I've never heard of her outfit, though if it operates mainly inside prisons that isn't surprising. I don't encounter the activities of Prison Fellowship much either (an exception being their Christmas program to give gifts to the children of prisoners). OTOH, churches I've attended have supported - with $$ and volunteers - organizations like City Team and Innvision.
Anyway:
In December 2017, the company brought on Roger Gordon as its new president. Gordon is a lawyer who previously founded a food bank assistance company and chaired a nonprofit that employed more than 100 formerly incarcerated people. But by mid-January, Gordon said he had serious concerns about Hoke’s conduct and the success rates Defy claimed in presentations to donors.
On Jan. 16, Gordon took his concerns to the chair of Defy’s board. Three days later, he says, he was suspended, ordered to turn over all notes he’d taken on his first days of the job, and ordered not to talk to employees. While suspended, he took his concerns to officials at New York’s Walkill Correctional Facility where Defy has taught classes. Those concerns were documented in a letter reviewed by The Daily Beast. On Feb. 26, Defy fired Gordon citing his outreach to donors and employees.
...
Defy settled a complaint brought by a female former employee who said Hoke “reached her hand up the employee’s skirt twice at a company party,” according to Gordon’s letter to prison officials.
“The employee signed an NDA [nondisclosure agreement] prohibiting her from disclosing the incident or the existence of the NDA to anyone except the CEO, her husband or the COO,” Gordon’s letter continued. “Two employees who witnessed the assault were forced to relinquish their personal mobile phones and passwords” and were questioned by an attorney from Gordon & Rees.
...
It wasn’t the only time Hoke was accused of sexual harassment at Defy.
A former Defy client, Kenneth Maxwell, sued Hoke in 2015 alleging he was forced out of the program over his “refusal to consummate a personal and sexual relationship” with Hoke, according to his complaint. The lawsuit was dismissed after Maxwell failed to serve defendants with a summons and complaint.
Another female employee told The Daily Beast Hoke sexually harassed her during a business trip in 2014, insisting the woman share a bed with her.
Consider the timeline here: Gord came on in December, and was suspended in mid-January. IOW, all the concerns her raised and was apprised of
came to his attention in just 6 weeks. IOW, there were problems, and really big ones. It sounds like Catherine Hoke was close to being a sexual predator, preying on men and women.
It also sounds like she was misrepresenting the recidivism rate of her program as well. I'm not lawyer enough - not at all, actually - to know at what point "sales talk" becomes fraud. but I have a feeling that false statistics - if blatantly so - like that are at or over that line.
