On Wednesday afternoon, workers lugged a well-crafted, solid wood conference table from Commissioners’ Chairman George F. Halcovage Jr.’s office and hefted it into a van.

From there, the table was taken to a state prison where inmates will refinish a water-stained area that Halcovage had for years covered with a photo.

The work will be done as part of Pennsylvania Correctional Industries, a program in which inmates learn work ethics, promptness, a good work attitude, attention to detail, following instructions in addition to learning the actual skills involved in furniture reupholstering and refinishing, clothing manufacturing, manufacturing mattresses, sheets and pillows, towels and washcloths, shower curtains, privacy panels and soap products; sign making, and other products including cell bunks and, of course, license plates.

Marketed as “Big House Products,” the items are sold only to nonprofit and government organizations, said sales and marketing representative Brad Patterson.

He and sales and marketing manager Tracey McCullough on Wednesday spoke about the program to the Schuylkill County Prison Board.

McCullough presented board chairman President Judge William E. Baldwin with a handcrafted wooden plaque made by inmates at Rockview state prison.

“Our program is designed to give inmates training and employment,” he said.

“We’re trying to provide opportunity for the inmate to regain respect for his community by learning to work. Sometimes, it’s the first job that anyone ever had to report to,” Patterson said.

There are 19 shop operations in the 25 state prisons.

Each prison specializes in a type of product. Garments are made at Greene, Huntingdon, Muncy, Smithfield and Walmart. Soap is made at Huntingdon, which also produces license plates, and does printing and silk screening. Rockview does woodworking, and there are laundry plants at Somerset, Retreat, and Phoenix. Mahanoy and Houtzdale are commissary distribution centers.

One prison even has an optical program, where inmates earn the same certification as opticians on the outside, Patterson said.

PCI is the only self-supporting program in the Department of Corrections.

Inmates working in the program earn money to support their families, pay restitution, legal bills, fines, and fund their commissary accounts.

For more information, visit https://www.cor.pa.gov/PCI/Pages/Contact-Us.aspx