This is the first Goodwill store to operate inside a prison

In a correctional facility just outside of Silicon Valley, a Goodwill store operates inside the prison walls. And the women who are incarcerated there are both the employees and the customers.

This Goodwill store, which opened in October 2024, is the first of its kind, and the team behind it hopes that the program will help incarcerated women get back on their feet—whether it’s with a new job or new clothes—as quickly and easily as possible. 

[Photo: Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department]

The shoppers are women who are about to get released; typically about three people come in each day. Traditionally, when a woman is released from Elmwood Facility, she is given only the clothes she was arrested in. 

“We’re really here to try and help people get back into the community,” says Chris Baker, CEO of Goodwill of Silicon Valley. 

Nearly 75% of formerly incarcerated people remain unemployed a year after release despite looking for work, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. A new California law passed last year allows formerly incarcerated people to ask for their records to be cleared after completing a sentence.

There are over 600 incarcerated women at Elmwood Facility, and eight operate the store at one time. The store is open three days a week for a few hours each day. Some participants had never had a job before, some had jobs that weren’t in the retail industry, and some had previously worked at Goodwill in e-commerce roles. 

Each woman works in the store for 60 hours total before completing the program with Goodwill. At the store, they take turns working behind the register and performing other tasks, like running inventory or logistics. This can be valuable career training for incarcerated women, who may face significant barriers to employment after leaving prison, according to Steve Preston, the CEO of Goodwill Industries International. 

“It builds skills, it builds competence, it builds dignity, it prepares people, and it gives them a smoother path when they leave,” says Preston.

He says many business leaders and HR professionals across the country are unwilling to hire formerly incarcerated individuals and don’t recognize their potential. 

[Photo: Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department]

Prison employment

The women who work in the Elmwood Facility Goodwill aren’t paid for their labor (most prison jobs in California pay only pennies per hour). Many prison rights activists have criticized prison work at large as exploitative, but the Goodwill program is entirely optional and the team behind it believes it prepares the participants for success outside prison. 

“[Goodwill] doesn’t get anything monetarily out of it. What we get is knowing that we are providing training to individuals so that they can enter our community and better our community as a whole,” says Castello.

She adds that if the women want to work at a Goodwill after release, they would already be mostly trained, which results in less training responsibilities for a store manager. 

Working at the Elmwood Facility Goodwill doesn’t automatically guarantee employment after release, but participants can find employment through a separate Silicon Valley Goodwill reentry program called “NOW,” which has been operating for 12 years. Participants in the NOW Program work at a Goodwill retail shop for 90 days and have access to job readiness workshops.

Goodwill declined to make any participants available to Fast Company, citing privacy concerns, but it shared one emailed comment from a woman who had both worked and shopped at the Elmwood Goodwill, who said: “This program was designed to serve someone like me.”

Released with no clothes

The Elmwood Goodwill operates similarly to Goodwill’s retail stores across the country, but swaps out cash and credit for pre-loaded gift cards, which Goodwill provides. The shoppers use gift cards to buy themselves two complete new outfits and a backpack for their release. Everything in the store is priced the same and comes in via regular donations to Goodwill dropoff facilities. 

Providing incarcerated women with new clothes can be just as powerful as providing them with jobs, says Trish Dorsey, VP of mission services at Goodwill of Silicon Valley. She told Fast Company how she’s seen the impact firsthand.

In one instance, a woman was arrested inside a hospital, and so she was checked into prison with only a hospital gown, according to Dorsey. The only options she had for release were wearing that same hospital gown or exiting prison in a paper jumpsuit.

But after visiting the Elmwood Goodwill, she was able to leave with two complete outfits—as well as shoes, socks, and a backpack, says Dorsey.

“The training part is really impactful because it gets [the women] ready to work,” says Dorsey. “But I think just as impactful, if not more so, is the way they now are able to leave the county jail system with dignity.”

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