In May, Netflix released a new title: “The Quilters.” The 33-minute documentary, directed by Jenifer McShane and released in 2024, tells the story of a group of men in a maximum security prison in Missouri who sew beautiful, personalized quilts for foster children.
It’s part of a restorative justice program under the Missouri Department of Corrections, which combines give-back programs with the opportunity for “offender-volunteers” to strengthen social bonds through serving fellow citizens.
In the quilt program, participants sew and donate handmade quilts, including weighted and fidget quilts for people with autism or Alzheimer’s disease.
The documentary focuses specifically on a group of quilters who sew blankets for foster children awaiting adoption.
They show up to the workshop from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. five days a week, and they are required to have no violations or write-ups during their incarceration to participate in the program.
Since the program’s inception, the group has donated over 2,000 quilts.
Throughout the film, subjects are seen piecing together the quilts, interspersed with clips of them explaining why they make the quilts, and moments of reflection on their past.
“From design to completion, the men reveal their struggles, triumphs and sense of pride in creating something beautiful in this windowless, sacred space deep within the prison walls,” Netflix's description of the film reads.
The documentary has resonated with viewers in such a profound way that the Missouri Department of Corrections had to issue a statement to ask the community to stop sending donations of fabric and yarn to the prison.
“We, too, are moved by the film and are, every day, awestruck by the generous and beautiful work done by Missourians in our Restorative Justice Organization programs,” the statement reads.
“In addition to South Central Correctional Center, the department supports quilting programs at multiple other sites. Donations of quilting supplies and equipment are needed and appreciated. However, we currently are overwhelmed by donations and are running out of storage space for fabric and yarn.”
Instead, the department requested that supporters consider a monetary donation to help fund all restorative justice programs in the organization.
These other programs include cultivating gardens to donate fresh produce to food banks, training rescue dogs, completing woodworking projects for donation, creating educational materials for local students, and producing audio and braille publications for Missourians with visual impairments.
“With the goal of giving back to the people of the state, Missourians in state correctional centers perform volunteer work and complete projects to support nonprofit agencies,” the department's web page about restorative justice explains.
“Through restorative justice initiatives, offenders serve fellow citizens and strengthen social bonds that serve as the foundation of communities.”
And it seems to be working. As the men in the documentary share, the quilting projects give them a renewed sense of purpose and identity.
“It’s a little community inside a big community,” one offender-volunteer said in the documentary’s trailer.
“We’re just trying to do better,” another added. “We all ain't perfect, but we trying. This is what puts me on the outside. When I do this, I don't even be in here.”
Director McShane saw this spark quickly, and it’s clear viewers do, too.
“I was really taken with what was happening there,” McShane told cinema blog The Moveable Fest last summer.
“It was like those posters you see of a little flower growing out of cement. That’s how I felt. [The quilters] were just so passionate about what they were doing. They felt [quilting] was really healing, and it was this imaginary bridge to the outside world, in terms of doing something positive and feeling pride, which you don’t often experience … in other prisons.”
Header images courtesy of Netflix
