More than one-third of the 600,000-plus people released from incarceration each year will return to prison within three years. While there are many factors behind this failure, the largest is a lack of work for ex-offenders. People leaving prison are faced with thousands of harsh, overly broad occupational licensing restrictions that keep them out of work.

Since 2004, the Texas-based Prison Entrepreneurship Program has found a way to promote work over crime by encouraging entrepreneurship, both while inmates are incarcerated and while they are readjusting to society. The participants take classes and work with outside mentors to develop business plans for industries across the board, from technology platforms to automobile repair shops.