The founder of the nationally acclaimed Prison Entrepreneurship Program abruptly resigned after she was banned from entering state prisons for having improper relationships with four ex-convicts who graduated from her program, reports the Austin American-Statesman. Catherine Rohr, 32, who founded the Houston-based program five years ago, acknowledged that “mistakes in my personal life involved inappropriately close relationships with four free men who were also PEP graduates.”
“Our policies are clear: Volunteers cannot have personal or intimate relationships with current or former offenders,” said a corrections department spokeswoman. Rohr, a former Wall Street venture capitalist, had been widely credited with training felons in how to start businesses and become successful once they left prison. Rohr recruited support from Fortune 500 companies and executives, and her claimed successes made headlines in Texas Monthly, The New York Times, “NBC Nightly News” and other national news outlets.