A Second Chance at a Design Career
For individuals returning from incarceration, the path back into the workforce is fraught with barriers. In Oakland, California, the CROP Organization is working to change that trajectory by creating a direct route into the tech industry. The nonprofit focuses on equipping formerly incarcerated people with the skills needed for a career in UX design, an approach that addresses both a social need and an industry demand for diverse talent.
Designing for Reentry
CROP Organization is not just about teaching software. Its core mission is to build a bridge over the systemic hurdles that typically block reentry, such as stigma and a lack of professional networks. By training fellows in user experience design, the organization positions its participants for high-growth roles that value portfolio strength and problem-solving over a traditional employment history.
The program’s first cohort has now completed its work, and the organization’s founders are beginning to see the fruits of their labor. The curriculum is grounded in the practical realities of shipping digital products, preparing fellows to move from a classroom setting into collaborative product teams.
Beyond the Portfolio
While the fellows gain proficiency in UX methodologies, the emphasis extends to professional readiness in a broader sense. The goal is to foster confidence and communication skills essential for interviewing and collaborating with stakeholders. It’s an effort to reframe a person’s identity from a criminal record to a capable contributor and problem-solver.
In creating these inroads, CROP Organization works to dismantle the notion that a past conviction should define one’s future potential. By investing in human capital, they are building a pipeline that benefits the individual, the employer, and the wider community, proving that talent can be found in the most unexpected of places.
A Second Chance, Built on UX Design
Creating Restorative Opportunities and Programs (CROP) is a new nonprofit with an ambitious goal: to lower California’s stubbornly high 50% recidivism rate by offering formerly incarcerated individuals a comprehensive path back into society. Instead of focusing solely on immediate employment, CROP’s year-long Ready 4 Life program provides a holistic support system built on four pillars: personal development, career training, employment services, and stable housing. The program’s residential and training campus in West Oakland houses 12 fellows, each of whom receives their own apartment, a personal coach, and a monthly stipend to remove the distractions of survival and allow them to focus on their rehabilitation and skill-building. The chosen career track is UX design, a field the founders believe can leverage the unique resilience and problem-solving skills of their fellows.
The Genesis of CROP
CROP was born from a decade of work and shared experience. Four of the co-founders—Jason Bryant, Ted Gray, Richard Mireles, and Matthew Braden—had been building programs inside prisons for over ten years. After a close friend, Ken Oliver, paroled and highlighted the fragmented nature of reentry services, they saw an opportunity to create something better. They pooled their collective 100 years of incarceration to design a program that offers the wraparound support they felt was missing, asking a simple question: what would a holistic reentry program look like?
Their plans received a significant boost when they presented their vision to California Governor Gavin Newsom in early 2021. The state signed a three-year, $28.5 million partnership to help launch the effort. The cost is a significant factor: California taxpayers spend roughly $106,000 per person annually on incarceration, with only about 3.4% of that going to rehabilitation. CROP’s comprehensive program operates for roughly half that cost per person.
Teaching Beyond the Classroom
UX Track Instructor Alexis Bustos found the chance to make a tangible impact on tech’s diversity a compelling reason to join CROP. She saw that the fellows’ problem-solving abilities, storytelling, and innate ability to connect with people were crucial qualities for the tech space that they were simply missing the technical skills to deploy. She works to level a playing field where participants range from complete beginners to self-taught technologists, building the coursework on Coursera’s UX design certification while using Figma as the central workspace for daily exercises, a tool that is now the industry standard.
More important than the curriculum is the culture Bustos tries to create. She deliberately models the environment on a tech office, not a classroom. Daily standups replace lectures, and workplace vernacular is used to accustom fellows to an office's professional norms. This extends to communication, etiquette, and how to collaborate. The design curriculum itself mirrors this philosophy, with fellows learning how to conduct and understand the value of activities like design sprints and user journey mapping.
The training is informed by the founders’ belief that formerly incarcerated individuals have significant intellectual capital, not just the capacity for physical labor. While many reentry programs teach truck driving or construction, CROP sees a future-of-work path in tech. To that end, the program also includes training in B2B sales, a skillset that relies on similar resilience and interpersonal strengths. The other two program pillars focus on working with employers to promote Fair Chance hiring practices and ensuring fellows have a stable, dignified place to live, both crucial for overcoming stigma and fostering long-term success.
Fellows on Finding Their Footing
Ron Scott served 27 years of a 48-year sentence. In prison, he moved from self-help groups to learning basic coding through Microsoft Access, a passion that led him to become a tutor and peer literacy mentor. A friend sent him CROP’s application when he was nearing release, and though he didn’t know what UX was initially, he quickly saw a connection. He was the first to arrive on the residential campus, leaving prison and being dropped directly at its gate, and he speaks of the emotional experience with visible joy. He is particularly impressed with Figma’s ability to visually express ideas, noting its limitations are only self-imposed.
Michele Scott (no relation) was sentenced to two consecutive life-without-parole terms in 1991. During her time inside, she became an advocate, starting support groups and writing letters to legislators despite being excluded from such activities. After an extremely rare governor’s commutation in 2018 allowed for her release in 2021, she worked minimum-wage jobs and saw a path to poverty. The opportunity to upskill at CROP opened doors she never thought possible three decades ago. She finds the transition from legacy software to Figma akin to moving from a mainstream sedan to a Lamborghini, though the program helps with practical gaps that run the gamut from learning design concepts like user journeys to something as basic as converting a Google sheet to a PDF.
The core resourcefulness needed for life in prison, Michele says, translates directly to UX. She describes solving the problem of a lack of storage space by disassembling headphones and fashioning their small magnets to attach repurposed medication bags to metal lockers and bunks. This constant necessity for extreme problem-solving with limited resources is the kind of unconventional skill she believes people with her background bring to design. Experiencing the design process now, she feels like an amplified college track student trying to catch up after decades in an analog world.
The fellows’ first exposure to the broader tech industry came in June when they attended Figma’s Config conference in San Francisco. Bustos saw their curiosity grow as they absorbed the energy and potential of the platform. Ron, who had never been to any conference, was overcome by seeing the community of people of all backgrounds excited about product design, for whom he feels a desire to be a part of the next iteration of design, to voice how things look and work. Ron and the other fellows’ attendance is a crucial part of the social rehabilitation, with one describing the immersion as being thrown into a lake to learn to swim, a motivational shock that revealed how creative and open the tech world is.
A Future on Their Own Terms
For Jason Bryant, the goal is to present formerly incarcerated talent as an opportunity, not a problem to be solved. He wants to show employers that these candidates bring an uncommon level of resilience, determination, and appreciation, and don’t want to be judged by their worst choice. Ron Scott echoes that sentiment, describing a moment of personal clarity on a rooftop on the Fourth of July. Looking at the Oakland skyline, he had an emotional realization that he can have a career, own a home, and have a family, a right he now insists everyone should feel entitled to. As the classes continue, the CROP team is working to scale the program and build new partnerships to extend this new perspective to a talent pipeline across California.
Designing for real-world impact
The skills taught go beyond just visual layout. Learners work with Figma to build interactive prototypes, conduct user research, and test their designs with actual users. The curriculum emphasizes accessibility and inclusive design, preparing participants to create products that serve diverse populations.
Instructors bring hands-on industry experience, and the coursework mirrors the collaborative workflows found in modern product teams. Students practice giving and receiving design critiques, documenting their decisions, and presenting their work to stakeholders—skills that translate directly to a junior UX role.
From classroom to career
The program’s focus is employment. Alongside the design portfolio, participants receive coaching on resume writing, interview preparation, and job search strategies. The nonprofit maintains a network of employer partners who are committed to second-chance hiring, and it supports graduates through the application process.
Graduates have moved into roles at tech companies, agencies, and startups. For many, the job is not just a paycheck; it is a stable foundation that reduces recidivism and transforms their long-term trajectory. The organization tracks outcomes and uses that data to refine the curriculum and employer outreach.
The result is a pipeline that benefits everyone: companies gain skilled, motivated designers with lived experience that informs better product decisions, and participants gain a real path to economic independence.
