Business School, behind bars

MBA students of Darden School of Business held advise on how to start small businesses as a way to reduce recidivism in Virginia.

The program Resilience Education, entrepreneurship training funds for inmates in two prisons in Virginia, Dillwyn Correctional Center and Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women. Darden Using case study methodology, inmates in these facilities look successful Virginia-based businesses, and at the end of the program to develop their own business plans. To qualify for education Resilience, detainees must have already completed the program of prison vocational training. The hope is that new business skills inmates acquire help make an easier transition back to work as convicted criminals, and possibly cause them to start their own business.

“A lot of students say they have never been in a classroom where they felt committed before,” says Gregory Fairchild, Darden Professor of Business Administration, which began Resilience education about a year ago. “Prisoners feel inspired that students and teachers come to see Darden and education.”

develop resilience, Fairchild and a team of MBA students traveled to Texas this year last visit to the Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP), a non-profit organization based in Houston, Texas prisoners team with expertise in business and life. This program, the largest of its kind, has graduated more than 700 prisoners from the 04, according to its annual report. It recruits dozens of MBA students from around the country each year to help inform detainees of their business plans. Approximately 25 percent of inmates released from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice return to prison within three years, while only 5 percent of the PPE graduates end up back in prison, according to the report.

Resilience Education

Fairchild hopes will give similar results in Virginia, where the rate of recurrence is higher than in Texas. Approximately 29 percent of inmates in Virginia are readmitted within 36 months of his release from prison, he said. He would like to see the drop rate of less than 10 percent of its graduates. Fairchild said it will also me (dilarang ini kata) re-program success by the number of inmates secure jobs after being released and how to start their own business. Though it has no immediate plans to increase the size of the program, which now includes 11 volunteers MBA, he said he would like to see other schools across the country again.

It is too early to know the teaching of impact entrepreneurship was held on Virginia because none has been issued yet. Approximately 72 are Darden program, but the first will not be released until April, says Fairchild.

At the same time, detainees are held impasse on their business plans and to prepare for life after prison. Students in the first cohort of Resilience Education have developed a number of creative ideas for business including the links and accessories for men hire a construction company ending attics and basements, a lens grinding business, and a business computer repair. majority of prisoners probably will not start these companies just after prison, but the skills they have learned at least give them a nudge to find a job, Fairchild said. All graduates of the program receive a certificate of entrepreneurship at the University of Virginia.

Angie Bartles, a second year Darden MBA, taught in the program this year with her husband, Brett, also a student Darden. before business school, both taught in the Teach for America program, and both liked the idea of ​​working with a different population served and empower them to be entrepreneurs.

“Some of the ideas we teach may seem foreign at the beginning of the class, but after we discuss it and help to connect the dots that you can see the wheels turning, “says Angie, who will be accompanying the students on their business plans this spring.” you know you are helping them to develop skills that will really be useful when they leave prison. “

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By Businessweek.com – Business Schools