Press Release
Rebuilding effort
Female inmates construct homes with Habitat for Humanity in Avondale
by Justin Doom
West Valley Views staff writer
For several dozen inmates at Perryville Prison, their chance to rebuild society has taken a very literal twist.
Ten such women currently are working eight hours a day, three days a week to build a home in Avondale.
Fifty or sixty inmates are part of this newly formed Prison Partnership Program, a joint effort of Habitat for Humanity of the West Valley, Rio Salado College and the Arizona Department of Corrections.
The work crew’s goal is to construct two homes this year. It began construction on the Avondale home two weeks ago.
Before beginning on-site work, inmates must join an educational track that includes several basic construction courses, including carpentry, plumbing and basic electrical work.
“As a taxpayer, I feel very strongly about training them,” said Jo Jorgenson, director of the program. “We have an opportunity to train them and give them real skills, marketable skills, and give them an opportunity to give back to the community, to become taxpayers themselves. We’re not doing them any favors by just housing them and then letting them back out.”
Jorgenson originally developed the program 10 years ago at the request of Arizona Department of Corrections.
“We began this program at the Arizona Center for Women, before that facility shut down in 2000,” she said. “But they were never able to leave the prison site. This was the first for this group to be able to actually come to a job site and build a house.”
Collaboration
The female inmates also collaborate with a collection of male inmates at Lewis Prison. The men build cabinets, walls and other structures that are transported to the construction site and installed by the women. Future on-site work by the men could be a possibility, but it likely will depend on the overall success of the program, Jorgenson said.
Currently, the female construction workers are all lower-level custody cases, which means they’re allowed to obtain clearance for off-site work.
“There are a number of other students involved in that program at varying levels, including entry levels,” Jorgenson said. “The more accomplished students, they go out to the job site.”
And almost every student in the program, at whatever level she may be, thoroughly enjoys the opportunity, Jorgenson added.
“They love it. They love this opportunity,” Jorgensen said. “The women especially love being able to give back to the community. They really do. I think they have a lot of guilt over their past lives, and they see this as an opportunity to do something positive, to give back in a positive way.”
In addition to their construction training, many women also pay to take other classes through Rio Salado College so they can complete an associate’s degree.
“We never want to forget the educational component of this,” Jorgenson said. “And while there’s a lot of education going on at the job site, there is also a need to continue the educational experience that they’re getting in the prison. We have 11 different programs focused on teaching skills that directly translate into employment opportunities when they’re released.”
Most of those are work-based, but many inmates also take family- and social-reintegration courses; many also take English or science.
“And, obviously, in construction you need math skills, so we teach math in our construction program,” Jorgenson added. “Built into each of our programs there will be a number of those basic education type classes that they need to be successful in their skill.
“For the truly motivated inmate, they will be taking the on-site courses that are paid through our contract with the Department of Corrections. And then they will augment that with courses they paid for themselves.”
How much an individual inmate completes depends largely on when she enters the Prison Partnership Program.
“Some of them enter early on and go through the core program, and some of them come in too late and they don’t have enough time to complete all of those programs,” Jorgenson said.
If completed, the coursework allows recently released inmates to possibly work for the Arizona Builders Alliance, another partner in the program. Both women and men can be eligible.
“After they’re released, after they’ve completed these classes, they can go to ABA and get set up for an interview with a contractor,” Jorgenson said. “And assuming they get the job, they have the opportunity to, first of all, be employed, and secondly continue their apprenticeship training through our sister college, Gateway Community College.”
Cultivating advancement
Working with the ABA would allow such an individual to quickly become a journeyman in his or her respective trade.
“An employer’s going to say, ‘Hey, you built a house, you know what you’re doing,’” Jorgenson said.
Ernest Adkins, a 35-year construction veteran and the program’s vocational trainer and on-site supervisor, said he pounced on the opportunity to join such an innovative program.
“I saw the ad in the paper for someone needing an instructor to teach inmates, and basically I just told my wife, ‘That’s my job,’” Adkins said, adding with a laugh, “apparently they [the program leaders] agreed with me.”
Adkins added that the inmates have “all the attributes you look for in a student,” and that he’s just happy to be a part of it.
Habitat for Humanity of the West Valley has built almost 160 homes since 1985. Nationwide, the Habitat Prison Partnership, since its inception in 1999, has seen inmates build almost 400 homes.
“I love the program,” Adkins said. “I can answer that in three words: I love it.”
Justin Doom can be reached by e-mail at
jdoom@westvalleyview.com
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