FORT STOCKTON, Texas—Despite 28 years as a solid citizen of Fort Stockton, “Paisano Pete” was hauled off to state prison recently.

But now the town’s prominent roadrunner statue is back, and looking, well, reformed.

Over two weeks, inmates at the nearby Lynaugh Unit gave Pete a new paint job and repaired hail damage to the statue, which is normally perched on an elevated base at the town’s main intersection.

“He just looks fantastic now,” said Arna McCorkle, executive vice president of the Fort Stockton Chamber of Commerce. “They did an awesome job.”

Lynaugh provided the service for free. Fort Stockton provided the supplies, including paint. Inmates did the work, including one prisoner who put in 144 hours work on the project, McCorkle said.

“It was an experience having Paisano Pete here,” Warden Eric Guerrero said in a story for Monday’s Odessa American. “A lot of people were interested in seeing what we were doing.”

During Pete’s absence, 55 people contacted the chamber to find out where he was, McCorkle said.