Jail inmates grow along with their garden

Ask Sam Mellor a gardening question, and he probably has the answer.

Mellor, though soft-spoken when first approached, soon opens up and speaks with a sense of pride as he tells you about the watermelons he successfully replanted or the pumpkins he helped to grow or how some of the best-tasting squash and tomatoes that a local mission says they ever received came from his garden.

But Mellor is not a farmer or even the head of a grocery store's produce department. He is an inmate at the Salt Lake County Jail. His garden is a three-acre fenced lot south of the jail.

As part of the jail's ongoing commitment to rehabilitate inmates rather than simply warehouse them, eight prisoners Friday received certificates for successfully completing the Prisoner Horticulture Program co-sponsored by Utah State University.

Inmates who qualify for the program have 40 hours of classroom instruction before working six to eight hours every day outside in the garden and then doing homework at night.

The gardening program gives inmates more than just dirty hands and a green thumb.

"They find out who they are," said Salt Lake County Corrections Sgt. Raelene Eppard.

Those who go through the program become different people by taking pride in their work, thus improving their bodies, minds and spirits, according to jail officials. That's part of the reason the program is called, "Sowing seeds for a new future."

"I don't even feel like I'm in jail when I come out here," said Mellor, who is serving time for simple assault. "It's been real therapeutic for me. Inside the jail, it's easy to get agitated with other inmates. I've been able to come out here and calm my nerves. I've made friends with people that, coming to jail, I never thought maybe I'd associate with."

Those new friends included jail officers. Mellor fought back tears Friday as he was presented with a special certificate for the extra work he had put into the garden.

"I guess I just look out here and have a lot of pride for all the hard work everyone has done," he said.

When Mellor first started working in the garden, Eppard said he wouldn't even look at her.

"Now I know who Sam is, and I know he's going to survive," she said.