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| Inmates Turn Donated Vehicles Into Gifts |
| By Hartford Courant |
| Published: 11/08/2002 |
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Connecticut prison officials are taking part in a program that teaches inmates at the Manson Youth Institution vocational skills and allows low-income families to get reliable and safe cars. The prison recently joined the Lutheran Social Services of Southern New England's Good News Garage program. Inmates fix cars donated to the program. Organizers then give the cars to people who are moving from welfare to work, said Josanna B. Hazen, the organization's director of community services. Inmates recently took a 1990 Ford Taurus that had a crumpled front end and trunk and converted it into a dent-free roadworthy vehicle. 'It looked like a $300 piece of junk,' said Rey Ouellette, the facility's automobile technology instructor. Prison officials recently gave the keys to the Taurus - the facility's first complete car - back to the Lutheran officials. 'These kids feel good about giving something back to the community, and hopefully, these cars will go to someone who can really use them,' said Doug Castle, who runs the prison's body shop. The Lutherans teamed up with Manson Youth to have inmates repair some cars to save on labor costs and to help the incarcerated young men gain valuable work experience. The Lutheran program started in Vermont in 1996. The organization opened its first Connecticut office in Hartford earlier this year, and is in the midst of launching an office in New Haven. Hazen said the difference between the Lutherans' program and other charities that ask for donations of vehicles is that they don't liquidate the cars for cash. They have already given out 43 cars in Connecticut so far this year. Their goal is to give out about 200 annually. 'We consider this an economic development program in which everybody wins,' said Hazen. Before joining with the Lutherans, inmates at Manson usually worked on scrap vehicles. Now, they get to diagnose and repair vehicles that will be returned to the road. |
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