Angel investors in Texas prisons have gotten
the surprise of their careers. Here are thousands of outstanding
marketing pros, just waiting for direction in starting dynamic new
businesses. Honest.
"Hello. My name is Thomas
Harrell Sr., the founder and owner of Yum Yum's Mobile Catering
Service." He was animated. He loved what he was presenting.
And he was a prisoner with a business plan. "We make hot,
on-the-spot barbeque meals."
Charles W. Colson is the founder of this
type of program. He introduced Catherine Rohr to the concept, and she
founded Prison Entrepreneurship Program, a nonprofit organization based in
Houston.
The entrepreneurial program that Rohr puts
her students through is no sweetheart. First, each prisoner must have
renounced any prison gang affiliation and must fill out a 23-jpage
questionnaire, learn 10 pages of financial terminology, take four test and
be interviewed by nearly a dozen corporate executives and course graduates.
That didn't stop nearly 150 inmates from
applying for the program with angel investors in Texas prisons. Those
inmates selected can look forward to a rigorous business curriculum: more
than 350 hours of class time, taught by 100 business executives; exams;
extensive writing assignments; and tough homework penalties for inmates who
do anything from utter a curse word to fail a test. Prisoners are paired
with Harvard and Texas A&M University students, online or in person, who
help edit their business plans.
These folks are motivated.
The result? Well, angel investors in
Texas prisons have indeed made an impact. One graduate left prison
after eight years and started a general contracting business that made $1.7
million in sales in 18 months. 21 former inmates operate their own
businesses. Nearly 40 graduates have completed the program's
post-prison executive course offered in Houston and Dallas and are being
mentored by corporate executives. The employment rate among program
graduates is over 93 percent, and the recidivism rate has been less than 5
percent.
Ms. Rohr said she never worried about their
marketing ability. After all, it was their marketing skills that got
most of them in trouble in the first place.
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Investors in Texas Prisons
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Jasmine
McAllister, Business Finance Specialist |
