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https://reasonstobecheerful.world/past-lives-makerspace-formerly-incarcerated-workers/>
"When Brandon Morlock was released from prison in September of 2020, he wanted
to create a business that would improve peoples’ lives. His crime had been a
terrible accident four and a half years earlier, when he was just 21: He was in
a car crash that killed his friend Ryan. Before the accident, Ryan had been
trying to help Morlock build a collective space that was part private tutoring
business and part carpentry/engineering incubator.
Behind bars, Morlock worked in various prison industries. At his first prison,
there was a wood shop, a metal shop, an auto shop and a garment factory. At Two
Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla, Oregon, he worked at a furniture
factory run by Oregon Corrections Enterprises. “I actually acquired valuable
skills there,” he says. He also did forestry work — cutting down trees,
trapping invasive species and maintaining trails and campgrounds. By the time
Morlock got out of prison four years ago — in the middle of the pandemic — his
focus had shifted. Wanting to honor Ryan, he set about launching a maker space
in Portland.
“Until I went to prison, I did not consider the formerly incarcerated as part
of my vision,” says Morlock, who says he’s had a dream of building a collective
space since he was a child. “It was after seeing the inside of the prison
system and seeing the prison industries that I was inspired to make that a
focal point of my business.” On his walk to work at the furniture factory, he’d
see people doing metalworking, automotive, textiles and machining. “The sheer
amount of talent that exists within prison industries!” he says, sounding awed.
He wanted to see that talent properly rewarded."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
