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Aeolienne

Joined: 03 Apr 2008
Posts: 1498
Location: Leamington Spa, Warks

Posted: Sun Dec 21, 08 5:02 pm Post subject: MBAs in prison

Prisoners with enterprising convictions

By Rebecca Knight

Published: November 24 2008 00:22 | Last updated: November 24 2008 00:22

When Juan Vasquez is not at work, he tries to get his business idea ï¿½ a bilingual tech support company ï¿½ off the ground. Like many would-be entrepreneurs, he spends his weekends honing his business plan, scouting for customers and looking into potential funding sources. At night, he attends classes on management at a local university.

ï¿½The idea is computer care and repair for people who donï¿½t speak English,ï¿½ says Mr Vasquez, who is fluent in Spanish. ï¿½I already have a pretty long list of clients, so I am hoping that, within six months, I can do it full time.ï¿½

But Mr Vasquez, 34, is not your average budding entrepreneur. He has spent almost half his life in prison, serving a 12-year sentence for attempted murder and, most recently, a two-year sentence for robbery.

Catherine Rohr: "All of society wins"

While behind bars for the second time, he decided to make some changes. After getting a qualification in computer maintenance and engineering, he enrolled in the Prison Entrepreneurship Program, a four-month course taught by volunteer executives and business school students that shows inmates how to develop and launch enterprises.

The scheme ï¿½ a mini-MBA with seminars on finance and accounting, as well as units on writing, public speaking and interviewing techniques ï¿½ has already transformed the personal and professional lives of hundreds of inmates and helped them to be productive on re-entering society.

ï¿½I met people I never would have met in my life ï¿½ millionaire executives, MBA students from round the country, including ones from Harvard and MIT,ï¿½ says Mr Vasquez. ï¿½They gave me my self-esteem back. Iï¿½d almost thrown myself away, Iï¿½d almost given up, but Pep showed me that life is not over.ï¿½

Influential

To date, more than 300 inmates have graduated from the initiative. The overwhelming majority ï¿½ 98 per cent ï¿½ has found steady employment and about 40 graduates have started their own businesses. The programme has a recidivism rate of less than 5 per cent.

ï¿½Prison is like college for criminals,ï¿½ says Catherine Rohr, who founded Pep in 2004 and is its chief executive. ï¿½We leave them with little alternative than selling drugs or getting back into a gangs once they get out. Leaders of the underworld are extremely influential; if we impact them, then we have an impact on their neighbourhoods, their communities, their families. All of society wins.ï¿½

Admission to the programme is competitive, according to Ms Rohr. She recruits prisoners who have been ï¿½successful in the underworldï¿½, those who have led gangs or who have had success selling drugs. ï¿½These are people who understand proprietary sales force, they understand marketing and they understand profit margins,ï¿½ says Ms Rohr. ï¿½They know how to execute. The one thing they donï¿½t understand is risk management because they got busted.ï¿½

John Jackson, CEO of Price Gregory, the Houston-based pipeline construction company, who serves on the programmeï¿½s governing board, says: ï¿½There are a lot of entrepreneurial skills inside a prison if you can just re-channel that. With a little bit of help and a little bit of direction, these guys could really make a go of it.ï¿½

Ms Rohr had the idea for the scheme while working at a private equity firm in New York. A colleague invited her on a tour of a jail in Texas. ï¿½I thought all the worst things. I thought I was going on a zoo tour to see a bunch of caged animals,ï¿½ says Ms Rohr. ï¿½But, instead, I saw human beings, I saw people who were repentant and people who had changed. I was humbled.ï¿½

She recruited fellow executives to host an introductory business course at the prison the following month. ï¿½I thought: what if we equip these guys with some business tools so they could go legit?ï¿½ says Ms Rohr, who earned her MBA at the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business. ï¿½Thatï¿½s when I decided to start a business plan competition at the prison.ï¿½

She and her husband sold their apartment in New York and moved to Texas to start the programme. Ms Rohr began by signing up area business executives to give guest lectures.

Some, including Mike Humphries, senior vice-president at Tanglewood Investments, were initially sceptical. But, once he saw the project in action, he was won over. ï¿½The spirit of reconciliation in the room is palpable,ï¿½ he says. ï¿½These are guys who have made a commitment to changing their lives and are going to give everything it takes to get back on their feet.ï¿½

Catherine Rohr with students on the courseAt the end of the programme, the inmates create a business plan, complete with 12-month Excel operating budgets and financial analysis and give an oral presentation to an executive judging panel. Business plans include ventures such as tree removal, landscaping, T-shirt printing and leather tooling. Ms Rohr recruits top MBA students to serve as peer advisors on the participantsï¿½ business plans. These provide advice on both the conceptual and grammatical aspects of the business plans and help make the inmatesï¿½ plans more realistic and feasible.

Funding

Today, the scheme involves business school students from Stanford,Rice and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, among others.

Catharina Lavers, a second-year student at MITï¿½s Sloan School of Management, has advised an inmate on his plan to start a metal shirring and crimping business, making temporary accommodation for construction sites. As the inmates do not have internet access, she provided market research and pricing information.

ï¿½I wanted to work with people who others had given up on,ï¿½ she says.

Stephen Nelson, a Pep graduate who served a five-year sentence for burglary, hopes to start a mechanic shop and used car business. He worked with MBA students from Texas A&M University. ï¿½They gave us great feedback and huge research packets with information on the market and competitors,ï¿½ he says.

The bulk of funding for Pep comes from individuals and private foundations but the scheme also receives donations from corporations. Last year, the programme had a budget of $1.7m, up from $680,000 in 2006. This year, the initiative is on track to raise $3.1m.

The programme is run from the Cleveland Correctional Facility outside Houston and recruits from 65 Texan prisons. Pep recruits only male inmates, mainly because men constitute more than 90 per cent of the inmate population.

Once participants are released, they are eligible for continuing classes, led by executives and university professors, to help them reintegrate and start their businesses. Completing the coursework also makes the former inmatesï¿½ eligible for small business financing through the schemeï¿½s network of angel investors.

Mr Nelson says that graduating from the programme was one of the proudest moments of his life. ï¿½My family came into the unit and we wore caps and gowns,ï¿½ he says. ï¿½Before this, I had never completed anything in my life. It gave me hope. It made me feel like somebody. Something changed in me.ï¿½

ï¿½ Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2008.

marigold

Joined: 02 Sep 2005
Posts: 12458
Location: West Sussex

Posted: Sun Dec 21, 08 5:09 pm Post subject:
Nice story, thanks .

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46235
Location: yes

Posted: Sun Dec 21, 08 6:41 pm Post subject:
umm

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15985

Posted: Tue Dec 17, 13 7:27 am Post subject:
Very good, and anything that stops reoffending must be good. It would be nice to think everyone got the chance to do that sort of thing, whether they were in prison or not.

iaf

Joined: 30 Oct 2010
Posts: 168

Posted: Tue Dec 17, 13 9:43 am Post subject:
I wonder how his victim (s) feel?

oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Tue Dec 17, 13 9:54 am Post subject:

iaf wrote:

I wonder how his victim (s) feel?

at a guess, relieved.

OtleyLad

Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 2737
Location: Otley, West Yorkshire

Posted: Tue Dec 17, 13 10:55 am Post subject: Re: MBAs in prison

I have mixed feelings about this:

Aeolienne wrote:

To date, more than 300 inmates have graduated from the initiative. The overwhelming majority ï¿½ 98 per cent ï¿½ has found steady employment and about 40 graduates have started their own businesses. The programme has a recidivism rate of less than 5 per cent.

For: That is so much better than the re-offending rates over here.

Against: I can't help feeling that your average working class young man (that's the group we're talkign about here) would have to put themselves into a lot of debt (student loans, etc) to get the same opportunity?

I can never really resolve these conflicting thoughts.

gregotyn

Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area

Posted: Tue Dec 17, 13 2:29 pm Post subject:
I read the fact a man was serving 5 years for burglary, here it would be less than 1 year usually and time off for good behavoir; a 5 year sentence for burglary would focus my mind on not reoffending!

iaf

Joined: 30 Oct 2010
Posts: 168

Posted: Tue Dec 17, 13 3:00 pm Post subject:

oldish chris wrote:

iaf wrote:

I wonder how his victim (s) feel?

at a guess, relieved.

I am sure they will sleep a lot better knowing the person that stole their belongings now has an MBA.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Tue Dec 17, 13 3:04 pm Post subject:
Would they sleep better with them out on the street, no qualifications and unemployable? Now, what would an experienced burglar do to get money for food and shelter, I wonder? It's probably not fair, but what's the cost of the alternatives?

iaf

Joined: 30 Oct 2010
Posts: 168

Posted: Tue Dec 17, 13 3:19 pm Post subject:

Nick wrote:

Would they sleep better with them out on the street, no qualifications and unemployable? Now, what would an experienced burglar do to get money for food and shelter, I wonder?

It's probably not fair, but what's the cost of the alternatives?

Laughable, intelligent or qualified people are not capable of recidivism?

If it was that ex-cons (provided with chances that other people don't get) were making restoration, then it might be impressive. By the way, Restorative Justice works-check out the re-offending rates, but victims don't really count in the lefty world do they?

Money for food? That's not the modern ex-con, food is not generally one of their priorities.

Have a look at some of the facts regarding today's prisoner;
https://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/ProjectsResearch/Olderpeopleinprison

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Tue Dec 17, 13 3:45 pm Post subject:
You're right. They don't need to eat. Let's just burn them to death.

iaf

Joined: 30 Oct 2010
Posts: 168

Posted: Tue Dec 17, 13 3:47 pm Post subject:

Nick wrote:

You're right. They don't need to eat. Let's just burn them to death.

Well that would cut reoffending rates

Lloyd

Joined: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 2699

Posted: Tue Dec 17, 13 4:38 pm Post subject:

Not a new idea, really. Ten years ago when I was a prison officer we ran a scheme in conjunction with BT and others whereby prisoners who fitted certain criteria were trained both inside and outside the jail so that they could take up decently paid work upon release. Reducing reoffending is key to this concept, even though it might be said to be unfair on people who lack the financial means to achieve the same, and yet had not resorted to crime.
One problem is that these ideas need a much longer timeframe before accurate statistics for recidivism can be obtained.
I once visited an American lifer unit in Arizona where lifers with no hope of parole were trained so that they in turn could train guide dog puppies for the blind. It gave their sentences meaning, and was delightful to observe.

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Tue Dec 17, 13 4:53 pm Post subject:

Lloyd wrote:

Not a new idea, really.

The OP is from 2008. It was probably new in Texas then...

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