Inmates from seven state facilities met at the Cross City Correctional Institution for the 5th Annual Masonry Competition, turning the prison into a temporary construction site.
Participants from Columbia, Suwannee, Liberty, Okaloosa, Cross City, Lancaster and Tomoka correctional institutions stood inside taped yellow boxes, serving as temporary workstations where, for a few hours, they were not just inmates, but craftsmen.
Each team was challenged to build a small wall using bricks, concrete blocks and cement. The project was simple on paper but demanded focus, precision and hours of practice.
For Bryan Peterson, an inmate from Tomoka, masonry began as just another class he signed up for shortly after arriving there in May 2023. It quickly became something more.
“It keeps me busy until, you know, I go home,” he said.
Peterson spent the competition day just as he practiced: laying brick, wiping edges clean, checking his lines. The skills come naturally to Peterson, who has 20 years of construction experience under his belt. Still, even decades of experience couldn’t completely quiet the nerves.
“I was definitely nervous at first,” Peterson said. “You know, I’m not used to doing it in front of that many people, but you just kind of get into a rhythm, had to block out a lot, but at the same time, just did what I had to do.”
By the final whistle, his wall stood out. It was leveled, clean, and a true sign of how much his hard work paid off. He won first place in the individual category and, alongside his partner, Tomoka Correctional Institution inmate Lloyd Haughton, first place in the team division as well. Peterson is scheduled to be released on Nov. 28, 2025, and says the skill gives him something to look forward to on the outside.
On the judging stand was Anthony Williams, who has spent nearly four decades in masonry. He first picked up a trowel in high school after he and his twin brother let their grades slip and their football coach nudged them into a unique vocational class: masonry.
“I've been doing it ever since,” Williams said.
For him, bricklaying is as much about feel as it is technique.
“When everything's working right: the height is right, the mud is just right, the weather is just right. Everything flows,” he said.
Williams said he believes trade skills can set inmates on a new path once they’re released. That moment of stepping back and seeing what they built, he says, can change a person.
“The confidence it builds when you stand back and look at something and say, ‘Man, I built that,’” he said. “That can stay with you, whether you're 57 years old or 25.”
Attendee Jerry Painter has been a bricklayer for 60 years. He helped construct several buildings at the University of Florida, including fraternity houses and science halls, and says craftsmanship opens doors far beyond a job site.
“You can do anything you want to if you've got a craft to fall back on,” Painter said.
Painter said he sees the competition not just as an event, but a potential turning point. At the front of the room, resumés of each inmate competitor were laid out for spectators and potential employers.
“If they want to, when they get out of here, they will have a job,” he said.
Winners in the team competition will receive sets of the very tools they used: trowels, levels and other mason’s essentials. They receive the items once they are released. For many, those tools may become the foundation of the life they hope to build next.