County Jail Uses UMaine Extension Training to Reap Savings
Contact: Jennifer O’Leary, (207) 581-3106; Kyle McCaskill (207) 581-3185
AUGUSTA — Under a warm October sun, Officers John Matthews and Michael
Gagnon of the Kennebec County Correctional Facility are supervising
inmates in an unusual work project. The inmates are harvesting their own
food.
It all started in 1996, when a single acre of land was donated to the
correctional facility for inmate projects. Inmates are rewarded for public
works projects, earning a one-day sentence reduction for every 16 hours of
work. By 2004, inmates tilling a now-15-acre tract produced enough of
their own food to save the jail $8,000 and donate 8,000 pounds of potatoes
to local soup kitchens.
While the energies of the county jail staff were instrumental in the
development of the food garden project, they also knew when to seek expert
assistance. With the University of Maine Cooperative Extension’s Kennebec
County office right across the street, a connection was made. In 2003
Extension Programs Director Marsha Page signed up Chief Randall Liberty
and Officers Matthews and Gagnon for the University of Maine Cooperative
Extension Master Gardener training.
UMaine Extension Master Gardeners receive at least 40 hours of
instruction, learning the fundamentals of plant biology, soil composition,
insect and disease control, etc. Page believes it was time well spent.
Liberty, Matthews, and Gagnon began teaching inmates what they had
learned, in the process expanding work program options and reducing the
jail food budget.
Joel Seraph, horticultural aide for UMaine Extension Kennebec County
office, was one of the officers’ Master Gardener instructors, along with
university horticulture and agriculture specialists. Seraph says of UMaine
Extension’s ongoing relationship with the jail, ‘They call if they need
advice, but the help goes back and forth. Sometimes inmates will come over
and take care of our display gardens.?