Inmates build homes for families in need
When Carlos Angulo leaves the Lake County Jail as a free man in the coming months, he will carry with him newly-learned construction skills — including painting, plumbing and flooring — that he hopes will land him a job.
But more importantly, Angulo said, he helped build an affordable home for a family in need while learning those skills.
Angulo, 20, is among half a dozen Lake County inmates who have started building a home on West St. Louis Drive in Eustis for Habitat for Humanity of LakeSumter as part of the new Inmate Construction Academy, a jail work-release partnership with the Sheriff ’s Office comparable to other efforts around the country.
“I like doing this kind of work,” Angulo said Wednesday as he took a break. “I hope to eventually get a job in the construction industry with the skills I’ve learned….And it gets me out of the jail.”
He and the other inmates were installing water and sewer lines on the home site before the concrete for the foundation is poured in the coming days. The threebedroom, two-bathoom home should be completed in about six months.
Using inmates to build homes for Habitat for Humanity has been successfully implemented for years in other parts of the country as a way to reduce recidivism.
In 2015, the Habitat for Humanity Capital District and the Albany County Sheriff ’s Office in upstate New York launched a similar jail work-release program. Since 1998, Habitat for Humanity of Colorado has partnered with Crowley County Correctional Facility in which inmates learn cabinet making, blueprint reading and wood truss building, according to the organization’s website.
For the inmates, building a Habitat for Humanity home provides them with a chance to learn new job skills and build confidence, along with gaining a sense of accomplishment.
For the nonprofit agency, the inmates are a reliable labor force for an organization that is always in need of volunteer workers.
“I hope it will give them a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment,” said Kent Adcock, chief executive officer for Habitat for Humanity of Lake-Sumter. “And I think the community looks at it as a way of them giving back.”
Lake County sheriff’s Maj. David Mass, who oversees the county jail, came up with the idea for the local program for the male inmates after launching a sewing work-release program for female inmates in 2017.
Sheriff Peyton Grinnell quickly supported the idea, Mass said.
“It’s so when they get out, they don’t go back to the way that they were,” he said. “It’s so they don’t get re-arrested. … It teaches them that ‘my life isn’t over because I got arrested. I can now learn a skill and I can get a job.’”
Male inmates are encouraged
to volunteer for the program. Only those being held on non-violent or nonsexual charges — such as minor drug offenses such as shoplifting or failure to pay child support — are accepted.
They are allowed to work on a Habitat home up to six days a week, under the supervision of deputy sheriffs, Habitat employees and construction contractors. As an incentive, an inmate receives 10 days off his sentence for each month of work.
After the home is completed, Mass and other sheriff’s officials plan to meet with Habitat representatives to evaluate the program and decide whether to build more homes with inmates.
Jared Hainey, 34, who has been incarcerated in the Lake County Jail since January, put down his shovel to take a break, his forehead covered with beads of sweat.
When he completes his sentence in the coming months, he said he plans to return to the site and look at the completed home with a sense of pride. Even though he’s previously worked in the construction industry, he is still learning new skills working outside the jail with Habitat.
“The fact that it’s for Habitat for Humanity, I feel it’s a good thing,” he said. “I can say: ‘I helped build that.’ ….And I learned some skills. The more knowledge you have, the wiser you are.”
Adcock said he hopes that when a family in need moves into the new 1,656-square-foot Habitat home in Eustis, the inmates will be able to watch the ceremony.
“We’d like them to experience what it’s like when we hand the keys over to a new family,” he said. “They [inmates] can say: ‘I helped build it.’”