Journyx Project Management Blog

Day Two

My feeling while visiting the prison was that Catherine Rohr, PEP’s leader, is executing extremely well on her mission, which is to make these men successful when they exit the justice system.

This can be difficult when you have to consider and satisfy the following groups:

* the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,
* the GEO corporation who runs the privately operated prison along with the GEO guards and warden,
* the prisoners themselves,
* the churches who volunteer their time,
* the press,
* executives like myself who go to provide input on business plans,
* the families of the soon-to-be-released inmates who, in many cases, have written off this person who may have mistreated them,
* long term inmates who provide assistance as teachers and assistants in the program,
* her employees,
* her husband,
* MBA advisors from universities like MIT and Harvard,
* graduates of the program who return to cheer on the current students and other participants,
* Best Western Hotels of Cleveland, Texas who provide discount rates to program participants,
* and a variety of donors - both individuals and charitable organizations.

Many of these groups have conflicting needs. For example, some groups prefer a more religious tone than others. GEO is concerned about increased liability from all of the visitors. Obviously, keeping this blizzard of stakeholders even marginally happy is not a trivial task.

So how does she do it? She does it, in part, by keeping everyone motivated with the taste of success. Anecdotes are presented constantly while you’re there, such as the class valedictorian’s acceptance speech or the returning graduates’ explanation of how PEP has helped them get jobs, business suits and driver’s licenses upon release, as well as counseling that almost certainly kept them from recidivating.

For example, one man had been imprisoned for 15 years and was then released. He needed a job. To hold the job, he needed to drive. To drive, he needed a license. To get a license, he needed a social security card. To get a social security card, he needed to prove who he was and get a birth certificate.

When he finally got all these things together, the state of Texas told him that he had an expensive ticket from 1984 that was unpaid. Since the state releases prisoners with only $100, he obviously did not have the money to pay the ticket. He told someone at PEP, “Forget it, I’ll just drive without a license. This is too hard.”

This, of course, would have violated his parole and landed him back in prison. PEP said, “No, no, no! We’ll help.”

Today he’s working and paying taxes. They stopped him from making, by his own admission, a very bad decision.

Exposing participants to successful stories like this is part of Catherine’s success formula. In addition, for math-heads like me, loads of statistics are presented: 4% recidivism rate (0% in the most recent years), cost per graduate vs. cost of incarceration per year ($14k one time vs. $22k/year). Catherine provides growth in number of prisoners served, growth in organizational budget and headcount, and other metrics of growth.

Supplying stakeholders with all of this good news keeps them motivated and involved, which helps her to continue her good work.

- Curt