Five Keys Schools and Programs and Insight Prison Project Announce Partnership to Expand Trauma-Informed Programs for the Incarcerated

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Five Keys Schools and Programs, which has spent nearly 18 years pioneering ways to change lives through trauma-informed education and programs in correctional facilities across California, has announced a partnership with the Insight Prison Project to leverage both organization’s experience to enhance ways to increase outcomes for returning citizens.

“Now more than ever we need to form partnerships to pool resources in this pandemic,” said Steve Good, executive director for Five Keys Schools and Programs based in San Francisco. “We are excited to merge with the Insight Prison Project to expand our reach and resources that help transform the lives of the incarcerated and prepare them for successful reentry. Both of our organizations have great experience providing education and programs that build trust, acknowledge personal accountability and each person’s dignity and empower individuals to take advantage of opportunities that can change the trajectory of their lives — and help them to engage differently with their worlds.”

Through the partnership, the Insight Prison Project will run under the umbrella of Five Keys Schools and Programs, which was founded by The San Francisco Sheriff's Department in 2003 as the first charter school for incarcerated adults in the country. Its pioneering programs serve more than 4,000 people a day and have awarded more than 2,800 high school diplomas or GED equivalents. It is touted for shutting the revolving door of inmates going in and out of jail.

Insight Prison Project, based in San Rafael, offers an innovative restorative justice program, the Victim Offender Education Group, which focuses on transformational re-education. It serves 300 incarcerated persons in California, Oregon, Colorado, and Washington. It will continue to operate and grow its transformational programs for prisoners and parolees, which are supported by crime victims and community volunteers.

“This is a perfect fit for both organizations who work to prepare people to come home and contribute to society by leading productive and restorative lives that cause no harm to others or themselves,” said Leonard Rubio, executive director of the Insight Prison Project.

About Five Keys Schools and Programs

Dedicated to getting people’s lives back on track, Five Keys Schools and Programs and its more than 550 dedicated employees serve more than 25,000 individuals each year throughout the San Francisco Bay area, Los Angeles and nine counties through the state of California. Five Keys was founded in 2003 by the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department as the first accredited charter high school in the nation to provide diploma programs for adults in county jails. Today its efforts have grown exponentially. The organization interrupts the cycles of homelessness, substance abuse, violence, literacy and incarceration through our 80 community learning centers, transitional housing shelters, career centers, and community-based workforce networks by investing in their humanity so that they can be self-determined to change their lives. Five Keys also hires people directly into our transitional employment positions for formerly incarcerated individuals and people currently or formerly experiencing homelessness. Five Keys has been the recipient of many awards including Harvard University’s Innovations in Government Award, and California Charter School of the Year.

About Insight Prison Project

Since 1997, the Insight Prison Project has been dedicated to reducing recidivism rates and improving public safety by conducting highly effective in-prison rehabilitation programs that provide returning citizens with the tools and life skills necessary to create durable change through trauma-informed transformational programs. www.InsightPrisonProject.org.