Travis County Jail Garden Sprouts Hope For Inmates

TRAVIS COUNTY, TX — Hope can sprout in the unlikeliest of places, including at the Travis County Correctional Complex where inmates joined jail employees in harvesting the latest bump of crops from a community garden maintained on site.

Corrections officials said the correctional complex reaps the benefits of an ample vegetable garden where inmates do the planting, weeding and harvesting as part of a job readiness program teaching them job skills as they earn manual labor credits toward early release. Eligibility for the program is contingent on a low-security risk classification and good behavior standing, officials noted.

Travis County Sheriff's Office photo.

Lately, however, the jail has been short of gardeners as judges and prosecutors seek to reduce the number low-level offenders to help mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. To make up for the worker shortage, sheriff's office employees stepped up to volunteer for two-hour shifts to harvest crops made bountiful with copious amounts of rain in March and April, officials reported.

A Travis County Sheriff's Office employee helps harvest a bountiful crop of vegetables at the correctional complex. Photo provided by the Travis County Sheriff's Office.

So far, officials report 303 pounds of carrots, 82 pounds of garden tomatoes, 41 pounds of cherry tomatoes, 33 pounds of Swiss chard and 22 pounds of jalapeños have been harvested.

Photo provided by the Travis County Sheriff's Office.

Jail officials said produce from the garden is used to feed inmates, with the remainder donated to the Central Texas Food Bank.