Breaking the Cycle: How Jobe MacShane is Creating Pathways from Prison to Employment
Jobe MacShane, his father Anthony, and the team at Reboot Australia are proving that the cycle of incarceration can be broken when people are given genuine opportunities.
By combining clinical support with industry pathways, they are redefining what it means to reintegrate into society and transforming the Australian workforce in the process.
Discover how Jobe MacShane is tackling a 42 percent national recidivism rate by bridging the gap between justice-affected individuals and industry, proving that employment paired with human-centred support can profoundly disrupt the cycle of incarceration.
From personal struggles to systemic change
Anthony MacShane's life experience, struggling with addiction, bankruptcy, and near incarceration, provided the spark.
In 2017, he visited a prison camp in Pinjarra, witnessing a motivated cohort disconnected from employment. The realisation that he could easily have been in their position sparked a desire to close the gap between incarceration and industry. His son, Jobe MacShane, driven by a passion for social impact and business strategy, saw an opportunity to scale this impact.
The national recidivism rate stands at a staggering 42 percent, meaning four out of ten people leaving prison return within two years.
This statistic became their catalyst for action. Jobe and Anthony decided that if nobody else was going to address the massive stigma and lack of support, they would do it themselves. By 2022, they officially launched Reboot Australia. Their mission became clear: disrupt the cycle of incarceration through meaningful employment pathways and genuine support.
The transformative model of employment and support
Reboot Australia operates on the core belief that employment changes lives, but sustainable desistance from offending requires more than just a job.
The organisation has developed a holistic throughcare model that walks alongside participants from the moment they decide to make a change, ensuring they are not left to navigate the complexities of reintegration alone. One of their innovative solutions is the Reboot Academy, a one-on-one telehealth service where every session is co-delivered by a qualified Allied Health Practitioner and a Lived Experience Mentor.
This dual approach ensures that the support provided is both clinically sound and genuinely human, offering a safe space to build confidence. Furthermore, their comprehensive model includes prison and community programs that seamlessly combine narrative ownership training, challenge mitigation, and industry-recognised accredited qualifications.
Jobe explains, "Our model is leveraging employment, so we're working directly with prisons across Australia, particularly in WA and Victoria".
To make hiring easier for companies, they also offer direct recruitment and labour hire, acting as an employer of record to provide a lower-risk entry point for host businesses wanting to engage with their candidates.
Breaking down stigmas and navigating barriers
Building a social enterprise in the justice space involves navigating profound societal and psychological barriers. Jobe identified two primary forms of stigma that they must dismantle daily to ensure their participants succeed.
First, there is the intense internal stigma within the incarcerated individuals themselves regarding what they can actually achieve post-release with a criminal record hanging over them.
Reboot Australia actively helps these individuals mitigate those self-limiting beliefs and challenges before they re-enter the workforce.
"The other stigma is in society, and we are barking at industries about the positive outcomes we've had from supporting someone who is reintegrating," Jobe notes passionately.
Educating employers about what a National Police Check truly means in a practical context is a constant, uphill battle.
However, Jobe and Anthony tackled these bureaucratic and social challenges by simply getting out and doing the hard work on the ground.
They ran over a hundred information sessions inside prisons, listening directly to those who wanted to change.
Their immense persistence paid off, ultimately earning Reboot Australia the prestigious title of social enterprise of the year at the WA Social Enterprise Awards in 2025.
Creating ripples of change across communities
The impact of Reboot Australia extends far beyond the individual, creating positive, long-lasting ripples throughout the broader community and the Australian economy.
By providing meaningful employment and dedicated support, they are directly tackling the 42 percent recidivism rate, which in turn builds significantly safer and more resilient communities nationwide.
Their essential work also addresses a critical need in booming industries like mining, construction, and resources, providing a vital pool of highly motivated and pre-screened candidates eager to build a proper career.
This creates a powerful win-win scenario where businesses access alternative, loyal talent sources while simultaneously meeting their important social procurement targets.
Jobe highlights the sheer importance of this ongoing support system: "A lot of individuals don't have that support network or good role models, so ultimately, we're someone in their corner for when times get tough on their journey".
Furthermore, their recent collaboration with organisations like Djurwa to specifically support Indigenous ex-offenders beautifully demonstrates their ongoing commitment to rejuvenating lives and actively empowering some of the most vulnerable members of society.
A vision for systemic disruption and future growth
As a forward-thinking leader, Jobe MacShane exemplifies the pragmatic, action-oriented approach that is absolutely necessary for driving true social entrepreneurship in challenging sectors.
His core advice for aspiring changemakers perfectly reflects this no-nonsense mindset, noting that his father's initial success came from simply having an idea and relentlessly executing it on the ground: "He wanted to just provide information and close the gap between incarceration and industry, so he just went out and did it"
Looking forward into the future, Jobe is deeply driven to build a sustainable business that will create systemic impact for decades to come, continually expanding their operational footprint nationally. Their innovative and vital work has been recognised widely, and their participation as AMP Foundation Tomorrow Makers further solidifies their crucial role in shaping a brighter, more equitable future.
The Tomorrow Makers program provides essential financial support and high-level capacity development for social entrepreneurs, ensuring dedicated leaders like Jobe have the robust resources needed to scale their systemic solutions.
"We're driven to create pathways for people who might not know they have them," says Jobe, waking up every single day with a smile on his face, entirely ready to disrupt the cycle of incarceration.
To learn more about Reboot Australia and their work, visit rebootaustralia.com or connect with Jobe on LinkedIn.
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