Business

Exploring the Impact of Education: How PFEF and Inmates Help Support Children of the Incarcerated and Parolees in Education

Published

2 years ago

August 28, 2024

Many people are aware that the United States incarcerates the highest number of inmates worldwide. However, most do not understand the impact this has on their community and society at large.

“The nation’s strict prison sentences are not solving problems; they are creating them,” says Percy Pitzer, founder of the Pitzer Family Education Foundation (PFEF). “Instead of making the world safer, strict incarceration rates breed cycles that perpetuate and even increase crime.”

When 1.8 million incarcerated Americans are released back into the community, more than two-thirds are quickly rearrested for new crimes. What’s more, incarceration breeds a new generation of problems. Compared to their peers, the more than 5 million US boys and girls who have at least one parent in prison are six times more likely to follow their parents into involvement with the criminal justice system.

PFEF believes that education is the key to breaking the cycles of recidivism and intergenerational incarceration. For children of incarcerated parents and former inmates, access to education has the power to alter the course of their lives. For parolees, it provides a path to re-enter society with dignity.

PFEF and the National Children of the Incarcerated Scholarship Program

As a retired warden with over four decades in the US correctional system, Percy Pitzer was no stranger to recidivism and intergenerational incarceration. “I saw the cycle everywhere I looked,” he remembers. “Each time I passed a child sitting with their parents in the visiting room, I knew I was probably looking into the eyes of a future client. Without proactive support, most inmates and their children are bound to be trapped by this powerful cycle.”

Children with a parent in prison are forced to navigate psychological challenges, care deficiencies, and financial hardships. These obstacles notably hinder their educational aspirations and future prospects.

PFEF intervenes through the National Children of the Incarcerated Scholarship Program to provide scholarships that enable these children to pursue higher education. By doing so, PFEF helps to break the cycle of generational incarceration, offering a lifeline to those affected by their parents’ actions.

Applications for the National Children of the Incarcerated Scholarship Program are accepted throughout the year on a first-come, first-served basis. PFEF staff assists with financial aid applications, as their primary goal is to ensure applicants receive the resources they need to become successful students.

PFEF’s commitment goes beyond financial support to encompass emotional and logistical assistance that enhances the overall educational experience for these children. To date, their efforts have provided over 190 scholarships to children of parolees and inmates nationwide. Most notably, they have seen 133 successful graduates complete their education.

Inmates join the contributions

An impactful aspect of PFEF’s work is its dedication to involving current inmates in the scholarship program. To date, inmates in 14 state departments of corrections have collectively donated $244,034 towards college tuition costs for children of the incarcerated, which allowed the foundation to award 190 scholarships.

“Even though inmates do not have large amounts of money to contribute individually, most are eager to rally behind this cause,” remarks Pitzer. “Collectively, their contributions can make a huge difference. Best of all, when they take an active role in supporting their children’s education, it fosters a sense of responsibility and purpose.”

Furthermore, Pitzer points out how education can enhance inmates’ mental abilities and diminish the anti-social mindsets linked to criminality.

“Numerous inmates have reported that education fostered their shift away from prison ideologies towards setting constructive goals and finding a significant path in life,” he says. “By contributing to these scholarships, inmates can help develop pro-social values crucial for successful reentry into society. They know that their contributions help break the cycle of generational incarceration and provide educational opportunities that their children would probably not receive otherwise.”

Impacting recidivism with financial aid for parolees

In addition to supporting children, PFEF extends its reach to parolees re-entering society through targeted financial aid programs. The foundation partners with Lamar State College and the ABC Training Academy to provide trade certificate courses that cater to a wide range of interests and skill sets. These include a one-and-a-half-year welding program, a three-year electrical program, a three-year pipe-fitting program, a nine-month course covering industrial carpentry, a three-year course in instrumentation, and a 10-week course in scaffold building.

Since its inception, PFEF has awarded financial aid to 1,328 paroled students for the ABC Training Academy and currently offers funding to 626 students. Over the years, it has assisted 187 graduates in rejoining society with the skills they need to find stable and well-paying jobs.

By breaking the cycle of incarceration through education, PFEF transforms individual lives and contributes to broader societal change. “When we put people behind bars, we do not solve our problems,” Pitzer concludes, “but when we educate them, we can help set inmates and their children on a new path. Education gives them the tools to rise above their circumstances and break the cycles that hold them back.”

Business

How Technology Drives Value Creation in Private Equity

Published

7 hours ago

April 29, 2026

Matthew Wiles

How technology drives value creation in private equity is now one of the most actively debated topics among institutional investors and fund managers. A decade ago, technology was largely a cost center in PE-backed companies. Today it sits at the center of margin improvement, revenue growth, and exit multiple expansion. Firms that figured this out early are generating better returns with less reliance on financial engineering.

The shift happened for a practical reason. As interest rates rose and deal multiples compressed, financial leverage stopped doing the heavy lifting. Operational improvement became the primary value creation lever. Technology accelerated what was possible within the ownership period.

How Technology Drives Value Creation in Private Equity Operations

Operational improvement through technology produces the most measurable results. PE firms apply technology tools to reduce costs, increase throughput, and improve decision-making speed inside their companies.

Digital Process Automation in PE-Backed Companies

Manual processes in back-office and production functions carry real costs. They consume labor, generate errors, and slow down the information flow that management teams depend on. Automation tools eliminate these costs without requiring headcount reductions that disrupt company culture.

The most impactful automation deployments in PE-backed operations include:

Accounts payable and receivable automation that compresses billing cycles and reduces days sales outstanding
Production scheduling software that reduces downtime and improves throughput in manufacturing environments
Inventory management systems that cut carrying costs by aligning purchasing with real-time demand signals
Quality control automation that reduces defect rates and warranty claims in product-based businesses

ZCG Consulting (“ZCGC”) works with companies across industrials, manufacturing, packaging, and consumer products to identify and implement automation programs tied to specific financial outcomes. The approach connects technology investment to measurable margin improvement rather than treating automation as a general upgrade.

Data Infrastructure as a Value Creation Tool

Many PE-backed companies arrive under new ownership with fragmented data systems. Different departments use different tools. Reporting requires manual consolidation. Leadership makes decisions with incomplete information.

Fixing that infrastructure creates immediate value. Integrated data systems give management teams real-time visibility into revenue, cost, and operational performance. That visibility accelerates decisions and surfaces problems before they become material.

James Zenni, founder and CEO of ZCG with over 30 years of capital markets experience, has consistently emphasized that information quality drives investment performance. That view shapes how ZCG approaches technology investment across the companies in its portfolio.

Technology Drives Value Creation in Private Equity Through Revenue Growth

Cost reduction gets most of the attention in PE operational improvement, but technology also drives revenue growth. The mechanisms are different, and they compound differently over a hold period.

E-Commerce and Digital Customer Acquisition

Companies that sell primarily through traditional channels often leave significant revenue on the table. Adding e-commerce capabilities or investing in digital customer acquisition expands the addressable market without proportional cost increases.

PE firms that invest in digital revenue channels generate higher growth rates during the hold period. That growth rate difference translates directly into exit multiple expansion.

Revenue growth technology applications in PE-backed companies include:

E-commerce platform buildouts that open direct-to-consumer channels alongside existing wholesale relationships
Customer relationship management systems that improve retention and increase repeat purchase rates
Digital marketing infrastructure that lowers customer acquisition costs through better targeting and attribution
Pricing optimization tools that identify margin improvement opportunities without volume loss

Technology-Enabled Customer Experience Improvements

Customer retention is cheaper than customer acquisition. Technology investments in customer experience, service speed, and product quality consistency reduce churn. Lower churn produces more predictable revenue. More predictable revenue supports higher exit valuations.

ZCG deploys Haptiq Technologies and Solutions, its 300-plus-person technology division, to support digital transformation across its companies. The platform was founded 20 years ago and manages approximately $8 billion in AUM. It brings implementation resources that most individual companies cannot afford to build internally. That capability gives ZCG’s companies faster access to technology improvements at lower execution risk.

Building Technology Capability Within PE-Backed Companies

Technology investment during the hold period creates value in two ways. It improves financial performance during ownership. It also makes the business more attractive to the next buyer.

Strategic buyers and later-stage PE funds pay premium multiples for companies with modern technology infrastructure. A business with integrated systems, clean data, and digital revenue channels commands a better price. A comparable business running on legacy platforms does not.

The ZCG Team structures technology investment as part of the initial value creation plan for each company. Priorities get set at entry based on the gap between current capability and acquirer expectations.

This pre-sale positioning approach changes how technology investment gets funded and sequenced during the hold period. Projects that improve financial performance and exit readiness simultaneously get prioritized. Projects with long payback periods that do not improve the sale narrative get deferred.

How technology drives value creation in private equity is ultimately about execution discipline. The tools matter less than the clarity of the financial objective each technology investment must achieve.