Hiring the Men Nobody Else Would

Why do you hire people with criminal records?

"Because somebody hired me."

Curtis Bell was released from a state correctional facility in Ohio in 2004. He had learned to weld inside. Out of prison, he filled out forty-one applications before a shop owner named Frank Delaney gave him a trial week.

"Frank told me, 'I don't care where you've been. I care if the weld holds.'"

How did Ironside start?

Curtis worked for Frank for nine years and became his shop foreman. When Frank retired in 2013, Curtis bought some of his equipment on a payment plan and opened Ironside Fabrication in a rented building near Dayton. He had two employees: himself and a young man he had met through a prison ministry at his church.

Today, Ironside has 31 employees and makes structural brackets, custom railings and replacement parts for regional manufacturers. Roughly half of the team has a criminal record.

Is it charity?

Curtis bristles a little at that word. "This is not a charity. We have customers who need parts on time and in spec. If you can't meet the standard, you can't stay."

New hires get a mentor, a clear 90-day plan and help with practical obstacles such as transportation and getting a driver's license back. They also get fired if they don't show up. Curtis has let go of people he cared about, and he says those are the hardest days of the job.

Where does faith come in?

"I'm a man who was forgiven," he said. "I can't take that and then hold everybody else's worst day against them forever."

He prays with employees who ask him to, never with those who don't. Every Friday he buys lunch for the whole shop and talks about the week's numbers, good or bad.

What's still hard?

Insurance, mostly. Some customers have quietly stopped ordering after learning about his hiring practices. Curtis estimates it has cost him two significant accounts.

"That's fine," he said. "I'd rather lose a customer than lose a man."