Brush with the Law : When inmates say ‘I was framed’ they’re talking about artwork

The Dallas Morning News

FLORENCE, Arizona – You can buy chocolates, roses or a romantic, candlelit dinner at a fancy French restaurant. But nothing says “I’m a prisoner of your heart” quite like a Valentine’s Day portrait of your sweetie painted from inside the Big House.

Artistically talented inmates of the Arizona Department of Corrections and assorted private prisons throughout the state can provide just the gift … and at prices so reasonable some might consider them – ahem – a real steal. Custom portraits, which inmates draw or paint using photographs that clients submit through the state’s prison arts and crafts store, sell for as little as $20.

The inmates’ tough break can lead to the art-loving, law-abiding citizen’s good fortune, noted Judi Longmeyer, who is central regional operations manager for Arizona Correctional Industries, and supervisor of the Arizona State Prison Arts & Trades Outlet.

“We live in a time when the people insist on firmness in dealing with criminal behavior,” she said. “There are people who may have some serious talents who wind up incarcerated – and you can buy good art for much less than what you’d pay at a gallery.”

Facilitating this artistic interchange is the ACI Outlet Store, a modest, 5-year-old enterprise open to the public Tuesdays through Saturdays. The Old West styled shop is located in Florence, about 65 miles north of Tucson – and just across the street from the barren, razor-wire-wrapped yard of the maximum-security Arizona State Prison Complex-Florence. It attracts visitors from around the world, Ms. Longmeyer said, who are in search of quirky gifts with a prison twist.

Here they’ll find a variety of goods: inmate-manufactured metal purses, novelty license plates, beaded necklaces, origami art, hand-tooled leather belts, wooden jewelry boxes, and like-new clothing (surplus jackets left over following corrections officials’ decision to switch inmate uniforms from denim jeans-and-jackets ensembles to bright orange jumpsuits.) You can spend a couple bucks on a white coffee mug emblazoned with the phrase “Arizona State Prisons – A Gated Community.” Or, at the other end of the spectrum, you can spend $250 and come away with a delicate ivory scrimshaw jewelry box, hand-etched by Alaskan inmates at a nearby privately operated correctional facility.

It’s also where visitors can make a prison portraitist connection. One of the most popular is photo-realistic pastel artist and former Dallas resident David Hoover.

“Portraiture is definitely my favorite,” he said in a phone interview with The Dallas Morning News. The 42-year-old inmate, who is serving 24 years for fraud and theft, occasionally draws Southwestern-themed landscapes and still-life paintings. But portraiture is his favorite art commission.

“I’m very, very conscious of trying to bring life to the painting,” he said. “Especially with portraits of woman and children, I try to capture the soft skin and smooth textures to make the portrait come alive.”

Mr. Hoover, who numbers among his customers a former warden of another Arizona state prison, started drawing with pastels after his incarceration in 1993. Since then, he figures he’s placed and sold more than 350 pieces of artwork via the prison outlet store.

Prices for his portraits start at $50. Simple head-and-shoulders portraits, which he can turn around in two or three days, are the least expensive. Full-body portraits with complex costumes and intricate backgrounds – a library setting, for example – require at least two weeks of work, and are the most expensive. Most of his portraits cost about $225.

“Valentine’s Day and Christmas are my busiest times of the year,” Mr. Hoover said. “It starts at the end of October and carries through February. I’m still backlogged from Christmas.”

Clients who prefer another medium might seek out David Palmer, who works in watercolor and acrylic paint. He estimated that he’s done more than 100 portraits of fellow inmates’ family members since his most recent trip to prison began in 1994.

Mr. Palmer, 51, who had earned an associate degree in graphic design in Tempe, Arizona, is serving nine years for a narcotics conviction. He specializes in paintings of cowboys and horses, as well as contemporary and ancient American Indian pottery, but said he’d like to do more commissioned portraits for customers “on the outside.”

He charges $20 and up for a painting, which takes him about a week to complete.

“I don’t want to call myself cheap,” he said in a phone interview. “But I don’t charge a lot. And to know it was done ‘behind the walls’ might give it some special significance.”

Some 205 inmates from the Arizona prison system’s 26,695-member population have, or had, artwork on display at the prison store. About 55 other inmates from privately operated prisons also have exhibited there, Ms. Longmeyer said.

Prisoners set their own prices and keep 75 percent of the selling price. They can put the profits in an inmate savings account, typically used to purchase snack foods or toiletries in the prison commissary. The money also can be used to pay court-ordered restitution, victim compensation or to purchase additional art supplies.

“It gives them a good, healthy, constructive outlet,” Ms. Longmeyer said, “in addition to the economic benefits.”

The state corrections system keeps 25 percent of an item’s selling price to defray costs of operating the outlet store. Private prisons retain 30 percent to defray incarceration costs.

Arizona Correctional Industries is a self-funded program that offers a variety of inmate-manufactured products, including baked goods, printing services and re-upholstery projects. Last year, it recorded gross revenues of $2.5 million, and an earned net income of $1.4 million. Although the profits for the prison store have fluctuated, it just about breaks even, according to Ms. Longmeyer.

“Taxpayer benefits, correctional benefits, and inmate benefits – it’s just a good thing,” she said.

While the Arizona outlet store sells artwork and other items to visiting tourists from around the world – and probably could find a market for inmate artwork elsewhere – you won’t be able to buy its wares anywhere other than the Grand Canyon State.

“We are mandated by the state to do our business within the boundaries of Arizona,” said Ms. Longmeyer. “Interstate commerce is verboten. Otherwise, we’d be breaking the rules. And I don’t look good in orange.”