DOING A GOOD DEED
In corrections facility, women learn to sew to make masks to combat COVID-19
The room hums with the sound of ten sewing machines, all running at once. Two women cut out rectangular shapes. Another woman irons. ● So far, inmates in the Shelby County Division of Corrections have made roughly 3,000 cloth masks. They plan to make 400-500 per week — until the masks are no longer needed. ● “It’s something to keep the mind off negative things. I like that I’m giving back to people,” said Tarddarria Griffin, one of the women in the program, as she sewed a mask out of a piece of fabric patterned with rich brown squares. “COVID-19 is serious. I want people to know you need to put your mask on.”
“... We try to help out where we can. The offenders inside behind bars are trying to do a good deed.”
Anthony Alexander
Director of Corrections
The masks produced by women in the Division of Corrections aren’t kept there. Rather, they are sent to the Shelby County Mayor’s Office, which has donated them to the YMCA, Hopeworks and the Office of Reentry. Those organizations then donate the masks to people in need around the community. The county has kept some as well — County Mayor Lee Harris says those masks are the only kind he wears.
Alona Burks, another woman in the program, didn’t know how to sew before starting the program. When she finishes her sentence, she plans to continue sewing, and might even teach her grandmother.
As a mother, it’s comforting to know that these masks will be going to protect someone else’s children from COVID-19, Burks said.
“To be able to help out, it really, really means a lot,” she said.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States, corrections officials began taking stock of how much personal protective equipment they had on hand. They, like hospitals and other facilities, were having difficulty ordering masks, said Director of Corrections Anthony Alexander. So, they wondered if they could perhaps make their own.
Two employees knew how to sew, and said they could teach inmates. They started with one sewing machine.
Eventually, they were able to receive enough medical masks so no inmates had to use the cloth masks.
Alexander said he was concerned about the cloth masks being washed inside the correctional facilities and ensuring that they were reused by the same person. Some of the cloth masks have been given to employees who can take them home to wash.
But instead of keeping the masks at the facilities, they’ve been able to donate them, and inmates in the program earn work credit for participation, helping reduce their sentence time.
“There’s a lot of folks in the community who can’t afford masks, so we try to help out where we can,” Alexander said. “The offenders inside behind bars are trying to do a good deed. This is their way of saying I want to partially pay my debt back to society.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health officials strongly urge people to wear fabric masks when it’s not possible to social distance. According to the CDC, a cloth mask may not protect the wearer, but it can keep the wearer from spreading the virus to others via respiratory droplets that can be expelled from a sneeze, a cough or even from talking.
About 15-20 women have participated in the program at the Division of Corrections so far, with some having been discharged from the prison.
Counselor Gloria Phillips was one of the employees who decided to lend her sewing skills to the program, teaching the inmates how to make masks. She’s been sewing for years, she said, as a hobby. The women started out making plain masks, but now they’re making them in bright colors: bright greens, hot pink and more.
It’s been a challenge to source materials as the entire country scrambles for fabric and elastic, but they’ve managed, including buying supplies from Johnson’s Fabrics in Collierville. Other supplies have been donated.
Phillips tells the women that when they get out of prison, they might be able to make masks to sell. She’s seen homemade masks selling for $5-$10 during the pandemic.
But as for the masks made at corrections, those are all donated.
“We’re going to do this as long as it’s needed,” Phillips said.
In another part of the room, Sara Blanco worked on pleating masks, folding and pinning them, making sure each pleat was exactly the same size. Other women sometimes come to her for help with pleating their masks, leading her to joke that she’s a “professional pleater.”
The program, she said, “is great.”
“It’s a great way to help the community, especially right now with the virus,” she said.