HATTIE: Here is Donna's packaging operation in the Boulder County Jail.
DONNA: I didn't want to build a whole team of employees to do that. And secondly, I didn't know, if I keep doing it this mish-mash way, how would I ever get over the hump of doing more in enough volume? Two of our most important things are keeping it really neat, neat, neat and clean. Why are you a volunteer? Why do you do this?
Unidentified Man #1: It's better than being in other places in jail.
HATTIE: Would you rather work than not work?
Man #1: I'd rather do this than be locked in my cell.
HATTIE: Chuck Pringle is the captain of the Boulder County Sheriff Jail Division.
CHUCK PRINGLE: We do an assessment of every inmate once he or she is brought to the jail. And that assessment includes asking two questions. One question is, `Would you like to go to school?' And another question is, `Would you like to work?' What we found in this facility is that 80 percent of the inmates answer they would like to work and 20 percent answer that they would like to go to school.
Twenty-five percent of the money that we earn goes to restitution. Twenty-five percent of the money goes to child welfare payments. Another 25 percent goes to cost of care. And the last 25 percent each inmate can stipulate a family member or dependent.
HATTIE: So someone watching this program who wants to find a productive day program or an industrial program...
CHUCK: They can call their local jail administrator and ask them if they have a program like this, because we have found, in our experience, that we need resources in the community that we can tap to obtain work.
HATTIE: (The Lighbulb in the Studio) Donna Baase is not interested in running a manufacturing plant. She wants to give her customers unique, botanical-based, skin-care products. So to achieve that goal, Donna is building a virtual corporation. She has just one full-time employee, several part-timers and four business alliances. An outside lab makes the liquid products. Two other companies make the bars and lip balm. And, of course, jail prisoners do packaging.
This is the new way to run a business. You do what you do best, then find others to do the rest. The old way is to hire employees. The new way is to form alliances. This way is efficient and saves you from burdening yourself with infrastructure and overhead. Donna may change her mind as she grows, but for now, she's glad to have teams of people who don't work for her, but with her.