Prison Warden advocating change - Brian Koehn

What happens when a 28-year corrections veteran walks into a prison and realizes the entire system is fundamentally broken?

When I sat down with Brian Koehn, co-founder and CEO of Social Purpose Corrections, I expected to hear about prison reform from someone who’d climbed the ranks. What I didn’t expect was to meet a former warden who’d completely dismantled his own beliefs about how corrections should work.

Brian spent 28 years in the system, including 14 years as a warden across five separate facilities. He’s seen it all, from startup private prisons in rural Minnesota to maximum security facilities housing thousands. But somewhere along the way, this Marine veteran and Ironman triathlete had an awakening that would change everything.

From Marine to Warden: The Accidental Career

Brian’s path into corrections wasn’t planned. “I would argue that nobody ever said when I grow up I want to work in a prison,” he told me. Fresh out of the Marines at 25, he took what he thought would be a summer job at a private prison in Appleton, Minnesota, just until he figured out his next move.

“I took a job in middle of nowhere Appleton Minnesota… without really knowing understanding what I was getting myself into,” Brian explained. The structured, military-style environment felt familiar, and before he knew it, he was hooked. The people business drew him in, even if his initial motivations weren’t entirely pure.

He rose through the ranks quickly, becoming a problem-solver and tactical response specialist. When riots broke out or hostages were taken, they called Brian. By 42, he was running entire facilities as a warden, essentially serving as a city manager for populations that didn’t want to be there.

The Lightbulb Moment: Running Cities Behind Bars

As Brian walked the housing units daily, talking to both staff and residents, patterns emerged that couldn’t be ignored. The statistics were damning: two-thirds recidivism rate, correctional officer life expectancy of just 59 years, and violence that cost $177,000 per incident.

“How do you fail two-thirds of the time and still exist?” Brian asked himself. The question haunted him as he managed what he calls “a city where the whole population didn’t want to be there.”

His background in private corrections gave him a unique perspective, he had to understand root causes, not just apply band-aids. The profit motive demanded efficiency, which meant getting to the heart of why prisons were failing so spectacularly.

The breaking point came when he realized the fundamental contradiction: “Corrections isn’t about correcting. Corrections is about warehousing and punishment.” Everything about the system, from officer uniforms to concrete walls to racial segregation, reinforced an us-versus-them mentality that set everyone up for failure.

The Norway Model Meets American Reality

Brian’s solution isn’t theoretical, it’s based on proven models from places like Norway, which reduced recidivism from 91% to 21%. The key isn’t just throwing money at the problem; it’s completely rewiring the culture through three core principles.

First, dynamic security instead of static security. Rather than relying solely on razor wire and guns, officers build professional relationships with residents. Second, normality, operating the inside as much like the free world as possible. Third, the import model, bringing the community into the prison instead of hiding it away.

“What we do is we pull the officers off the field and we put them on the sideline as coaches and encouragers,” Brian explained, using a football analogy. “You don’t do it on the field stopping them from moving forward, do it on the sideline as an encourager, as a coach.”

His nonprofit model takes any revenue generated and reinvests it directly into programs: drug rehabilitation, job training, mental health treatment, and real re-entry preparation that includes housing and employment upon release.

The vision is bold: What if people left prison with jobs and housing instead of $50 and a bus ticket? What if maximum security inmates got the same preparation as minimum security? What if 95% of people getting out were actually prepared to stay out?

Brian isn’t just theorizing, he’s building the infrastructure to prove it works. With backing from major funders and a team that includes formerly incarcerated individuals alongside corrections veterans, Social Purpose Corrections is positioning itself to disrupt an industry that’s been failing for decades.