Criminals turn crocheters in Ohio prison program

In this photo from May 3, Robert Mack, 28, cro­chets a hat from his cell at Lebanon Cor­rec­tional Insti­tu­tion in Lebanon, Ohio. Behind fences lined with razor wire at Lebanon Cor­rec­tional Insti­tu­tion in War­ren County, 15 inmates spend their down time loop­ing and twist­ing strands of yarn — much of it donated — into del­i­cate baby booties, mit­tens, hats, afghans and lap blan­kets. (For the Asso­ci­ated Press | Cara Owsley)

SHEILA McLAUGH­LIN

For the Asso­ci­ated Press

LEBANON — Robert Mack killed a Mount Airy man in a shootout in 2007.

Jonathan Seals shot his mother’s boyfriend to death in Springfield.

Justin Stephan used a knife and a brick in a thrill killing in Tus­carawas County.

The hands of these men have com­mit­ted the unthinkable.

Now, they are armed with a flex­i­ble plas­tic cro­chet hook instead of tools of vio­lence. Now, these tainted hands are doing good.

“I do it for the love,” said Mack, who is 28 and has one year left on a five-year prison sen­tence for vol­un­tary manslaughter.

Behind fences lined with razor wire at Lebanon Cor­rec­tional Insti­tu­tion in War­ren County, these three inmates are among 15 who spend their down time loop­ing and twist­ing strands of yarn — much of it donated — into del­i­cate baby booties, mit­tens, hats, afghans and lap blankets.

These are tough guys in a prison designed for maximum-security inmates. They are mem­bers of “Real Men Crochet.”

The pro­gram was unique to LCI but has since spread to one other prison. In it, inmates cro­chet items that are donated to the Veteran’s Admin­is­tra­tion Hos­pi­tal in Day­ton, to women’s and home­less shel­ters, mater­nity pro­grams, and to Crayons to Com­put­ers free store for teach­ers in Cincinnati.

“Real Men Cro­chet” started in 2008 and gained pop­u­lar­ity among inmates that are eli­gi­ble for extra priv­i­leges, said Jan Vurginac, who coor­di­nates the program.

“Time goes by quick and they enjoy doing it for the chil­dren. It keeps them busy. Idle time is a big prob­lem,” she said.

None of them had ever picked up a cro­chet hook before, nor would they think twice about doing it on the outside.

“Never,” said Seals.

The LCI inmates are an impor­tant part of the “Keep Our Kids Warm” pro­gram at Crayons to Com­put­ers, said Susan Van Ameron­gen, who coor­di­nates Crayons to Com­put­ers prison pro­grams. The LCI inmates pro­vided 300 hand­made mit­tens, hats and scarves this year to school kids who needed them.

And there was a mem­o­rable afghan that made an autis­tic student’s life a lit­tle eas­ier in class, said Van Ameron­gen. It was big­ger than he was and he car­ried it around with him in school.

More expe­ri­enced inmates in the pro­gram teach the new­bies how to cro­chet. They can try to tackle pat­terns if they want. But most just wing it.

“That’s all it is — exper­i­men­ta­tion,” said Seals.

Stephan, who is in prison for life with­out the pos­si­bil­ity of parole, had just joined the group three days ear­lier. He’d already fin­ished a child’s neck scarf and was sev­eral rows into a white lap blan­ket for a mil­i­tary veteran.

Mack is craft­ing a light pas­tel yarn into a girl’s win­ter cap.

Seals uses two strands of thin­ner yarn — red and bright yel­low — for a child’s hat.

They usu­ally cro­chet while they are in their cells at night or after work at the prison.

“It takes up a lot of my time. It gives me some­thing to do to keep myself active know­ing that we help­ing peo­ple . to stay out of trou­ble,” said Mack.

Seals added: “As I started doing it, I don’t pay atten­tion to the time.”

He is eli­gi­ble for parole in 2044.

Posted by AP News on May 13 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.