Inmates Slice Their Sentences by Baking Bread

The barbed-wire fences and towering concrete walls that surround the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility have taken away the freedom of George E. Ford II. But, in a bakery situated close to the heart of the complex, the Los Angeles native has been given something equally as valuable: hope.

“Working in the bakery gives me a chance for a new life,” said Ford, one of the 50 Donovan inmates who operate the bread-baking facility at the Otay Mesa prison. “It gives me a chance I can take back to the streets and do better. We are getting the skills to succeed now.”

As a result, Ford and the other prisoners lauded the California Prison Industry Authority, the division of the Department of Corrections that has established 96 enterprises within state prisons, paying inmate salaries from 25 cents to 90 cents an hour to run the facilities while department employees supervise them.

Time Off Sentences

More importantly to the inmates, those participating in the program have their sentences lessened by one day for every day they work.

At Donovan, one of 15 state prisons used by the Prison Industry Authority, inmates also operate a laundry and a vehicle refurbishment program.

But for the inmates who prepare the bread for the prison, no operation earns higher marks than the bakery.

“I’m very proud of this place,” said Mack Atkins, 31, who was convicted of armed robbery in 1984. “Hey, I’ve got to eat this. And besides, this is the best job to have. Who wants to work in a laundry?”

Prison officials who oversee the programs said they have tried to create an atmosphere in the bakery that will imbue the inmates with pride and acceptable work habits. As part of this attempt, correctional officers do not patrol the bakery, and department supervisors make efforts to build professional relationships with the workers.

“The relationship is excellent,” said Anthony R. Angelini, the bakery superintendent who has trained inmates at the 11-month-old prison since the enterprise began last month. “I’ve always maintained a rapport with them. I have a job to do; they have a job to do. We work together and do fine.”

“We create the atmosphere that this is a real bakery. That’s what it is,” said Carlos Chavez, the production manager who supervises all programs in the prison. “This is a very professional operation.”

Chavez said the bakery, which produces nearly 2,000 loaves of white and wheat bread a day, may add a second shift of 50 inmates and expand its services. In July, the bakery is expected to begin serving the California Institution for Women, the California Rehabilitation Center and the California Institution for Men, all in the Chino Valley east of Los Angeles. By next year, the operation will be producing nearly 20,000 loaves of bread daily.

Other department officials close to the Prison Industry Authority said the nonprofit enterprise saves taxpayers money by paying for its ingredients and employees with the earnings from all of its statewide enterprises, which employ a total of 4,000 inmates.

“That is the overriding factor,” said David Tristan, the chief deputy superintendent at Donovan. “We want to defer the costs to the taxpayers. Secondly, we want to provide inmates jobs. We have done both.”

Chavez, 32, said the prison will also start a data-processing service and an optical lab this year, and a textile mill in 1989.

“The textile mill will be awesome,” he said. “It will be fully integrated, so we can do spinning, weaving, dyeing and finishing. The only thing we won’t do is grow the cotton.”

Tristan said the prisoners are not forced to work but most of them appreciate the opportunity to gain practical experience and make money.

However, those who refuse to work are denied privileges such as use of the gym and late-night ventures into the courtyard.

Angelini said he has never experienced any problems with the laborers and is pleased by their camaraderie.

“This is something they want to do,” he said. “On the first day (the bakery opened), they came in here and practiced using the machines. In two days, they had this place operating with no problem. They are dedicated.”

“It’s like dancing,” explained Ford, who acts as an unofficial supervisor of some operations within the bakery. “I lead, they follow, step by step. We work as a team. One can’t go anywhere without the other.”