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| Coss Marte, founder of CONBODY, the prison-style fitness studio proudly hiring formerly incarcerated individuals, appeared on today’s episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show! The New York native, who built his business plan while in solitary confinement, was grated $15k from Ellen to support his mission to de-stigmatize the formerly incarcerated community, especially black and brown returning citizens, to ease their integration back into society, and change the systemic inequity of the criminal justice system. Coss has expanded upon the original concept of CONBODY in further pursuit of this mission, through the CONBODY FOUNDATION, which provides fitness & CSR programs as well as wraparound reentry services for returning citizens. CONBODY has worked with over 100 formerly incarcerated professionals with a 0% recidivism rate. |
| About CONBODY: Coss Marte grew up in New York’s Lower East Side, where he began dealing drugs at a young age, with his first arrest at only thirteen years old. “I grew up all around drugs and I got into that world at a very early age. I just kept selling drugs and trying to be better at it.” Marte soon ran the largest drug delivery service in NYC, earning over $2 million dollars a year. At the age of 23, his operation was shut down by the police, landing him with a 7 year prison sentence. In prison, Marte was told by doctors that if he didn’t start eating right and exercising, he was likely going to die within five years. This wakeup call for Marte motivated him to do calisthenics with his own body weight, losing over 70lbs in 6 months. Gaining the attention of others, Marte began training inmates, helping them lose over 1000 pounds collectively. It was in solitary confinement where Marte created a business plan to take his fitness program outside of his cell upon release; which became a reality in 2016 with the launch of CONBODY’s first fitness studio, located on the same NYC street corner where Marte was arrested. CONBODY hires formerly incarcerated trainers de-stigmatize the formerly incarcerated community and ease their integration back into society. Through the CONBODY FOUNDATION, Coss has expanded upon the original concept of CONBODY in further pursuit of this mission, providing fitness & CSR programs as well as wraparound reentry services for returning citizens. CONBODY has worked with over 100 formerly incarcerated professionals with a 0% recidivism rate. You can find more about Coss’ story here as well as the amazing instructors here. |
