Utah inmates have a surprising way to help ‘pay their debt to society’

Correctional Sgt. Brandon Greer waited, and then patiently walked through six locked doors to get to the classroom inside the geriatric unit at the Utah State Correctional Facility.

The lights were bright and the room was monotone save for a calming light pink accent color.

But when Greer pulled out a plastic bag and laid out its contents, color spilled out across a table. Neon orange, tree-trunk brown, maroon, teal and pastel pink. The crocheted hats and blankets had complicated ribbing designs and festive pom poms.

The bags of cozy items handmade by inmates will all be donated to people living on the street, Greer explained, through a program he reorganized a little over a year ago called “Crochet for the Homeless.”

Four older men with graying and white hair, all residents of the prison’s geriatric unit, make up the core group of crocheters. (Greer recently recruited two more men to his crochet cause). This past September, the group donated over 300 hats, more than a dozen blankets and a half dozen scarves through Saint Francis of Assisi Christian Church in Murray, Greer said.

Local churches also donated the plastic crochet hooks and bundles of yarn that inmates work with and are an instrumental part of making the program work.

When asked what crimes the men were convicted of, the Department of Corrections spokesperson wrote The Salt Lake Tribune: “We are focused on their rehabilitation, so we prefer to put the light on the programs and how it’s helping them rather than turning the focus on their crimes.”

Some of the men involved in the crochet program are incarcerated for committing significant crimes.

Donald Neilson had a long white and gray beard, wore wire rim glasses and, like all the other men in the room, a crisp white shirt with his name printed on it and white pants with “UDC INMATE” across his right leg. He held the blue and white ribbed cap on his knee while he worked.

“I work on four or five projects at a time,” Neilson said, “sometimes I’m on three blankets at a time.” Next to him was a carefully folded queen-size blanket that he’d completed in just two weeks.

Neilson flipped through the pages of a photo album filled with dozens of pictures of the items he’s crocheted over the years, like a photo of a two-toned knee length sweater.

“I enjoy doing it because it gives me solace and peace of mind,” Neilson said. He’s also glad to help the homeless. “It helps them out during the winter,” he said. “It really helps me out because it gives me the freedom I need while I’m incarcerated to be a person.”

Next to Neilson, with his glasses on the tip of his nose, Gregory Seamons worked on a blue and white ribbed cap.

“I’ve been crocheting now for about four and a half or five years, and I’ve read a lot of crochet books,” Seamons said. “I’ve learned how to read patterns, and there’s really not a whole lot I can’t make.”

This year, he set a goal to crochet and give away 90 hats. Some go to California, others to Idaho and of course, the ones he makes for Greer in the program are distributed around Utah.

“I see this as an opportunity to give back and it means the world,” Seamons said. “It makes us feel like human beings. It makes us feel like we’re doing something worthwhile, like we can do something positive.”

Richard Stein sat next to Seamons while he worked on a bright yellow scarf. He learned how to crochet in 1994, but just picked it up again more recently. Stein was homeless for four years and remembers what it’s like to be cold and on the street. He enjoys providing a bit of extra warmth that he knows is needed and will be appreciated.

At the far end of the table, Donald Stephens worked on a small pink and yellow lap blanket. Stephens learned how to crochet about a year ago.

“You’d be surprised how relaxing it really is and how much fun you can have out of it,” he said.

For Greer, running the crochet program is practical. After decades of working in corrections, he’s learned “if you keep them busy, you keep them out of trouble.”

But it’s also important because he wants to “give them an opportunity to pay their debt to society.”