Working on two fronts, the Michigan Prison Build Program within the Michigan Department of Corrections has helped build homes for hundreds of low-income families since its inception while setting in motion a skill building and career track path for state prisoners.

The Michigan Department of Corrections has been supporting community projects for years. In 1998 Governor John Engler in his 1998 "State of the State" address, charged the department to help Habitat for Humanity affiliates speed up construction at home sites by having prisoners prefabricate the wall panels inside prisons.

With this mandate, Department Director Ken McGinnis instructed the Saginaw Correctional Facility in Freeland, under Warden Luella Burke; the Ionia Temporary Correctional Facility (now called Deerfield Correctional Facility), under Warden Martin Makel; and the Mid-Michigan Correctional Facility in St. Louis, under Warden John Prelesnik to help design and construct the interior and exterior wall panels for 850 – 1,200 square foot homes. Between the end of 1998 and throughout 1999, 72 sets of these wall panels were constructed for Habitat families. From this pilot project, the Prison Build Program was formed.

Newly appointed Director Bill Martin challenged the Program to build a complete home. The project was adopted by Warden Barbara Bock at the Saginaw Correctional Facility in late 1999. 

Eight Level I (minimum-security) prisoners from the Saginaw Correctional Facility worked under the direction of a department employee who had extensive experience in house construction. Actual construction began in late December, 1999, inside the security perimeter of the facility, and was completed on March 14, 2000. Doors were hung, trim and molding added and the kitchen and bath cabinets were installed. The only work not performed by inmates involved the electrical, heating and plumbing installation. To allow the house to be moved, it was constructed on steel beams, and on March 19, it was attached to a truck and moved to its site by a professional house mover. On March 27, 2000, the 1,050 square foot house, which had cost $35,000 to build, was dedicated for a single Hispanic mother and her three year old son.

The House on Wheeler Street became the first home in the world ever constructed within a prison by inmates for the Habitat for Humanity program. Due to the success of this project, a special site was developed at the Saginaw prison to build up to three 1,200 square foot homes at one time for low-income families.

In 2001, kitchen and bath cabinetry began with the first cabinets produced at the Deerfield Correctional Facility in Ionia under the direction of Warden Carmen Palmer. In 2003 cabinetry production was added to the Program at the Mid-Michigan Correctional Facility under Warden Paul Renico. That same year, wall panels were built for two homes in Siren, Wisconsin. A devastating tornado destroyed 130 homes in that small town. The wall panels were constructed, transported by ferry across Lake Michigan by the Michigan Army National Guard and delivered to the build site and two grateful families.

The year 2001 was also the 25th anniversary of Habitat for Humanity International. In honor of the occasion, the wall panels were built for assembly at the site of that international celebration in Indiana, and once again, delivered by the soldiers of the Michigan Army National Guard.

In 2002, newly appointed Director Bill Overton was notified that the Michigan Department of Corrections Prison Build Program was approved by the State of Michigan Bureau of Construction Codes to build complete homes at the Saginaw Correctional Facility construction site. The Bureau of Construction Codes is a bureau of the Department of Labor and Economic Growth and regulates corporations providing pre-manufactured housing within the state. The Prison Build Program was required to complete a Quality Assurance Manual setting forth procedures and processes for assuring quality and compliance with state law.

Due to the work of staff and inmates, the Prison Build Program was named a semi-finalist in the 2001 Harvard University Innovations in American Government program and the 2001 Council of State Government Innovations program. Former Director Bill Martin was named to Habitat for Humanity's first National Advisory Board for Prison Partnership. And, the Program was named one of the top five prison partnerships in the country by Habitat for Humanity International.

In 2003, a new administration entered into power in Michigan, and Governor Jennifer Granholm recognized the value of the Program.  She appointed Patricia Caruso as the new Director of Corrections, and immediately signed on to sponsor on behalf of the Masco Corporation a home in Detroit – the Governor’s House.   This significant project was part of a major initiative with the Detroit Habitat for Humanity affiliate.  Sixteen homes were built on one street in one week.  Each of the wall panels were built by inmates within the Prison Build Program.  In addition, volunteers from each of the State Departments including Corrections, assisted in actually building the Governor's House.  

In the Fall of 2003, Governor Granholm also requested the assistance of the Prison Build Program in rebuilding four homes destroyed by fire in Benton Harbor.  Working with the Cornerstone Foundation, Habitat for Humanity of Benton Harbor, and other groups, wall panels and cabinets were quickly built in order to move the four families into their homes by Christmas. 

Later that year, Governor Granholm requested the Prison Build Program to assist with her new initiative, the Children's Action Network to assist in rebuilding communities where certain schools are underperforming.  Staff began work with several urban school districts including Flint and Grand Rapids. 

As 2003 came to a close, Habitat for Humanity International announced that the site of the 2005 Jimmy Carter Work Project would be Michigan.  Nearly 250 Habitat homes will be built throughout Michigan from June 19 to June 24, 2005.  Habitat officials and Prison Build Staff immediately began plans for the building of wall panels, cabinets, sheds, and providing horticulture products for this historic effort.