Not your typical classroom: A look inside a prison-based business class
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PUEBLO, Colo. — As her teacher called out the groups that will be working together on the final project, Jael squealed with excitement and flashed a smile at Hannah, her roommate. They just found out they’re in the same group.
The exchange reads like a scene from a college classroom. But it took place in the gym at La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo, Colorado, where Jael and Hannah are incarcerated.
Both are participants in Breakthrough's "The Challenge" program, during which incarcerated people in Colorado learn entrepreneurship skills.
Over the course of the 8-month program, participants attend four “milestone” events to practice their skills with a group of volunteers from outside the facility.
Between these events, participants attend weekly classes, led by Breakthrough educational associate Maggie Curran-Levett. These classes make up the bulk of the program.
The classes, about two hours long each week, require the most commitment from participants. But they’re also where participants – and Curran-Levett – notice their skills improving week over week.
“They are some of the most strong individuals I have encountered,” Curran-Levett said about her current class at La Vista Correctional Facility. “They are so committed to the material at hand. They really lift one another up in a way that inspires me. They are so accountable to the material, to the curriculum, to working together outside of class time, and that collaborative spirit feels really new for this group.”
Formerly incarcerated people experience higher rates of unemployment than people who haven’t been incarcerated. A four-year study from the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported an unemployment rate of around 60% for formerly incarcerated people nationwide, which was six times higher than the national average at the time.
Women in this study were more likely to find jobs but with notably lower salaries than their male counterparts. (Other studies from around that time did report higher rates of unemployment among formerly incarcerated women, especially Black women.)
In 2023, Breakthrough reported an 8% unemployment rate among program graduates, which is much closer to the national average. When people have a stable job, they are less likely to reoffend and return to prison. Giving incarcerated people the tools to succeed in the job market can be beneficial for taxpayers’ pockets and overall safety.
For Breakthrough participant Jael, 31, collaboration is a new muscle she’s learning to flex.
Jael said she looks forward to going to class because she can see the progress she and her classmates are making.
“I'm learning how to be a better team player and how to be more open to other people's suggestions and ideas,” Jael said. “I'm learning that listening is a skill. I've always felt like if you're in a leadership role, you're supposed to be the one that is making all of the decisions. But I'm learning that what others have to bring to the table…can serve value.”
Working with her peers is actually Jael’s self-described “hack” for getting her homework done between classes, which she said was difficult for her at first to handle.
“We're kind of just bouncing ideas off of each other,” Jael said about her weekly study groups. “With that kind of creativity and that kind of circle, it does help us to get it done. It didn't feel like I was doing homework for hours because there's still engagement in between.”
Rocky Mountain PBS first spoke with Jael in June at the program’s Mock Interview Day, where participants got feedback on their resumes, cover letters and interview skills.
Jael said she started to see the fruits of her labor after that experience, when she got her revised resume and cover letter back.
“When you see [your resume] on paper and you feel like, ‘man, I'm going to be handing this to an employer and man, this looks good’ – those kind of payoffs just make it worth it to keep going,” Jael said.
“Let's go next week. Let's see what they have in store for us.”
Participants have entered the final portion of the program, which focuses on the “entrepreneurial mindset.”
At the most recent program event, called Business Pitch Bootcamp, participants gave elevator pitches for their own business ideas.
During the following class session, Curran-Levett divided the participants into five teams, based on how they ranked their classmates’ business ideas’ marketability.
The five most marketable ideas will be developed into business plans that each group will present at their graduation ceremony in October.
Vanessa’s idea was deemed one of the most marketable.
“It was nerve wracking, but honestly, really exciting because I know what I'm talking about and I really feel like people can benefit from this,” Vanessa said. “The fact that people see value in this is very encouraging.”
Vanessa is a licensed neuromuscular massage therapist. Her business idea is about providing trauma-informed massage therapy, which is massage specifically designed to treat trauma held in the body through touch and movement.
Vanessa said she’s thrilled about the different perspectives and expertise that the members on her team can bring to the idea, from knowledge about the medical field to experience with therapeutic massage.
Though Vanessa isn’t quick to think of herself as a leader, Curran-Levett certainly sees her that way.
“I've really seen Vanessa come into herself and feel confident in the way in which she interacts with everyone, as her idea is one of the business ideas that's advancing,” Curran-Levett said. “She has really stepped up as a leader in the community and offers her insight. She really raises her voice whenever we have questions.”
Jael’s roommate is another one of the chosen five. Their business idea is to create a platform for incarcerated people to sell their crafts to the public, such as crocheted goods and quilts.
Jael said she believes in this idea because it would give incarcerated people the opportunity to make money and be more self-sufficient, rather than relying on money from family and friends to pay for necessities inside prison.
In general, Jael is a proponent of what she called the “entrepreneurship mindset spirit.”
“I believe that everyone should be the CEO of their own business and lives, and I love that that's what this program promotes,” Jael said. “If prison allows you to lose sight of that, then you have Breakthrough to come in and say, ‘You're still a boss.’”
Curran-Levett said many participants, including Jael, are particularly interested in the business development portion of the program. Breakthrough’s program has a reputation of being the “Shark Tank of prison,” as Curran-Levett puts it.
But months before participants began brainstorming business ideas, the classes focused on building soft skills, like empathy, confidence and stress management, as building blocks for the future portions of the program.
“They seem rudimentary,” Curran-Levett said. “They seem kind of easy, to talk about empathy or to talk about self-confidence. But really, when we get into the weeds of developing those skills, people really resonate with that skill development and it turns out to be one of their most favorite portions of the program in the end.”
Vanessa is one of those people. She didn’t understand the focus on the soft skills at first, but now recognizes their value.
“At the beginning, you're like, what am I going to need to learn about vulnerability and empathy and being authentic and identifying distortive thinking?” Vanessa said. “Why do I need to do this if we're talking about entrepreneurship? Now I see why. Everything has really come together, full scope.”
Building skills in empathy and compassion will help when thinking about potential customers and their needs, Vanessa said. But it also helped her connect with her peers in a meaningful way.
“Prison isn’t an environment where it's easy to be vulnerable, and it has been demanded of us, but it's certainly necessary, in this process, to be vulnerable with yourself and with others,” Vanessa said. “That has been really rewarding, over the course of the past several months, growing together, supporting each other, like, ‘Hey, I love your business idea. This is why I chose to be on your team.’”
“We're coming down to crunch time, and it's going to be bittersweet when it ends.”
The participants will present their final business pitches at their graduation event at the end of October. Rocky Mountain PBS will continue to follow this cohort throughout the program.