California Sunshine
08-30-2005, 11:47 AM
http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050830/NEWS04/508300309/1001/NEWS
Susan Whaley
The Idaho Statesman | Edition Date: 08-30-2005
Raking leaves amid the beauty and serenity of the Idaho Botanical Garden is a healing tonic for Tessa Adams, 22, an inmate of the East Boise Community Work Center.
"The last time I got out of prison I wasn't ready to change," said Adams, who served more than two years at the women's prison in Pocatello on drug and check charges. "Now, for the first time, I want to change."
Adams has donated time to the botanical garden nearly every day since she arrived at the Boise work release center in June.
"This place has helped me a lot," said Adams, a soft-spoken woman with long brown hair. "It relaxes my stress. It's so peaceful here."
The inmates have donated 1,677 hours so far this year to the public garden, performing essential tasks like mowing, deadheading roses, planting, weeding and setting up for weddings, concerts and parties.
"We truly couldn't do it without their participation," said Doreen Martinek, the garden's events manager.
Located across the street from each other near the Old Penitentiary off Warm Springs Avenue, the work release center and the botanical garden have enjoyed this neighborly relationship for nearly three years. In that time, the women have given the garden more than 5,000 hours of community service, Martinek said.
The community work center has existed quietly in East Boise since 1989. Ninety-six residents live in college-like dormitories with bunk beds, eight women to a room.
The grassy campus, which includes vegetable and flower gardens, is surrounded by a low chain-link fence. The women go to jobs during the day and return to the center at night as they make the often scary and delicate transition to lives without prison walls.
Community service is a big part of the program, said Lt. Johanna Smith, the work center's administrator. The women perform 200 to 400 hours of community service a month by helping at food banks and fund drives. They buy gifts for families they adopt during the holidays and crochet hats and scarves for needy people.
"We try to be good neighbors to everybody," Smith said.
Women who volunteer time at the garden work under the close supervision of a garden employee. The experience gives them an opportunity to learn skills that will be useful in their new lives, such as interacting with people outside the prison system, completing a task, working as part of a team and learning gardening skills that may enable them to work in a nursery or raise a home garden.
The volunteers are on their best behavior, because they don't want to mess up this chance to be released from the correctional system, said Joyce Hochstetler, the work release center's food service supervisor, who watched over Adams and two others as they raked a shady garden path.
And the women don't want to lose the privilege of doing something they enjoy in a beautiful, serene setting.
"We're in a dark time in our lives and to come here and have nature and find peace," said Mary Ann Noble, 35, her eyes filling with tears. "It teaches you ... there's more to life than darkness."
Noble, who was incarcerated for a drug offense, particularly loves doing Martha Stewart stuff at the garden, such as helping prepare the bride's room for weddings and draping the women's restroom with pink chiffon for a recent fund-raiser.
"I made it all foofy," she said with a hearty laugh.
Summer is a busy time at the garden, of course, but the work goes on year-round. Soon the women will start stringing lights for the garden's holiday Winter Aglow event.
"I feel like I owed a debt to society," said Julia Clark, 37, who describes herself as an alcoholic and addict. She was imprisoned for three years in Pocatello on a parole violation before being released to the Boise center.
Clark spends a lot of her free time volunteering at the garden.
"I think it's a privilege to come here," she said.
Susan Whaley
The Idaho Statesman | Edition Date: 08-30-2005
Raking leaves amid the beauty and serenity of the Idaho Botanical Garden is a healing tonic for Tessa Adams, 22, an inmate of the East Boise Community Work Center.
"The last time I got out of prison I wasn't ready to change," said Adams, who served more than two years at the women's prison in Pocatello on drug and check charges. "Now, for the first time, I want to change."
Adams has donated time to the botanical garden nearly every day since she arrived at the Boise work release center in June.
"This place has helped me a lot," said Adams, a soft-spoken woman with long brown hair. "It relaxes my stress. It's so peaceful here."
The inmates have donated 1,677 hours so far this year to the public garden, performing essential tasks like mowing, deadheading roses, planting, weeding and setting up for weddings, concerts and parties.
"We truly couldn't do it without their participation," said Doreen Martinek, the garden's events manager.
Located across the street from each other near the Old Penitentiary off Warm Springs Avenue, the work release center and the botanical garden have enjoyed this neighborly relationship for nearly three years. In that time, the women have given the garden more than 5,000 hours of community service, Martinek said.
The community work center has existed quietly in East Boise since 1989. Ninety-six residents live in college-like dormitories with bunk beds, eight women to a room.
The grassy campus, which includes vegetable and flower gardens, is surrounded by a low chain-link fence. The women go to jobs during the day and return to the center at night as they make the often scary and delicate transition to lives without prison walls.
Community service is a big part of the program, said Lt. Johanna Smith, the work center's administrator. The women perform 200 to 400 hours of community service a month by helping at food banks and fund drives. They buy gifts for families they adopt during the holidays and crochet hats and scarves for needy people.
"We try to be good neighbors to everybody," Smith said.
Women who volunteer time at the garden work under the close supervision of a garden employee. The experience gives them an opportunity to learn skills that will be useful in their new lives, such as interacting with people outside the prison system, completing a task, working as part of a team and learning gardening skills that may enable them to work in a nursery or raise a home garden.
The volunteers are on their best behavior, because they don't want to mess up this chance to be released from the correctional system, said Joyce Hochstetler, the work release center's food service supervisor, who watched over Adams and two others as they raked a shady garden path.
And the women don't want to lose the privilege of doing something they enjoy in a beautiful, serene setting.
"We're in a dark time in our lives and to come here and have nature and find peace," said Mary Ann Noble, 35, her eyes filling with tears. "It teaches you ... there's more to life than darkness."
Noble, who was incarcerated for a drug offense, particularly loves doing Martha Stewart stuff at the garden, such as helping prepare the bride's room for weddings and draping the women's restroom with pink chiffon for a recent fund-raiser.
"I made it all foofy," she said with a hearty laugh.
Summer is a busy time at the garden, of course, but the work goes on year-round. Soon the women will start stringing lights for the garden's holiday Winter Aglow event.
"I feel like I owed a debt to society," said Julia Clark, 37, who describes herself as an alcoholic and addict. She was imprisoned for three years in Pocatello on a parole violation before being released to the Boise center.
Clark spends a lot of her free time volunteering at the garden.
"I think it's a privilege to come here," she said.