CIW Prison Garden

Vital Stats

Hannah S

Claremont, CA

people helped2100
People Doing It 90

The Problem

Women inside of California's prisons have limited access to healthy food and exercise and they are isolated from outside communities. The garden project, at the California Institution for Women (CIW), will solve a number of problems related to these issues. The garden will provide fresh produce and a rehabilitative activity for the women in the prison which will hopefully improve their physical and mental health. It also builds connections between the women inside and the outside community. This can give the women access to educational, rehabilitative, and occupational resources that they would not otherwise have. In addition, as the garden is deeply rooted in organic and sustainable practices, which addresses environmental problems at a grass roots level.

Plan of Action

This project is composed of three phases: planning, planting and program implementation. The first phase addressed the initial logistical needs of the project. Project leaders met regularly with the administration of the California Institution for Women (CIW) to select a garden site, secure administrative sponsorship, and ensure access to supplies on the prison grounds. The project is currently in its second stage, which consists of planting and preparation. For the past two months, there have been bi-weekly sessions at the garden site to prepare the garden for planting. In these sessions, students and the women at CIW work side-by-side, weeding and digging beds. In the next year, the garden project will move into its third phase. This includes scaling up the level of production from garden to produce enough food so that it can frequently be used in the prison's kitchen. This is why funding for this project is so necessary. We want to set up a large (16'x24') green house and equip it with work benches and an irrigation system. This will allow us to continually be starting seedlings and growing food during colder winter months. We also want to plant 80-100 fruit trees which will provide a large amount of food with out requiring much work. We will also expand the square footage of the garden.

Project Updates

Our first summer crop included beautiful tomoatoes, cucumbers, beans, carots, melons, squash, pepers, and herbs. We had many different varieties of vegetables and had a lot of fun showing people all the new vegetables that the do not usualy see.

We are now planting a winter crop of lettuce, greens, carrots, and beets. We are also working on our orchard and green house.

Lots of new people from inside and outside of the prison have become involved with the garden which has been great for our work.

Education

Environment

Physical and Mental Health

Homelessness and Poverty

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