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• Sioux Falls inmates also knitted more than 1,650 stocking caps and sewed nearly 600 pairs of fleece mittens that will go to children and adults. And Springfield inmates refurbished more than 450 bicycles, which law enforcement agencies will deliver to kids.
• The inmate elves work year-round on the gifts.
• The scrap lumber, yarn and bicycles are all donated, said Darin Young, warden of the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls. The inmates make the normal hourly wage for working behind bars, 25 cents an hour, but the payoff for some can't be measured, he said.
• "It gives them a job and some out-of-cell time and some work ethic and helps them with their lives and their treatment here, to improve themselves and feel good about helping other people in need," Young said. "When you're making toys for children or hats for those in need, I think it takes it to a new level of pride in their work."
• Sanders, who is eight years into his 10-year sentence for burglary in Meade County, said he's doing something positive.
• "When I'm making a toy, I'm thinking of my kids and what might make them happy," he said. "So, right now, I'm doing my time. If I'm making these kids happy, I'm doing a good thing."
• Young said the program, which has been going for years, boosts the inmates' self-esteem and self-worth because they're giving back to the community.
• "Which is not easy to do from the inside," he said. "Some people do feel bad about what they did to get here. This is a way for them to do something small that they care about."
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