Inmates at the San Benito County Jail are participating in a new project that will train them in job skills and soon yield delicious side benefits: fresh fruit and vegetables. The jail has partnered with Growing Hearts Garden Center to provide classes in gardening and landscaping as well as a space for a garden that is currently being designed and built.
“The garden program is an important program that fits our goal to provide valuable, effective programs to reduce recidivism, violence, substance use and improve mental health,” said Renée Hankla, reentry program manager for the San Benito County Probation Department. “The program allows participants to take ownership of the project by assisting Growing Hearts in the design and implementation while learning horticultural and vocational skills and developing a sense of self-sufficiency.”
The program is structured around a continuing series of eight-week-long classes which began in December 2022. With the winter storms hampering physical work in the garden until recently, the last two rounds of classes were focused on working with inmate participants to create a garden based on their ideas and input.
“Our model is project-based learning and working together to plan the project,” said Growing Hearts Executive Director Robb Rodriguez. “The first series of classes was just really us working out any kinks and getting to know each other as we designed the garden. With the second set, which just finished, we focused on the skills needed to build the irrigation system because that’s the first part of every landscape project.”
At the moment, the grounds at the northeast area of the jail show little signs of the garden to come, with only a few irrigation trenches dug. But the inmates already know what crops they will start with, a variety of nearly 40 plants, including strawberries, jalapeno peppers, tomatillos, peas, potatoes, artichokes, beans, herbs, corn and sunflowers.
“Honestly, I was just most interested in anything we could eat,” said inmate Tlaloc Zuniga, 47. “Not necessarily flowers but things that the inmates could try out as we reap the harvest of our labor. Little things we can nibble on while we’re out here enjoying the freedom and the sunshine.”
Zuniga has participated in both rounds of classes as part of his efforts to focus better on reducing his chance of returning to jail.
“Whatever classes there are, I will take them,” he said. “I think this one is great. It helps keep me grounded and gives me something to look forward to when I get out. It feels good to have a positive outlook on things again, you know and it’s due to classes like this that are teaching me patience and how to cope.
He praised Rodriguez, saying, “This young man, he really cares, you know. He puts a lot of effort into what he’s doing with this. I appreciate it and I know a lot of the other guys do too.”
The skills that the inmates learn from the program, Rodriguez said, could help them get jobs locally.
“The object of these classes is to help people go back out in society with some new skills,” he said. “They might be able to go into landscaping businesses or work at nurseries or farms. But we also want people to grow and work on their inner gardener, so we talk with them about finding their values and what’s important to them.”
The county’s Community Corrections Partnership Committee provided $24,000 in funding, with another $1,000 coming from the Community Foundation for San Benito County. Rodriguez said he wanted the garden to be industry-standard and the local business community has been generous, with McKinnon Lumber supplying redwood for planter boxes, Hunter Industries donating electronics and equipment for a drip irrigation system and Tri-County Materials providing sand, base rock and crushed granite.
Rodriquez is still looking for donations, including trees, particularly some that are mature enough to bear fruit soon after being transplanted into the garden. The inmates want about a dozen of them, including apple, orange, apricot, lemon, avocado and Japanese maple, with the only restriction being that they won’t grow tall enough to reach the top of the jail yard fence.
With the garden still in the most embryonic state, there is still a lot of work and planning to do. While Zuniga is going to be released from jail soon, he still plans to ride his bike out to the garden to watch the progress.
“I want to see how the garden grows and how what we planned together comes together,” he said. “It’s awesome to have been part of this and to know that we’re starting this for the next man that comes in to do his time, so he might be able to learn something about himself and nature and being a part of the environment that he lives in.”
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