(InvestigateTV) — Every week in America, more than 10,000 people are released from state and federal prisons, stepping back into a society that is often unwelcoming.
For those with a criminal record, the path to a stable life is fraught with obstacles, and the most significant barrier is often finding employment.
According to research from the Prison Policy Initiative, the unemployment rate for formerly incarcerated individuals is a staggering 27%. That is nearly five times higher than that of the general population. The stigma of a prison sentence can feel like a life sentence of its own, a constant cycle of rejection that pushes many back toward the circumstances that led them to prison in the first place.
Forging a New Path
Inside the walls of Brown Creek Correctional Facility, a minimum-custody men’s prison in North Carolina, a different path is being forged. Here, a group of inmates, some just years away from release and others still holding onto hope, are learning to bypass the traditional job market altogether. They are being taught not just to find a job, but to create one. They are learning to be their own boss.
The man guiding them is Brian Hamilton, a serial entrepreneur and the founder of a nationwide program called Inmates to Entrepreneurs. For more than 30 years, Hamilton has been traveling from prison to prison with a simple yet revolutionary message for incarcerated individuals.
What is that message?
Instead of facing the high probability of rejection when applying for a job, why not create your own?
“There’s got to be a point at which you get to start from zero,” Hamilton tells a room full of men at Brown Creek.
His presentation is a boot camp in the fundamentals of business. Inmates receive handouts explaining the basics of marketing, how to craft an elevator pitch, and the critical skill of developing a one-page business plan. It’s a crash course in self-reliance, designed to demystify the world of entrepreneurship and make it accessible to everyone, regardless of their past.
The core of Hamilton’s philosophy is deceptively simple.
Start Small, Think Big
“People complicate it all the time,” he says. “I mean, amazing, complicated. And again, it doesn’t matter where I am, people just make things so hard.”
His first and most important piece of advice is to start small and think big. He urges the men to take baby steps, to focus on getting their very first customer or securing the lowest amount of capital needed to begin.
“But all the meanwhile, while you’re doing that,” he explains, “you’re thinking, ‘What am I going to be?’ But start here and think there.”
He also offers a practical tip for finding a viable business idea: find something you love to do that other people hate to do. It’s a formula for finding a niche in the service economy, a way to turn a personal skill or passion into a sustainable enterprise.
After a session of questions and answers, the inmates leave with their assignments, their minds buzzing with possibilities.
Self-Awareness & Determination
Among them is Carlos Thomas. At 65 years old, he has been incarcerated since 1986 and is scheduled for release in 2026. Despite the decades he has spent behind bars for a rape conviction, his dream has not faded. He plans to establish “Carlos, Inc.,” a cleaning service that will tackle the jobs others avoid.
“A lot of cleaning things that probably society doesn’t like to do, that I took up since I’ve been in here, and I’m an excellent cleaner,” he says with confidence.
Thomas is candid about his past, acknowledging the mistakes that led him to prison.
“I know I was doing bad things out there in society back in the days when I was in my twenties,” he reflects. “But sometimes it takes this to grow up in here to really find yourself and be a true man.”
It is this type of self-awareness and determination that Hamilton says makes his job easy.
“By the time people get to us, they want change in their life,” he says. “The biggest thing, the biggest obstacle we have is what’s up here,” he adds, pointing to his head.
For men like Thomas, the program is not just about business plans and marketing. The first focus is rebuilding a sense of self-worth and purpose.
“I’ve learned my lesson,” Thomas says. “It took this to make me a better man.”
The results of the Inmates to Entrepreneurs program are promising. According to the organization, for every ten inmates who take their eight-week online course, seven complete it, and about half of those graduates go on to start their own business.
More Than Just a Second Chance
This model offers a path to economic independence and a way to break the cycle of recidivism.
By empowering these men to build something of their own, the program gives them a stake in their communities and a reason to believe in a different future.
For Carlos Thomas, that future is one where society is reintroduced not just to a better man, but to a better entrepreneur, ready to build a new life, one cleaning job at a time.
Read on Fox 8 Local News.
