Learn more about the nonprofit Prison Entrepreneurship Program.

By Sommer Hamilton

The brotherhood of 50 or so men comes together every Thursday, meeting in sparse white-walled rooms with a few song verses unfolding inspiration across the walls. For four months, they talk about their big ideas for the world outside these rooms and learn how to put a business plan together.

During the course of the class, some of them leave early, planning never to return. That’s when the others say goodbye in what they call “praying them out,” wishing them luck in their careers and entrepreneurial plans and above all, sharing stories of respect and admiration for each man who exits.

For the inmates nearing parole in the Hamilton Unit in Bryan, Texas, the things they learn in these rooms are a chance at a life transformation when they’re on the other side.

Through the Houston-based Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP), inmates who prove their commitment to turn away from the crime that landed them behind bars take up a new plan for their post-imprisonment future. In the two years since the program launched, so far a dozen have fulfilled the promise and hopes of their mentors, successfully opening small businesses in such industries as collision auto repair and computer service, power washing and T-shirt printing.

But the goal for each of the 165 inmates from two prisons to graduate from the program isn’t necessarily to own their own businesses. For some, it’s to find and hold down a regular job. For others, it’s to realize what opportunities exist as they form friendships in a supportive network that can keep them from returning to prison or to their old friends in crime.

“When our guys start the program, they might not even know what ‘CEO’ stands for,” says Catherine Rohr, the founder and fire behind PEP, the only program of its kind in the nation. PEP includes the four-month behind bars segment and a series of 20 required entrepreneurship classes taught by top executives and venture capitalist mentors in Dallas and Houston. “For most of them, this is the biggest accomplishment of their lives. It’s definitely a business experience, but also an experience in terms of personal transformation.”

Two-thirds of all prisoners released in the U.S. eventually return to the correctional system. But of the 165 parolees who have graduated from PEP—with caps and gowns and grins on their faces—only 3 have faltered and returned to jail for parole violations. That’s less than 2 percent of the men in PEP.

To the free world
When first-year Mays MBA student Kami Recla saw “her guys” present their business pitches, in March 2006, she couldn’t stop herself from beaming.

As part of the business plan competition that concludes the first phase of PEP, Recla and 39 other MBAs from Texas A&M and Harvard worked on a weekly basis with two or three of the program’s inmates to fine tune the components of their business plan, helping them conduct market research and providing a reality check for their ideas.

“We’re simply exposing them to the opportunity and the realization that they can do this,” Recla explains. MBAs edit their business plans, giving feedback on the inmates’ mission statements, leadership plans and financial strategies. Recla and one inmate wrote back and forth on the bottom of his documents, sharing ideas and dialoging about what it would take to realize his dream of a precision sharpening business. “I told him if he’s really passionate about it, I think it will work well.”

Though the MBAs aren’t required to join their pupils behind bars at the Hamilton Unit, Recla said meeting the men she had coached solidified her belief in the program. She helped judge the men’s pitches during a “selling night” event, and saw them again for MBA Day in Prison to check out progress on their final business plan competition presentations.

“To see a group of grown men build each other up, whether in prison or not, is incredible,” Monson said. “This is an amazing group of very respectful people. They create a positive atmosphere, and that’s not something I ever thought I’d find in a prison.”

MBAs bring theoretical knowledge to the program that helps inmates and parolees reach their full potential, Rohr says. It’s a demanding program—to be admitted, inmates must fill out a 23-page application and sit through four tests and four interviews. And these men must be on their best behavior. A single curse word during class will earn them 50 pushups, Rohr says. “They hold each other accountable,” she says. “These are all people who want to change their lives.”

Rohr is a former California- and New York-based venture capitalist and private equity investor who was changed forever after she met a former Texas inmate whose general contracting company was generating $1.7 million in sales. Her goal is to recruit the top talent in the country to aid PEP’s efforts, and so far more than 600 executives are serving as mentors, judges, instructors and employers in the supportive network Rohr has built.

“My long-term goal is to take this nationwide,” she says. “There’s nothing else like this for inmates and former inmates. We have a scalable model that can be replicated once we obtain the resources and funding.”

Rohr and her staff are recruiting for the fourth class of inmates, constantly seeking mentors and judges, and MBAs to serve as editors for the business plan competition. To learn more about PEP, visit http://pepweb.org or contact Rohr’s assistant, Sean Bowers, at sbowers@pepweb.org.