Inmates learning trades

DRAPER — Jeremiah Maul runs his hands across the newly lacquered cabinets, speaking with authority as he talks about how the pieces were planed, assembled and installed.

The quality of the wood isn't great, he notes — you can tell by the grain of the different pieces and how the wood had absorbed the oak stain, he explains — but the overall effect of the end product is still pretty nice.

Surveying his handiwork in the not-quite-finished kitchen, Maul says "It's feels pretty good."

Maul, 29, is an apprentice carpenter, working on a journeyman's union card. Over the past two years, he's earned an associates degree in building construction and has his sites set on a second degree in drafting.

"Why not?" he says. "I would like to know how to draw these things as well."

These are big dreams for a guy from American Fork who is serving two five-to-life sentences in the Utah State Prison after convictions for aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery and theft of a firearm during a home invasion robbery. Big dreams for guy who in his own words, "bounced around" from shift work in auto repair and junkyards and basically "couldn't hold a job when I even had one."

"I believe that now I have a better chance of not being a repeat offender," said Maul, who must wait another two years before the state parole board will even consider giving him a parole date. "It's changed my whole outlook."

The words are music to Jay Miller's ears.

Miller is the Salt Lake Community College instructor who for the past 18 years has been teaching the building trades to prison inmates. He teaches them classroom theory, gives them hands-on experience and helps them find work once they get outside.

Under his tutelage, students have built more than 200 modular classrooms for school districts along the Wasatch Front. Some of his graduates have gone on to own their own businesses and manage large construction crews.

"I think it's important that we give these guys and opportunity to make something of their lives, " said Miller, 70, who adds that many in the building industry have questioned his involvement. "Somewhere somebody failed with (these inmates). It's up to us to fix that."