About 30 inmates at Davidson Correctional Center spent their Tuesday afternoon preparing for life after prison, and learning how to tackle one of the most difficult situations they will face after life behind bars — finding employment.
Brian Hamilton, founder of Inmates to Entrepreneurs, brought the nonprofit program dedicated to teaching people with criminal records how to start their own businesses, to Davidson Correctional Center. The idea to begin the nonprofit hit Hamilton over three decades ago when he was visiting inmates at Orange Correctional Center with his friend, the Rev. Robert Harris. Hamilton, an Irish Catholic, and Harris, a Bible-welding Baptist, were an odd couple with a common cause to visit with inmates and bring hope for a new beginning once they were no longer incarcerated.
“Robert had finished his Bible study and I was talking with an inmate during the break and asked him what he wanted to do when he got out of there,” Hamilton recalled. “He said he wanted to get a job. I thought, “That might be difficult.’ It’s not impossible, but it will be difficult. That was the lightbulb moment for Inmates to Entrepreneurs.
In an hour and half, Hamilton walked the inmates through the process of how they can start their own business instead of waiting on a business owner willing to give them a chance after incarceration. Hamilton’s objective is to use entrepreneurship as a tool to prevent recidivism and provide financial stability/economic opportunity to individuals after incarceration. He explained he has never been incarcerated, but he has begun many businesses.
The inmates were engaged, asking multiple questions about what the first step should be to create a business, what type of business they should start, when they should hire employees and how to calculate how much to charge for a job. They worked with Hamilton on opening a fictitious house painting business.
Hamilton explained that the best jobs former inmates can turn into businesses are service jobs that other people either do not want to do or do not have the skills to do themselves.
Additionally, he explained that getting the first job will be the most challenging, but if they show up on time, do a good job and are courteous, they will be successful.
“I know these all sound like easy, simple things, but in today’s workforce, those are some of the hardest things for business owners and why they fail,” Hamilton said. “Show up when you say you will, be courteous and do what you are paid to do.”
“I’m going to share with them businesses they can start for $300 or less and I am really about service-related jobs such as landscaping, janitorial, window washing, painting, pool service, plumbing or floor installation,” he said before the inmates arrived. “Usually, 20 to 30 percent of the people who come in to this class have already started a business before their incarceration.”
Jerry Laws, the prison warden, said the facility wants to offer programs like Hamilton’s that help inmates adapt when re-entering society after incarceration.
“A majority of the inmates here are re-entering into Davidson County or one of the neighboring counties,” he said.
Hamilton encouraged the men to take baby steps when creating a business and have a business plan.
Inmates can also sign up and take for free Inmates to Entrepreneurs’ eight-week online course that goes into more details about starting, running and growing a business. Sixty percent of the program’s volunteers are former inmates and 100 percent of the mentors are former inmates.
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