Prison Entrepreneurship Program
By Catherine Rohr, Founder & Executive Director

Trevor Turbidy is the CEO of Trico Marine Services in Houston, Texas—a publicly-traded $500 million market cap company. When asked to describe the words/images that he associated with inmates before his PEP experience, Mr. Turbidy responded, “Thugs, Aryan Nation, gangs, hatred and ignorance.” Perhaps this is why he took so long to accept an invitation to serve as an executive judge in Prison Entrepreneurship Program’s (“PEP”) October Business Plan Competition  at the Hamilton Unit of the Texas Prison System in Bryan, Texas, and perhaps why he brought Geoff Jones, the CFO of his company, along with him for “back up.”

After serving as a judge for just one day in the business plan competition, Mr. Turbidy stated his perception of the PEP graduates: “hard working, intelligent, passionate, fun-loving, warm, inviting, polished and professional.”

PEP is built on the premise that, if properly trained and redirected, an accomplished and transformed former drug dealer or gang leader is capable of running an equally successful legitimate company. PEP brings together some of the country’s biggest change agents to produce societal change: top executives, legislators, investors and reformed criminals.

Acceptance into the Prison Entrepreneurship Program is no easy task. Applicants are required to complete a 23-page application, take seven tests, and go through about 20 interviews, including at least 15 peer interviews. The entire process is structured to weed out the “criminals,” which leads most individuals to self-select out of the process due to the rigorous study requirements and homework. Only those who really want the hard work and accept accountability are left standing in the end. There is no preference for any crime, race, religion, etc. The only prejudice is for transformed hearts. Whether the charge is drug dealing, robbery or murder, all applicants accepted in the class are required to demonstrate their willingness and ability to live transformed lives of accountability and respect.

While PEP’s entrepreneurial start-up success stories excite all of us, we measure success in many other ways. Nearly all of our participants are gainfully employed (currently 96%). They  are placed in mentoring relationships with CEOs, and they attend Entrepreneurship School on a weekly basis after release from prison. Many of our participants serve as active volunteers in their communities and are reestablishing family relationships, assuming the responsibility of fatherhood for the first time.

More than 600 nationwide executives have joined in this venture, as have nearly 200 MBA students from Harvard, Texas A&M, Stanford, Rice, Berkeley, University of Texas and University of Dallas, who provide weekly feedback on inmate plans for four-month periods during Business Plan Competitions.

A summary of PEP’s rapid progress:

• Graduating our fifth class of 50 inmates (hopeful entrepreneurs!) in caps and gowns, bringing our total graduates to 250+ men in 30 months since the inception of PEP.
• Achieving 0% recidivism rate for active participants. (The national average recidivism rate is 60 to 70%)
• PEP is becoming a Texas Department of Criminal Justice approved program and has been invited to scale statewide.
• Replicating our Houston post-release programs in Dallas and launching Dallas Entrepreneurship School in November 2005.
• Receiving support from more than 20 foundations and 20 corporations, with a budget of $2 million for 2007.
• Hiring six of our own graduates as PEP employees.

There is no other such program running in the US. I’m a former California and New York venture capitalist who saw a problem and invented a solution after first touring a Texas prison in April 2004. I realized that every time I locked my door or set my car alarm, I acknowledged the problem that plagues this country. Shockingly, one out of 15 Americans goes to prison, and 95% are released back into society, most ill-equipped to overcome the significant challenges they encounter. 

I’ll never forget the response I received from a criminal justice veteran when I shared my vision for PEP. He was clearly skeptical of my belief that inmates could develop legitimate business ideas, let alone write business plans. “It's a nice dream,” he said, “but many inmates aren't even capable of writing home.”

To learn more about how you can become involved with PEP, please contact: Kami Recla, VP Executive Relations, krecla@pepweb.org or visit www.pep.org.