In a prison far from the beach, these men are building lifeguard stands for Jersey Shore

LEESBURG, N.J. — The lifeguard stand is headed for the beach in Lavallette this summer, but for the men who built it, it will be awhile before they can see it.

In a carpentry workshop on the grounds of Bayside State Prison the other day, these incarcerated men couldn’t help but think about their own beach memories as they worked on the painted-white, cedar, three-person Jersey Shore lifeguard stand.

“That’s the first thing I say, where’s the sand?” said Henry Hernandez, 38, who grew up going to Orchard Beach in the Bronx, on New York’s Pelham Bay. “It’s pretty cool.”

Hernandez built fish ponds in Bergen County before he was sentenced to prison for an assault. He’s appreciative of the skills he’s learning in the state program known as DeptCor, and proud that his work will travel from the prison yard to its beautiful, and public, setting on the beach.

His release date is April 26, 2024 (not that he’s counting), so it’ll be next summer, Hernandez says, before he can take his children, ages 20, 19, 16, 10, and 5, to show them his handiwork. The stand will be a positive testimonial to an otherwise regrettable life chapter.

“I’ll tell the kids, yeah, I built this,” he said, then added with a laugh, “They might not believe me.”

Hernandez says he hasn’t spent much time at the Jersey Shore, though he says other men at Bayside are hyping it all the time. He’s more of a Florida, Bronx, or man-made Jersey lake family trip guy.

Nearby, William Beam, 45, of Newark, says he is 28 years into a 50-year sentence for murder that granted parole eligibility at 30 years. He’s headed for a halfway house soon, he says, and upon release, plans to go to Miami to work on deep sea fishing boats.

After his long journey in prison, beginning when he was a teenager, he’s now in minimum security with a carpentry job building sheds and lifeguard stands.

“These things are important for the community and the people,” Beam said. “We have two good teachers who put us on a successful path. There are a lot of things you learn that you take with you.”

His own memories of the beach are mostly from Miami and other parts of Florida, he says, still vivid from decades ago. “Volleyball, fishing, crabbing, catching whiting,” he said. “I did a lot of things. Deep sea fishing.”

Over the last five years, the incarcerated men in the DeptCor Bureau of State Use Industries program have built about 25 lifeguard stands, now mostly in Cape May and the Wildwoods, plus benches for Ocean City, and about 200 of the colorful beach storage boxes rented out in Wildwood and Wildwood Crest.

They have also built some portable wooden walkways for Wildwood’s expansive beaches.

The demand for the beach boxes grew to the point that they’re now done at the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility, said Amy Z. Quinn, a spokesperson for the N.J. Department of Corrections.

It’s a welcome lift out of the daily routine of incarceration as they work to create something of value for the community and learn job skills from supervisor Craig Day and lead carpenter Mark Andres. The inmates eligible for the program are under minimum supervision.

The men get a $5 a day stipend.

Hernandez says the small stipend is fine, even as their work is ending up in wealthy beach towns (Lavallette has a median home sale price of $970,000).

“It’s not about the pay,” Hernandez said. “It’s about the experience. It’s a trade you pay for.”

The finished products are sold to municipalities, with the lifeguard stands fetching about $1,200 each, or state agencies.

There are tens of thousands of unfilled manufacturing jobs in New Jersey, said Brian Gallagher, who oversees the DeptCor vocational programs, which also include a bakery, print shop, horticulture programs, a sign shop, and a very busy shed building program aimed mostly for use by the Department of Transportation.

The agencies, schools, or municipalities can choose from a catalog of items that are exempt from the usual bidding process.

Another carpenter on this day, Joseph Walters, 35, of Middlesex County, is serving a sentence on a theft charge stemming from “making the wrong decisions,” he said. He hopes to be paroled in two months or max out early next year.

Walters says he has never heard of Lavallette; his own beach time was spent just south of there in Seaside Heights and the beaches on the Raritan Bay in central Jersey such as Cliffwood and Laurence Harbor.

“I miss hanging out,” he said, “having bonfires. I avoided trouble for awhile.”

He said he will consider going to see the lifeguard stand in its spot along the Atlantic Ocean in the Ocean County beach town.

“Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be there,” he said. “I probably won’t even recognize it.”

The men and their supervisors say they are proud of what they’ve built.

”Two years ago, a lifeguard stand was hit by lightning,” said Day, the supervisor. “It was one of ours. It’s on video. I think they just had to replace one board.”

“I’m proud to say we built something,” Hernandez said. “A shed is like building a little tiny home. Tiny homes are very popular.”

Hernandez, the Bronx native, said the work on the lifeguard stands, and the conversations that has led to with other incarcerated men, has piqued his interest in exploring the Jersey Shore, a place he’s never been outside of a few trips to Atlantic City.

“I hear a lot of people thinking about the Shore down here,” Hernandez said. “Everybody speaks about it here. I’m like, ‘I”m going to have to go to the Shore now.’ ”