The recent National Governor's Association conference at the Grand Traverse Resort gave the MDOC Prison Build program a time to shine. 

In conjunction with the conference, the Prison Build program and Habitat for Humanity built a home on site at the Grand Traverse Resort for delivery to its permanent location.  The project was coordinated through the Office of the First Gentleman and Habitat for Humanity of Michigan, as well as the Grand Traverse Habitat for Humanity affiliate.  Many of the governors participated in the project.

Prison Build program staff and inmates built exterior and interior walls and kitchen and bath cabinets for the home.  The following facilities and divisions were represented:

-Mid-Michigan Correctional Facility:  design and panel layout drafting;
-Pugsley Correctional Facility:  construction of the exterior and interior wall panels;
-Deerfield Correctional Facility:  kitchen and bath cabinets (made from ash lumber taken from trees removed as a result of the ash borer disease);
-Field Operations Administration TRV Center, Baldwin:  Bird house kits for children to put together during the event.

Participants from Deerfield also made and gave away more than 35 wood cutting boards.  One of them was signed by the governors and given to the owners of the new home.

"Many of the nation's governors got a first hand view of the work that our administrators, staff and inmates accomplish for Habitat for Humanity on a regular basis," said Mike Green, Prison Build program administrator.

The mission of the Prison Build program is to assist Habitat for Humanity, local units of government and nonprofit organizations in providing housing and related products for low-income families through the use of inmate labor.

The program educates and provides hands-on training to inmates in the building trades and horticulture industries. The inmates construct walls, cabinets, trim and other housing components; build entire homes; design and create interior products; and devise landscape plans and provide the needed horticulture products.

Michigan Department of Corrections, FYI Newsletter 080907