems to continue locking people up.
Having the most people in prison ---
More people in prison in America than in China
which has got a much bigger population
and you would have thought would be much more draconian.
So as a businessman, what we did was we went and looked at other countries.
We looked to see whether anybody else was doing it better.
Portugal had a major drug problem.
And 12 years ago
a very forward thinking president said,
"We've got it all wrong.
If somebody has a drink problem we help them.
If somebody smokes too many cigarettes
we do our best to try and help them stop smoking too many cigarettes.
What's the difference between that and other drugs?"
They said okay, we're not going to lock anybody up
ever again for taking any kind of drugs.
What we're going to do is help them.
Learning from that,
the National Drug Commission are urging countries all over the world
to treat drugs as a health problem not a criminal problem.
Someone like Russia,
draconian treatment of people on drugs.
They've got the biggest *** problem in the world.
If you give people clean needles you can make sure they don't contract ***.
There are so many benefits I think of taking that approach.
S.B. Thanks.
So, now I really want to open it up to you guys,
specifically the inmates in the audience.
Let's now open it up for anyone that wants to ask
Sir Richard Branson a question.
R.B. I'll tell you what the first prisoner to ask
when they get out they can get a free ticket to London.
S.B. Boom, right there.
R.B. All right, we've got over here.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
R.B. Hello.
Inmate: Hello mister Richard. Thank you for coming.
My question is
what inspired you or gave you the heart to hire an ex-convict?
R.B. I think ---
We were talking about this earlier and I think ---
What's surprising is just that not more people are doing it.
The people in this room could be my children.
They could be myself.
They could be my brothers, my sisters.
When somebody slips up in life,
and I suspect quite a few people in here didn't slip up,
they wouldn't be here incorrectly anyway.
But when somebody slips up
they should be given a chance.
It's not only the right thing to do
but I think it's the right thing for society as well.
And instead, in America when people come out of prison
they continue to be punished.
They can't get food stamps
or I think getting mortgages and other things are difficult.
Which puts people on a path to re-offending again.
And it works.
Some or our best employees at ***
are people who've been in prison, including myself.
(Applause)
Inmate: Mister Branson, Mister Budnick thank you.
I'm a parent. I have 3 children.
I've been in prison for 19 years now.
And the biggest difficulty that we face
is communication between myself and my children.
This is 2014 and the world is changing technologically.
Have you ever considered tying together social good
with an entrepreneurial opportunity
to bring modern day communications
to prisoners to help between prisoners and their children?
R.B. Well, I hadn't considered it until you just mentioned it.
(Laughter)
A lot of the best ideas come from discussions like this.
It must be incredibly tough for all of you in this prison.
It's so far from anywhere.
For families to have to leave to come and live close to you
is heart wrenching for them and the kids.
And obviously a lot of families will not ---
will not leave wherever they are to come and live close to you.
It must be horrendous.
The burden on the families to stay close
and the burden on you to lose your families from staying close.
So I think that anything that can be done
to enable father, mothers
to stay close to their children is obviously really important.
I would urge the warden who's very liberal minded thinking
to maybe work with you in trying to come up with a program
that maybe could be an example to other prisons in the years to come.
If we can help a bit we would love to try to help a bit
within whatever we're allowed.
I can see how important it is.
Be entrepreneurial.
Maybe get a few of the other students together.
Try to work up a plan.
It may be too late for you,
but it can help other people later. Good luck.
S.B. I think it's important to note too
that this prison is the first prison in the entire state
to bring in technology and start an online college program.
It's now planning to be replicated to all the different yards of this prison
and then throughout the department.
It's the first time in the history of the California prison system
where they let inmates touch a computer,
especially a computer that's connected to the Internet
to take college classes.
I know there's talks about having Skype visiting
for families that can't come here.
There's also a new program that Millicent Tidwell and Rodger Meier started
where you can read a book to your child
and send it home on disk.
That's being rolled out in the next couple of months.
So I think the ball's rolling slowly,
but rolling as it relates to technology.
And I think with Mr. Branson's idea and his help
I think we can really kind of push the system to move this quicker.
R.B. The Skype idea just seems like a no-brainer.
Because it doesn't cost the prison anything.
And for families that can't travel
is quite a strain on the families to travel
hours and hours from other cities.
Inmate: You mention the draconian sentencing
that we have in this country.
My question to you is,
do you think our behavior while incarcerated
should be considered in regards to our release date?
Look, I'm certain that the behavior whilst you're in prison,
you should get benefits from it.
Would you mind telling me what you think?
Well, I think that seeing that we're a part
of such a groundbreaking idea as far as the educational system
within California Department of Corrections
being able to obtain degrees now,
to really change our aspect and the way we think
and what we're able to accomplish.
I think that it would be even more motivational for us
if there were ---
if it was considered for instance we have, like I said,
the college program here has completely changed
not only the way I feel about learning, but the way I look at life.
I understand now that
what I do as an individual
affects not only me but everyone around me.
I didn't understand that when I got locked up.
I thought it was just all about me, me, me.
But now that I have some type of education
I understand that we are all part of,
or equally a part of, a bigger whole.
So I think that if those behaviors were considered,
you know, I came in, I didn't have a college degree,
now, thanks to the system, in June I'll be receiving 4 degrees,
I think that that should matter.
And if I have a pattern of not being disciplined,
no disciplinary actions or anything like that
I think that that should be considered on an individual basis.
(Applause)
R.B. You put it far more eloquently than I could. Thank you.
It is fantastic what Ironwood's doing.
It seems to be setting an example
to the rest of the prison system in California as far as
the educational policy it's got here.
It'd be great if other establishments could learn from it anyway.
(Applause)
S.B. Thank you.
(Applause)