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Saad Soliman (Leading with Conviction™ 2019) writes in Newsweek, “When I walked into prison at 17 years old in 1995, dial-up internet was still new. I didn’t know anyone who had it. So when I walked out in 2010 at age 32, it felt like I had traveled from the Flintstones to the Jetsons. The fourth iPhone was already in people’s pockets. Touchscreens had replaced keyboards. There was nothing analog left. Job applications, government services, healthcare portals and daily communication had all moved online while I was gone.
“Inside prison, I missed that entire digital revolution.
“My first year home, I worked relentlessly. I had two full-time jobs and a part-time one. I worked for a pizza shop, answered phones at a payday loan company and did janitorial work at a local church. I was putting in 100 to 140 hours a week, every single week. I thought I was crushing it.
“Then I went to H&R Block to file my taxes for the first time. I brought my folder in, handed over my W-2s, and watched the man behind the desk add everything up.
I came home without the tools the modern economy runs on. I had motivation. I had grit. … But I did not have digital literacy …
“When he told me my total earnings for the year, I was stunned. I had made $24,600. That was it. For all of it.
“I remember sitting there thinking about what that number actually meant. You can’t support yourself on $24,000 a year. You can’t pay for an apartment, a car, food, clothing and healthcare. Without my family holding me up, I would have been in dire straits.
“And in that moment, I understood exactly why people give up. After a year of doing everything right, the math still didn’t work. That is the moment when people get derailed. When they think, ‘I could make $24,000 in a month doing something else.’ If we force people into that corner, we should not be surprised when they make a different choice.
“But here is the thing I have come to understand about my own story: The problem was not just low wages. It was that I came home without the tools the modern economy runs on. I had motivation. I had grit. I had a willingness to work brutal hours. But I did not have digital literacy, and in 2010, that gap was already costing me. …
“As I built a career in reentry advocacy, I’ve wondered what would have been different if, during those 15 years, I had been able to practice the basic digital skills the outside world now requires. Developing a resume. Applying for a job online. Creating an email address. Taking classes. Staying connected to family.
“Learning how to move through systems that had become routine for everyone else.
“In prison, secure access to digital technology is the difference between a returning citizen who can succeed in the modern economy and someone who sees no choice but to fall back into old habits.”
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