MONROE — Douglas Tobin first saw shapes in the wood when he was a boy.
His father had built a backyard patio out of cedar. Tobin took out his pocket knife and started whittling, earning a spanking.
Tobin kept sharpening his skills over the decades. Now 56, he’s still at it, but in an unusual setting. A 14-year prison term for clam poaching landed him in the minimum security unit at the Monroe Correctional Complex.
He has started a program there that has sparked the imagination of prison staff and inmates alike. He is teaching 10 inmates how to carve a totem pole, working within the strict confines of prison while earning 42 cents an hour for a skill that would otherwise earn him thousands of dollars.
“You do a lot of poles,” Tobin said. “Some mean more than others. This one will always mean something.”
Tobin, a Squaxin Island Indian, pitched the idea for the pole to prison superintendent Scott Frakes about three months ago.
Tobin said he would spend his money to buy carving tools, arrange the donation of a cedar log and teach prisoners — who include other American Indians — how to carve.
Frakes said he was chuckling on the inside when he heard the plan, because Tobin’s proposal closely mirrored the speech the staff gives to prisoners who are in educational programs. He agreed, in part because Tobin was in minimum security, and in part because he was impressed.
“If he had asked to do this by himself, off in a corner, and turn it into a hobby craft for himself, it wouldn’t have happened,” Frakes said.
Tobin called a family friend, Bob Coster, who lives near Snohomish. Coster asked his neighbors to donate a 74-year-old cedar from their lot. Coster cut the tree down and arranged transportation of the 25-foot log.
Tobin had his lawyer purchase tools to carve it for about $1,000.
Those had to be processed by the prison’s tool control sergeant. Like the hammers and screwdrivers used in other programs, Tobin’s adzes and knives were inventoried, labeled and sent to maintenance, where a tool box was made that would help ensure none went missing.
Frakes said he’s prepared to stand behind Tobin and the program if people object to it. That could happen. After all, Tobin has stirred up controversy before.
Tobin was involved in a hired murder in 1986. A plea agreement for manslaughter earned him a 10-year sentence, according to the Department of Corrections.
After his release, the Port of Olympia hired him to carve a totem pole, but a public outcry led the port to sell it.
Tobin’s now serving time for a geoduck-poaching scam he ran a few years ago. He had been helping the police find poachers, all the time running his own million-dollar operation behind their backs, according to a 2003 Seattle Times story.
Still, Frakes said he didn’t expect much controversy. He said the pole has no measurable cost to taxpayers. The inmates work as volunteers, while Tobin earns his prison wage. An expert in American Indian art said Tobin could possibly earn $3,000 per foot for his work.
“The fact that this is being done gratis should take away much, if not all, of the argument,” Frakes said.
* * *
Tobin usually goes to work after breakfast at 7:30 a.m.
Last Tuesday, he was tutoring four men. Half the pole sat under a makeshift tarp. The ground was littered with cedar chips. Nearby, a sign reminded Tobin’s students, most in prison on drug or assault offenses, to keep 5 feet away from a fence topped with two coils of razor-wire.
“We’re under the microscope right now,” said Brodie Stevens, a Tulalip Indian. “This is our first project. If it goes according to plan, like it’s supposed to, this can keep going.”
Tobin joked with the men. He imitated Popeye. He said one of the inmates was Pamela Anderson’s sister. They laughed.
“He’s wonderful,” said James Biss, a 44-year-old inmate. “He’s got it this far, getting the tools in here.”
After two weeks, the pole was taking shape. The base depicted a bear protecting a woman who was carved with detail down to her smooth toenails.
Other designs needed to be carved, like a whale in combat with the bear. Tobin said their deadlocked battle will symbolize the idea of respect, a part of prison life, while a shaman will represent the wisdom of judges and lawyers.
“You usually carve the environment or the setting of whoever commissioned the pole, whatever the energy is,” he said. “And the energy here is everybody makes mistakes.”
The 10 men work in shifts until about 3 p.m. Prison life can slow them down. On Tuesday, corrections officers had to make an unexpected count of all the inmates, halting work for Tobin and his men.
“We had to inventory his tools and we had to send him in,” said Kari Styles, Tobin’s unit supervisor.
Tobin’s work has attracted attention from inmates and guards, Styles said. His work area is cordoned off and posted as out-of-bounds.
“I get phone calls asking me, ‘Can I go look at the totem pole, can I go over there?’” Styles said.
Tobin could be released between 2011 and 2016. He wants to start a business that teaches carving and sells American Indian art after he gets out.
“I think I’ll stay off the fishing for a while,” he said. “Even though I like my clam chowder, I’ll just go get Campbell’s and call it a day.”
As for the pole, Frakes said it will stay at the 365-acre prison complex.
“It’s not something we’ll turn into money or ever think of turning into money,” he said. “It’s kind of a priceless gift.”
That’s fine by Tobin. He said the pole will be a tribute to the fact that prisoners can come together and make things work.
“This pole,” he said, took the life of the tree, “but it’s going to live at least another 10 decades.”
Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455, arathbun@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
