Mixed emotions arose as Prison Industry Authority’s (PIA) Mattress factory closes shop in San Quentin. The closure is part of the new Rehabilitation Center’s move toward a technological and educational campus.
The mattress factory has been in San Quentin since moving locations in the mid-eighties and is moving again, this time to Mule Creek State Prison.
“Working for PIA provided a place to build character, it is a place that gave me the sense of a real work environment,” said PIA mattresses leadperson, Larry Dixon.
PIA’s mission is to provide quality products, change lives and create a safer California. Many of the former employees of the mattress factory said they attained various employable skills while working for PIA.
“I am grateful to have received training from PIA,” resident Mark Tedeschi said. He said he acquired multiple certificates on machinery in the shop, conducted and prepared audits for inventory; log formed and documented work instruction procedures. Tedeschi believes he gained hard and soft skills while working for 14 years in PIA.
Resident Kenny Kim said he appreciated being in a space outside the building, which allowed him to take his mind of his small cell. He said he is looking forward to sleeping until a normal time, because the factory shop hours start at six in the morning.
Kim prided himself on trying to be the fastest sewer in the building and he said there was a healthy competition between himself and other employees. “I worked daily to be effective and time efficient,” Kim said.
Some of the employees said they appreciated the teamwork, camaraderie, and work ethic each person brought to the shop.
According to shop manager Kevin Kelleher, his crew had manufactured hundreds of thousands of mattresses a year for all prisons across the state of California. “I would put my PIA crew up against any in state of California, the crew produced daily for me,” Kelleher said.
In his 16 years with PIA at San Quentin, Kelleher told SQNews his greatest joy was hearing from former employees. He said they expressed their appreciation for teaching them a good work ethic, which helped them stay on track once outside the prison.
“To touch someone else and hear how they took what you taught them to the streets gave me a sense of pride,” Kelleher said.
Many former employees said the work environment provided a familial atmosphere, which allowed them to establish healthy relationships.
Some of the residents’ retained their positions in the mattress factory well beyond a decade, and are heartbroken by the closure.
“Working in PIA, I established relationships with fellow residents, it felt more like a family to me,” 17-year employee Ron Joffrion said. “I wanted to come to work every day.”
Joffrion said he took working with free staff seriously, and working in a production type of environment meant he could work on the product from “A to Z.” He said there were good and bad experiences but the work permitted him to get more in touch with himself.
Dixon spent 17 years with the mattress factory and said San Quentin PIA Furniture and Mattress factories were a vibrant place not too long ago. He said there were plenty of joint-venture trades such as upholstery and dry cleaning.
One former employee said change is good and it forces people out of their comfort zones, acknowledging how society is moving to a computer-driven workforce.
Several of the residents said PIA representatives provided support and helped their transition into another work position within the prison.
Resident Yoga Sandher said he appreciated being a right-hand guy someone who got done whatever needed to be done.
He said he was devastated because he put so much effort and work into the mattress factory, but he is appreciative for landing a position in the maintenance and vocational building.
“I look in there now and say I miss that place. I invested so much into the mattress factory,” Sandher said.
