Cookies sit in trays Jan. 4, 2023, at bakery in Two Rivers Correctional Institution, Umatilla. It produces roughly 6,000 cookies on a "dessert day."

The smell of baked goods permeated the kitchens of Two Rivers Correctional Institution, where cookies, bread and tortillas are prepared. In the Umatilla facility, prison inmates said they learn the skills necessary to operate a bakery, while lifting the moods of themselves and others.

A cookie dough baller, a tortilla maker and three ovens, installed just more than a year ago, are among the equipment.

“They actually had to bring the ovens in piece by piece and assemble them in the bakery,” Dave Porter said.

Porter works at TRCI a food service coordinator and is the bakery supervisor.

“I like working here because you get to see people who are enthusiastic and continue to do similar things on the outside when they leave the facility,” he said.

The bakery enables the institution to be self-sufficient in terms of desserts and bread products and even distributes its tortillas to 12 other facilities across the state of Oregon.

Thirty adults in custody produce many goods — 6,000 cookies made on a “dessert day,” 7,000 bagels made for New Year’s celebrations and 7,000 to 9,000 tortillas made and distributed to other facilities in a day. They also make a lot of bread.

The kitchen and bakery within the institution is busy, according to Tim Stuart, TRCI’s food services manager. The institution receives an order from the state and prepares the necessary products.

Baking is just one of the opportunities for inmates. Many also get experience working in different fields, which may benefit them upon their release, according to Kaycie Thompson, the supervising executive assistant at TRCI. She said the bakery is one of the programs that teach skills people can use after leaving the facility.

Porter said all of the inmates get trained in all positions within the bakery, after spending time working in the kitchens or doing dishes.

“There’s also plumbing, construction and firefighting, as well as other programs. We have some AICs who help to fight forest fires,” she said.

Thompson added the inmates work to receive the necessary licensing for the fields in which they’re participating.

Prisoners working in the bakery expressed happiness about their work. One man stated he and other inmates appreciate being useful as they make products for TRCI and elsewhere.

Through the bakery, TRCI has put on fundraisers benefiting Hermiston’s Agape House, Ukraine and more. It even supports the Adults in Custody Fund, reserved for the men in TRCI for when they are released.

“In my first year working in here, we made about $40,000 in fundraisers by selling things out of the bakery,” Porter said.

Porter said the bakery prioritizes its own facility ahead of all others when it comes to baked goods. If another institution in the state has a need for bread products, TRCI will furnish them with the necessary food. From there, the TRCI bakery accepts as many orders as it can from the public.

While primarily distributing goods amongst themselves and other facilities in the state, TRCI does often take orders from the public.

“We had to turn down a few during the holidays because we just couldn’t keep up,” Porter said, “but we try to sell what we can.”