As Release Nears, These Inmates Are All Business

"Pomp and Circumstance" played over a makeshift sound system operated by a white-uniformed inmate. The graduates' relatives and the corporate executives who earlier judged the business plans gave the men a standing ovation.

For about half the graduates -- ranging in age from 20 years old to over 60, serving time for crimes from burglary to murder -- this was their first formal cap and gown ceremony.

"Families -- your sons, your husbands, your boyfriends, your brothers here tonight have probably robbed you and probably lied to you," Rohr said as the graduation began. "I stand here before you to vouch for these men. . . . They are capable of going out and being productive members of society."

Including this class, PEP has graduated 220 participants, and 175 have been released from prison. Rohr said 21 former inmates have started or operate small businesses. Almost 40 have completed PEP's post-prison executive course offered in Houston and Dallas and are being mentored by corporate executives. The employment rate among PEP graduates is over 93 percent, she said, and the recidivism rate has been less than 5 percent.

During the graduation ceremony and throughout the day, inmates often thanked the executives for volunteering as teachers and as judges for the two-day business plan competition.

"They could be anywhere in the world but chose to be here with me, and I can't even get a letter from my dad," said inmate Cory Seago, 27, breaking into tears as he spoke from the graduation podium. "I've been in prison two times. I lost everything: my hope, my dreams, my confidence. PEP's been more than a business class for me. I learned about love."

For many executives, the experience was transformative as well. Geoff Jones, chief financial officer of Trico Marine Services of Houston, conceded he was apprehensive when he first entered the prison. "You think you're going to go in there and feel unsafe and be surrounded by undesirables," he said.

Instead, Jones said, he was impressed by the quality of the business plans and the presentations. "They believed in what they were telling you, and it meant a lot to them. It was their chance to impress somebody in the free world," he said.