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| Prison Crafts Fill Need |
| By Winfield Daily Courier |
| Published: 04/01/2003 |
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Ruth Berry searched for months, looking through catalogue after catalogue, for the right furniture to fit her tiny office at the Winfield (Kan.) Police Department. Recently retired from her position as secretary for Police Chief Larry Dobbs, Berry met with little success until she happened upon a service offered by a group of craftsmen at the Winfield Correctional Facility. After learning the facility's workshop had built custom desks for Cowley County Community Corrections, she ordered a computer station, filing cabinet and hutch. The blond oak desk they built for her added much-needed storage space in the 6-foot by 12-foot room and fit quite comfortably. Now that she has retired, Berry regrets having to leave the custom desk behind after only using it for a few months. At one point she even asked Dobbs if she could take it with her. 'It fits nice,' Berry said Thursday, just hours after her retirement party. 'It's very nice. I enjoyed using it. I had no idea I would have all this space.' Led by carpenter and facility maintenance supervisor Larry Lanman, about 15 inmates serve in the WCF's woodworking shop. Since the facility's beginnings in 1984, a carpenter's shop has always supplied office furniture such as desks, computer stations, cabinets and picture frames for on-site offices. Just recently, the WCF began offering its services to other governmental agencies in Winfield. The offices ordering furniture pay for materials, and the crafters provide the labor, free of charge. 'We know money is pretty tight, and we've been able to meet some of their needs through our carpentry shop,' explained the facility's public information officer, Robbie Reynolds. According to Reynolds and Lanman, the carpentry shop only offers outside services when the men have extra time. But since last fall, the group has built a plethora of sturdy oak office furniture for the Winfield Police Department, Cowley County Community Corrections and offices in the county courthouse. When Lanman gets a call asking for his department's services, he and a few of the inmates go to the office and take measurements and talk about what kind of furniture is needed. With the measurements in hand, they go back to the facility and draw up blueprints especially for that office's needs. 'They are doing very quality work,' said Lanman. 'I don't let them just throw stuff together. It takes time.' A large computer station or L-shaped desk takes one inmate about 50 hours to complete. The carpentry program is just one example of how the inmates keep the facility running. Inmates build furniture, do laundry, repair vehicles and prepare food. 'The inmates do 95 percent of the upkeep here,' said Lanman. 'Very rarely do we call in a technician.' Besides being a service to the facility, the crafts shop is a service to the inmates. Those participating build skills they can use to gain employment once they are released from prison. 'I've been doing carpentry forever, and my philosophy when I came here was to give these guys a skill that they could take out of here,' said Lanman, who began working at the facility four years ago. 'I knew they could find work doing it.' With the skills they learn in his shop, Lanman said inmates can go on to work in all areas of construction, from building houses to creating custom kitchens in million-dollar homes. 'Many of them comment how thrilled they are that they got to learn it (carpentry) and comment that they are going to pursue it when they leave,' Lanman said. Lanman admits he doesn't know if any of his former workshop students have gone on to hold related jobs, but he has seen some inmates excel through his teachings. 'One guy when he came down and started he couldn't read a tape measure, and he built the first desks that went to community corrections,' remembered Lanman. 'He was really good.' Inmates work in a shop stocked with table saws, routers, shapers and wood planes. Lanman and Reynolds stress, however, this is not officially a 'program' offered by the facility, but is, in fact, a very small-scale service. Other state prisons, such as the one in El Dorado, have full-fledged vocational schools that teach carpentry and sell the furniture made there for a profit. The WCF program, however, is very small in comparison, they said. Our workshop 'is not even comparable,' said Reynolds. 'They (the other state prisons) are so swamped with work they can't keep up,' added Lanman. 'It's not like we're taking work from them. They can't keep up with what's being asked of them.' In the shop Lanman teaches which woods are easy to work with and which ones pose more challenges. The men work mostly with oak, but sometimes pine and walnut. With the scraps that are left over, Lanman lets the inmates use their imaginations. Some have put together elaborate bird houses, wooden bowls and plaques. Recently the inmates have been working on wooden trucks and excavators, toys they will donate to Toys for Tots. Back at the police station, Dobbs is devising another plan for some custom work. With the new bike patrol starting next month, the department is looking for the best way to store the bicycles. Lanman will get to decide if his team is up to the challenge. |
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