Joanna Gaitros Iturbe, Admissions Coordinator for Graduate Business Programs
When Associate Dean Gary Carini first heard about the nonprofit Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP) in 2007 in which business executives and MBA students volunteer to help prisoners prepare business plans, he thought it might be a good opportunity for Baylor faculty and students to use their business skills while supporting a worthwhile cause. Carini knew Baylor MBA students and faculty had the expertise to support, encourage, and advise PEP students on how to prepare business plans, but he did not expect the overwhelming response. More than 25 students and faculty members chose to volunteer in the program in fall 2007, and the numbers have continued to increase each semester. In 2008, about 200 MBAs volunteered in PEP nationwide. Baylor had 35 MBA volunteers, which is the most MBA students involved with the PEP program.
Founded in 2004 by Catherine Rohr, PEP helps turn business savvy prisoners into legitimate, successful entrepreneurs. To date, 487 inmates have completed the PEP program with more than 75 projected for completion by the end of 2009. Ninety-three percent of the graduates are gainfully employed. PEP graduates have only a 2.8 percent recidivism rate compared to a 50 percent rate nationwide and a 70 percent recidivism rate in Texas.
The Baylor volunteers are assigned to one student so they can become familiar with the PEP students’ business plan(s). Helping edit the participants’ work via e-mail and face-to-face on scheduled visits to the Cleveland Unit has proven to be extremely beneficial for both prisoners and MBA students. The minimum weekly time demand is one hour; however, many Baylor MBAs opt to attend prison events hosted by PEP. Joanna Iturbe, Admissions Coordinator for the Graduate Business Programs, acts as staff liaison for PEP and Baylor. She has organized multiple trips to the Cleveland Unit, and the Graduate Business Programs has provided transportation and lodging for MBAs who choose to attend in-prison events.
MBA student Jacqueline Simpson has gone to prison more than five times to visit with the participants. “I have been amazed at the creativity the students have and their desire to permanently transform their lives. I was inspired by their sincerity and their passion. Many of them have run their own business before—that’s why they’re in the Cleveland Unit. They have knowledge and confidence, we just have to guide them down the right path—the legal path.”
PEP’s success can be attributed to CEO Rohr’s passion for the prisoners and her efforts to raise funds and to recruit volunteers. When Carini asked Rohr to talk with Baylor students during a weekly ‘Donut Hour’ about her experience in creating and building PEP, she enthusiastically agreed and ultimately recruited more students than either she or Carini anticipated. Rohr has returned to campus twice more to share her story, and she has brought PEP graduates to share their testimonies.
Rohr told Baylor students that as a former venture capitalist, living in a high-rise, penthouse apartment in Manhattan, she wondered—what now? Not even 30 years old, she accompanied a friend to Texas to volunteer with Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship Ministry. Touched by that experience, she found herself filing through her rolodex of more than 4,000 corporate executives to recruit volunteers for a unique investment opportunity. She started PEP by connecting Presidents and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, convicted inmates, and MBA students across the United States. Within three months, Rohr had quit her job, moved to Houston, and set up her first PEP class.
Rohr recognized the business traits that drug lords and gang members possess and has guided the inmates to realize that, with some guidance, their skills are valuable in legitimate commerce. For example, a gang leader and a CEO both have to have a cool head, possess critical decision-making and have the ability to read people. PEP helps prepare the incarcerated students to join the general workforce upon their release—to apply their inherent entrepreneurial skills toward legal endeavors.
Drew Byrd, a full time MBA student at Baylor, has visited the PEP students numerous times. When asked to summarize his experience in 60 seconds, Byrd said, “It’s remarkable. The student’s are hard workers and filled with the desire to learn. They are so thankful for the help they’re getting from their advisors at Baylor. When I left last week, my face hurt from smiling and laughing so much with them.”
The primary facility for classes is housed at the Cleveland Unit prerelease compound near Houston, Texas. Through multiple interviews and rigorous tests, approximately fifty inmates are selected for the four-month-long series of classes. Teamed with 150 executives and MBAs, they learn how to transfer their skills in illicit business into legitimate business practices. Class curriculum includes presentations, exams and the expected hours of daily homework. Then, prior to graduation, they participate in a business-plan competition judged by well-known executives. (Past judges include Martin G. Foster, the president of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, and Robert H. Graham, the chairman of AIM Investments.) Sixty-eight businesses have been started by PEP graduates.
The program is intense and expectations of the PEP participants are high after graduation, too. Thanks to volunteers and donations, there are several ‘half-way’ houses set up for PEP graduates upon release into the free world. To date, 417 participants have taken part in re-entry programs offered to them by PEP. PEP has also set up an eSchool for PEP graduates to attend. Executives volunteer to continue the business education that began behind bars, and 166 PEP participants have graduated from eSchool, also. Once a participant is accepted into the PEP program, it becomes their family, and that family does not disappear once they are released. If anything, the bond grows stronger.
PEP gives its students the education they need to be legally successful, the hope and vision of a transformed life, and the role models to emulate. Then, they are given support, encouragement, and accountability throughout the reentry process, setting them up for success instead of failure like a majority of exiting prisoners in the United States. With its impact on the executives and MBA students involved, PEP is certainly a two-way street of knowledge and success.
For more information on the Prison Entrepreneurship Program, view the PEP video or go to www.pep.org.
Other resources:
- Rohr, Catherine. “Welcome to PEP.” Prison Entrepreneurship: Connecting Ideas from the Inside Out. 2005. Prison Entrepreneurship Program. 23 Oct 2007 http://www.pep.org
- "HBS Alums Help Jailhouse Entrepreneurs Go Straight.” HBS Alumni Bulletin. 23 Oct 2007: 10
- Vine, Katy. “ Cojones: Catherine Rohr.” Texas Monthly. 23 Oct 2007