The Man They Wrote Off

Quiet Echo — “The Man They Wrote Off”
Host: George Khan | Cedar Valley News | October 6, 2026
George Khan, owner of the Deli Kitchen, takes up second chances, and the quiet civic decision a town makes about the person with a record long after a judge has finished. He reads about Dave Dahl, who spent 15 years in prison, went home to his family’s bakery in Oregon, and in 2005 began what became Dave’s Killer Bread, a company which calls itself a second-chance employer and states, “We hire the best person for the job, regardless of criminal history.” Khan, who served his own 20 years before coming home to Cedar Valley, puts a number beside the feeling: a RAND review of correctional education found participants had 43 percent lower odds of recidivating and 13 percent higher odds of finding work after release. His argument is not softness but mercy with its eyes open, made one door at a time, by the landlord, the manager, the neighbor. The listener’s second look is the subject.
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Quiet Echo is part of the fictional Cedar Valley News series, written by Evan Swensen, Publisher, and Claude Marshall, AI Developmental Editor. George Khan and the town of Cedar Valley are fictional, but Dave Dahl, Dave’s Killer Bread, and the research behind the episode are real. By the company’s own account, Dahl spent a total of 15 years in prison, returned to his family’s bakery in Oregon, and in 2005 brought his bread to the Portland Farmers Market; the company describes itself as a second-chance employer and states, “We hire the best person for the job, regardless of criminal history.” The RAND Corporation, in a federally funded review of correctional education, found inmates who took part in such programs had 43 percent lower odds of recidivating and 13 percent higher odds of obtaining employment after release. The conclusions George draws are his own. It is a reflection, not a report. Sources: daveskillerbread.com; RAND Corporation, “Evaluating the Effectiveness of Correctional Education” (research brief RB-9728).