Parker coffee shop owner builds business around second chances and redemption

Dan Klehm has turned Convict Coffee Company into more than a Parker coffee stop. The business, which he opened in April 2024, is built around a simple message: people with criminal records can still build something useful, visible and profitable in Douglas County. Klehm’s public image is part of the brand, too. Axios described him as Parker’s most colorful coffee shop owner, living out of a used Ram ProMaster van with a vanity plate reading CON.

Klehm did not come out of the coffee world. Denver7 reported that he previously held executive titles with Applebee’s, Illegal Pete’s and Cheba Hut, and that he had planned to retire before deciding to launch his own business after seeing a need in the community. That shift matters because it turns Convict Coffee into a career change with a public mission, not a novelty concept or side hustle.

The company’s own site makes the workforce angle explicit. Convict Coffee says it is focused on “recidivism reduction,” that its people are “the mission,” and that it hires with intention, trains with care and builds pathways out of the margins. It also says it wants to reduce recidivism through everything it does and that its workers are not just labor but part of the mission.

That makes the shop relevant well beyond espresso drinks. 9News reported that Convict Coffee focuses on helping formerly incarcerated people succeed in society, while Denver7 said the company’s mission is to change the public’s perception of people who were previously incarcerated. The business is trying to translate its brand into hiring and second-chance employment, and the company’s site reinforces that by saying it wants to create pathways and pay a living wage.

Convict Coffee has also become part of Parker’s local business mix. Its original coffee bar sits at 19519 E Parker Square Dr., with hours of 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends. 9News included Convict Coffee Company in its 2025 Douglas County Brew Tour alongside other local stops, placing the shop squarely in the county’s growing coffee-and-tea scene.

The larger point is economic as much as personal. Axios has reported that stigma and legal barriers can make jobs, housing and transportation hard to secure after prison, which helps explain why Klehm’s Parker shop resonates: it is trying to turn reintegration from an abstract policy issue into a working business model. The company says it has raised more than $150,000 for causes that change lives, a sign that the second-chance message is being pushed into the community, not just printed on the cup.