Indiana Inmates Collaborate on Conference Table for Governor
Westville Correctional Facility staff and inmates build an immense marquetry table for the Indiana State House
A small group of inmates and staff at Indiana’s Westville Correctional Facility recently completed a major undertaking that’s a departure from the typical prison work of license plates, street signs, and the like. They built a 16-ft.-long conference table with an elaborate marquetry top for the governor’s office.
Staff carpenter Alex McEathron got the unusual commission in 2006. Governor Mitch Daniels (R) requested a large conference table for his office in the Indiana State House. Construction began in January 2007, using wood cut from trees on prison property. The table design included a state map with cutouts for the state’s 92 counties, plus a state seal and a state flag symbol.
McEathron led the project, but he said it pushed him out of his comfort zone. He told FineWoodworking.com that he would lie awake at night mulling over the next challenge. “It was all really difficult,” said McEathron, “it was for the governor and you couldn’t make a mistake.”
The table is built from cherry, oak, tulip poplar, black walnut, white pine, maple, and spalted maple. The trees grew on prison property, but were cut down several years ago to improve visibility and security. Many were turned into mulch, but some were milled and dried. McEathron oversaw some of the process and kept an eye out for figured wood. “I want the jewels,” he told the sawyer.
Building the table skeleton and keeping it flat was the challenge. The round edges use bent laminations with 1/4-in. strips of walnut.
This wasn’t the first time folks from the Westville carpentry shop embarked on a big project. When Department of Correction commissioner J. David Donahue took office in 2005, he commissioned a new table for his command center. But he didn’t want just any table; he imagined one with a puzzle top where each piece represented a business unit in the correction system. Staff and inmates built the table from reclaimed wooden pallet material, said Donahue in a phone interview.
First marquetry attempt made from reclaimed wood. It only cost about $70 in materials, said Donahue.
At first, McEathron was apprehensive about building the command center table. “We didn’t think we knew how to build the commissioner’s table,” he said. But Donahue was convinced they had the skills to succeed, and they did. “He gets the mindset that you’re going to do this, and you can… he’s taught us a lot about ourselves,” said McEathron.
Later, when the governor’s cabinet members were commenting that the table they used for meetings was small and outdated, Donahue recommended the Westville carpentry shop and the governor took the suggestion.
The governor’s table project consumed 2,000 man-hours and six months. One of the 92 county blanks took five attempts and a whole day to cut out, said McEathron. Eight inmates assisted.
Alex McEathron piecing together the table.
The inmates in the carpentry shop work under close supervision and the tools are tightly controlled, said Donahue. Tools get checked in and out and inspected regularly for damage. Teaching woodworking, carpentry, and other skill-based programs is important because the vast majority of the medium-security inmates will be released into the community, said Donahue. The department wants inmates to learn work skills to ease the transition into the working world upon release.
The table was completed in June. It sits in the governor’s office “and it’s absolutely beautiful,” said Donahue.
Photos: Courtesy of the Indiana Department of Correction
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