Gregory Fairchild, a professor of business administration at the University of Virginia Darden School, wrote about the school’s recent endeavor to assist prison inmates prepare for success after release through an intensive new program. 566,000 ex-offenders leave prison and enter parole each year meaning nearly 1,600 ex-offenders reenter society each day. An estimated 95 percent of the 2.3 million others in prison will eventually return to society. Once released, an ex-offender will work with probation officers to reintegrate into daily life, to find work and a stable home. But the inability to find a job is one of the primary factors influencing recidivism, or the return to prison.
An entrepreneurship boot camp and reentry program run by the nonprofit organization Prison Entrepreneurship Program in Texas has achieved impressive results. Three-year recidivism rates in Texas hover around 25 percent, but have dropped to 5 percent for graduates of the program.
Since 2004, we have graduated over 750 men from our program. Our groundbreaking results include a return-to-prison rate of less than 5%, employment rate of 100% within 90 days and over 100 businesses launched.
In 2011, at a Virginia correctional facility, the Darden School of Business launched an entrepreneurship program. It involves more than a dozen student volunteers, 25 case studies — and a belief in second chances and human potential. The take away, turning prison inmates into entrepreneurs is possible.
via The Washington Post,
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