Prison Entrepreneurship

Somewhere around 2 millions people are incarcerated in the US. These are people likely making little contribution to society. It's worth considering what good they might achieve in prison and how that might further efforts at rehabilitation. What productive activity may they do?

From a big picture perspective an incarcerated person of faith could do great good by developing that faith, ministering to fellow prisoners, and praying for the world at large. Numerous prison ministries exist that likely have those objectives.

In a time of economic decline we're also drawn to consider how inmates may make an economic contribution. One potentially powerful way is to enable prisoners to utilize their time and creative capacity to develop new business concepts and plans. Several prison entrepreneurship efforts exist (an article at inc.com offers a listing of some such programs around the country) but it seems most are focused on preparing inmates for entrepreneurial activities outside of prison. The potential of entrepreneurial activities in prison may be worth considering.

Such a program could be team oriented where parts of the prison compete to develop the best business plan. The best plan could be determined by expert review. The awards for winning could include bragging rights or a cut on the profits that their ideas create. Profits could be had by selling of the plan to existing businesses or other entrepreneurs outside the prison.

Some key challenges to this idea include maintaining security and cost. What is reasonably required for inmates to make a potentially viable business plan? Even the means to physically record the plan need consideration. Pencils can be turned into weapons. What percent of the inmate population would require a safe alternative to a pencil? What sort of information and communication would be required and what are the costs and security issues associated with that? What sort of training would be required?