By: Leo Boshardy
Detainees at the DuPage County Correctional Facility are partnering with College of DuPage’s Horticulture program to learn essential garden and planting skills.
The partnership, which was started by Corporal Ralph Kolasa at the jail, provides a sense of hope and purpose to detainees and allows them to gain college credit while waiting to be released from the facility. The class is an opportunity to teach mentoring skills to inmates as well as tangible skills to be used later upon their release.
“It’s an initiative for students to learn basic life skills for when their sentence ends,” Kolasa said. “These guys did all the work. We just gave them the supplies.”
The 13-credit hour, 8-week course on sustainable urban agriculture was created in association with Hope’s Garden by JUST of DuPage for inmates to practice various growing and planting skills. The garden is a fresh air portion of the jail where inmates attend class and conduct experiments on various forms of cultivation.
“It’s an opportunity for the students to have a therapeutic atmosphere,” Kolasa said. “A lot of people don’t get that in here, so it’s nice to be able to offer them that.”
Sometimes it can seem like society throws us away. But it’s nice to be able to mentor others and work for something that gives back.
Gilbert Lopez
Sustainable agriculture aims to meet society’s food and farming needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Examples of sustainable practices include crop rotation, pest management, soil health management and climate resilience.
A short documentary detailing the learning processes behind growing and maintaining a garden at the jail was produced by the College’s Multimedia Services department.
COD Horticulture Instructor Connie Kolmeyer sees the impact of the course on her students.
“Gardening is a natural serotonin producer,” she said. “For a lot of my students, this is the first time they’ve had the opportunity to work in this environment.”
Any food grown in Hope’s Garden not used at the jail is donated to food banks in the DuPage area. In addition to growing edible plants, many of the class lessons deal with basic garden maintenance and plant care. Students learn how to cultivate and maintain various forms of fruits and vegetables and even get to taste the finished products when given the opportunity.
Kolmeyer hopes that the skills her students learn in class will help prepare them for life outside the confines of the jail, a sentiment echoed by student Gilbert Lopez.
“With anything in life, you have to be patient,” he said. “Sometimes it can seem like society throws us away. But it’s nice to be able to mentor others and work for something that gives back.”