Each week during his graduate study, Josh Arthur met with friends to discuss books and articles about everything from cultural anthropology and economics to race and urbanism. Arthur said it was during those meetings that he and his friends discussed the idea of a business that would hire neighbors who might need a second chance.
In 2002, Arthur started In & Out Cleaning Services to build on these conversations. The full-service operation provides residential and commercial cleaning services, including window washing, pressure washing, wax/floor maintenance, and gutter cleaning. Many of the employees are recovering addicts and people with criminal backgrounds.
Arthur says his business strives to provide “meaningful and rewarding employment” through creating life rhythms with his teammates. In turn, Arthur makes sure to offer his employees a living wage — offering an average of 40 hours of work each week with paid holidays.
“Our cleaning excellence, reliability, and reputation is number one, and number two is employing people,” Arthur says. “We have to do good business so that it does make money, but the goal wasn’t to make money. The goal was to get money in people’s homes.”
When Arthur first moved to Jefferson Street in September 2002, he says it was known to locals as “cocaine alley.” Back then, Arthur says people could easily get pain pills like candy from doctors. As people became more dependent, doctors continued to write prescriptions.
“When you’ve lost everything because of dependency, then you slide,” Arthur says. “No matter what your profession is, no matter how much money you used to make, what school you went to, you slide to our Southside neighborhood.”
Because some In & Out employees are recovering addicts, they are drug tested and no one is allowed to work if they are using.
“That’s a hard line. We don’t mess around because it’s not the best for them,” Arthur says. “If we continued with their employment, we would be buying into this myth that they created where they can be dependent and functional.”
Erica Tackett heard about In & Out Cleaning Services while residing at Urban Light Community Church’s recovery center, The Lighthouse, in 2017. She was glad to hear of this felon-friendly place of employment where recovering addicts found fulfilling work.
“When I first started working, it was just like a community, and I was allowed to be open and honest about who I was,” Erica says. “I was exhausted all the time, but it was fun. I got to be around people who were like me.”
Erica says she felt support from her co-workers when her mom died in 2017. Crew members donated their paid time off to her so she could properly grieve with family and friends.
“That whole time I was off, I got paid, and they showed up for the funeral and just did kind things and were there for me during that process,” Erica says.
Erica started out on night shifts, but after graduating from The Lighthouse recovery program, she transitioned to day shifts. Through training, she discovered her natural leadership qualities.
“I was put in a bunch of situations where I was the person with seniority, and the person who had been here a little bit longer, and it just naturally came to me to help train and to help motivate and to help lead people on job sites,” Erica says, who has since regained custody of her children.
Susan McDowell, a vice provost of research at Ball State, saw an advertisement for In & Out Cleaning Services about five years ago. Susan called the company to wash their home’s windows.
“[With] windows, if you don’t know what you’re doing when you clean them, the windows can look really bad and streaky, and that never happens with In & Out,” Susan says, who uses their service twice a year.
Oftentimes, Susan says the same employees come to their house every year, and they like to get to know them.
“I trust having these individuals in my home, I trust the company,” Susan says. “I really appreciate when there's a company that's focused on enabling individuals to start to participate in our economy and start to earn a good wage and start to be able to build a life.”
Ultimately, Arthur says owning the business has taught him so much about the criminal justice system and how the world sees and treats people who have made mistakes and struggled. The system, he says, is designed so that the poorest people get piled with the most debt, fees, and fines.
“Everything they do is criminalized. Their bodies being in certain places is criminalized, it’s just ridiculous,” he adds.
Thankfully, Arthur says, people who work in Muncie’s justice system know about In & Out Cleaning Services’ business model and know the company’s reputation for empowering employees to improve their lives. Arthur has a great relationship with judges and correction and parole officers. Many current employees advocate for potential hires.
“Sometimes an employee interacts in a courtroom on behalf of someone else, and they will say, ‘Don’t send them to jail. We need them here, they’re valuable,’” Arthur says. “Sometimes they stood before that same judge, themselves, and they get to say: ‘Here’s where I was, and here’s where I am now. I’m asking for that opportunity for this person.’”
To anyone thinking of hiring cleaners from In & Out Cleaning Services, Erica says, “it’s money well spent.” She wants customers to know that the employees are knowledgeable and committed.
“Because of coming from where a lot of us come from, we go that extra mile because we know people have that outlook and that thought process,” Erica says. “People in recovery are very self-aware and that makes for a good employee.”
Featured Image: Sumayyah Muhammad
