Catherine Rohr's Prison Entrepeneurship Programme

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By Len Cannon / 11 News

The men in prison at the Hamilton Unit in Bryan have stories to tell of broken dreams and broken lives.

They are former dope dealers, gang bangers and murders.

Why they are behind bars, they’re also on the road to redemption.

You see they’re enrolled in the Prison Entrepreneurship Program or P.E.P. It’s a program co-founded by 30-year-old Catherine Rohr. She says her faith caused her to re-examine her life.

So, she left a lucrative job on Wall Street to go behind bars. “I used to make a lot of money for myself and made a lot of money for other people, at the end of the day it’s just a lot of money.”

Rohr and her husband took their lives savings to invest in men whose mistakes have left them with little home, and few options. The program all started about three years ago by chance after Catherine was invited to see a prison program.

She says she saw a lot more than just men incarcerated. She saw an opportunity. “I saw these top gang leaders and dope dealers had tremendous entrepreneurial ability and potential”

Rohr figured she would teach her business skills to inmates and help make them legitimate hustlers.

Patrick Mgee, who is in prison for murder, likes the program. “To me this program is business based, but more about the business of humanizing us and making us men.”

Not all inmates can get into the program, and not all of them stay in.

In fact, 160 prisoners applied for the class and after a series of tests and interviews only 53 were accepted. Now only 40 remain.

The reason, Rohr says, maybe that some find the work load too heavy and the rules too strict. “If they are not respectful of their brothers and don’t want to submit to authority in here, if they can’t follow a rule in the prison, I have no reason to believe they will follow a rule outside of prison.”

At times the classroom looks like a revival meeting. And it is indeed a revival of hope that mends broken lives.

Alvin Hammons is a P.E.P graduate. He’s finally on the outside after serving 19-years for attempted murder. “It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me in my life.”

Behind bars Hammons learned how to make leather goods while P.E.P. taught him the business ropes. He’s now taking orders for his products which range from purses to wallets and belts. He also works full-time at a local chemical company. “ The way Miss Rohr teaches us, the way she talks to us gives us encouragement. We are somebody. All that fells good, because we don’t ever hear that in prison.”

But how does P.E.P. overcome employees reluctance to hire ex-cons?

Rohr knows the answer to that question. “I don’t typically wait until the guy is released and ask someone to hire a random murderer. I bring the executives to the prison first.” There are now 800 executive volunteers who see the men and the program up close.

It’s building trust that creates a pipeline to work.

http://www.khou.com/news/local/stories/kho...s.4719c541.html