Rick Gardner (L), Mano Gonzalez (R)
BISMARCK, N.D. (KFGO) – When Mano Gonzalez was transferred from an Oregon prison to the State Penitentiary in Bismarck over two decades ago, he didn’t even know where North Dakota was. Now, he calls it his blessing.
“I was an interstate transfer,” Gonzalez says. “I came here with the sole purpose of just working on myself. Just investing in myself to the point of where… I needed to take accountability for my actions of what led me to come to prison.”
Gonzalez was convicted of murder in the 1990s and knew that, in order to turn his life around, he needed to get away from everything and everyone he had known. He asked for a transfer from a list of options.
Interestingly, North Dakota wasn’t on that list, but at the same time Gonzalez was looking to get out of Oregon, an inmate in the State Penitentiary in Bismarck asked to be moved there.
Gonzalez says that’s when his journey to redemption began.
“When I got off the plane, it was a snowy January,” Gonzalez says. “I thought it was Alaska.”
It was a big change for Gonzalez. He left a prison of about 4,000 inmates, to one with about 600.
Shortly after arriving in Bismarck, Gonzalez applied to work at Rough Riders Industries.
Rough Rider Industries is part of the North Dakota Department of Corrections. It was established in 1975.
According to director Rick Gardner, Rough Rider Industries is 100% self-funded and does not receive any appropriations from the state Legislature. He says it replicates a private enterprise by selling goods and services at a profit to operate. Some of those goods are road signs, license plates, furniture, dumpsters, and other products.
“Our role within the department is to instill employability skills,” Gardner says. “Those include technical skills such as welding, carpentry, (and) CAD design, [as well as] the soft skills. When I talk to employers on the outside, [soft skills] are probably in the greatest demand. That would be something as simple as coming to work everyday, being on time everyday, working well with others, and being able to take feedback from your supervisor – things that a lot of people just take for granted. We start from the ground up, basically instilling both the technical and the soft skills.”
In January of 2000, Gonzalez was hired at Rough Rider Industries where he was able to learn new skills and fine-tune those he already had.
“I was able to move up through the ranks of working through every shop here,” Gonzalez says. “Whether it was our tag (license plate) plant, our sign shop, our carpentry shop, building furniture, or shipping and handling.”
Gonzalez says his main focus was metal fabrication and welding.
“They gave me the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the whole entirety of Rough Rider Industries, which in turn gave me the structure and the discipline that I needed in order to keep this work ethic going,” Gonzalez says.
Gonzalez says staff within Rough Rider Industries was investing in him by getting to know him and building relationships.
“Who better to see the character of a man than the people you’re surrounding yourself with daily? Those men were able to look at me and thought, ‘why not give someone like that a second chance?’” Gonzalez says. “I think that’s the huge bridge in the part that was always missing in the rehabilitative side of corrections. But what happened was, they saw something and they are changing the way that we look at and how we invest in people while they’re incarcerated.”
A second chance
In December of 2022, Gonzalez applied for parole and was given a hearing in June of 2023.
“I had to go through a process because my parole is out of Oregon, not North Dakota. So, the director and others had witnessed and seen my transformation and who I was and who I became,” Gonzalez says. “So, they spoke on my behalf to say, ‘this is a man who was deemed rehabilitated.’”
Gonzalez was granted parole Dec. 20, 2023, but wasn’t released until Feb. 16 of this year. Upon his release, Rough Rider Industries offered Gonzalez a job supervising the same men he served time with and worked alongside. He accepted the offer and began working for Rough Rider Industries as a free man on March 4.
Gonzalez says he accepted that offer because he believed there was a greater purpose involved.
“That (greater purpose) was giving these other men hope, inspiring them, and letting them see that there is a possibility of what can happen if you invest in yourself,” Gonzalez says. “If you work on yourself while you’re here, opportunities will present themselves.”
Gonzalez oversees around 60 men as a welding supervisor at Rough Rider Industries. So far, he says things are going, “excellent.”
“It’s a job that keeps you busy,” Gonzalez says. “It’s a 10 hour job, and something I’ve been familiar with. It’s a little different role, but somewhat similar to what I was doing before. Now, it’s just learning more about the front of the house – how it works and the operations of that.”
Gardner says Gonzalez’s story is unique in that he is a former inmate who has come back into an environment where he is supervising the people he served time with.
“I would venture to say you will never find that situation anywhere in the US,” Gardner says. “Other correctional systems will employ offenders back [in a] sales department or what-have-you. But typically, you don’t see them coming right back into the same facility that they did their time with, along with the people that they were serving time with.”
Gardner realizes that Rough Rider Industries was taking a risk, but he feels they also did their due diligence before making the offer to Gonzalez.
“I’ve been watching Mano for a few years now, and we’ve got others in our program that we’ve been watching to see who would be a good fit. The guys, when they get out, they struggle finding employment. And just like any other business here at the State, we struggle finding workers. So, it just kind of makes sense where – if you get a guy like Mano, who knows our program, been working for us for 25 years – that’s a benefit to Rough Rider and the Department of Corrections, but also provides the guy a safe landing spot,” Gardner says.
It’s been just over two months since Gonzalez started with Rough Rider Industries as a free man. He came to the penitentiary in Bismarck with the intention of turning his life around and not be defined by his crime. Now that he’s done that, he wants others who are in the same situation he was in 25 years ago to know there is hope.
“We look for second chances and second seasons as well as people to invest in us and give us those opportunities and chances,” Gonzalez says. “I have so much more to prove, not only to them, but also to myself. Because I want to succeed. I want to be a community member who just gives back, but also just contributes in a way that is the way that we should. I’m not the same young man that I was 30 years ago, and I’m just grateful for the opportunities that not only the prison presents, but also Rough Rider Industries has.”
Gardner says Gonzalez is a humble person who came to North Dakota in his 20s with a life sentence in front of him. Now, in his early 50s, he’s a man who’s taken advantage of an opportunity to make the changes he wanted to make.
“I would be absolutely shocked if the final chapter of this story is not success,” Gardner says.
Mano: Congratulations on turning your life around. Start working on a college degree to aid your career.
Good job Mano! I too have worked on rehabilitation (from addiction) and my job has been my saving grace. Nice story to read about you. It is very inspiring.
Jason