Hydroponic gardens calm Rikers Island teen inmates

[Muttocracy]

Hydroponic gardens calm Rikers Island teen inmates

Cornell Chronicle, 2/25/09, By Amanda Angel

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb09/RikersHydroponics.aa.html

Wearing a white lab coat and a bow tie as wide as his smile, Cornell University Cooperative Extension (CUCE)-New York City extension associate Philson Warner was relieved Dec. 15 to hear running water after a weekend power outage as he entered his Hydroponics Learning Model (HLM) program for teen inmates at the Rikers Island jail.

...

For the last three years on Rikers Island, Warner has been nurturing the HLM program that he developed and has run for more than two decades through CUCE. Starting with three classrooms in 2007, he now oversees eight self-contained labs in the facility's two high schools. He has trained 15 teachers to use the labs to help teach students subjects from science, technology and agriculture to nutrition and English vocabulary.

...

"I knew it was going to be difficult," Schmidt said. "First off everything on the list was contraband." Glass fish tanks, for example, weren't allowed, so Warner enlisted plastic ones. The metal chains supporting overhanging lights weren't allowed either; plastic ties had to make do.

After much trial and error, the program launched in May 2007. Warner now visits the prison each quarter, passing through six security checkpoints each time, to check on the labs, provide teacher support and interact with students. Last year more than 320 students participated in the program.

"When we first proposed HLM, people thought that the students would just destroy the labs," Schmidt said. But over the past two years, Warner found the opposite to be true. "Instead they take pride in the vegetables, they care for them and nurture them," he said, smiling.

Schmidt added that teachers claim the soothing sounds of water, the greenery in the environment and even the smell of produce have helped create a better environment to rehabilitate the inmates.

...

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb09/RikersHydroponics.aa.html

[babylonsister]

1. Gardening is soothing. This is nice. Thanks. nt

[Muttocracy]

4. Got this in my alumni email - nice positive story and good job skills for the teens I would think.nt

[Muttocracy]

2. if any teachers or home gardeners are interested, here are some diagrams of his systems

http://www.hort.cornell.edu/gardening/factsheets/growflow/review.html

there's a .pdf file on that page to download too

[RC]

3. Gee, they finally figures out the dally beatings weren't working.

About time. We need more like this.

[arcadian]

5. You know these guys are going to be growing some dank bud when they get out.

And rightfully so.

[Muttocracy]

6. hadn't thought about that - but Wiki has stats on high % of substance abusers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rikers_Island

"According to statistics from the 1992 book. Inside Rikers: Stories from the World's Largest Penal Colony by Jennifer Wynn, fewer than 25% of inmates on Riker's were arrested for any form of violent crime rather mostly drug offenses with 80% having a history of substance abuse; with 92% being black or Hispanic, even though these ethnic groups comprise less than 50% of the New York City population; with 25% having been treated for mental illness, making Rikers the U.S.'s largest "mental institution"; and 30% of whom come from the city's population of homeless. One-quarter of the approximately 15,000 resident inmates (the annual turnover is around 130,000 prisoners) face paupers' bails of $500 or less."

[davidinalameda]

7. thinking the same thing

[babylonsister]

8. I don't think so, unless it's legal. Now there's a thought. nt

[SoCalDem]

9. I saw a piece on 60 Minutes a while back where inmates trained guide dogs

and did a great job of it too.. and having the companionship of a dog "softened' even the toughest of them...It was something to see when the dogs graduated to the next phase, and had to leave.. these big bad gang-member prisoners hugged them and cried like babies when their dogs left..

And for the ones who left prison later, they had a skill and some confidence, and many had jobs lined up in the animal care fields..

[TlalocW]

10. Other similar programs include ones dealing with horses

The success rates for these programs reducing recidivism are very high, and they don't cost much. A conservative relative sent out a rightwing screed to the family praising law enforcement officers like Joe Arpaio and mocking others on coddling criminals with various programs. It didn't take long to find just how "successful" ol' Joe is compared to programs that were being mocked and throw it back in their faces, letting them know that Joe appeals to their sense of machismo and self-righteousness, but it was the stuff that they made of that actually works.

TlalocW

[SeattleGirl]

11. There used to be a show on one of the cable networks that was about

dogs being trained in prison. In fact, I think it was called "Prison Dogs". I loved that show. To see these men and women, some of them hard core as all get out, change as they trained and interacted with the dogs, was really something.

[Muttocracy]

12. I think I saw that program too - it was great. Googling Prison Dogs...

I didn't find the show but there are lots of great pages, e.g., http://www.pathwaystohope.org/prison.htm