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Suzette Welton, a Hiland Mountain Correctional Center inmate, stitches a quilt as part of the Give Back Project.
STAR PHOTO BY MARY M. RALL
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Inmates at the Hiland Mountain Correctional Center are learning, growing and making amends one stitch at a time.
Through the facility's Give Back Project, female inmates earn a wage of 35 to 60 cents an hour to make quilts, wall hangings and crochet clothing that are donated to charitable programs and emergency shelters, said Karen Jenkins, Children of Incarcerated Parents Project case manager.
"So, it's not only a job making quilts, it's also about giving back to the community," Jenkins said, adding that some quilts are sold to staff members, friends and family members to fund the program.
Thus far, the program regularly employs five to six inmates, but the impact of the project stretches beyond what that group can produce, she said.
Jenkins said passing their sewing skills on to others is part of the project participants' responsibilities, which they did through last year's Adopt a Village program when they enlisted the help of any inmate capable of threading a needle and produced 70 quilts in one weekend to donate to the village of Savoonga.
"We got anybody who had ever seen a sewing machine before," said Suzette Welton, 42, of Wasilla, who is currently serving a 99-year sentence for murder, attempted murder and arson in connection with the fire in which her 14-year-old son, Samuel, died.
"Instead of doing time, you do something with that time," she said, adding that inmates can contribute to society even if they're separated from it.
"We do have a roof over our heads here," added Heather Simas, 32, of Wasilla who is serving a five-year sentence for first degree assault and driving under the influence which resulted in a car accident in which her vehicle's passenger, Shawn Himes, 37, of Wasilla was paralyzed. "No, we can't get outside these fences, these walls and we're here serving our time, but we've all had a chance to learn a lot here."
The quilting offers an opportunity for personal growth as well, Jenkins said.
"All of the inmates have a lot of time for self-reflecting," she said. "When each of these girls make their project and they finish an item, they get a good sense of self-accomplishment and also the satisfaction of knowing that they are giving back to the community and helping somebody else out there who is less fortunate."
Bernice Slwooko, 37, of Little Diomede is serving a sentence for second degree murder for her role in the 2002 ax murder of James "Jimmy" Jack, 56, of Nome. She said the project has taught her skills she will incorporate into her life when she's released in 2022.
"I learned how to be patient," she said. "You have to learn step by step on how to do a quilt. I thought it was going to be easy, but all the measurements and everything - it's not that simple."
She said she has a desire to share her newfound skills with her three teenage daughters, something she hopes other inmates will do as well.
"It gives them something that they didn't have before, and when they go back to their children, they can do something positive," Slwooko said.
Jenkins said the giving for some participants doesn't end with passing on their skills to their families when they are released.
"I also see women who leave the facility who keep on giving back, keep on making the hats or making the blankets for the shelters and that's what's really cool about it," she said.
Simas said she has a desire to continue working in community service when she is released.
"I have a lot of ambitions when I get out, she said. "I would like to actually work with some of the nonprofit organizations, with some of the homeless in the shelters in Anchorage."
Welton said she understands there are needs in the local community.
"There's a lot of families here like anywhere else that go through crises," Welton said. "They go through divorce, they go through losing a home or whatever it might be. There are a lot of children that don't have moms and dads, and it blesses them all the way around."
Reach the reporter at mary.rall@alaskastar.com.
