Reentry is where we stop being the subjects of the system and become its architects.
No one knows what carceral systems need like the people who have lived them. Bad Boy AI exists to professionalize that expertise. We equip incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people with contemporary technical skills, the credibility that opens professional doors, and career pathways that turn learning into earning. Then we put them in position to do what no outsider can: redesign these systems from the inside out and build what comes next.
Our visionPartner with us
Vision
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people come home from incarceration into a world that has moved on without them. The job market they're re-entering runs on cloud platforms, AI tools, and digital literacy that didn't exist, or wasn't accessible to them, while they were inside. This is a structural barrier baked into reentry itself.
Bad Boy exists to close that gap. Not by handing people a certificate and a job posting, but by equipping them to walk into today's job market as competitive candidates, not catch-up cases.
We turn today's participants into tomorrow's instructors, mentors, and founders.
No one knows what carceral systems need like the people who have lived them. Bad Boy AI exists to professionalize that expertise. We equip incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people with contemporary technical skills, the credibility that opens professional doors, and career pathways that turn learning into earning. Then we put them in position to do what no outsider can: redesign these systems from the inside out and build what comes next.
Closing the Carceral Digital Divide Through Participatory AI
Time doesn’t stop when you go inside, and neither does technology. Behind the walls, learning often happens on locked-down tablets and outdated computers, with no browser, no current software, and nothing you’d touch on a real job. In-person lessons are decades-old recycled curricula, often taught by facilitators who haven’t lived this experience or mastered the material. Too many programs inside fall short of improving public safety or preparing anyone for reentry.
Meanwhile, work, housing, school, and benefits have moved onto apps and platforms. You come home facing a record and a gap in the tools everyone else treats as basic. The question isn’t only “will anyone hire me?” It’s “will I know how the tools of this job work?” We call this the carceral divide. But the people who know this material and this system firsthand are also the opportunity. Bringing us into the workforce of newly optimized carceral and reentry systems is how equity gets built today, not someday.
We close it with the people who live it. At Bad Boy AI, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people co-design our curriculum and the AI tools behind it, from mentorship to support to tracking. Every cohort shapes the next, so the work stays current, honest, and ours.
Learn it.
Taught by people who know the gap.
Own it.
Your literacy, your workplace confidence, and a portfolio that opens doors.
Stay in it.
A supportive network in place to maintain productivity.
Lead it.
Grow from student to a mentor, and then to a Legacy.
Shape it.
Your voice and perspective embedded into the systems determines what and how we build tools for the future of ours.
What we develop and provide
Technical training and modernization
Industry-aligned computer science training built to close the time gap created by incarceration: modern development environments, cloud infrastructure, AI-assisted tooling, and current hiring practices in tech.
Professionalization
Workshops, mock interviews, and mentorship from formerly incarcerated professionals who have already closed this exact gap and model what it looks like to walk into the room and belong there.
Leadership and professional branding
Every participant leaves with a professional personal brand, a portfolio with real technical credibility, and the fundamentals to build a business. Some become engineers. Others become mentors, organizers, or founders.
Reentry-specific wraparound support
Housing instability, transportation gaps, documentation issues, parole and probation scheduling, and unmet mental health needs are what derail participants, not aptitude. We build support around them.
Employer and industry partnerships
Relationships with companies that will actually hire, including fair-chance hiring education for employer partners, not just placement for participants.
Research and evaluation
Rigorous tracking of job placement, wage growth, retention, and downstream impact on recidivism, turning a strong local program into a replicable national model.
Partner with us
Employers, funders, mentors, and community partners: help us give people coming home a meaningful second chance, not a symbolic one.
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