Solve Philly’s recidivism problem at this Reentry Project hackathon

You may think of hackathons as weekend-long pizza binge fests for software engineers. Not this one.

The Reentry Project is the coalition of 15 newsrooms, including Generocity, dedicated to reporting on reentry in Philadelphia. Why reentry? Because one in six Philadelphians has been incarcerated, and two-thirds of them will return to prison. That’s unacceptable.

Next month, that coalition is hosting the first local hackathon focused on reentry. PowerUp Reentry is a “digital solutions day,” which means that people from normally disparate groups — journalists, technologists, formerly incarcerated individuals and people working for reentry-focused nonprofits — will get together to find cross-sector solutions to one of our city’s biggest challenges.

If you’re in any of those groups, we want you there. It’s happening on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 20 and 21. Friday night is the kickoff when teams are formed and initial ideas discussed, and Saturday is when the work happens.

Even if you can’t attend, share your ideas for the hackathon here.

This event is co-presented by the Philadelphia Reentry Coalition, the Mayor’s Office of Reintegration Services and the Office of Open Data and Digital Transformation, and produced by Code for Philly.