Garden Time helps meet the green industry’s need for skilled, dependable workers while also helping the community create meaningful second chances for people returning home from prison.
Growing Second Chances Building an Arboriculture Workforce Inside Rhode Island’s Prison System By Dane Buell, ArborTIMES™ senior advisor
At some of the ACI gardens, “Garden Club” (as it’s called over the PA system) meets only once a week, assuming staffing levels and the weather cooperate. Once the harvest is shared, the gardeners get to work, buzzing around every corner of the geometric garden — carefully avoiding the planting beds, of course — and peppering the already warm morning air with ques- tions:
On a sunny morning at the Rhode Island Adult Correc- tional Institution (ACI), a handful of men hunch over the strawberry beds, literally reaping the fruits of their labor. Hardly a word is exchanged as they focus on the morning’s most important task: gathering the bright red berries by the handful before the critters — or the guards or other inmates — get to them. For these beginner gardeners, many of whom have been incarcerated for years, a ripe strawberry is more than a special breakfast. It’s a moment of sweetness, joy, and celebration of the dedication that has pro- duced an abundant harvest year after year. It might not look like a typical hands-on job training session on a municipal crew or at a tree care company. The trainees are wearing matching uniforms because they are all currently incarcerated. And that’s exactly the point. Garden Time , a Providence, Rhode Island-based non- profit, uses horticulture and arboriculture to address two urgent needs: the green industry’s demand for skilled, reliable workers and the community’s need to create meaningful second chances for people return- ing home from prison. At the center of that work is Kate Lacouture, Garden Time’s executive director and co-founder, who has quietly built a pathway from the prison yard to the urban forest.
“Is this a weed?”
“When can we plant more cilantro?”
“How do you know when the head lettuce is ready?”
“Can you bring more mulch?”
“Where is the fish emulsion?”
“What’s the deal with the job training program? How do I sign up when I get out?”
“Is this a good bug?”
“Kate, can you write me a parole letter?”
At the center of the garden are the program facilita- tors, fielding questions and patiently guiding the group through each task. Originally a volunteer, Lacouture is
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