Inmates collect cordwood to help needy with heating

Temperatures are bitter cold, and the wind chill isn’t helping either. Throughout the area, many low-income families might have to make a choice to either buy food or heat their homes.

The minimum-security unit at Airway Heights Corrections Center is working to give those families a hand, providing cords of wood to help heat their homes if they have fireplaces.

Since 1995, offenders incarcerated in the center have been cleaning up wood debris in heavily forested areas in partnership with the Department of Natural Resources. The inmates collect the wood, chop it and stack it into cords to be distributed through Spokane Neighborhood Action Programs. The wood taken from the forests also helps the DNR, since much of that wood could be fuel for forest fires.

John Fojt, 24, has served 18 months of his sentence and he expects to get out June 5. He volunteered for the wood program and proudly pointed to Mount Spokane where he went to collect the wood. He knows his hard work and the wood is going to help people this winter.

“That would be the main reason I do this,” he said.

Correctional Sgt. Ray Greenwalt said the program donated around 280 cords of wood to SNAP. A crew of 15 to 18 volunteer inmates and about nine staff members complete the work. He added that he rarely has to look for employees or offenders to join the program, since many are interested in helping.

“This fits in very well with re-entry,” said Risa Klemme, administrative program manager of the corrections center. She said they are working with the offenders to teach them to live as if they are in a community and to help their neighbors.

“We cheerfully help our neighbors,” she said. “The community has benefited from the work of the offenders.”

Correctional specialist Pat McCarren said the program helps the inmates become accountable and responsible. They are expected to report to work at 7 a.m. and will get off around 2:30 p.m. and they have learned if they can’t make it for any reason they need to speak with one of their supervisors.

Greenwalt said that the program starts in the spring after the snow melts and many of the offenders are working hard chopping and hauling wood in 105-degree heat. They collected 350 cords of wood this year and will keep 100 cords in reserve for next year. A cord of wood is a stack 4 feet wide, 4 feet tall and 8 feet long – enough for one to two months of heating a home.

Bob Hoagland of SNAP said that his organization screens recipients of the wood based on income and whether they have a need for wood.

“I send it out to the sergeant and they disperse a cord at a time,” Hoagland said.

Greenwalt said they have delivered about 60 to 75 cords of wood and with the frigid temperatures and the approaching holidays, he expects to make more deliveries soon.

“For some people it may be their only way to heat their home,” Klemme said.