.The flowers for the yard had been grown in the greenhouse by my students and tutors. The production in the first year was incredible. Over 40,000 annuals, 20, 000 perennials and 10, 000 vegetable plants had been propagated and planted through out our facility. Donations were made of perennials and vegetable plants to our extension service, senior centers , and an area county hospital. The production looked promising even though we had been given a new name by our naysayers. “Camp candy land” was the unofficial name of our facility given to us by those who thought our program made this place “soft.” The Warden was happy as letters of thanks came to his office from our immediate community thanking him for all of our donations both plants and vegetables. I explained to him that it was the cooperation of the Resident Unit Managers, Assistant Resident Unit Managers, and officers who helped make sure my students were allowed to work where they were needed. They went out of their way to man the sally port so I could deliver all the donations. I felt this was really a team effort and there is no” I” in team. He needed to congratulate them as well. I was told he did thank all of them for supporting this program.
.When it became time to harvest the vegetable garden I was surprised to see about 10 prisoners who belonged to an outside group who supported urban Horticulture wanting a cut from the garden. They each had large duffle bags but were preempted from entering the garden by signs that read off limits. They immediately found me in the Greenhouse and wanted to know whether or not they could enter the garden and help with the harvest. “Help with harvest how?” I responded pointing at their luggage. I unfortunately had to inform them that they were not authorized to be in the garden or this Greenhouse. Only those with written details, my students and tutors, were allowed. I thanked them for offering to help, (though showing up with your personal duffel bags to “help harvest the garden”… ) but given the circumstances their request seemed disingenuous. They were not happy with my evaluation of their request to help. I even suggested that they take the class if they could meet the requirements.
.The Vocational School required applying students to have a GED or high school diploma. Students applying needed to be ticket free for the past year and stay ticket free during their enrollment. It was an incentive that worked in the beginning when it was being enforced. However, this would not be the case in future Education Administrations. The incentives to attend school would be diluted as well as the requirements for entry by Administrators who seemed to be directionless. This was not the case in the first years of harvest. The prison horticulture program donated garden produce to our local food banks, flowers to our area senior living facilities, house plants to our county hospital, and plants to our the Horticulture extension office. We got a lot of support from our Housing Unit managers and custody staff. Without that help the program would not be successful. We still had naysayers, but those supporting us outnumbered those who did not. Much like life, time changes everything. Need less to say, we would be eventually out numbered by naysayers. I never gave up hope as the social good we were producing through our work was always the reward. My students were focused and driven and I would not give up on them. They were what needed to be changed, and it was happening in a positive way. Law abiding citizens when they returned to society was always the goal. To Be Continued…
MJ-Way 