California

Fernando Jara and Rockville Farm

Jara stands at the front gate to Rockhill Farm near Bakersfield. He founded and runs the nonprofit, whose aim is to rehabilitate drug addicts and felons.

Jara stands at the front gate to Rockhill Farm near Bakersfield. He founded and runs the nonprofit, whose aim is to rehabilitate drug addicts and felons.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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After Sept. 11, 2001, a Bakersfield Community College student who had converted to Islam volunteered to spy for the CIA. He now runs Rockhill Farm, a nonprofit near Bakersfield that he founded to rehabilitate drug addicts and felons. Read the story: From student to spy, and back again

Rockhill Farm

Jara, right, told the CIA in 2001 that he had sharp survival instincts because his heroin-addicted father had spent much of his life in prison. His father, Harry, left, now has been clean four years and works at Rockhill Farm.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Rockhill Farm

Jara, right, leads prayer at Rockhill Farm.   (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Rockhill Farm

Jara feeds his young son. In 2011 he married Leticia Perez, a Kern County public defender who in November became the first Latina elected as a county supervisor in the Central Valley.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Rockhill Farm

Jara, right, leads a Bible study session at Rockhill Farm. The felons and drug addicts who work there live in dorm rooms surrounded by a citrus orchard.   (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Rockhill Farm

Tattoos adorn the hand of a man attending a Bible study session at Rockhill Farm.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Rockhill Farm

Jara carries his son at the farm. Rockhill Farm’s residents grow, harvest and sell vegetables and fruit and get daily counseling and Bible study sessions.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Rockhill Farm

Farm manager Nick Hernandez, right, gets a hand from Jara’s father, Harry.   (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Rockhill Farm

Farm crew leader Mike Juarez pulls an irrigation line.   (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Rockhill Farm

Jara walks to a field. He is completing a master¿s degree in divinity at Claremont School of Theology and plans to begin work on a doctorate and a law degree.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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