MESA (AP) — The East Unit Bike Shop is secured within a towering chain-link perimeter topped with barbed wire at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence.
Three inmates — dressed in orange, their hands covered with dirt and grease — talk and laugh as beat up bicycles surround them. Some bikes are broken and others are missing parts.
The three contemplate how they can give back to the communities they have violated.
Melvin Hollins, who stands 6 feet 3 inches tall, talks in a deep voice about the many inmates who can't be with their children for Christmas. Fixing bicycles for kids who are less fortunate is as close as they'll get to their families, said the 43-year-old who won't get out until 2013.
Prison officials refer to the program for inmates that takes bicycles from charities and police departments and sends them to children each Christmas as "restorative justice."
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"They're there because, obviously, they've taken away from their communities," says Katie Decker, Arizona Department of Corrections spokeswoman. "While they can't undo that, they can give back."
The bike shop, manned by seven medium-security workers, opened in January 2004 and receives no state funding. Instead, it relies on donated bicycles and parts, says Sandra Walker, deputy warden of the East Unit.
Prison staffers picked up 55 children's bikes this month from the Apache Junction Police Department. And they collected another 17 from the Florence Police Department, Walker said.
The bicycles with no known owners have accumulated over the years, says Jim Stephens, employee consultant for the Apache Junction Police Department.
The inmates get paid 35 cents to 40 cents per hour to fix the bicycles at the shop, which is open four days a week during the winter. The bicycles eventually go to various religious and charitable groups statewide.
On this mid-December day, Hollins fixes a wobbly wheel on a red mountain bike.
"I think a kid would like to see it Christmas morning," he remarks as inmate Michael Coleman eyes a BMX that reminds him of his days on the Phoenix dirt tracks.
Coleman, 27, has tattoos that cover his left arm and mark his right arm. As a teen, he learned to repair his own bikes after he crashed them.
He hovers over a purple Redline Freestyle BMX that came from Apache Junction.
After stripping the brake cable, he talks optimistically about giving the bicycle to a child whose parents wouldn't be able to afford one.
"Just to see one of those kids who's less fortunate get this bike, ride this bike, makes me happy," he said.
Gary Shepherd, 35, in prison since 1991 serving a life sentence, proudly stands next to a girl's bicycle. He has replaced the seat, patched the tire tubes and repaired the bearings.
"We all agree that the kids, they're in a situation that's not really positive," he says. "Giving kids a bike is a good thing."
