An Entrepreneur's Vision Of How To Break The Cycle Of Prison: TextBehind

According to estimates, 1 out of 28 children in the United States has a mother, father, or both, incarcerated in prison.  An article in Mother Jones last year presented the harsh facts of the price we all pay as a result:

• Children with incarcerated parents are 3X more likely to suffer from depression or behavioral problems
• Children with incarcerated parents suffer higher rates of asthma, obesity and other physical conditions

Sadly, another statistic is that 70% of the children of inmates will follow in their parent's footsteps and will be incarcerated at some point in their life.  Issues like these are expensive to address and government programs are often ineffective.  So while lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats, are only beginning their debate on prison reform, one entrepreneur is doing something now to help break the chain of social woes caused by incarceration.  He calls it TextBehind.

Zia Rana, born in Pakistan and built his career as a businessman in many countries across Middle East, Asia and Europe, came to the United States in 2007 and in 2013 launched TextBehind.com, a communication platform centered around the millions of people incarcerated in the United States. "My expertise is in Industrial Solutions Design," Rana said in an interview, "so the challenge was to find an affordable way to connect families, friends and especially children of those incarcerated with their loved ones / parents and also meet the security requirements of the prisons." TextBehind.com enables its customers to text ...