Ore. inmates take pride in embroidery

PENDLETON, Ore. (AP) – The Oregon Legislature and the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution are 250 miles apart, but a tiny piece of cloth links them – a little Oregon flag with the state seal embroidered on one side and a beaver on the other.

Inmates stitched the miniature flags. When the Legislature convened last week for the 2013 session, lawmakers found them planted in one corner of their desks inside chambers of leather and polished wood.

Four inmates crafted the flags inside the cavernous and decidedly less posh EOCI garment factory in Pendleton, at the request of Senate President Peter Courtney. Previous flags had displayed only the seal, even though statute describes a beaver on the flipside. Courtney decided to present legislators in the Senate and House with accurate flags that he purchased himself.

Each order goes first to the team’s digitizer, Jeff Haney, who creates a design. Haney designed the flag and shrank the seal and beaver to fit. Because the flag has embroidery on both sides, the flag is folded over on itself. Haney didn’t seem taxed though the flag was his first back-to-back (two-sided) embroidery order.

“We can do about any customized work,” he said, rubbing his goatee. “Our quality is really good. We take a lot of pride in what we do.”