May 29, 2006
Work detail | Bob Walden oversees the Maine State Prison program that puts inmates in the woodshop and their handiwork in a Thomaston showroom
By Chris Churchill
It's one of Maine's unusual attractions: A store crowded with wood products made by inmates of the state prison system. Goods likes dollhouses, cutting boards or incredibly intricate ships ˆ all available at prison-labor prices. The decades-old Thomaston store is a curiosity that many visit regularly, a must-see for tourists traveling Route One.
But being a Route One stalwart doesn't mean there haven't been changes in recent years. The 2002 relocation of the Thomaston penitentiary to Warren brought challenges both to the Maine State Prison showroom and the prison industries program that stocks its shelves. When the imposing old prison was razed in 2002, many Mainers and tourists believed the adjacent showroom went with it, causing a sales slump from which the store is just now recovering. Yet with the new prison came a brighter and more modern workshop that has increased production and allowed the program to take on custom orders, such as a current project building more than 100 bunks and 200 storage cubbies for a Maine summer camp.
Bob Walden, manager of prison industries at the Maine State Prison in Warren, oversees the prison industries program that supplies the Thomaston showroom ˆ by his reckoning, one of the best jobs in the state's prison system. In many respects, he's the CEO of a highly unusual business, one where the employees pass through metal detectors as they arrive at work and must be counted when they take lunch, where tools must be closely monitored, and where the workday actually provides a respite from the stresses and trials of the rest of the day for its employees.
The prison industries program generates nearly $1.6 million annually, Walden says, and though the program includes an upholstery division, the vast majority of that money, about $1.3 million, comes from the popular Route One store. That money pays the prisoners a modest wage, supports the self-sufficient program and continues the mission of teaching prisoners the pleasures of a day's hard work.
Mainebiz recently talked with Walden, who started with the prison system 14 years ago as a guard, about the Maine State Prison showroom and the changes the move to Warren has brought. An edited transcript of the conversation follows.
Mainebiz: What's the history of the prison showroom?
Walden: The store itself has been at its current location for approximately 55 years. Prior to that, we had a retail outlet across the street on Route One in Thomaston. And the prison for well over 100 years has had a prison industries program of one type or another.
At the turn of the century, we did a lot of work on buggies and harnesses and saddles and that kind of stuff. It gradually transitioned into wood products, and in the 30s and 40s it started translating into the small products and novelties that you see now. The ships started appearing in the 1950s, and that's one of the main things we're known for today.
Are there similar stores in other states?
It's unusual to have your own retail outlet. There are industries programs in lots of states that build wood products, but typically they're sold to other state agencies or other retail outlets. They don't do the selling.
We're primarily a self-funded program, except for a few staff positions. We pay for all our equipment, all our own materials, repairs, building maintenance ˆ we fund that all through sales from our store. All of our revenues stay within the program, making it a non-burden for the taxpayers.
How many prisoners participate?
Currently we have 180 prisoners on the payroll. And last year, we had over 240 who were a piece of the program at one time or another. Some come and some go. Everyone gets paid ˆ as little as $1 an hour and as much as $2.50 or $3 an hour, depending on skill levels. Crime restitution or child support comes off the top. A lot of guys send home money and help support their families.
We have one of the largest woodshops probably in the Northeast, if not the largest. Both for sheer headcount, but also because we produce 600 different wood products, which makes our product line extremely diverse. We do everything from birdhouses and doorknockers all the way up to cutting boards and hutches and bureaus and bookcases.
What's the workday like for the prisoners?
We have a three-hour work period in the morning, then we clear the building. Everyone goes back for lunch and our midday head count, to make sure that everyone's accounted for. Then we have a three-hour period in the afternoon. The average guy in here will probably log about six-hours a day.
It's absolutely a privilege to be in the program. We currently have about 150 on the waiting list to get in. In order to be eligible for the program you have to have a clean disciplinary record, and to remain in the program you have to maintain that clean record. You better behave yourself.
Did sales drop when the prison relocated?
Definitely. The prison moved in the winter of 2002, and by the end of March or April the demolition was already underway. And I always say we lost the greatest billboard in the world. When that all went down, a lot of people statewide interpreted that the store went with it. So we spent several years trying to get the word back out that the prison showroom is still making the same products and is still in the same place.
Have you considered relocating?
We are in the process of trying to find a way to build a more mainstream, state-of-the-art showroom right along that same stretch. They're redeveloping that section of Thomaston, on Route One, and we're hoping to put up a new showroom to increase our sales space.
How do private woodshops in the area feel about the prison program?
Sometimes it has raised concerns with local woodshops. We certainly are very sensitive to local woodshops. We don't attempt to make products that they make or target anybody. I've been able to take time and explain the program, and once they understand it, they understand that it's a self-funded program. So if they hear a radio ad for the showroom, they understand it's not their tax dollars at work and they're not paying for something that might be competition.
Are your products sold outside the showroom?
We have 60 vendors who are licensed to sell our products throughout the state of Maine. It's something that we've been doing for five or six years, but recently started pushing a little more.
Part of that program and part of that agreement is that we won't displace any Maine-made products from the [vendor's] store. If someone has a barstool [already in their store], we won't sell you our barstool.
We also have another outlet of our own in Windham, at the correctional facility there. We provide a lot of their wood products. It's been open for about four years now. It's not quite as visible as the Thomaston store, but it's slowly growing.
And you're starting to do custom work, right?
We're starting to entertain more contract work and more private work. The Riverview Psychiatric Center, which is the new AMHI over in Augusta, we did all their room furniture over there, everything from the beds to the nightstands to the desk to storage cubbies.
That was our first dabble at a large-scale special project. That was in 2003-2004. I think the state got a real good bang for their dollar on some high-quality, hardwood furniture.
With that in mind we've entertained other specialty projects. Now as they come along, the ones we think we can handle, we take those on, whereas in the past, we really stayed away from it. For example, we're doing a large bunk-bed project for a campground locally that is redoing their bunkhouses. It's for 117 bunks and 234 large storage cubbies. That's been a real big undertaking. It's providing the program with a real boost and a lot of interesting challenges.
How did you start working with the Christa McAuliffe Center?
An administrator for Framingham State College in Massachusetts happened to be traveling though and caught a glimpse of our showroom. He was very intrigued by the whole thing, and gave me a call asking if there was any way we would consider building a Challenger space shuttle to commemorate the Christy McAuliffe space flight. She was an alumnus of Framingham State, and he runs the Christa McAuliffe Center down there.
That led to us entertaining our first special project. At the time it was just going to be a little three-foot shuttle, which we eventually did and it worked out very well. But it led to the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium in Concord, N.H., calling us and wanting a five-foot version of the shuttle to hang in their lobby. So we did that.
And that led to Framingham State wanting us to do a large shuttle ˆ it turned out to be a nine-foot shuttle ˆ that's sitting now in a gazebo out in front of the Christa McAuliffe Center. It's over 500 pounds and has a mahogany base on it. It's really quite a structure. They then asked us to do a life-size Mars Rover, and that was unveiled this past January.
Those kinds of projects must please the prisoners.
We're able to give guys a chance to do some really unique things. This is the better part of their day. Some people might dread going to work. I don't personally, and I know that the prisoners don't. This is a real outlet for them. I think they learn how to do something that's very productive and very creative. They learn how to share equipment and work in a big bustling environment.
Whether a guy's building a birdhouse, a bookcase or a Mars Rover, there's a great deal of pride. They feel good about themselves and make a little money doing it. And they learn some skills to boot.
But being a Route One stalwart doesn't mean there haven't been changes in recent years. The 2002 relocation of the Thomaston penitentiary to Warren brought challenges both to the Maine State Prison showroom and the prison industries program that stocks its shelves. When the imposing old prison was razed in 2002, many Mainers and tourists believed the adjacent showroom went with it, causing a sales slump from which the store is just now recovering. Yet with the new prison came a brighter and more modern workshop that has increased production and allowed the program to take on custom orders, such as a current project building more than 100 bunks and 200 storage cubbies for a Maine summer camp.
Bob Walden, manager of prison industries at the Maine State Prison in Warren, oversees the prison industries program that supplies the Thomaston showroom ˆ by his reckoning, one of the best jobs in the state's prison system. In many respects, he's the CEO of a highly unusual business, one where the employees pass through metal detectors as they arrive at work and must be counted when they take lunch, where tools must be closely monitored, and where the workday actually provides a respite from the stresses and trials of the rest of the day for its employees.
The prison industries program generates nearly $1.6 million annually, Walden says, and though the program includes an upholstery division, the vast majority of that money, about $1.3 million, comes from the popular Route One store. That money pays the prisoners a modest wage, supports the self-sufficient program and continues the mission of teaching prisoners the pleasures of a day's hard work.
Mainebiz recently talked with Walden, who started with the prison system 14 years ago as a guard, about the Maine State Prison showroom and the changes the move to Warren has brought. An edited transcript of the conversation follows.
Mainebiz: What's the history of the prison showroom?
Walden: The store itself has been at its current location for approximately 55 years. Prior to that, we had a retail outlet across the street on Route One in Thomaston. And the prison for well over 100 years has had a prison industries program of one type or another.
At the turn of the century, we did a lot of work on buggies and harnesses and saddles and that kind of stuff. It gradually transitioned into wood products, and in the 30s and 40s it started translating into the small products and novelties that you see now. The ships started appearing in the 1950s, and that's one of the main things we're known for today.
Are there similar stores in other states?
It's unusual to have your own retail outlet. There are industries programs in lots of states that build wood products, but typically they're sold to other state agencies or other retail outlets. They don't do the selling.
We're primarily a self-funded program, except for a few staff positions. We pay for all our equipment, all our own materials, repairs, building maintenance ˆ we fund that all through sales from our store. All of our revenues stay within the program, making it a non-burden for the taxpayers.
How many prisoners participate?
Currently we have 180 prisoners on the payroll. And last year, we had over 240 who were a piece of the program at one time or another. Some come and some go. Everyone gets paid ˆ as little as $1 an hour and as much as $2.50 or $3 an hour, depending on skill levels. Crime restitution or child support comes off the top. A lot of guys send home money and help support their families.
We have one of the largest woodshops probably in the Northeast, if not the largest. Both for sheer headcount, but also because we produce 600 different wood products, which makes our product line extremely diverse. We do everything from birdhouses and doorknockers all the way up to cutting boards and hutches and bureaus and bookcases.
What's the workday like for the prisoners?
We have a three-hour work period in the morning, then we clear the building. Everyone goes back for lunch and our midday head count, to make sure that everyone's accounted for. Then we have a three-hour period in the afternoon. The average guy in here will probably log about six-hours a day.
It's absolutely a privilege to be in the program. We currently have about 150 on the waiting list to get in. In order to be eligible for the program you have to have a clean disciplinary record, and to remain in the program you have to maintain that clean record. You better behave yourself.
Did sales drop when the prison relocated?
Definitely. The prison moved in the winter of 2002, and by the end of March or April the demolition was already underway. And I always say we lost the greatest billboard in the world. When that all went down, a lot of people statewide interpreted that the store went with it. So we spent several years trying to get the word back out that the prison showroom is still making the same products and is still in the same place.
Have you considered relocating?
We are in the process of trying to find a way to build a more mainstream, state-of-the-art showroom right along that same stretch. They're redeveloping that section of Thomaston, on Route One, and we're hoping to put up a new showroom to increase our sales space.
How do private woodshops in the area feel about the prison program?
Sometimes it has raised concerns with local woodshops. We certainly are very sensitive to local woodshops. We don't attempt to make products that they make or target anybody. I've been able to take time and explain the program, and once they understand it, they understand that it's a self-funded program. So if they hear a radio ad for the showroom, they understand it's not their tax dollars at work and they're not paying for something that might be competition.
Are your products sold outside the showroom?
We have 60 vendors who are licensed to sell our products throughout the state of Maine. It's something that we've been doing for five or six years, but recently started pushing a little more.
Part of that program and part of that agreement is that we won't displace any Maine-made products from the [vendor's] store. If someone has a barstool [already in their store], we won't sell you our barstool.
We also have another outlet of our own in Windham, at the correctional facility there. We provide a lot of their wood products. It's been open for about four years now. It's not quite as visible as the Thomaston store, but it's slowly growing.
And you're starting to do custom work, right?
We're starting to entertain more contract work and more private work. The Riverview Psychiatric Center, which is the new AMHI over in Augusta, we did all their room furniture over there, everything from the beds to the nightstands to the desk to storage cubbies.
That was our first dabble at a large-scale special project. That was in 2003-2004. I think the state got a real good bang for their dollar on some high-quality, hardwood furniture.
With that in mind we've entertained other specialty projects. Now as they come along, the ones we think we can handle, we take those on, whereas in the past, we really stayed away from it. For example, we're doing a large bunk-bed project for a campground locally that is redoing their bunkhouses. It's for 117 bunks and 234 large storage cubbies. That's been a real big undertaking. It's providing the program with a real boost and a lot of interesting challenges.
How did you start working with the Christa McAuliffe Center?
An administrator for Framingham State College in Massachusetts happened to be traveling though and caught a glimpse of our showroom. He was very intrigued by the whole thing, and gave me a call asking if there was any way we would consider building a Challenger space shuttle to commemorate the Christy McAuliffe space flight. She was an alumnus of Framingham State, and he runs the Christa McAuliffe Center down there.
That led to us entertaining our first special project. At the time it was just going to be a little three-foot shuttle, which we eventually did and it worked out very well. But it led to the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium in Concord, N.H., calling us and wanting a five-foot version of the shuttle to hang in their lobby. So we did that.
And that led to Framingham State wanting us to do a large shuttle ˆ it turned out to be a nine-foot shuttle ˆ that's sitting now in a gazebo out in front of the Christa McAuliffe Center. It's over 500 pounds and has a mahogany base on it. It's really quite a structure. They then asked us to do a life-size Mars Rover, and that was unveiled this past January.
Those kinds of projects must please the prisoners.
We're able to give guys a chance to do some really unique things. This is the better part of their day. Some people might dread going to work. I don't personally, and I know that the prisoners don't. This is a real outlet for them. I think they learn how to do something that's very productive and very creative. They learn how to share equipment and work in a big bustling environment.
Whether a guy's building a birdhouse, a bookcase or a Mars Rover, there's a great deal of pride. They feel good about themselves and make a little money doing it. And they learn some skills to boot.
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