Prison systems are designed to segregate – to minimize the negative impact of inmates on society. We believe the right question to ask is: Why are these able-bodied, resourceful, determined individuals not making a positive impact instead?

Society pays to lock its best entrepreneurs away. 78% of inmates consider self-employment a serious career option, yet too few can even explore the possibility while in prison. Of those that get basic training, 3-year recidivism can be slashed from 67% to almost 10%. In addition, they even end up creating jobs for others.

We envision a systemic change, from condemnation to contribution - harnessing their skills to create value through business. We want to make access to entrepreneurship education a core provision for all inmates everywhere.

Problem

Prison systems are designed to segregate – to minimize the negative impact of inmates on society. We believe the right question to ask is: Why are these able-bodied, resourceful, determined individuals not making a positive impact instead? Society pays to lock its best entrepreneurs away. 78% of inmates consider self-employment a serious career option, yet too few can even explore the possibility while in prison. Of those that get basic training, 3-year recidivism can be slashed from 67% to almost 10%. In addition, they even end up creating jobs for others. We envision a systemic change, from condemnation to contribution - harnessing their skills to create value through business. We want to make access to entrepreneurship education a core provision for all inmates everywhere.

Solution

This is the first initiative to feasibly target 100% penetration of prisons across the US. It is much more robust than job-training programs, which leave inmates at the mercy of employers and susceptible to industry trends. It is much more scalable than current entrepreneurship programs in select prisons, which have proven effective, but are extremely resource-intensive. Individuals privileged enough to have access to these programs benefit greatly, but that still leaves a vast majority of the population entirely unserved. The key to this initiative is sheer cost-effectiveness and scale. Three factors contribute to the project’s success, and each lends itself to making this solution extremely sustainable and scalable: • An Information-Based Product – The product is a proven curriculum successfully implemented for years with people of all backgrounds, including prisoners. The value is in the information and presentation, which can be replicated and disseminated at virtually no cost and unlimited scale. • Time Investment – Success relies on heavy investment of time by each entrepreneur. This works out well because time is exactly what inmates have plenty of while in prison. That time, at no incremental cost, will be invested in creating value upon release. • Career Fit – The best entrepreneurs encompass certain traits and characteristics, such as ambition, tenacity, resourcefulness, and creativity. Inmates have been shown to possess these same traits, and so are conveniently self-selected for higher chance of success as an entrepreneur.

Example

We have created a course for start-up entrepreneurs called “Starting My Own Business”. It is designed to be self-facilitated. The curriculum is a step-by-step guide to starting a business written by a board of experienced small business owners, professionals and academics. It has been used and constantly refined since 1992, to its present form comprising 15 structured sessions covering all the basic and important factors to consider when starting a business. The curriculum has been taught in schools, colleges, seminars, and business development centers around the world. It has also been taught successfully at Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institute for the past 4 years. Our objective is to make this educational material a standard part of all prison libraries and resource centers. The task will involve the following: • Production of materials – Textbooks and business plan templates to be provided to all prisons. A software version of the material to be created for installation on prison library computers. • Education – Introduction of materials and advocacy to prison officials and re-entry officers. Raising awareness among inmates of availability of such resources. • Distribution – Collaboration with State and Federal Departments of Correction to make the resources available in prisons.

Marketplace

There are currently just over 2.4 million individuals incarcerated in US prisons, or about 1 in 100 adults. They are about 93% men and 7% women. The most common reasons for incarceration are non-violent crimes involving material possessions such as burglary and larceny. Upon release, they face multiple struggles including financial instability, family issues, societal stigma, and importantly lack of economic opportunities. Former inmates find jobs hard to find because of lack of paper qualifications, lack of recent work experience, and not least reluctance of employers to hire convicted individuals. Because of the obstacles facing them, it is a far greater challenge for this population to make ends meet than for the average person. Within 3 years, up to 67% of them will find themselves back in prison, completing a cycle that not only further damages their lives, but also comes at a huge cost to society. Each year, about 650,000 inmates are released and will have to support themselves financially. They will be replaced in by an equal number of new inmates, many from the population of about 9 million who cycle in and out of prisons. Current attempts at boosting employment prospects include job training, as well as entrepreneur mentorship programs. • Job training is the traditional form of aid. It involves teaching inmates a specific vocational skill with the intention of placing them in relevant jobs post-release. Typically these jobs are low-skilled, low-wage employment. Sometimes the vocational training and job placement is paired with personal case management, counselling, assistance obtaining housing, clothes, food vouchers, and healthcare. • More recently, entrepreneurship programs have been implemented in a number of prisons across the country. They provide training in basic business skills, paired with personal business mentorship, access to capital post-release, networking opportunities, along with housing, medical, counselling, and other relevant services. The latter approach has been the more effective of the two. The job training programs are able to place inmates in jobs, though they have suffered during a bad job market. They also leave the inmates with a less flexible skill set. The entrepreneurship programs have been very effective in providing both adequate employment and financial stability, as well as in reducing recidivism significantly. However, they rely on numerous resources to support the individual inmate and ensure he or she is provided with all the support necessary to thrive. As such, the programs have been inherent difficult and costly to scale, resulting in the large majority of inmates unable to benefit.