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In this episode of the Short Fuse podcast, Elizabeth Howard is in conversation with Mark Goldsmith, who spent 15 years as a volunteer on Rikers Island, after a 35-year career in the cosmetics industry, and John Gonzalez, who was an inmate when he met Mark and is now a successful businessman. John talks about what it was like on the inside and the threat of being sent “up top.” Mark talks about working with the men to leverage their skills when they were released, which led to the creation of a not-for-profit organization, Getting Out and Staying Out (GOSO). GOSO has helped thousands of young men pursue their goals for education, employment, and emotional well-being to create a new life for themselves beyond the criminal justice system.

Mark Goldsmith Of Getting Out and Staying Out: Second Chapters; How I Reinvented Myself In The Second Chapter Of My Life

Mark Goldsmith runs the Getting Out and Staying Out program, which prepares Rikers Island inmates to find and keep work after they are released.