Second Chance Employer Profile
Awake Window & Door Co.
The mission of Awake Window & Door Co. is to provide second chance employment. But the company goes beyond merely giving jobs to individuals who were formerly incarcerated.
It not only manufactures and markets luxury state-of-the-art windows and doors but educates customers, suppliers and others about the problem of mass incarceration.
“We want to create a community of nonviolent gadflies. Gadflies looking for innovative solutions. And mass incarceration is the issue of our times,” says Joe Mason, a former social worker who now serves as the company’s training and development coordinator.
Located in Gilbert, Ariz., Awake Window & Door was founded in 2020 and began shipping products into the marketplace in early 2022. Its clients are homeowners, architects, builders and dealers who have or work with high-end homes. The company’s primary market is Arizona, California and Texas but it sells products in other parts of the U.S. as well.
Awake Window & Door employs 80 people, who mostly work onsite at the Gilbert warehouse. There are two main departments. Workers in the manufacturing department cut the metal frames and assemble the windows. Those in supply chain receive and organize the materials used in manufacturing and ship out the finished product. A few other employees work remotely in sales and accounting. About forty percent of the workforce has been previously incarcerated.
The company’s website and its catalog highlight the fact that it’s a second chance employer and that mass incarceration is out of control.
Using a very unique approach, Awake educates the public with serial numbers that have significance in terms of incarceration. And it devotes a page for each of the series in its product brochure to tell the story.
For example, 105 Casement & Awning Window series is named for the fact that one out of five people currently incarcerated is in for a nonviolent drug offense. Its 425 Series Window Wall brings attention to the statistic that the U.S. has 25 per cent of the world’s prison population but only 4 per cent of its total population. And Awake’s 505 series hinged door lets the public know that 50 percent of the people who leave prison will be reincarcerated within five years.
Even the packaging that the windows come in bears the message “Thanks for helping address issues of mass incarceration.”
The Awake logo incorporates bars under an arrow signifying the fact that individuals should be able to rise up and achieve their full potential.
Second chance hiring practices
A lot of hiring at Awake is done by referrals from current employees.
The hiring process begins with an initial what Mason calls a phone conversation. “There aren’t a whole lot of disqualifiers at that point, except if they can’t make it to Gilbert, which is about a 30-minute drive from Tucson or a two-hour bus ride,” he says.
Once an offer is made, the company does a background check with Chekr. He said that they just want to know their story. “There’s nothing that would disqualify them,” he says. They even hire sex offenders, but at the same time don’t allow anyone under 18 years of age to enter the warehouse.
Although almost any background is OK, they do want to see if potential employees had any discipline problems while in prison. In Arizona all disciplinaries people had in prison can be searched by name on the Arizona Dept. of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry website.
Awake Window & Door really wants to help as many people as they can successfully reenter society. “Where else can someone who is rebuilding their life do so better than in a facility of mostly men. They don’t go into houses. They only work in the warehouse,” Mason says.
Candidates for employment don’t need any qualifications, including a GED. “We’re hiring based on character. Will they be consistent? Will they show up? We’re looking for someone who has a strong work ethic. Are they going to be motivated? How do they collaborate and work with other individuals?” Those are the questions they consider when evaluating a potential employee.
They also ask why they need the job. “If someone who has been out of prison for a while and has a family to support they tend to be more likely to show up,” Mason adds.
Once hired, new employees receive two days of training, and then a coordinator will meet with them every six to 10 weeks to provide feedback on what they’re doing well and where they can improve.
Although Awake doesn’t provide any formal services for its second chance hires, it goes out of its way to help out if any of them are struggling.
“We’re just kind of meeting need where they’re at,” Mason says. “We’ve created a good network of community resources, so if somebody has an issue they can be referred. One guy came up and said his group home closed and he had to sleep in his car. So we had to find him somewhere to live.”
And Mason takes pride in what his company has accomplished. “I’m proud of how we’ve treated everyone with dignity and sometimes treating them better than they treat themselves,” he says.
“It’s very rewarding that as a company we’re addressing the 505 issue. One individual may be at risk for going back to prison because he can’t find a job to support his family. But we can provide that job.”
As far as advice to others who may be thinking of launching second chance hiring, Mason says that, “The number one thing is that the leadership buys in. There is no way this will work if there isn’t support from the owners and leadership.”
“The second thing you have to have is someone for whom this (second chance hiring) is their job. Part of my role is to live and breathe and push the social mission of our company and bring that to the forefront. It’s more of a calling than a job.”