SPIN: Mindset to Success

Bridging the Opportunity Gap

SPIN: Mindset to Success

SPIN helps incarcerated men grow as leaders, healers, and mentors—starting with mindset.

South Dakota, USA

USA

Nonprofit

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The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate globally—5% of the world’s population but nearly 20% of its incarcerated people. In South Dakota, Native Americans make up nearly 30% of the prison population, though they represent less than 9% of the state. Each year, over 400 individuals return home from the state penitentiary, many without access to leadership development, mindset coaching, or culturally grounded support. Thousands more are released from jails and transitional facilities across the state. Nationally, two out of three formerly incarcerated individuals are rearrested within three years. In South Dakota, one in three will return to prison—evidence of a system that punishes but fails to prepare people for life after incarceration. Despite this, the state proposed an $825 million prison expansion, prioritizing more beds over real transformation. Our solution—SPIN: Mindset to Success—was co-created with justice-impacted individuals inside prison walls. It offers culturally responsive, tech-enabled leadership development and healing support, scalable from prisons to communities. By investing in people rather than prisons, we aim to reduce recidivism, restore dignity, and create a replicable model of transformation in South Dakota—and beyond.

SPIN: Mindset to Success is a leadership and educational archive created by incarcerated men and accessed through the iPads already used in South Dakota prisons. Instead of just offering entertainment, we’re filling those tablets with content that helps people grow—things like mindset coaching, life and trade skills, cultural teachings, and messages from tribal elders and community leaders. We work directly with an inside team—men serving time and wanting to create change from within. They help design and record the lessons, and we support them through mentorship and partnerships with educators on the outside. Everything is built to meet people where they are, whether they’re getting ready to reenter society or serving a life sentence and looking to be a leader and mentor inside. With the state debating on where to build a new prison, we believe now is the time to shift how we think about what happens inside those walls. SPIN isn’t just content—it’s a mindset shift. And it’s a model we can use to grow beyond South Dakota, using tools that already exist in most facilities. It’s simple, scalable, and built by the people it’s meant to serve.

SPIN: Mindset to Success is built by and for incarcerated men—starting inside the South Dakota State Penitentiary. A big focus of ours is supporting Native men, who are massively overrepresented in our prison system. They make up nearly 30% of the population behind bars here, despite being less than 9% of the state. SPIN gives people access to real tools—things that actually help. Mindset work, cultural teachings from elders, job and trade skills, life skills, and content that helps folks reconnect with who they are and where they come from. A lot of our guys are doing time with no access to programs that reflect their culture or help them grow. That’s where SPIN steps in. We also intentionally include those serving life sentences—people often left out of everything. Many want to be mentors and leaders, and SPIN gives them that opportunity. This work doesn’t just impact the men inside—it touches their families, their communities, and even prison staff. When people have a healthier mindset and stronger identity, it creates a safer, more grounded environment for everyone. And as we grow, we see SPIN as a model that could work in facilities far beyond South Dakota.