PRISON ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAM

Harvard's Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) validated the economic impacts arising from employment and entrepreneurship by PEP graduates. 137% greater average wage ($17.17) after 12 months than the Texas minimum wage, 100% of graduates were employed or self-employed within 90 days of release, 368 businesses were launched as of mid-2019, including at least five that each generated over $1MM in gross revenue, 57% of PEP businesses formed from 2004 to 2019 remain open, compared to 53% of all Texas businesses, $122.5 million annual economic impact across the state of Texas from PEP graduate businesses with 471 jobs created, 9% three-year recidivism rate, compared to 23% in Texas and 42% nationwide, 4.3 million in total taxpayer savings for the State of Texas and Federal Government, $12,053 cost savings to the state and federal government per graduate after one year, 159% ROI per program graduate after one year; 794% ROI per program graduate after five years.

Our Needs

We are scheduled to serve 120 men this year at the Estes Unit in Venus, TX., and we would like to expand our services there to serve 300 men in 2022. We anticipate welcoming home 100 men to the Dallas area this year and would like to increase our transitional housing to accommodate that number--we currently have 36 beds available in Dallas and would like to be able to expand our number of transition houses to accommodate up to 55 men at a time. We have 3 vehicles that our reentry team uses to transport our recently released participants. These vehicles are all 6 years old or older with high mileage, we would like to be able to cycle in some later model, lower mileage vehicles.