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Prison Entrepreneurship Program

Prison Entrepreneurship Program

Ruben Lemus Jr.

South Texas College

ORGL – 4351-V01: Management Theory II

Instructor: Tyrone A. Marshall

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Prison Entrepreneurship Program
Introduction

Prison recidivism is a significant issue in the United States. With nearly 1 million

Inmates receiving parole each year, this issue should not be overlooked. (Bureau of Justice

Statistics, 2018) In a 2005 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 83% of prisoners released

were arrested at least once in the following nine years. (2018) Reimprisonment rates are as high

as 60 %; this is not good for the individual getting imprisoned or the people that might be victims

of their crimes. (Hackler 2017) A significant risk to re-offend is unemployment, which is high

for convicted felons. (Keena and Simmons, 2014) The stigma of being a convicted felon makes

job opportunities few and far between. With no job prospects, many ex-cons resort to a life of

crime. An organization out of Texas has stepped in to assist with this issue. The Prison

Entrepreneurship Program (PEP) from Texas has seen the problem and is doing what it can to

correct it. If the problem is businesses hiring convicted felons, the paroles should create their

job. PEP has teamed up with colleges and universities across Texas to give convicted felons

who have served their time for their crime education in entrepreneurship. They are currently out

of Huston and Dallas, and with proper leaders, they will continue to grow.

The Management framework is the P-O-L-C. It is a framework that revolves around four

major components of management. Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling are the main

parts of it and can be utilized in most organizations.

Planning

Planning revolves around the vision and mission of the organization “PEP is not just a

program. We are a revolution, achieving amazing results with profound impacts. At PEP, our

beliefs drive us to offer the opportunity for a “fresh start” to reformed inmates who thrive on

challenge and accountability.” (PEP, 2020) Helping former inmates reenter society and giving
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them the ability to provide for themselves without turning to crime is what PEP is all about. This

Mission Statement will be what leads the entire framework. The strategies should revolve

around it.

Some of the strategic planning that is in place is is program expansion. This will be

achieved by connecting with more colleges, universities, and community colleges. Developing a

higher education network with many of the same goals prepares students with the knowledge and

skills to be productive members of society. Another strategy that will be implemented is

Distance Education. With COVID-19 becoming a threat worldwide has led many to seek online

educations. This has opened a door that might not have been opened otherwise. Change was not

only accepted in organizations around the world, but they were expected, and PEP is no

exception. (Tesch 2020) This expansion into the virtual classroom will increase the reach and

increase the potential partnerships with Higher education.

The Goals will be to establish a network for online learning, Increase the number of

higher education partners by 200% within the year, increase the number of participants going

through the program by 200% over the next three years, and finally to increase locations from 2

to 6 within five years. All this could be archived with proper leadership. The division of labor

should be in place to create efficiency, establish expectations, encourage accountability, and

increase success. (Tesch 2020)

Organizing

Establishing a network for online learning will be first with the Information technology

(IT) department. They will have to set up the virtual network and verify it will handle the data

sent and received during the classes. IT will have to make sure the virtual network is stable and
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Prison Entrepreneurship Program
upgrade it with the times. They would also need to assist with setting up a digital platform like

Blackboard or Google classroom. This will be the platform the network will run off of.

The Marketing Department will be in charge of educational partnership recruitment.

Educational partnership recruitment will establish connections with higher education and get

them on board with the PEP mission. Educational partnership recruitment will establish

relationships with higher education organizations nationwide. The virtual model will open a

much larger reach for the educational partners, which will be taken advantage of. The more

Educational organizations we have willing to partner up with, the more opportunity PEP has to

grow. The Admission Department will be responsible for program participants. Efforts will

have to be increased in the prison system to promote prisoners currently in jail. Increasing the

visibility of PEP will be needed to locate potential members. Admissions will also be tasked

with reviewing the applications and selecting participants to enroll in the program. This will be

vital in the extension of PEP. The virtual learning platform will also increase the ability to

expand to other prisons by having a small cohort to establish a need and demand for the service

and later a full-blown location in other cities.

Leading

Organizations like PEP must run with employees that believe fully in the mission.

Leadership needs to establish an accountability culture. Members of the organization need to be

aware they are helping ex-cons change their past mistakes and give to society rather than take

away. This is a message that needs to be echoed from the top of the organization to the bottom.

All leadership levels need to be on the same page to limit confusion and increase success. Equity

should be established throughout the organization to keep morale high. (Tesch 2020) Employees

should feel respected; they should know their value in the organization and be treated with
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Prison Entrepreneurship Program
respect. This environment should lead to employees willing to put in the extra effort needed to

reach the organizational goals.

Controlling

Systems need to be in place to measure our goal, both short- and long-term goals.

Timelines need to be set and monitored regularly. Plans on Setting up the virtual platform need

to have completion dates from fully operational to then tested in a live setting. There should also

be dates in place for upgrades and maintenance. Dates should be set so employees are aware of

the organizational expectations. KPI's should be set for educational partners, participants, and

location expansion. All three need to be closely monitored to achieve the lofty goals that have

been set. Once the Goals have been developed, PEP needs to check and verify regularly. They

are on the right track and correct any issues that may appear.

The organization must have a strategy to achieve their organizational goals, and the P-O-

L-C framework gives an organization the skeleton to get that done. It is not perfect by any

means, but it can easily be adapted to fit many different organizations and many different goals.

Your organization should have a thought process behind its structure. It should not be something

that is overlooked. If you do not use the P-O-L-C framework, you should have a framework.
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Prison Entrepreneurship Program

Program participants

3 3

2 2

2021 2022 2023

PEP facilities
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2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

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Prison Entrepreneurship Program
References

Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2018). Retrieved October 5, 2020, from https://www.bjs.gov/

Hackler, F. (2017). Prison Entrepreneurship Program. Retrieved on October 8, 2020, from

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frieda_Hackler/publication/319454010_Prison_Entr

epreneurship_Program/links/59ab6d7aa6fdcce55a34c43b/Prison-Entrepreneurship-

Program.pdf

Keena, L., and Simmons, C. (2014). Rethink, Reform, Reenter: An Enterepreneurial Approach

to Prison Programming. Retrieved on October 3, 2020 from https://elimindset.com/wp-

content/uploads/2015/06/IHEP-Correctional-Application-Case-Study.pdf

Prison Entrepreneurship Program (2020). Retrieved on October 6, 2020. From

https://www.pep.org/

Sonfield, M. (2009). Entrepreneurship and Prisoner Re-entry: A Roll for Collegiate Schools of

Business. Retrieved on October 6, 2020. From

https://www.sbij.org/index.php/SBIJ/article/viewFile/58/31

Tesch, B. (2020, Fall). Principles of Management. Retrieved August 30, 2020, from

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/principlesmanagement/chapter/1-4-planning-

organizing-leading-and-controlling/