Diablo Flooring,Inc : Inmates build new lives from the floor up : Anderson Hardwood Floors

Inmates build new lives from the floor up: Anderson Hardwood Floors' partnership with a South Carolina prison gives prisoners a chance to gain woodworking skills.

The scene looks like any large shop that works with hardwoods. Veneer is graded and glued; planks are cut. Employees lift and load sheets of veneer into presses, push buttons and check the results.

Instead of jeans or khaki, however, these employees wear uniforms emblazoned with SCDC on the backs, short for South Carolina Department of Corrections. Barbed wire and guards surround their workplace. When the workday ends, they head for a cell instead of a home.

The Tyger River Correctional Institution of Enoree, SC, serves as both a prison and a factory. It is a medium-security institution that also houses an operation of Anderson Hardwood Floors, based in nearby Clinton, SC. Anderson's operation, with 250 employees, is the largest of seven mini-factories run within the state's prisons by corporations.

"The idea was to put inmates to work in a real-world working environment," says Tony Ellis, the state's director of prison industries. "They learn how to maintain production, job skills and quality control. They learn to be responsible for completing a job.

"You want to incarcerate them and let them pay whatever penalty is imposed on them by society, but you want to hopefully change the behavior that got them there in the first place," Ellis says.

South Carolina prisoners' participation in the federal program called PIE (Prison Industries Enhancement) is entirely voluntary; according to Ellis. The jobs are highly coveted by the inmates, he adds.

The $7- to $10-an-hour wages that Anderson pays for the inmates' work is divvied up in several ways. Some of the pay goes to the state for room and board, some helps support prisoners' families, a portion is earmarked for crime victim reparation and some of it is placed in savings accounts established for each of the prisoners participating in the program. Since 1996, Anderson has paid $7.3 million in wages.

Come visit a Diablo Flooring Showroom to see more  products by Anderson Hardwood Flooring.

Walnut Creek,CA (925)988-WOOD

1813 Mt Diablo Blvd Walnut Creek,CA 94596

Pleasanton,CA (925)426-RUGS

5600-D Sunol Blvd Pleasanton,CA 94566

www.diabloflooring.com

Anderson_floors_2

Diablo Flooring

Diablo Flooring

Diablo Flooring is a fully licensed flooring company providing various services to commercial and residential customers. Diablo Flooring offers flooring sales to install. We provide carpet, hardwood, bamboo, tile and vinyl. Diablo Flooring is company focused on Quality and Customer Satisfaction.

http://www.diabloflooring.com

Pleasanton Showroom 5600-D Sunol Blvd
Pleasanton,CA 94566 (925) 426-7847 (7847)

Danville Showroom 112 W. Linda Mesa Ave
Danville,CA 94596 (925)314-WOOD (9663)

Walnut Creek Showroom 1813 Mt Diablo Blvd
Walnut Creek,CA 94596 (925) 988-WOOD (9663)

Archive

2013 (12)
Posterous theme by Cory Watilo