VACAVILLE, Aug. 6 — Former cult leader Charles Manson has emerged from a decade of solitary confinement to work as a gardener and maintenance man at the Protestant chapel in Vacaville State Prison.

“It’s taken 10 years to get a breath of fresh air; I’m not about to do anything that will screw it up,” Manson, 45, told an interviewer Tuesday.

Protestant Chaplain Nick Ristad is in charge of supervising Manson’s work and said he was pleased to see him get a chance for a more normal life in the prison. Manson is still housed in a special security area, however.

Since his imprisonment at Vacaville in 1971, Manson has been in and out of the psychiatric ward several times and his activities have been under close supervision. Prison officials recently decided his behavior earned him a chance to be put on a job assignment.

His work around the chapel does not mean a religious conversion on the part of the former leader of the “Manson Family.” He said he will just be “doing his time” on the job from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Manson was convicted of the leading his followers in a series of the ritual murders in 1969, including actress Sharon Tate and seven others.