Wednesday, August 19, 2009

A new prison activity


Inmates grow, gather veggies, to feed the hungry
This is a headline of a news article on Yahoo this morning. Here is a link:
This new idea is to help the nation's food banks to meet the demand of the increasing numbers of people needing help in getting food in these times. While Ohio and Michigan have expanded these programs, New York plans to cut the state prison farm program. Their reason? Because they feel learning rural farming skills are impractical to prisoners who are returning to primarily urban settings.... I don't think they have considered the booming number of urban gardens that are sprouting up everywhere. OK, so maybe these returning inmates will get paid for urban gardening, but it is something that they can apply their newly learned skills to and help their communities. Let's don't be so short sighted New York.
What do the inmates think? Well, one said: "Rather than being with all the drama inside the unit all day, it was an advantage to get out and do something different, to work around people, and learn new skills." This quote came from Worthen, who served 23 months for marijuana
possession. "Since you're working for free regardless, it just felt better that somebody was being helped out by what you did."
Any opinions?

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