Correctional facility inmates graduate business
program
2 dozen complete
course taught by counselors from the Small Business Development
Center
Staten Island Advance - June 2, 2005
Jaffar Abbas' business plan is to cater to the needs of the nation's
prison population.
"I'd sell things like boots, or these sneakers -- a real bargain at
only $29," Abbas said pointing to his purple and white sneakers by
Michael Jordan. After 23 years in prison, "I've gotten to know what
everybody needs," said Abbas, who hopes to be paroled in 2007.
Abbas was among nearly two dozen inmates attending their graduation
ceremony yesterday in the Arthur Kill Correctional Facility,
Charleston. They had successfully completed a nine-month business
course at the facility, taught by counselors from the Small Business
Development Center (SBDC), based at the College of Staten Island.
Patrick Jabbour's business plan for a vehicle registration service
was also directly inspired by his prison term. Jabbour is among 47
inmates working the phone lines at the state Department of Motor
Vehicles' call-center branch, based at Arthur Kill.
All their problems that he found answers to inspired his plan "to
register people's boats, cars, trailers -- so that people don't have
to take off from work and lose a day's pay, or even two days if the
problem can't be immediately resolved," Jabbour said.
HOME-BASED ENTERPRISE
He would base his business out of his home area of Seldon, L. I.,
after he completes his three and a half year term next year (for
attempted burglary), Jabbour said. "I really want to do this for my
daughter, Amanda."
Twenty four graduates completed the course, the largest class at
Arthur Kill since the SBDC began the program five years ago, said
Martin Schwartz, SBDC director. Assisting him were SBDC business
advisers John Blohm and Robert Stein.
The program began five years ago to serve incarcerated veterans, and
was later expanded to include a number of nonveterans. To date, the
number of inmates served is over 145, Schwartz said.
Inmates' superior performance over the past five years has inspired
"hope that we can get more programs for you," said Ed Adler, deputy
superintendent for programs at Arthur Kill. Plans are under way to
start a graduate equivalency diploma (GED) program. "And we would
love to have a college program, but we would need to get a private
college to come in, or a sponsor (to fund it)," Adler said.
At yesterday's event, 19 inmates received certificates for
completing the Small Business Management Certificate Program, and
five received certificates for completing the advanced program,
Schwartz said of the training sessions that began last October.
Meetings were generally every other week, but at least once a month.
BUSINESS PLANS
Inmates were instructed as a group, then individually. Each inmate
was given a business-plan outline and then taught how to develop
one. The advisers met with each participant individually and
critiqued the section that had been assigned, and then the inmates
made corrections accordingly.
At the end of the program, each participant had a professionally
developed business plan that included starting a real estate
brokerage, sign-language video service, recording studio, sports
apparel sales firm, chicken and ribs eatery, construction and home
remodeling.
Schwartz cited Michael Brown's idea for an art reproductions
business as "the best business plan."
"I'm an artist for over 25 years," said Brown, having done oil and
acrylic paintings, and colored pencil drawings of street scenes in
East Flatbush, Brooklyn, where he grew up, and of Prospect Park and
Coney Island where he often visited.
Brown plans to market print reproductions of his own work,
advertising on the Internet, after getting out of prison, "I hope in
early 2007," he said.
The SBDC at CSI is part of the state's 23 regional not-for-profit
SBDCs, which offer free business counseling in partnership with the
U.S. Small Business Administration, State University of New York and
City University of New York.
By
Carolyn Rushefsky
Reprinted here with permission from the
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