HUDSON – The inmate horticulture program at the Columbia County Jail is in its seventh year, providing inmates with instruction in gardening, composting and general horticultural lessons.
Inmates who volunteer are selected based on their security classification and institutional record, Sheriff David Bartlett said. Once in the program, they work on a daily basis in the horticulture area in the secure compound of the public safety facility.
Bartlett said the program, begun in May, will produce vegetables including tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, lettuce, string beans and wax beans, radishes, parsley, basil and rosemary, until the end of September. They will be served to inmates to supplement meals in the jail.
The program operates at no cost to the county and “creates an opportunity for our inmates to learn a valuable skill that will be useful to them once they are released from our facility,” Bartlett said.
Inmates and deputies check the progress in the jail garden
