Seeing inmates as individuals, not numbers

Manufacturing Hope Inside a Maximum Security Prison

What happens when a faith-driven entrepreneur moves his manufacturing business inside prison walls? Pete Ochs did exactly that — and what started as a labor solution became one of the most remarkable stories of business as mission in the modern faith-and-work movement.

Main Topics:

• How Pete moved his manufacturing company into a maximum security prison in Hutchinson, Kansas — and what happened next
• The "triple bottom line" framework of economic, social, and spiritual capital that guides all of Pete's business decisions
• The transformational power of a job: why employment is one of the most powerful upstream solutions to recidivism, hopelessness, and broken communities
• The "how much is enough?" question — and how Pete and a group of peers built a 25-year commitment around capping lifestyle and stewarding the delta
• Why generosity is a subset of stewardship — and how inmates at Sea King out-give their civilian counterparts three to one

Guest Quotes:

"When you give a man a job and have high expectations for him, and then love him like you love yourself, really befriend him, and then talk about a purpose in life — powerful things happen. It is amazing." — Pete Ochs

"I thought the purpose of business was to make money and give it away… God really reoriented me to what true stewardship is. I really think generosity is a subset of stewardship." — Pete Ochs

"It's an unbelievable thing to see a man that has no hope come to hope. I think business is really about people. I think we should be in business to really transform society." — Pete Ochs

Description:

Pete Ochs didn't set out to change the prison system. In 2005, he needed entry-level labor for his rapidly growing manufacturing company in Hutchinson, Kansas. A work release program gave him ten inmates. He wanted twenty more. Instead, he got an offer: move part of his business inside a maximum security prison. Thirty days later, he did.

What followed was a 20-year journey that would reshape Pete's understanding of business, stewardship, generosity, and the gospel. Today, Sea King — the business Pete operates inside Hutchinson Correctional Facility — has seen men come to Christ, complete three-year seminary programs, raise $15,000 for a fellow inmate's mother whose house burned down, and walk out of prison as business owners. Two former gang leaders who once tried to kill each other now stand before 60 to 80 men daily, mentoring new inmates in the church Pete built inside the prison walls.

In this conversation with Justin Forman, Pete unpacks the "triple bottom line" of economic, social, and spiritual capital — and why leading with a job, not a sermon, is often the most powerful thing a faith-driven entrepreneur can do. He also shares the defining question that changed his life: How much is enough? — and what it looks like for entrepreneurs to cap their lifestyle, steward the delta, and finish well.

About the Guest: Pete Ochs is a businessman, entrepreneur, and advocate for prison ministry and business as mission. He is the founder of Capital III and operates manufacturing businesses — including Sea King and Capital Electric — inside the Hutchinson Correctional Facility in Kansas. Pete has spent more than 20 years championing the idea that business is one of the most powerful tools for human transformation and Kingdom impact.