MOUNT OLIVE - When Charleston police Cpl. Errol Randle gave a handful of felons the chance to make an honest wage working on his home, he didn't realize what he set in motion.
Randle's grand experiment started as a kind gesture, giving an old man he knew from a previous encounter the chance at real work after getting out of prison. But now, spurred on by some early press coverage, it's gaining momentum and support from the city's highest officials.
"I think Cpl. Randle has demonstrated what could be done with his home," said Rod Blackstone, assistant to the mayor. Blackstone and other city officials accompanied Randle on a tour of Prison Industries at the Mount Olive Correctional Complex in Fayette County.
Prison Industries is the term given to a sort of vocational center inside the sprawling Mount Olive campus. Prisoners put their time and energy into learning and perfecting trades they can use when they're released.
A reporter was invited along for a guided - but off-the-record - tour of the facility along with Randle's guests, which included Charleston police Chief Brent Webster, Detective Eddie Whitehead, City Councilman Jack Harrison, Blackstone, Jim Edwards, executive director of the Charleston Urban Renewal Authority, and Randle's father, retired police chief Amos Randle.
"It was eye-opening for me, because I had no idea what the facility was like," Edwards said. "The range of skill is likewise a real surprise."
The plan, still in its infancy, is to somehow create a larger, permanent and official version of what Randle did for three felons in March, Randle said. He didn't initially think too much of giving the men a break, but the media coverage caught the attention of multiple local, state and civic leaders.
After a few initial brainstorming and discovery sessions, Randle was invited to tour the Mount Olive facilities three weeks ago, he said. The experience was eye-opening.
"It inspired me to really want to connect the dots out here in society," he said.
Now he and others are trying to figure out how to smoothly transition reformed criminals with exemplary skills into the post-prison careers that need them.
"I really see us developing a program that can help," he said.
Webster repeated a statistic cited during the tour, that 90 percent of all Mount Olive's inmates would someday return to society.
"If you come out without skills, you're not going to get a job, period," he said.
Those skills aren't just woodworking or metal-craft. Simple courtesies and things like how to dress and behave at work are included.
"I believe that would cut down on recidivism," Webster said.
At this point, the plan is to create a plan. Creating an efficient and effective work transition program for released prisoners will take cooperation and support from multiple agencies and the public.
The final product, what Randle envisions, is a program where inmates take what they learn on the inside and put it to work on the outside, primarily by building homes. He hopes the money and experience they earn will spur them on to home ownership and, eventually, full reintegration into society.
His evidential basis for this, and the factor that pushed so many local and civic leaders into support for his dream, is the success of two of the men he put to work in March.
Lewis Smith, a 64-year-old who spent the better part of his life behind bars, now has a job at Foodland, even though nobody would hire him five months ago. Mike Shields, a 34-year-old felon, was hired by a contractor to do the very work he proved he could do when Randle hired him.
"It's been an eye-opening experience on many different levels," Randle said, during an interview in May. "I've been able to see a house transform, but I've also seen two lives change."
Shields has since found an apartment and has reunited with his wife.
Before Randle hired them, both men were living in a men's shelter and struggling to find work.
Randle's tour guests agreed, the next phase of this thing is to actually figure out how to do it.
"I think that's what this whole thing was about," Harrison said. "To see how we can help these individuals get out."
Concrete plans are still a ways away, he added.
"We're still trying to digest what we've seen," he said. "I don't know how the city would actually do it."
Randle said getting people on board, showing them this was possible on even a small scale, is an important early victory.
"I already see the mindset I want to see with a lot of people," he said. "They've all responded and said, 'We're really interested in that idea.'"
Randle believes in second chances, he said, and that's the ultimate goal of this dream of his.
"We all have been given second chances, and we need to give second chances," he said. "And who are we not to allow that to happen?"
Contact writer Tyler Bell at 304-348-4850 or tyler.bell@dailymailwv.com. Follow him at www.twitter.com/Tyler_Bell87.