Garden helps offenders pay back community

~ Tens of thousands of pounds of produce was donated to the Bootheel Food Bank.

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- George Williams and James Burton Jr. had farmed in their youth, while Ricky Hollywood and Hans Goeth barely knew a cucumber from a tomato.

But together, they and other inmates produced tens of thousands of pounds of fresh vegetables this summer at a six-acre garden in a state prison complex here -- all of it donated to the Bootheel Food Bank in Sikeston, Mo., serving some of the poorest counties in the state.

For six hours a day, in one of the hottest summers in memory, they hand-planted, hoed, raked, weeded, watered and harvested a bounty of chemical-free produce, including tomatoes, cabbage, radishes and sweet corn, along with watermelon, cantaloupe, green beans, cucumbers, onions, zucchini and sweet potatoes.

Regional specialties at the prison garden in Missouri's southern tip, just north of where some say the American South begins, included okra, purple hull peas and turnip greens. Bright orange pumpkins will be ripe for picking in October.

The offenders "gave their heart and soul to this," said John Hilpert, the prison's activity coordinator. "When you see the truck pull up, knowing this is going to a good cause. ... One of us knows somebody who will benefit from this. They busted their tails for us."

The vegetable farm at Southeast Correctional Center started five years ago. It is one of the state's seven restorative justice gardens that corrections officials say provide a way for offenders to repair some of the harm they caused with their crimes -- if not directly, in a symbolic way -- and to find healing within. Their produce is donated to food banks, schools, senior centers and other not-for-profit groups.

Offenders participating in the gardens and other restorative justice activities also take classes in which they meet crime victims and reflect on the harm their criminal behavior caused.

The 40-hour curriculum is so popular that the class has a waiting list of 200 inmates.

Many offenders are "very remorseful for the crimes they committed and they want to give back to society in a positive way," said Jeananne Markway, Missouri's restorative justice coordinator. "They give their whole heart to these projects."

Under Missouri's program, crime victims also have the opportunity to communicate to the offender how they were hurt and how the offender may repair the harm.

Markway said the items offenders produce through the restorative justice project were specifically requested by someone in the community, such as blankets for nursing homes and children's hospitals or posters, flashcards and other teaching aids for schools. Some even make drawstring pants for hospitals to give to rape victims who have to surrender their clothes as evidence. Some of the inmates making the pants include those incarcerated for rape.

At the farm in Charleston, the inmates claim certain vegetable plots as their own.

Williams, 54, the oldest of nine children who helped raise row crops on the family farm in Mississippi County, taught younger, urban offenders the ropes of producing vegetables.

"A lot of guys had never seen a squash or an onion before," he said. "When I came here in May, they were talking about starting up the garden [again], and I said, 'Man, we're behind.' But we got it going. It was all adrenaline."

Goeth, 29, who grew up surfing and skateboarding in Coco Beach, Fla., had no appreciation for those who labor to produce food. Now they have his respect.

In prison he had made toys for children, but something about watering plants got him thinking deeply about God and the mystery of life. "I saw that I helped it and took pride in it," he said.

Hollywood, 27, from Caruthersville, Mo., said he's glad for the opportunity to help others, and is proud that he now knows enough to "go out and plant me a garden" when he's released.

Burton, 51, who grew up on a farm near Kewanee, Ill., instinctively knew what had to be done.

"This is almost like being free here," he said. "I like knowing I'm giving to the elderly."

At Oaks Senior Center in Sikeston, cook Dorothy Bonner said the produce donation from the Bootheel Food Bank cut her food costs by a third.

"For people like us, it's a blessing," said Lola Butler, 80, a regular patron.

Restorative justice, a movement that started in the 1970s, usually involves victims meeting their offender to discuss how they've been hurt by the crime and what the restitution should be, said Howard Zehr, one of its pioneers who runs the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding in Harrisonburg, Va.

There are 600 such programs in the U.S. today, he said.