PHILLIPS: Mark Goldsmith spent his corporate career making you look good. But after three decades in the cosmetics business, he decided to help ex-cons stay out of prison.

Mary Snow has this week's Life After Work.

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MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Prison -- for those who enter, the odds are there will be a return visit upon release.

MARK GOLDSMITH, CEO, GETTING OUT AND STAYING OUT: The recidivism rate at Rikers is 66 percent. Two out of three guys end up going back who have been there before. In our classes, we talk to them about that.

SNOW: Mark Goldsmith is the cofounder and CEO of Getting Out and Staying Out.

GOLDSMITH: And then we tell them our statistics. Of the 250 guys who have taken this program seriously, no more than 25 have gone back. So that's 10 percent.

SNOW: His New York City nonprofit assists 18 to 24-year-old inmates with education and job training.

GOLDSMITH: They've entered a jail and eventually some will be going to prison upstate. And within those confines, I'm talking to them about what it's going to be like when they get out. It's very future oriented, rather than past.

SNOW: Goldsmith's past was as an executive in the cosmetics industry, where he worked 35 years prior to retirement. Volunteering as a principal for the day at a prison school opened his eyes to the revolving door problem. So Goldsmith designed a solution to work with prisoners while they're locked up and when they get out.

GOLDSMITH: We are there for them as they go through the process of applying for school.

How do you apply for a job?

What does that application look like?

How do you handle the fact that you've been incarcerated?

We don't just tell them what's out there. We help guide them through the process. And when I get back from those guys, once that process starts to happen, are rewards I never ever got in the corporate world.

SNOW: Mary Snow, CNN.