AUBURN — You know what they say: Busy hands are happy hands.

A new program at the Androscoggin County Jail allows low-risk female offenders to crochet during their normal leisure-time hours, a hobby, as it turns out, that will keep the heads of hundreds of students warm in cold weather.

On Tuesday the jail’s programs department, headed by Sgt. Victoria Langelier, delivered 385 winter hats and 77 scarves to schools in Lewiston, Auburn, Sabattus and Lisbon.

The schools, jail officials said, will distribute the hats and scarves to children who don’t have them or have left them at home, to ensure the child is warm this winter.

The benefits to local children are obvious: cold air, warm hats and scarves. But jail officials say there are also pluses for the inmates who make the winter gear. 

“Right now, we have 11 female inmates crocheting,” Langelier said. “A lot of them have done it in the past, at the prisons, in Cumberland County and at the Youth Center. But some of the ladies have never done it before. The girls have really taken them under their wings and taught them how to make these items.

“It’s giving them a skill they can use on the outside,” Langelier said. “It passes the time and it has significantly reduced the bickering among the ladies. It’s also built their self-esteem. Now they know that when they get out, they can make Christmas presents if they don’t have any money.”

The program, jail officials said, was made possible by donations from various organizations and people, including Straight Ahead Ministries, Trinity Church, Court Street Baptist Church, Nona Costello, Valerie Chipman, Peggy Hoffman, Kay Pinkham, Reta Turner, Linda Curran and Jackie Dion.