Mission: Launch Miami hackathon pushes reentry solutions forward

By AI, Created 9:50 AM UTC, May 20, 2026, /AGP/ – Mission: Launch brought its Bank on 100 Million Hackathon to Miami on April 22–23, drawing law enforcement, employers, students and justice-impacted leaders to build practical reentry solutions. The event added sheriffs to the network for the first time and paired design sprints with a free expungement and record-sealing clinic aimed at improving access to jobs and stability.

Why it matters: - Florida has more than 427,000 open jobs, while about 25,000 people return home from state prisons each year. - Research cited at the event shows employment within the first year of release can cut recidivism from as high as 70% to between 3% and 8%. - The event focused on record-clearing, workforce readiness and early reentry support because those steps can affect housing, education and job access.

What happened: - Mission: Launch held the Bank on 100 Million Miami Hackathon on April 22–23 at St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami Gardens. - The convening brought together advocates, employers, sheriffs, technologists, students, community organizations and justice-impacted individuals. - The Miami event marked the first formal inclusion of sheriffs in Mission: Launch’s decade-long Bank on 100 Million series. - The program also included an on-site expungement and record-sealing clinic with free legal assistance. - The clinic supported people seeking record relief as part of their path toward stability.

The details: - Teresa Hodge, founder and CEO of Mission: Launch, said the event showed what is possible when reentry work moves past silos. - Hodge said sheriffs sat alongside justice-impacted leaders and college students helped surface conversations that have not yet started on many campuses. - Hodge said teams left with concrete commitments and solutions to carry forward. - Participants included Sheriff Garry McFadden of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina; Sheriff James Quattrone of Chautauqua County, New York; and Claire McNally of the National Sheriffs’ Association’s IGNITE initiative. - Reentry and workforce leaders included Saad Soliman of TimeDone, Ken Oliver of JUMP and Jynai McDonald of Urban Impact Initiative Massachusetts. - Policy, legal and technology voices included Jane Oates of WorkingNation, parole attorney Terry Peden, employers, technologists and community organizations. - Community participants included Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Suave Gonzalez, justice-impacted leaders, Florida Atlantic University students, St. Thomas University School of Law students, families and other community members. - Sheriffs McFadden and Quattrone, along with McNally, highlighted county efforts to embed education and workforce readiness earlier in incarceration. - Examples included in-facility job fairs, community college partnerships, training tied to local workforce needs and pre-release graduation ceremonies. - Participants also joined design sprints focused on reentry advocacy and technology-enabled upskilling.

Between the lines: - The hackathon paired legal relief with workforce strategy, signaling that reentry support is being treated as a systems problem rather than a single-service issue. - Bringing sheriffs into the convening for the first time suggests growing recognition that corrections leaders can shape outcomes before release, not just after. - The mix of law enforcement, employers, students and people with lived experience points to a broader coalition model that could help translate ideas into pilots. - Saad Soliman of TimeDone said more than 27% of formerly incarcerated people are unemployed, a rate he compared to the peak unemployment rate during the Great Depression. - Soliman said TimeDone is partnering with Mission: Launch and leaders across the justice ecosystem to connect returning citizens to meaningful work.

What’s next: - Mission: Launch and its partners will keep developing the strongest concepts through the Bank on 100 Million network. - Future programming and pilot opportunities are expected to move forward through 2027. - TimeDone will continue working with Mission: Launch on efforts tied to legislative change and economic stability for people with old convictions.

The bottom line: - The Miami hackathon turned reentry into an action agenda, with record-clearing, employer engagement and law enforcement buy-in all pushed into the same room.