An Urban Garden Prepares Inmates for Green-Collar Jobs

Inmates working at the farm. Photo by John Konstantaras/Chicago News Cooperative.

“We need to be cautious about our expectations that any single intervention is going to work, is going to keep people from going back to prison.”

By Don Terry
New York Times
September 17, 2011

Excerpt:

Mr. Jones’s life in the street landed him in jail for 15 months beginning in early 2009 before a judge gave him a break and instead of sending him to prison for carjacking, sent him to the Cook County Sheriff’s military-style boot camp. There, behind the razor wire, he discovered a three-quarter-acre vegetable farm that produces tomatoes, kale, carrots, peppers and hope.

Now 19, Mr. Jones is free and spends most of his day thinking about dirt and the life buried underground.

“Before I went to jail, I didn’t know anything about gardening or where food comes from,” he said. “But this is going to be my career for sure. Making things grow, feeding people, is what I want to do for the rest of my life.”

Read the complete article here.