Items inmates made for residents in long-term care facilities sit on a table at the Department of Corrections headquarters Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (Skylar Laird/SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — Elderly and disabled South Carolinians in long-term care will start receiving knitwear, stuffed animals and holiday cards Wednesday that are handmade by inmates.
Around 1,600 inmate-made gifts will be distributed this year, said Department of Corrections Director Bryan Stirling. The partnership between state prisons and the Department on Aging, which handles the distribution, began in 2020 as an effort to lift the spirits of residents unable to have visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prisoners enjoyed gifting items so much that the tradition has continued for the winter holidays each year since, Stirling said.
“(Inmates) spend many months making gifts and talk about how much it means to them to give back to the community,” Stirling said.
Using supplies available to them year-round, inmates knit and crochet hats, scarves and blankets. Some make stuffed animals. Others decorate holiday cards.
The gifts go to residents in the state’s 2,300 nursing homes, assisted living facilities and residential care programs who may not have family or friends to visit them during the holidays.
That’s the case for about 57% of nursing home residents, said Department on Aging Director Connie Munn.
“Getting this little gift during the holiday season is truly a blessing to many, many of those (residents),” Munn said.
Knowing that inmates put time and effort into the gifts, which in some cases take many hours to complete, is a reminder to residents who likely won’t receive anything else for the holidays that someone out there cares about them, Stirling said.
“There can be a lot of loneliness in the senior community this time of year, so it’s nice to know that someone is out there thinking about them and giving them a gift,” Stirling said.
This year, inmates at 19 of the state’s 21 prisons participated in making gifts to donate. Participation is voluntary, so the number of facilities is based on whether the prisoners there want to make something, Stirling said.
Regional ombudsmen for the Department of Aging, who usually address residents’ complaints about long-term care facilities, will spend the next few days delivering the gifts to residents in facilities near the prisons where inmates made the gifts.
The goal next year is to get all 21 prisons on board, Stirling said. The program has benefits for inmates, too, who get to spend time they might otherwise have been idle doing something to benefit other people, he said.
“They spend their time in prison for the crimes that they’ve committed, so this gives them a sense of community and the ability to give back and, I would say, some sympathy,” Stirling said. “That’s a nice skill to learn. Not everybody has that.”