Twenty-first century business leaders are shining a bright light on the high-tech highway of the future by mentoring seven incarcerated entrepreneurs, helping them navigate the road towards their American dream.
The Last Mile gives men a chance to put their business talents and ideas into practice. The program is pushing the boundaries of what prisoners can accomplish, with an eye towards equaling entrepreneurial success in the free world.
Several of these business concepts, generated in a San Quentin cell, are raising eyebrows and attracting investors, thanks to venture capitalist and technology accelerating businessman Chris Redlitz and his high-powered, high tech friends—one of whom is not only a CEO of a wellness industry startup company, but also wife, Beverly Parenti.
The Last Mile pushes these men to take their concepts from a small, growing seed to a marketable product. The team of venture capitalists, including marketing research experts and social-media technology gurus, provide support in articulating and marketing these novel ideas. The latest program participants complete The Last Mile by giving their presentations to a large audience on Demo Day, Feb. 22.
The fi rst Demo Day last April graduated six men (one is now an outside entrepreneur), and was a huge success—even California’s First Lady attend the event and said she was impressed with all that incarcerated people can accomplish. In an effort to further shine the light of prisoners’ untapped worth, programs similar to The Last Mile are being proposed in other California prisons, in L.A. County Jail, and even other states.
Texas prisons have a program called the Prison Entrepeneurship Program, which also teaches prisoners techniques on how to develop their business ideas.
Chris Redlitz said, “We spend time here because there is talent that needs to be nurtured.” He notes that the men’s untapped talents are an underutilized resource in society. “We take what we do for entrepreneurs in the free world inside to these men.”
Redlitz also says once other business people come inside to give their time, “not a single volunteer has left without the same excitement I’ve had for what we’re doing here and each one acts like an evangelist to encourage more volunteers.”