Over the summer, the Michael W Travels wasn’t traveling internationally due to COVID-19. Instead, we took a handful of road trips not too far from home.

Our most recent and longest trip was an 11-day trip primarily to Maine. While there, we ate a lot of lobster rolls and visited quite a few lighthouses.

While researching things to do, I came across a very special souvenir shop that I had to visit, the Maine State Prison Show Room!When I first came across the Maine State Prison Showroom, it brought to mind our visit to the jail on Easter Island.

At the MSP, souvenirs are for sale which were made by prisoners. However, at our Easter Island jail visit, the prisoners are around creating and selling their wares. After waiting about 15- 20 minutes on line (due to Covid-19 occupancy restrictions), we headed on in to the Maine State Prison Showroom to see what kind of items were for sale.When you enter the door, we saw furniture and small buoys displayed.As we looked a little closer, we saw carved statues, art work, keychains and a variety of wooden toys available.

I had read that the items for sale were pretty pricey but Kim and I felt most of the items were very fairly priced. 
Theo’s favorite item was this rocking horse. It was very cool but there was definitely no room in my car for it! (This item wasn’t so cheap at $134.95)Above an aisle of various cutting boards, the Maine State Prison Showroom had a museum-style display of prison contraband. Pretty cool…I had to purchase something from the store so Kim and I settled on this pig shaped cutting board. It’s hard to see in the photo, but if you look really closely, inside the rectangle-shaped stamp, it says “Hand Crafted At The Maine State Prison”.

For $13.95, we felt it was a really good deal and an awesome souvenir. We’ll probably hang it on a wall in our kitchen. On the way out, I noticed this framed photo of the prison which was torn down in 2002. Below it was a photo of some of the cast from the movie The Shawshank Redemption.

I never saw the movie but I was curious about the movie photo. I asked one of the showroom employees if the movie was filmed at the old prison. He mentioned that it wasn’t but the book by author Stephen King was supposedly based on MSP!The old prison used to sit behind the prison shop. After being torn down in 2002, a piece of a wall was left as a memorial. I walked over to take a quick look before heading off.

The Maine State Prison Showroom is located at 358 Main St in Thomaston, Maine.