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Fourth Purpose Foundation

From ReferenceBase
Fourth Purpose Foundation
Formation2019
FounderJosh Smith
TypeNonprofit organization
FocusCriminal justice reform; prisoner reentry
Location
  • Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.
Key people
Josh Smith (founder); Tony Parker (president)
Websitehttps://fourthpurpose.org/

Fourth Purpose Foundation (also styled 4th Purpose Foundation) is a criminal justice reform nonprofit based in Knoxville, Tennessee, that works to prepare incarcerated people for reentry and to promote rehabilitation-focused corrections.[1][2] It was founded in 2019 by Josh Smith, a businessman who had served a federal prison sentence before building and selling a Knoxville services company, using proceeds from that sale to fund the organization.[2][3] The foundation is faith-based and describes its mission as making prison "a place of transformation"; its name reflects a reframing of rehabilitation, conventionally described as the fourth purpose of incarceration, as transformation.[4][2] Its work has included reentry-focused supportive housing, media projects for incarcerated audiences, and corrections-policy advocacy.[5][6]

History

Josh Smith founded the Fourth Purpose Foundation in 2019 after selling Master Service Companies, a Knoxville-based residential waterproofing and foundation-repair business he had built to roughly $30 million in annual revenue and about 180 employees.[2][7] Smith, who had served a five-year federal sentence for drug trafficking before starting the company, committed a large share of the sale proceeds to the new nonprofit; reporting in 2019 put the initial commitment at about $8 million, while later accounts described a figure of $10 million or more.[3][8][9]

Smith and his wife, Tracy Smith, structured the foundation around a self-imposed limit on their personal net worth, an approach they attributed to Hobby Lobby founder David Green's book Giving It All Away, and said they intended the organization to sustain itself for roughly two decades without soliciting outside donations.[2] The foundation's initial board included the Smiths along with members who had leadership experience in criminal justice.[2]

The organization's name reflects a reframing of the purposes of incarceration: after retribution, incapacitation, and deterrence, the fourth is conventionally described as rehabilitation, which the foundation recasts as "transformation."[2][10]

Programs and media

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the foundation produced Visitation 2.0, a digital series intended to deliver messages of encouragement to incarcerated people while in-person visitation was suspended. It featured contributions from figures including Michael W. Smith, CeCe Winans, Common, Lecrae, Rick Warren, Andrew Young, and Alice Marie Johnson, and the foundation aimed to distribute episodes to thousands of prisons and jails.[6]

The foundation also partnered with filmmakers to screen Unguarded, a 2020 documentary about a rehabilitation-centered prison methodology, at correctional facilities in several states, including a 2021 screening at a jail in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana.[11]

Dogan-Gaither Flats

The foundation's first major capital project was Dogan-Gaither Flats, supportive housing for formerly incarcerated men in East Knoxville. Through an affiliated entity, the foundation purchased the former Dogan-Gaither Motor Court at 211 Jessamine Street for $500,000 in 2020 and renovated it into 16 one-bedroom apartments offering counseling, job placement, and transitional support.[5][1] The City of Knoxville contributed $480,000 through its Affordable Rental Development Fund, and the foundation reported investing several million dollars in the renovation.[5][9] A groundbreaking was held in March 2021 with state and local officials in attendance, including Tennessee Governor Bill Lee.[12] The completed building is leased to Men of Valor, a faith-based reentry organization that manages the residence and its programs.[5][13]

The building carries historical significance as one of Knoxville's Black-owned hotels during segregation. Listed in the Nationwide Hotel Association Directory and Guide to Travelers, a resource comparable to the Green Book, it hosted performers such as Ray Charles and Cab Calloway along with Freedom Riders; after urban renewal displaced its original site, it was rebuilt at the Jessamine Street location, completed in 1963.[10][5] The renovation, designed by Sanders Pace Architecture, received a 2025 AIA Housing Award.[10]

Leadership

Josh Smith is the foundation's founder and has served as its chief executive and principal public representative.[14][7] In June 2025, Smith was appointed deputy director of the federal Bureau of Prisons; the bureau and news outlets described him as the first formerly incarcerated person to hold a senior leadership role at the agency.[15][16] He had received a full presidential pardon from Donald Trump in January 2021.[16]

Tony Parker, a former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Correction and a past president of the American Correctional Association, serves as president of the Fourth Purpose Foundation.[17][18]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Crawford, Kirstie (January 28, 2021). "Fourth Purpose Foundation to renovate historic Dogan-Gaither motel into affordable housing for ex-offenders". WATE.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Hickman, Hayes (November 6, 2019). "Convict-turned-CEO sold his Knoxville business to help change prisoners' lives. Here's why". Knoxville News Sentinel.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Former inmate turned CEO launches foundation focused on prison reform". WVLT. November 6, 2019.
  4. ↑ King, Grace (November 10, 2019). "Knoxville man aims to change lives behind bars". WBIR.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 McDermott, Brenna (January 28, 2021). "Knoxville prison reform advocate will open 'place of accountability and hope' for ex-offenders". Knoxville News Sentinel.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Torres, Aaron (May 16, 2020). "Prison reform foundation launches new digital series to inspire inmates". Knoxville News Sentinel.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Becker, John (May 27, 2026). "From federal inmate to federal officer: How Josh Smith turned his life around". WBIR.
  8. ↑ "Man positively transformed by prison to speak to Altrusa Oak Ridge". The Oak Ridger. October 4, 2023.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "$7.3 Million Sale on Gay Street Should Lead to New Mixed Use Building". Inside of Knoxville. May 18, 2022.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Flynn, Katherine (February 28, 2024). "Dogan-Gaither Flats: From landmark motel to lifeline housing in Knoxville". AIA.
  11. ↑ Copp, Dan (June 1, 2021). "Lafourche jail inmates shown documentary about prison reform". The Courier – via Houma Today.
  12. ↑ "Groundbreaking for Dogan-Gaither Flats". Inside of Knoxville. March 8, 2021.
  13. ↑ Bohle, Ashley (September 19, 2022). "Knoxville program opens to help former inmates re-enter society". WVLT.
  14. ↑ Horzempa, Maggie (April 9, 2024). "Conservatives Lead the Charge for Criminal Justice Reform". Right on Crime.
  15. ↑ Mealins, Evan (June 9, 2025). "Tennessee prison reform advocate is first ex-inmate named to US prisons bureau leadership". Nashville Tennessean – via Yahoo News.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Ortiz, Erik; Kosnar, Michael (June 6, 2025). "Former federal inmate pardoned by Trump tapped as Bureau of Prisons deputy director". NBC News.
  17. ↑ Plazas, David (June 24, 2022). "Tennessee Voices, Episode 288: Tony Parker, former Department of Correction commissioner". The Tennessean – via Detroit News syndication.
  18. ↑ Parker, Tony (April 12, 2022). "Make the rehabilitation of Tennessee's former inmates personal". The Tennessean.
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