Inmates in a southern Indiana jail have been harvesting
more than fresh vegetables from a garden behind the lockup.
"The biggest reward is self-esteem," Jennings County Sheriff Earl Taggart said.
"Instead of coming here waiting for time to pass, they can spend eight or 10 hours
a week in the garden, working with their hands and feeling good about themselves," he said.
This is the first year for the garden, which was begun with $28 worth of seed and fertilizer.
Only nonviolent inmates with a short time left to serve are allowed to tend the garden
at the jail about 75 miles south of Indianapolis. Inmates worked an average of 20
hours a week tending tomatoes, corn and beans. Those hours had a powerful impact on
some of the inmates, said Sgt. Jean Elza, who helps oversee the program. "One guy
told me he sat in his cell for three months and never once thought about his crime or
why he was in here. But once he got outside, working in the garden, he said he finally
started to realize what he had been missing," she said.
Inmates said tilling, weeding and harvesting outside gave them something to look forward
to while serving their sentences. "It gives us some kind of motivation to keep going,
to make our lives better," said inmate Bill Mobley. The garden also puts food on the
jail dinner table.
This year's garden has produced four truckloads of green beans and dozens of tomatoes.
Seventeen rows of corn and about 1,500 tomatoes are almost ready to harvest, Taggart said.
The fresh vegetables help reduce the cost of jail meals, Taggart said. "If we had
200 acres, we could raise cattle, chickens and hogs," he said. "I'm just tickled to
death with the progress these guys have made. Next year, we'll add potatoes, more rows of corn, and other vegetables."
