Chris Riback: Darrius. Thanks so much for joining us in the studio. It’s great to see you.

Darrius Knight: Thank you for having me. It’s great to see you, too.

Chris Riback: What year are you in school and what are your interests?

Darrius Knight: I’m in the 11th grade right now and my interests are in law.

Chris Riback: Law.

Darrius Knight: Law and government. Yes, sir.

Chris Riback: Law and government. What do you want to change with the law? What impact do you want to make in government?

Darrius Knight: I definitely say one thing I want to change is our nation’s criminal justice system. I see quite a few flaws with it, especially when you look at our prison system. Our prison system, it’s not the best in the world and it doesn’t do what I believe it needs to be doing.

Chris Riback: We’re at a conference that is focused on education in part. Do you see the ways in which education, youth education connects with some of the questions that you raise around our criminal justice system?

Darrius Knight: Absolutely.

Chris Riback: What do you see?

Darrius Knight: We often ask ourselves, how can we as youth, prepare ourselves for the future, prepare ourselves and also prepare our current leaders for the issues that we will have to face in the future. That, in my opinion, is an issue that we will have to face in the future, our prison system. Taking on how we will deal with issues in the future, that is something that will greatly give.

Chris Riback: You serve on a few different councils and groups. You’re pretty involved in a lot of different stuff, aren’t you?

Darrius Knight: Yes, sir.

Chris Riback: In these councils and groups, there are adults that you work with.

Darrius Knight: There are.

Chris Riback: What do they not know? What do they not know about what the youth of America is thinking and doing?

Darrius Knight: I would say they don’t really understand exactly what our goal is. They struggle to see exactly what we’re trying to lay the foundation as, as to what they want the foundation to be. It’s completely different and I think they don’t see that, and that’s where issues come into play. When youth want to do one thing, the adults want to do one thing and it’s lack of communication.

Chris Riback: How do you close that gap? How do you communicate or try to communicate in a way to bring, I first want to start with the adults? I’m going to ask you about your peers, about other kids as well, but first, how do you communicate to bring adults along to your vision?

Darrius Knight: Often it’s usually through just strong wording, just emphasizing exactly what it is that we want. I’ll talk to my peers, because I am the leader on my youth council, so I gather that information, take it to the adults, say this is what we want. This is what they want. How can we bring that in between to what you want, we want? Make it merge.

Chris Riback: What about those peers? The other kids, the other youths who are on the council, how do you communicate with them? How do you get ideas coordinated so that you can bring them forward?

Darrius Knight: I act a very certain way when I’m very lively and trying to get things done, but when I’m serious, they get that. They understand, okay, this is the time he wants to actually get down on to get the business. Again, strong wording. I emphasize my voice a lot.

Chris Riback: Good for you. In reading about you, learning about you, I came across that you also are very passionate about the COVID 19 vaccine and the importance of bringing along the black community, the African American community…

Darrius Knight: Yes, sir.

Chris Riback:  …to understanding. What motivated you on that and what are you trying to do to help people understand what you want them to understand?

Darrius Knight: I would definitely say my motivation is just hearing at school, how people are saying, “I’m not getting the vaccine because of this. I’m not getting the vaccine because of that.”

Chris Riback: Kids or adults?

Darrius Knight: Kids, and some adults as well, but mostly my peers are saying they’re not getting the vaccine and I wanted to understand why they weren’t getting the vaccine, so that’s what I did. I got the information as to why they weren’t getting the vaccine, had a conversation with other youth, along with NLC’s CEO, Clarence Anthony, as to how to break these stigmas and what is the truth?

Chris Riback: Yes. You had a conversation, a video conversation with the CEO of NLC, didn’t you?

Darrius Knight: Yes, sir.

Chris Riback: Yes, on the topic. Darrius, what’s next for you?

Darrius Knight: What is next for me? That is still uncertain right now.

Chris Riback: I don’t mean today or tomorrow. We can go out a few years.

Darrius Knight: I do see myself in the future becoming a defense attorney. That is the short term goal. My long term goal is, shooting for the stars, is to end up as a United States Supreme Court Justice.

Chris Riback: That would be outstanding. You’re sitting not too far from there right now.

Darrius Knight: Yes.

Chris Riback: Maybe we go walk over there afterwards. Let them know that you’ll be coming in…

Darrius Knight: Yes, sir.

Chris Riback: ...30 years.

Darrius Knight: Yes, that would probably be nice.

Chris Riback: Okay. We’ll let them know. I think you’ll get there.

Darrius Knight: Yes, sir. I hope so.

Chris Riback: I look forward to it. Darrius, thank you. Thank you for sharing your story and for coming to the studio to visit us.

Darrius Knight: Yes, sir.

“There is no internet in prison,” says Marcus Bullock, founder of Flikshop. “No texting or Facebook. These postcards are their lifeline, their reminder that the outside world is waiting.”

“Being an entrepreneur is part of my DNA,” Bullock says. He recalls selling Blow Pops, Now and Laters and Nerds as a child in the D.C. area, and how it felt to break sales records he set for himself. He recognized then that his customers—his classmates—would pay more on the school bus than out on the street when they had access to other sources. This lesson in supply and demand has always stayed with him.

When Bullock went to federal prison at age fifteen, he discovered another example of spiking demand. While the young men incarcerated with him were starved for contact with the outside world, the 4:00 p.m. mail call always brought him letters from his mother. “Every envelope stuffed with photographs,” he recalls, “would fuel hours of conversation in the dayroom. Guys who never knew my family became engrossed in every detail of my home life.”

This connection sustained Bullock and propelled him toward a career and life goals when he was released eight years later, first as owner of a house painting business that employed returning citizens, and now as CEO of what has become known as the Instagram of Incarceration.

On the Flikshop app, relatives—or even strangers who want to connect with someone behind bars—can upload a photo and a note that gets converted into a print postcard and sent via the United States Postal Service. how Flikshop’s business model “empowers the offender.” To date, more than 500,000 Flikshop messages have gone to more than 80,000 incarcerated people.

Connected by our mutual friend, the artist and poet Halim Flowers, Bullock and I met (just before the COVID pandemic hit with its full force) in Washington D.C’s Halcyon Incubator, where he and Flikshop’s COO Camille Clark are currently fellows, developing growth strategies with the help of leading entrepreneurs.

“This is a game-changing platform,” says Halcyon’s Mike Malloy. “I’m grateful for Flikshop giving me the ability to send love, pictures and messages of holiday cheer to one of my former colleagues in a California correctional facility.”

Malloy, an entrepreneur himself who previously ran Waveborn Sunglasses, adds, “Marcus and Camille are two sensationally smart, hard-working and driven entrepreneurs. Their collaborative personalities, coachable spirits and eagerness to grow and scale Flikshop makes them a dynamic duo who continue to attract customers, advisors and investors to support Flikshop’s long-term vision.”

Bullock plans to branch out into nursing homes and other settings beset by social isolation. In the seven years since setting up the app, he’s launched two spinoff operations: Flikshop Angels and the , which helps inmates to envision and build startups of their own.

In all of his ventures, Bullock promotes three rules that he says apply to virtually any important goal.

1. Stay connected to friends and family
2. Have mentors who show what can be done
3. Be surrounded by people to push you to be great

“Of course,” he adds, “You have to be willing to work hard, too.”

The evidence bears out Bullock’s recollection that his mother’s letters galvanized his post-release success. has found “remarkably consistent association… between family contact during incarceration and lower recidivism rates.” That is, people who stay in touch with their families during their sentences are less likely to resume criminal behavior when they get out and less likely to go back to prison. “It can be something as simple as a picture of your puppy,” Bullock says. “If the person in prison sees your puppy, he’s going to want to meet him when she’s a full-grown dog.”

President George W. Bush highlighted the recidivism problem in his : “This year,” he said, “Some 600,000 inmates will be released from prison back into society. We know from long experience that if they can’t find work, or a home, or help, they are much more likely to commit more crimes and return to prison…. America is the land of the second chance, and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life.” Today, with the number of returning citizens up to 650,000 a year, the challenge remains daunting, with approximately two-thirds rearrested within three years of release.

, Bullock points out, is women. And he doesn’t believe it’s crass or exploitive to regard this statistic as a business opportunity. Women are going to want to see pictures of their loved ones—nearly two-thirds of the women in prison are mothers of young children. While nothing can make up for the loss of in-person contact, a picture and a few words can sustain and even deepen a relationship. Bullock recalls his mother’s correspondence as being more personal and open-hearted than she had ever been before.

Asked what he brings to the prison reform movement, Bullock says, “I understand what corporations need to be responsible and to succeed.” As an entrepreneur and devout capitalist, he believes that businesses are more likely than nonprofits to achieve the necessary scale and lasting change. While he appreciates grassroots advocacy (and notes that the ACLU uses Flikshop to contact clients eligible for defense services), he says, “Putting data and analytics in the hands of companies is more likely to change the justice system than what they’re doing.”

Bullock identifies “access to capital” as Flikshop’s number one challenge right now. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, investors were hesitant to get behind an enterprise geared at this market. They say, ‘I don’t want to be the first’,” he says. “Our job is to de-risk the venture and to point out the industries already benefiting from serving the prison population.”

While and, more egregiously, , can justly be accused of profiting on the backs of prisoners, Bullock points to the $1 billion commissary business and other enterprises that do better when their customers are happy and satisfied.

In his TED Talk and other appearances, Bullock never fails to credit the woman who sent him letters every day for the final six of the eight years he spent in prison: his mom, Sylvia Bullock—who now works for him as Flikshop’s head of partnerships.