About
Joshua J. Smith is the former Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, sworn in in June 2025 and the first person appointed to senior BOP leadership after serving time in its custody. He oversaw 122 facilities, 36,000 staff and the care of over 156,000 people, and resigned in August 2026 after just over a year in the role.
Before his appointment, Smith built a career as an entrepreneur, invested $10 million of his own money to found the Fourth Purpose Foundation, and launched Prison Life Media, both dedicated to making prison a place of transformation. He delivered the 2026 keynote.
At the White Collar Conference
Joshua J. Smith described growing up in Tennessee, his drug conviction at 21 and the white-collar inmates at the federal prison camp in Manchester, Kentucky, who taught him banking and accounting. He told how he built a home improvement business that hired people coming out of prison, sold it to put $10 million into the Fourth Purpose Foundation, and later received a presidential pardon. He then recounted his time as deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, when he visited 71 prisons and replaced most of the executive staff, and he asked listeners to find ways to volunteer inside prisons.
“My mentality had changed, but my reality was the same.”
Watch at 11:06
“I'd rather feed starving kids than to give you that kind of money to try to maybe get me a pardon.”
Watch at 21:27
“Those are the ones that I elevated that actually care, that know how to hold accountable, but that also knows how to care.”
Watch at 28:42
Chapters
- 0:00 Introduction by Jeff Grant
- 2:12 Childhood and a drug conviction
- 4:10 Prison, faith and white-collar mentors
- 9:50 Solitary housing and starting over at release
- 13:36 Building a business and going back into prisons
- 18:42 Selling the company and funding a foundation
- 20:07 Receiving a presidential pardon
- 22:28 Being asked to help lead the Bureau of Prisons
- 25:11 Visiting prisons and changing leadership
- 30:47 What comes next for prisons
- 33:19 The Disruptors documentary and Missouri
- 35:30 A challenge to give back
With Jeff Grant
Join us in fall 2027.
The fourth annual White Collar Conference is planned for fall 2027, virtual on Zoom and open to all.