Prison woodworking ... "for the soul"
_ G O D _
Prison woodworking ... "for the soul"
By ROBERT M. COOK
bc...@fosters.com
http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050703/NEWS1403/107010125
YORK, Maine
Paul Ciccotelli discovered his love for wood working while
behind bars at the New Hampshire State Prison in Concord,
and he also found the hope he needed to rebuild his life.
With every piece of wood he cut, sanded and finished into
high-quality pieces of furniture, Ciccotelli gained the confidence
and faith that he needed to make it on the outside. After six
years of practicing his trade, Ciccotelli got a chance to be
paroled this spring. After his release, the 49-year-old Ossipee
resident needed a place where he could sell his custom-made
entertainment centers, cabinets and book cases.
Little did he know that J.D. Maloney, the owner of the Woods to Goods store on Route
1, was there waiting.
Maloney sells wooden products made by Maine State Prison inmates, but nothing that is
made to order.
When the two men's paths crossed shortly after Ciccotelli was released, the perfect
solution emerged. Ciccotelli now works in his store 16 hours a week and offers Woods
to Goods patrons made-to-order furniture.
During the 11 1/2 years he spent in prison, Ciccotelli was one of hundreds of inmates
who learned how to craft high-quality wood furniture from League of New Hampshire
master craftsmen who teach classes there. At his parents' home in Ossipee, Ciccotelli
proudly says he can make any piece of furniture from any type of wood at a price that
is often much lower than one would pay other furniture makers.
Some of his pieces that were for sale in the store in late June include a pie safe
for about $200, a solid cherry wood entertainment center for $495 and two Deacon's
benches, also made out of solid cherry wood, that sold for $550 each. He said it took
him a week to make both of those benches.
He enjoys getting challenging orders from customers more than anything.
"I basically learned the whole thing from A to Z," said Ciccotelli. "I keep learning,
but I would say it takes you a good five to six years to be real good at it."
As Ciccotelli describes the nature of the work that goes into each of his pieces, he
seems like a man who is removed from the one who was convicted of attempted murder
and two counts of first-degree assault and sentenced to up to 35 years in prison. His
sentence stemmed from a shooting incident in Milton in 1993. New Hampshire Department
of Corrections spokesman Jeff Lyons said Ciccotelli is on parole until 2018 after he
was released on May 3.
Before he went to prison, Ciccotelli said he dabbled in woodworking, but never got
into it seriously. A few years into his sentence, he decided to enroll in the prison
industries program and learned how to do wood working and carving the old-fashioned
way. Soon he could make an entertainment center just from looking at a picture based
on a customer's request.
A lot of his pieces were sold in the showroom of Corrections Creations, the State
Prison store that is located outside the prison walls on North State Street in
Concord and is open to the public.
In the prison woodworking shop, Ciccotelli said he would do all of the finish
spraying for the wood products made there. He would also finish products made by the
League of New Hampshire master craftsmen that they had brought to the prison before
they were sold.
But the one thing he never got to do was talk directly to his customers and tell them
what kind of work went into each piece. He also never got to hear or see how much
they like his work — until now.
In Maloney's store, Ciccotelli now wears a shirt and tie instead of green prison
fatigues and he gets to talk to anyone who strolls into the store.
"I just like being here talking with the public and getting ideas about the type of
furniture they would like to see built," Ciccotelli said.
Besides his part-time job at Woods to Goods, Ciccotelli also works two other
part-time jobs in New Hampshire. His parole conditions allow him to leave New
Hampshire and work in Maine, but he said he cannot spend the night out of state
unless he gets his parole officer's permission.
Ciccotelli hopes to start his own business someday where he could make his furniture
and sell it from his own store. Thanks to Maloney's willingness to let him sell his
pieces at the store, Ciccotelli's dream could be within reach in a few years. He
explained that when he sells a piece of furniture like the $550 Deacon's bench, he
may make about $275 after covering the cost of the wood and labor that went into it.
But the money he makes from each sale is not nearly as valuable to Ciccotelli as the
life skills he gained from learning his craft.
"It helped my self esteem and confidence with getting out," said Ciccotelli, who
added that before he went to prison he once managed the former Purity Supreme
supermarket in Rochester.
Maloney understands exactly how Ciccotelli feels. He explained that most inmates who
go back to prison after being released often fail because they don't have a trade and
can't get a good job. The woodworking they learn in the New Hampshire State Prison
and the Maine State Prison is in great demand and there are not enough people who
know how to make high-quality furniture anymore.
Maloney said his brother is a Maine State Prison inmate who is scheduled to be
released soon. When he and his wife visited him back in 1993 before they also
discovered the Woods to Goods store that David Machum of York opened that same year.
Maloney said it was the first state prison store in Maine outside of the store run by
the Department of Corrections at the former Maine State Prison in Thomaston.
After Maloney was laid off at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in 1995, he decided to
work for Machum in the store. By then, Machum had already had open heart surgery and
could no longer run the store. Maloney and his wife, Jane, decided to buy the
business from Machum because Maloney saw it as way to be close to his brother. His
three sons and his wife all worked in the store at one time or another and Maloney is
glad that he can sell the products made by the inmates.
At first, he rented the building from Machum and later bought it as business improved
in the late 1990s, Maloney said. Machum, actually came up with the idea to open a
store that would showcase and sell wood products made by Maine prison inmates, just
passed away in June, Maloney said.
In his store, people can buy hand-crafted wood items that range in price from $5 to
thousands of dollars. People can buy wooden belts for $24.99 apiece, coffee tables,
book cases, and jelly cabinets, Maloney said. A glass top coffee table made from a
dinghy with oars sells for $900. There is also a full line of children's toys that
range from a pine wood Colonial doll house that sells for $129.99 to wooden boats and
trucks that sell for $10- to $20 each.
The public also can't get enough of the hand-crafted wooden ships that Maine State
Prison inmates build to scale, Maloney said.
"The Atlantic" was built by a former Maine State Prison inmate. With cloth sails or
wooden sails, it sells for $349. Without sails, it sells for $299. The cedar wood
ship, "Rose Marie" was made by a Maine State Prison inmate six months ago and sells
for $1,600, Maloney said.
When he looks at the wood-carved paintings and wood burning images of the Maine coast
or the Maine woods and lakes, Maloney is always amazed at how inmates created such
beautiful art work from sheer memory.
The store even boasts a line of denim prison blue jeans and jackets that were once
made in the Oregon state prison system and are now made by Maine prison inmates at
the Downeast Correctional Facility in Bucks Harbor. After so many customers asked him
where Shawshank Prison was located in Maine after seeing the movie, "The Shawshank
Redemption," Maloney couldn't resist offering a line of Shawshank Prison T-shirts and
gym shorts.
While the 1994 movie that starred Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, which was based on
a Stephen King short story, was was set in Maine, there never was a Shawshank Prison.
Woods to Goods is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and its Web site is
www.woodstogoods.com. One thing that some people don't realize is that they cannot
buy Maine State Prison products on-line if they live out of state.
All sales have to take place within Maine or at Woods to Goods, which is one of 60
authorized retail stores that carry products made by Maine State Prison inmates,
Maloney said.
Robert M. Cook can be reached by calling 742-4455, ext. 5396 or via e-mail at
bcookfosters.com
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I intend to last long enough to put out of business all COck-suckers
and other beneficiaries of the institutionalized slavery and genocide.
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"The army that will defeat terrorism doesn't wear uniforms, or drive
Humvees, or calls in air-strikes. It doesn't have a high command, or
high security, or a high budget. The army that can defeat terrorism
does battle quietly, clearing minefields and vaccinating children. It
undermines military dictatorships and military lobbyists. It subverts
sweatshops and special interests.Where people feel powerless, it
helps them organize for change, and where people are powerful, it
reminds them of their responsibility." ~~~~ Author Unknown ~~~~
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