Felons Turned Farmers Aid Food Bank

On a plot of land tucked into a corner of the Boonville Correctional Center grounds, young men who have dealt drugs and robbed stores are getting their hands dirty.

Rows of cabbage, carrots, beans, pumpkins and broccoli are tended by hands that once sowed trouble with the law.

Last year, these felons-turned-farmers at the medium-security prison grew more than 21,000 pounds of produce for the Central Missouri Food Bank in Columbia. That’s the equivalent of more than 15,800 meals for the poor, said Tim Rich, the food bank’s development director.

“It’s huge,” Rich said. “We have a very difficult time getting fresh produce and fresh vegetables.”

The garden is one of Missouri’s early forays into a trend of criminal reform called restorative justice-- helping offenders give something back to the community that has been damaged by their crimes.

“Restorative justice helps to promote with the offender population an awareness that when they commit a crime, they not only break the law, they directly and dramatically affect people,” said Dora Schriro, director of the Department of Corrections.

Putting prisoners to work for the community is an ancient concept. The new twist, according to state prison officials, is encouraging prisoners to want to serve the community.

“We’ve always participated in community service as part of this institution’s mission,” said David Miller, the Boonville prison’s superintendent. “But the concept that we’re challenging them with an attitude to give back to the community--that is new.”

Most prison work pays minimal wages. But the Boonville gardeners are all volunteers and get no payment for their work. The inmates also take a restorative justice class, where they are told of a “threefold healing process” between the offender, victim and community.

Miller said he’s not sure whether the garden project instills the desired attitude in the inmates, but he compared the project to parents forcing a naughty child to say “I’m sorry” to a sibling.

“You might not have done it with the greatest enthusiasm, but it does have an impact on you,” Miller said.

In 1997, Lucas Guerri, 22, robbed a convenience store in Odessa. Convicted of second-degree robbery, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Guerri is one of about 15 inmates who spend the most time on the garden. Others in Housing Unit No. 15, about 120 prisoners in all, help when they are needed--especially when it’s time to pick beans, a task that requires added manpower.

Some get enthusiastic about the gardening, the inmates say, and some don’t.

“Some people just try to pass the time,” Guerri said. “But if you’re really trying to feel it, yeah, it’s going to work.”

Shane Sauerbrei, 24, got an eight-year sentence for selling marijuana in 1994. An Iowa farm boy by birth, Sauerbrei grew up helping his family till the earth.

The prison garden is for “people that like to work, people who feel guilty for what they did,” Sauerbrei said. “It makes me feel better about myself, honestly. In a way it makes me feel like I’m receiving something I should have . . . a sense of accomplishment.”

Programs in restorative justice are being proposed or implemented in other Missouri prisons.

At the Tipton Treatment Center, inmates are sewing up old teddy bears and giving them to the Missouri Highway Patrol. Officers then give the toys to distraught children at crime and accident scenes. Schriro said inmates at the new prison at Licking will collect and fix old wheelchairs.

Missouri prisons soon will begin conducting “victim impact” classes for the inmates, Schriro said. Crime victims could appear as guest speakers in the classes aimed at teaching inmates about the effect crime has on real people.

The most visible restorative justice efforts in Missouri have been in the prison system. But in other parts of the country, it can play a bigger role during the sentencing process.

In Vermont, victims can confront offenders face-to-face and try to reach agreement on how best to repair the harm done by a crime. In Minnesota, “sentencing circles” help some inmates avoid jail by having them meet with community members to work out creative ways of repairing damage caused by crime.

Community sentencing programs deal mostly with low-risk, nonviolent offenders. Supporters say the programs ease the burden on clogged courts and prisons, though critics say the punishments are too lenient.

There’s no sure way to know if the restorative approach is having the desired effect on prisoners, Schriro said. The test, she said, will be to see if inmates get into trouble after their release.

“It’s one of the things we are doing in the department to prepare people to go home,” Schriro said.

Meanwhile, the Boonville gardeners boast of a more bountiful yield in 2000. They got an earlier start this year and have a better idea of what they’re up against.

That’s something food bank workers like to hear. The Boonville prison harvest is a significant bonus for the agency, which only has to send a truck to pick up the food.

“It’s five or 10 bucks for gas, and that’s it,” Rich said.

While the goal of the program is to help offenders realize the contribution they can make to the community, the gardeners never see the produce after it is loaded on the truck.

But Rich said he wants them to know their volunteer work is a “tremendous gift.”

“This has to be one of the most unselfish things that these folks have ever done,” Rich said. “And to me, that’s the first step to reform.”

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On the Net:

Missouri Department of Corrections: www.corrections.state.mo.us

Campaign for Equity-Restorative Justice: www.cerj.org