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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