Bitcoin Helps Prisoners Survive

It is the mission of the non-profit organization known as Project Give Back To Community, which operates in the Commonwealth of Virginia, to assist incarcerated individuals and former felons in feeling less alienated from the areas in which they live after their release from prison. As the project manager, Baa’ith is in charge of the day-to-day operations that contribute to the actualization of those projects. These include activities such as the scheduling of meetings and the facilitation of group sessions.

Next, they are looking for ways to increase the number of educational activities that are offered within the facilities themselves. Nevertheless, this method is cumbersome and time-consuming to complete.

Baa’ith is of the opinion that teaching convicted inmates about bitcoin, an asset that already has some reputational issues, is essential to resolving the nation’s unsustainable incarceration problem. Despite the fact that it is difficult to convince prison operators to allow civilians inside to teach convicted inmates about bitcoin, Baa’ith is of this opinion.

Despite the fact that each year hundreds of thousands of people in the United States are released from jail, the re-arrest rate for freed inmates is above fifty percent. When it comes to the issue of recidivism, it is quite clear that there are structural problems at play. To give just one illustration, although more than 37 percent of those who are incarcerated have been diagnosed with mental illness, very few of them actually receive any kind of therapy or services related to mental health while they are there.

The topic of prisoners’ rights is not an obscure one. It is estimated that more than two million people in the United States are affected by the issue. Human Rights Watch and other organizations share the view that the manner in which many of these inmates are being held constitutes a deeply troubling humanitarian catastrophe. Because of this, Bitcoin educator Justin Rhedrick, who is also the author of the book “From Bars to Bitcoin,” is currently having conversations with a variety of local Department of Corrections institutions to find out what can be done to assist alleviate the effects of this humanitarian issue.

“My ultimate goal is to open a lid for people, so they can see there is hope for them when they come home from prison,” Rhedrick said. “I want to teach them about what money is and about bitcoin and create ways for them to be trained when they come out [in] skills related to bitcoin.”

Rhedrick is one of the thousands of returning citizens in the United States who have embraced cryptocurrencies to further social justice concerns. Rhedrick came to the conclusion that he needed to make significant changes in his life after being convicted of armed robbery. Rhedrick had already witnessed the murder of a friend and lived through the trauma of being homeless alongside his mother before he was sent to prison. The devils of violence and economic destitution were familiar to him all too well.

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Rhedrick had a hard time finding work that compensated him adequately after he was released from prison in 2014. He pieced together several manual labor jobs, but he was still just just able to pay the rent.

“I did a lot of reading and studying in prison. The only way to go up is to go through it,” Rhedrick said. “When I first got out I was living from month to month, so I couldn’t afford a full bitcoin. But I knew getting bitcoin knowledge was going to be valuable.”

Thankfully, he was able to launch a teaching and consulting business, and eventually, he authored and published his own autobiography. Bitcoin gave him the freedom to act as his own bank throughout this time.

“My main income today is my business, selling my courses and my book,” Rhedrick said, adding that he’s sold hundreds of books since he published the memoir in 2021. “If you have 600,000 people coming out of prison every year, they need to get employed or start their own businesses. If the world isn’t going to hire you, bitcoin offers opportunities for you to work.”

All of these personal accounts from returning citizens in states ranging from California to Texas, Florida, and Virginia demonstrate how bitcoin has evolved into a viable instrument for easing a human rights crisis that affects the entire country.

Rhedrick stated, “I know a lot of people who have come home from prison who found bitcoin. I think the possibilities are endless.”

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