Building from the ground up: Formerly incarcerated men thrive in new woodshop after fire

When working with wood, there are a few critical rules.

Measure carefully. A difference as small as a centimeter means a lot, and too big an error can’t be undone.

Put your tools away. Take care of your space. This isn’t a woodworking-specific rule so much as a general tip for an orderly life.

And of course, watch for moving blades. That speaks for itself.

But there’s one vital rule to the woodworking process that’s so common it inspired an everyday figure-of-speech.

Don’t go against the grain. The phrase is an idiom about resisting societal norms or the status quo. It comes from the fact that cutting against the wood’s grain, the internal pattern of fibers, can result in chipping.

In the woodshop, Jerry Blassingame plays by the rules. But outside, as executive director of Soteria Community Development Corporation and Senior Pastor of Soteria Christian Fellowship, he does anything but.

Soteria CDC, a nonprofit in Greenville focused on assisting those recently released from the South Carolina Department of Corrections, offers transitional housing and other services. The organization offers transitional job opportunities at Soteria at Work, a program where recently released men learn to dismantle houses and turn the usable materials into woodworking projects.

At one time, those projects came to life in a woodshop on Shaw St. However, that shop burned down in July 2022, right after Blassingame said the organization had completed a $100,000 renovation. More than a year later, after multiple attempts to find a new location, a new shop finally opened on Nov. 17 off Rutherford Rd.

Similar to the woodshop’s fresh start, individuals in the program look to restart their lives post-incarceration.

Over 6,200 individuals are released from SCDOC each year, according to the most recent five-year average from 2019 to 2023.

Last year, Greenville and Spartanburg counties ranked first and second in the state, respectively, for both individuals committed to and released from SCDOC. The two counties accounted for over 21% of incarcerated people released from state prisons in 2023.

Those individuals face a host of “collateral consequences,” or obstacles to re-entering society after prison, that Blassingame and others at Soteria hope to combat with their mission.

Put your tools away. A life at Soteria after incarceration offers second chances through structure and responsibility.

The men who live at Soteria’s transitional house are often grappling with their identities once released from prison, and are determined to make more of their lives than the mistakes that landed them there.

Current resident, Mike Gambrell, 59, spent 27 years and six months in prison for armed robbery and aggravated assault before he stepped foot into Soteria house.

"It changed my life, since I came here with Jerry, changed me a whole lot," Gambrell said. "I wasn’t the same person you see now."

The relationship between the men is a special one. Blassingame and Gambrell knew each other while growing up in Greenville, before both were incarcerated. A few years after Gambrell began his sentence, Blassingame was released and began his work with prison reentry. When Gambrell got out, he said Blassingame "saved him."

There are rules in the program, Gambrell said. You've got to clean up and pull your own weight around the house.

The same principle applies in the woodshop. Put your tools away.

On a rainy afternoon, just days before Thanksgiving, Gambrell and others with the Soteria at Work crew are deconstructing a house on Somerset St.

For Soteria at Work, they first must destroy something before they can build.

The Somerset house is one of many properties that has been deconstructed by the organization. Property owners or developers that donate materials get a tax write-off because of Soteria’s nonprofit status but they also pay the crew for labor.

After the necessary permits are obtained from the city or county, the crew manually "deconstructs" the property, saves what wood and materials they can use for other projects, and disposes of the rest.

"You’d be a fool to mess this up," Gambrell says with a smile as he heaves wet drywall into a dumpster. He and the other men are collecting the usable wood from the house. To avoid the steady precipitation, they’ve sequestered it under a tarp in the corner of the yard.

Several weeks later in December, on a much clearer day, the crew is outside the new woodshop, manually removing nails from wood and preparing it for the next custom project. Some of the reclaimed wood from Somerset St. is being used today.

A new program participant, Chris Wallace, 27, just joined the group. He was released from Perry Correctional Institution on Dec. 1.

While Wallace is pulling nails outside in the chilly weather, he chats about his new life, and the ups and downs of what was his first and only stint in prison.

In 2016, he was convicted of a robbery in his hometown of Florence. Despite taking a plea deal, he and his co-defendants received the maximum sentence of 15 years. He was just 19 years old.

Wallace ended up serving a little over half of his sentence and was released Dec. 1. Initially, he fell back into old substance use habits while incarcerated, which he said added time to his sentence. But eventually, he put his mind toward rehabilitation and life after incarceration.

"You got some babies that learn from getting burned on a stove and you got some babies that look at the baby getting burned and be like, ‘Oh, I don't want that to happen to me,’" Wallace said. "I was the baby that needed to get burned. Sad to say, but yeah, I got burned and I learned from it and grew as a person."

Roughly nine months before his release, Wallace met Blassingame in a financial literacy class Blassingame was teaching at Perry CI. He said he appreciated Blassingame’s investment in people like him and said the structured environment at Soteria was good for him.

"I’d rather be around more people like that," Wallace said. "I’ve changed mentally. I talk to my friends (from my hometown) on the phone, they’ve stayed the same, and I elevated."

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Reclaiming wood, reclaiming lives. In a new workshop, Jerry Blassingame continues the same mission.

When Soteria’s old woodshop burned down in the summer of 2022, it was one of a series of obstacles that have attempted to deter Blassingame’s mission, though never successfully.

About a decade ago, Blassingame was forced to fold an earlier reentry work program due to financial problems and almost called it quits entirely, according to his book, “Reclaimed,” that examines his life, from a past drug conviction and prison time to becoming a pastor and pioneer for reentry in Greenville.

Once the old woodshop was gone, he faced challenges finding a new space. Frustration mounted as two prospective properties didn’t pan out. In one instance, a prospective property developer didn’t want Soteria’s men in the facility and cited the “safety, security and wellbeing feared” for their residents as a concern.

But Blassingame said he’s “very pleased” with the new location on Rutherford Road, which had its ribbon-cutting on Nov. 17. Because the space previously existed as a woodshop, there were less steps to get up and operational. The new spot has better dust collection and some leftover tools, some of which the old one didn’t have.

What Soteria does today is a continuation of a longstanding personal calling for Blassingame.

It began with a vision he had while serving a 20-year sentence for drug charges. As he served time, he began to wonder what would happen once he got out. The answer was helping people in the same position he was once in, which he did when paroled after three and a half years.

The reclaiming of wood from deconstructed houses rung perfectly for the title of his book.

Cornhole boards, tables and barn doors are just a few items that the Soteria men specialize in crafting. While everything is custom-ordered and custom-made, Blassingame hopes to have a showroom in the future where people can buy pre-made items.

The deconstruction process adds a bonus impact in sustainability. Although a wrecking ball could do the same project in a matter of hours, repurposing and recycling as much as possible provides an environmental benefit. All the parts the men pull have different uses.

Floor joists and rafters are thicker pieces of wood that are great for tabletops, Blassingame said. Flooring and sub-flooring wood is good for cornhole boards and barn doors. The team gets creative with what they make and how they make it.

"If you can pin it (on Pinterest), we can build it," Blassingame said.

The vehicle for the mission has changed over time, but the goal stays the same.

In the late 2000’s, his first full-fledged reentry initiative, GreenStart, landed him a five-year contract with Greenville County schools to pick up recyclable materials that could then be sold.

Although the recycling program shuttered shortly after the contract ended, Blassingame notes in his book that it was the precursor to his current business model – salvaging of wood from house deconstructions for woodworking projects.

And as he carries on the mission, he’s breaking that fundamental rule of woodworking. Don’t go against the grain.

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Careful measurements and looking forward

Measure carefully. Cuts to wood can’t be undone, much like the events that landed people like Mike Gambrell and Chris Wallace behind bars. But the notion that they’re irreparable is something Blassingame and those championing reentry dispute.

Soteria’s mission asserts formerly incarcerated people still have much to offer and achieve in their lives after they leave prison walls. The focus is clear from the first step – joining the program.

When an incarcerated person applies Soteria upon release, the final page of their application is a one-page essay, a “project plan,” for if they are accepted. The plan lays out the person’s goals, such as further education, improving financial situation or reconnecting with family.

Soteria’s program is six months to a year, but it lays the foundation for long-term life goals. Even accomplishing a few short-term ones after being released from prison is a huge step toward re-entering society.

"I feel like if we can help people to manage their money, or help them with their addictions, and some of the mental health needs, they can survive," Blassingame said. "That's what we're trying to do. You know, have less incarceration, more of a thriving community."

But accomplishing certain goals becomes far more difficult with a criminal record, something 30% of South Carolinians have, according to the SC Appleseed Legal Justice Center. Individuals recently released from prison face many barriers to re-enter society in the form of "collateral consequences."

Housing, employment and obtaining a driver’s license are just a few collateral consequences that stand between someone recently released from prison and a functional life. They are surrounded by stigma.

"When somebody has a violent crime, people fear (them), not knowing the person, how sweet and how good a person is," Blassingame said. "I started this business so that we could put people to a job and give them dignity the day they get out of prison."

Wallace recently checked off the box of employment when he began a full-time welding position at a scrap yard off Old Easley Highway. His first day was Dec. 27, just after Christmas.

"The job has been a really good experience," Wallace said. "I enjoy going to work every day."

Polishing the finished product

Like woodworking, the process is rarely neat and tidy.

As the men craft the wood from Somerset into something new, Blassingame walks through the workshop. While reminiscing on the past and talking about the present, he is periodically interrupted by the roar of a dust collector or industrial saw.

Obstacles come and go. He pushed past closure of his first program due budget issues and pushback from Soteria’s board, and the loss of his first shop. Nowadays, the hurdles might be someone dropping from the program before graduating. It’s part of the challenge of reentry.

After cutting, smoothing, and gluing the wood into its desired form, there’s an important last step of every project in the shop. Finishing, or polishing, the final creation.

Zhan Cobb, 28, graduated from the program back in June. Now, he’s a project manager at Soteria, and helps run the woodshop and rental property maintenance. Between his time as a resident and then employee, he’s been with Soteria over a year and a half.

He finished one project, then started another. Countless others are in the future, waiting to be completed.

Back at the house on Somerset, Blassingame points out that each piece of wood is carefully labeled. Custom-ordered projects from the shop come with a note about the pieces it’s made of, and the hands that built it.

“I’m proud of everything, from the smallest to the biggest,” Blassingame said about the woodshop projects.

He’s proud of the projects, but even more proud of the people.

Chalmers Rogland covers public safety for the Spartanburg Herald-Journal and USA Today Network. Reach him via email at crogland@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Formerly incarcerated men thrive in new woodshop, reentry nonprofit