The Kane County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday unveiled its newest program to help inmates get back on their feet after getting out of jail: a Small Business Development Center.
The Honorable William H. Hall IV Small Business Development Center, which is physically located in the Sheriff’s Office, will offer inmates at the Kane County Jail programs to help develop their own small business plans and equip them with the skills they need to successfully run a business, officials said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony announcing the program on Tuesday.
“This is going to change lives. It’s going to change the direction of Kane County, its community members and other community organizations that it touches,” Kane County Undersheriff Amy Johnson said at the ceremony. “This is not just a one and done element. This is forever.”
The new center is the very first Small Business Development Center in a correctional facility anywhere in the nation, a news release from the Kane County Sheriff’s Office said.
According to Judy Dawson of the Kane County Sheriff’s Office, the Development Center’s programs will also be open to anyone in the community who was previously incarcerated or otherwise involved with the justice system.
She said the Development Center is one of many programs offered by the Kane County Sheriff’s Office to stop those who previously were incarcerated from going back to jail, which is known as recidivism.
Small business ownership and entrepreneurship are ways to reduce recidivism and help formerly incarcerated people become economically self-sufficient, Dawson said.
The Sheriff’s Office also offers drug treatment programs, educational programs, job training and other programs to help reduce recidivism, she said.
According to Dawson, the Sheriff’s Office has already reduced recidivism rates significantly, from 49% before Sheriff Ron Hain took office to 18% in 2023.
At the ceremony, a number of current or former inmates spoke about their experiences with Kane County Sheriff’s Office programs, particularly a business plan pitch competition that has been held the last several years, and how those experiences have turned their lives around.
One of the men who spoke was David Stewart, 41, who said he was an ex-gang member and ex-drug dealer.
Stewart said he has been in and out of the system for years, but because of the drug rehabilitation, job training and small business development programs offered by the Kane County Sheriff’s Office, he now has a new outlook on life.
“Now I understand the true meaning of freedom, because I’m free — not physically free — but I’m free on the inside because I found myself,” he said. “When I found myself, I found my purpose, and this is what I’m able to see clearly now that the rain is gone: Inside Out Recovery, that’s the name of my business.”
Inside Out Recovery is Stewart’s vision for his future, a business where he can give back to the community and help others, he said.
His business plan was conceived through the Sheriff’s Office’s 2023 small business plan pitch competition, which pushed him outside of his comfort zone, Stewart said.
“This experience boosted my confidence level and it skyrocketed my self-esteem because I achieved something that I thought was impossible. Now I feel more alive and more free,” he said.
The pitch competition will still take place in the Kane County Jail, but the newly-formed Honorable William H Hall IV Small Business Development Center will now be there to help inmates beyond that competition.
Inmates will now receive one-on-one counseling to further their business plan and will also be able to participate in a group program that will teach participants all the skills they need to run a successful business, according to Dawson. She said similar programs will be offered for those who were formerly incarcerated or in the justice system.
The center at the Sheriff’s Office is actually a satellite of the full-fledged Small Business Development Center at Waubonsee Community College, which is partnering with the Sheriff’s Office on the project, she said.
“Waubonsee Community College is honored to be a part of this effort, to be a part of enhancing the lives of people who live within our community,” Ne’Keisha Stepney, the college’s assistant provost of Workforce Development, said at the ceremony. “We are very focused on our underserved and underrepresented populations. This is just an extension of that great work.”
Funding for the project is coming through the America’s Small Business Development Center network of Illinois, another one of the Sheriff’s Office’s partners in the project, according to Dawson.
She said the network no longer asks those applying for loans whether or not they are convicted felons, which hopefully will open up more opportunities for the jail’s inmates and others in the community who previously did not have access to this funding source.
The Sheriff’s Office also has other plans in the works for additional ways to fund the development of small businesses through the center, Dawson said.
Willette LeGrant, Illinois District Director for the U.S. Small Business Administration, spoke at Tuesday’s ceremony and said the Kane County Sheriff’s Office Small Business Development Center is the first of many.
“This is going to be all over the state of Illinois,” LeGrant said.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
