Abstract

Every year, thousands of men and women who are released from prison re-enter society. These individuals need to be integrated into society and one way to do that is through employment. The stigma of having a criminal background makes it difficult for many of them to find and keep a job. This case is about how, Dave’s Killer Bread (DKB), a family bakery business in the US which made organic bread, hired people with a criminal background. The former owner of DKB, Dave Dahl, had himself been in prison a few times before he got his ‘Second Chance’ in life. To the company, second chance employment was a commitment to hiring prisoners and treating them equally so that they would be able to reintegrate into society and break the vicious circle of crime and poverty. The case describes how DKB’s employees felt valued and privileged to come to work.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand the reasons why Dave’s Killer Bread attempted to integrate individuals with a criminal background into everyday work.
• Understand the difficulties in transforming such a new concept into a traditional recruitment channel.
• Analyze the future prospects of Dave’s Killer Bread.

Keywords

Dave Killer Bread; Second Chance Employment; Engaging ex-Convicts; Employee Diversity; Re-Engage in Employment; Founder Inspired Culture; Owner’s Mindset; Frontline Obsession; Insurgency; Second Chance Project