Can entrepreneurship reduce California's prison population, crime in the community, and prevent young people from engaging in criminal activity? First lets look at the statistics.
| Budget: | $8.75 billion (2006-2007 Budget Act) |
|---|---|
| Avg. yearly cost: | per inmate, $35,587; per parolee, $4,338 |
| Staff: | 57,641 currently employed including 48,769 in Institutions, 3,338 in Parole, and 5,534 in Administration (32,772 sworn peace officers) |
| Total offenders under CDCR jurisdiction: | <>323,203; One year change: +10,932 (3.5%) |
These numbers indicate that reducing the prison population by even 5% can produce significant savings to the state of California.
With almost 1/3 of the prison population from Los Angeles county it would seem that this is a good place to start working on the problem. Reducing the prison population by preventing young people from entering a life of crime and providing work for those leaving the prisons, is a viable solution through entrepreneurial training. One of the major problems released prisoners face is the fact that few employers will trust a parolee. Regardless of how much job training they receive in prison if they cannot find a job when they get out then they are most likely to return to a life of crime and wind up back in the system.
Many of those who are in prison have already shown entrepreneurial skills. They are risk takers, they may have sold drugs or stolen property in the past and they understand basic entrepreneurial principles; customer service, supply and demand, sales volume, discounting, reinvesting in the business to increase sales, the importance of location, the list goes on. These individuals are also less likely to make good employees. They have had the experience of being the boss, and taking orders is often more difficult for them.
