Garden Time is a Rhode Island–based organization that works to humanize the situation at the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institution. They run three programs: an In-Prison Garden Education Program, which teaches incarcerated individuals sustainable agricultural skills; a Green Reentry Job Training Program, which supports formerly incarcerated persons through hands-on training and employment pathways in the green industry; and the Canopy Crew, an urban forestry initiative that employs formerly incarcerated persons to plant and maintain trees in underserved communities across Rhode Island.Listen in as the CoH team explores Garden Time’s work and how it supports mental health issues within the incarceration system.

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All right, welcome back.

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You are listening to WQRI 88.3 FM and this is Hope Pod Live.

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Next, we’re going to have our SJN story of the week.

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Communities of Hope is one of the eight newsrooms in the country selected for Solutions Journalism Network Student Media Challenge.

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We are investigating solutions for the mental health challenge of incarcerated youth and youth within the foster care system.

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This week we have Emily Cotter and Mario Montero of an organization called the Garden Time, which brings gardens to prison to make the rehabilitation system better for the inmates.

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Thank you both for being here.

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So welcome.

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here.

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All right.

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so I’m gonna have you both introduce yourself and just kind of explain a little bit about what you do for Garden time.

0:46

Emily, if you’d like to start.

0:48

Sure.

0:49

my name is Emily Carter and I I have been with Garden Time since 2018.

0:55

I started as a volunteer in our prison gardens, and around that time was really when, the organization was super small, you know, no staff, barely any volunteers, and really starting to think about how we can continue to support our students, as they prepared to leave incarceration, students like Mario who, who’s been with us, been with Gordon time longer than me, but.

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, at that time.

1:24

Yeah, we were starting to prepare folks for re-entering the community and re-entering the, the workforce and my background is in sustainable agriculture, farming, and, you know, and I did a lot of work around.

1:37

, drug policy advocacy and, you know, Different like running small business and stuff, so I came on kind of to help prepare folks to start developing those job skills and it all kind of took off from there.

1:53

Amazing, Mario.

1:55

Yeah, I’m Mario Montero.

1:57

I have been working with arding time on the outside for the past year.

2:02

I, I got out July 2024.

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I took the green reentry job training, which was eight weeks of paid job training in the green industry.

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but prior to that, I had been in the garden program in max and medium security for 12 years.

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That’s how I met Kate and Vera, the other co-founder.

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but what I do now, with guiding time is, part of the canopy crew.

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We are tree stewards, we plant, water, and maintain street trees in the city of Providence, which are historically low canopy neighborhoods.

2:35

and I also, you know, teach some advocacy, during, you know, the green reentry job training, which I just started on this during this year.

2:44

Amazing.

2:46

And then, I don’t know which one of you would like to start with this question, but if you could briefly describe the mission and goals of Garden time.

2:55

I, I can, can probably recite that better than me, but I think the mission, at least from someone who was incarcerated, is to provide, you know, the women and the men, you know, just an opportunity to escape, you know, the, the walls and, and the bars and the fences.

3:13

, I think the mission is to, you know, humanize, you know, us as individuals, allow us to focus on something other than, you know, our worst mistakes, and then, you know, also to, on the outside to provide people with the skills, you know, to succeed in the green industry and connect us, you know, hopefully to employment.

3:36

Very cool.

3:37

Yeah, I did have to bring cheat sheets for, for the question, but no, yeah, Mario hit it spot on, you know, because at the core of what we do really it is about, The humanizing the situation at, at the ACI here in Rhode Island and I, you know, the therapeutic, aspects of planting seeds, watching them grow, like touching, touching grass, you know, grounding yourself.

4:07

that’s really the heart of it, but it really has evolved into a, a real, a real workforce, training program and, and that As Mario described, it’s kind of like a three pronged thing so we’ve got, you know, our in prison, programming which is what started it all and everything we’ve done since then was really a response to the needs of our students that we’ve grown to know and love over the past, you know, over 10 years and.

4:36

So, we’ve got the green reentry job training program for when folks come out, that’s like a landing spot, like Mario said, amazing eight-week program, and, and we also now employ formerly incarcerated Rhode Islanders.

4:54

So hopefully, I will probably the only person that I’m going to hired that that’s not one of our graduates because like Mario said, we have a lot of really important work to do in the city of Providence, which is in line with a lot of other nonprofit organizations that are working to expand tree canopy and there’s a real need for that work and there’s a real lack of folks to do that work.

5:17

and so it really just fits nicely with our need to build supportive.

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, workforce training and employment opportunities for folks that have been through incarceration.

5:28

So, yeah, it’s about, it’s about plants and trees and stuff, but it’s really about the people.

5:32

It’s really about, the pathway from incarceration back into the community, in a more positive sort of there’s a big mindset change that comes with it.

5:45

Yeah, it’s always amazing when we can see, you know, real change in the community and, and actually helping people get back on their feet.

5:51

, what’s been your experience with the justice system?

5:55

What have you observed with the mental health care that’s provided within the system, and have you seen any issues with that?

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you can, you know, feel free to negate a question or kind of whatever you’re comfortable sharing.

6:06

Well, my experience is 23 years.

6:08

I was incarcerated at 17, You know, spent 3 years in Supermax.

6:16

The high security was what they call it.

6:18

I, you know, did a lot of my time in Max.

6:22

Yeah.

6:24

It wasn’t easy.

6:25

The experience is, it’s tough.

6:27

Prison’s tough, you know, it’s, it can be a place that makes people worse, which it does.

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and, you know, it can be a place where people growing.

6:38

Yeah, it’s It was tough, you know, I, I will send this to two consecutive life bids, and essentially I’m, you know, supposed to be in there 50 or 60 years old.

6:46

So I went in there with the mindset originally like I didn’t care and And you know, at some point, like I said, I went to a high security, you know, I was like, I don’t wanna be here.

6:56

I wanna go home.

6:56

I need to change the, you know, things I’m doing.

6:59

So I started doing that and that involved me doing so many things, you know, reconnecting with my family, you know, just educating myself.

7:08

a lot of my education came because of me, you know, I wasn’t allowed to take a lot of programs because of the time I was doing.

7:13

But it was also, you know, seeing, you know, prison brings out the worst in people just because of the Environment and the way that it’s structured and that’s not just the people who are there because they made mistakes, but it’s also the people who work there.

7:25

It’s the medical personnel, it’s the correctional officers.

7:29

It’s just a horrible place where you see a lot of hopelessness, you see a lot of abuse, you know, you know, us as inmates abusing each other, but also the guards, abusing their power and authority and the same thing with the medical profession, the personnel, they’re not professionals, And in regards to, you know, mental health, I think that was a big problem.

7:51

We all, I went in there, you know, you know, having experienced a lot of trauma the 1st 17 years of my life.

7:57

Just going to prison at 17 was extremely traumatic.

8:00

Though I did, you know, make, I did, you know, commit a crime, I took someone’s life and, you know, there has to be punishment for it.

8:07

You know, they’re remorseful for it, saying that, but there was a lot of trauma that I dealt with as a kid.

8:13

A lot of us deal with it and prison doesn’t address that.

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it actually compounds it.

8:18

And going in there young and having to deal with, you know, seeing, you know, people get, you know, people fighting, people getting, you know, assault weapons, you know, prison guards and treating people, you know, like.

8:28

Animals, can be tough, and mental health was nonexistent, you know, for many, many, many years.

8:35

Most of the years I was in Max, I did not see any adequate mental health care.

8:39

I think if you had went to a counselor and spoke about, you know, some of the things that you were going through, maybe even said, you know, I, I’m in a dark place right now.

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I, I feel like I might hurt myself.

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, you know, you go to segregation for that.

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They, they don’t give you the proper help.

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it’s, so I think a lot of people have trust issues when it comes to speaking about their problems, but I did see when I went to Medium that, you know, they tried at least one program specifically, which was a program that addressed people who are getting involved.

9:10

They talked a lot about trauma.

9:12

I was 36 when I took that program, and I, I think that was really the first time that I, I was able to hear and have deep conversations about trauma and what it meant and what it can do to you as a child, and if you don’t address it, what it does to you as an adult.

9:26

And, you know, And just also like being part of garden time was a form of mental health and therapy because you’re outside of the, you know, if you’re in that garden in the prison and Max, if you don’t look up or look at them walls, you can be lost in there and forget that you’re in a prison.

9:41

So in a way, you know, that is like the it’s therapeutic and a.

9:45

And help address mental health and then you have, you know, Emily K and Vera who come in and treat you with respect and treat you like a like a human being and that goes a long way, in an environment like prison.

9:57

Yeah, thank you, thank you very much for sharing that.

10:00

Emily, if you have anything to add.

10:03

Yeah, thank you, Mario, and I We’ll just add to, to what he said from my perspective, I have not been incarcerated.

10:11

I’ve obviously spent a good amount of time here in the ACI here in Rhode Island with our students and I think, of course, everything Mario said is spot on and I just think that You know, we can clearly see that the justice system and the cultural system here in the United States and in Rhode Island is doing what it is designed to do, you know, the, the dehumanization, the lack of adequate opportunities.

10:42

That’s all very common in this system and I think this Mario and programs like ours, and anybody who rehabilitates themselves while incarcerated is doing that basically in spite of the system, not because of it.

10:58

They’re doing, that’s a, that’s like a self-driven process for the most part from what we’ve seen and you know, the As Mario said, there’s so much context and, and trauma that goes into what brings folks into that system.

11:12

And so it’s like moving from one traumatic, maybe toxic environment to another differently, and similarly traumatic and toxic culture, in terms of correctional officers and the way, you know, folks that are incarcerated are treated, And you know, one thing that Mario mentioned that I just wanted to highlight is, you know, the use of segregation or what’s known as solitary confinement, which is still quite common and, you know, many states including Rhode Island, which really is, you know, the definition of like mental torture, and so to use that as a response to mental health crises is obviously, in my opinion, backwards.

11:59

But, just from my perspective of, working within the prison walls, I would just say as a person that has led, you know, privileged life and stuff, it’s quite humbling experience and a lot of our students and trainees that come out into our job training program have like Mario served longer sentences and So they need a a a little bit of extra support and some of our students haven’t, you know, technology has changed quite a bit since they went in, probably, and so there’s a lot of catching up to do with that and everything else you can imagine that’s changed so rapidly in the world out here, but.

12:43

We’re like really well suited to provide that support and also it’s very clear to anybody who, whether they meet our students inside or outside when they get out, is that there, there’s a really unique and incredible like resiliency that comes with going through all of those experiences and It’s Kind of, it it’s fitting because of the, you know, somebody who’s had this experience could be like one of the best employees or business owners, or contributors to the community that you could like ever.

13:22

Fine, and so a lot of times we, we will bring employer partners or volunteers into our gardens to meet our students, to really connect the dots of like, Between the job training program and, and where we started and people, including myself, will come out and be like, what?

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Like I would hire these, these folks in a minute.

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Like I would You know, trust them with my life.

13:46

And you know, Mary and I have been friends for a long time and so he, you know.

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was one of the first people, you know, that I felt like that about.

13:53

And so, yeah, there’s a huge issues with mental health in the, in the criminal justice system.

14:02

and so it, it really takes like a holistic approach to like Not only teaching technical skills, but really teaching like Like getting to know yourself, understanding how your brain works, what your learning style is, your working style and how how you can work on a team with others, you know.

14:21

Despite or because of all the experiences that you have, people have really unique skill sets, and our job is really just to help them understand that and figure out how to share it with the world.

14:33

Yeah, absolutely.

14:36

so I think you both had already kind of mentioned this a little bit.

14:39

but if you could talk a little bit more about the green reentry program and kind of what that looks like and and how it works for, for both of you on both ends of this, this organization.

14:47

, yeah, it was.

14:50

I was fortunate to take it 30 days after I got out, it was It was 8 weeks of a mixture of classroom work, out in, out in the field, hands-on, internships.

15:05

It, it was, you know, a combination of learning specifically about green industry jobs, pruning, tree cutting, composting, you know, gardening.

15:17

, the cannabis industry also being exposed to a potential employer partners, who, you know, we intern with, who also demonstrate, you know, some of the, you know, the, the The skills required to work in their field and that’s also how I met my the other person that I worked for.

15:39

He’s an employer partner with Garden Time.

15:41

we did a demo on tree cutting and, you know, running a chipper and I worked with him two days a week.

15:48

it was great.

15:48

We, we talked a lot also about, You know, not just like, OK, garden and farming, plant the seed and it grows, but we, we, Stephanie is in the Munoz, I think, formerly incarcerated, teaches along with Sada.

16:07

They teach, about, Of environmental justice and, and a lot, and a big reason of why we plant trees and, you know, inner city communities and why these communities, like I said, historically we don’t have, you know, this investment.

16:21

There’s a lot of disinvestment in these communities.

16:23

One of them happened to be, you know, canopy and what, you know, the benefits of having this canopy, There’s so many, you know, you know, mental health, you know, nature, you know, property value goes up, you know, you, you’re, you’re paying less on utility bills because, you know, it’s blocking the sun.

16:41

But they really, you know, delved into, you know, the, the history of racism and the history of redlining and And what it meant, you know, a lot of us, you know, I was fortunate enough to read a lot of the stuff in prison, but some people, you know, this was the first time they heard about, you know, redlining and what it meant to the community and, OK, why does, you know, South Providence not have as many, you know, trees as, you know, the east side of the Mount Hope section of Providence, and there’s a reason for that, you know, because of the people who live there, what they look like, you know, the government, you know, decided in People know this, you know, we’re not worthy, you know, for this investment, you know, let’s try this red line around this community.

17:20

let’s make sure that you live right next to, next to all these industries, that are going up because, so now you’ve been dealing with pollution, but we learned a lot about that and then like we just, it was a community.

17:32

It’s still a community of people.

17:33

There’s a few different nonprofits that work at our office, but it’s really a community of people who care about.

17:38

The same things and who care about the success of everybody who goes through that job training.

17:44

and like we have once, once a month wellness sessions that Stephanie runs, which is essentially a time for graduates of the, the green rancher job training to go back and, and, you know, just talk and be around, you know, people who, who, and it’s only for the informally incarcerated people to go back and be around each other and talk and just decompress.

18:04

Yeah, it’s, you know, really cool to be able to reconnect with people who have similar shared experiences and trauma, while you’re also, you know, doing things to better yourself and your mental health.

18:15

So really, really cool opportunity.

18:17

I, yeah, I relate more to people that have spent time in prison with them.

18:21

I’m more comfortable around them just because they know me and this, and this adjustment, like I know we mentioned the, the technology and how much of an adjustment it is for us.

18:31

It’s also it’s tough sometimes adjusting to people because we’re all different out here and I spent 23 years in jail and it’s sometimes, you know, you, there’s a facade that you put up and there’s things that you learn and it takes a while to unlearn that, you know, and society is different, so.

18:50

It is, you’re right.

18:52

Emily, anything to add?

18:53

Oh yeah, I mean, you both really nailed it too.

18:56

It really is about the community and like we call it like our family, you know, because it’s like we just keep adding to it and and and most folks like stick around and like you said, it’s, you know, a lot of times you hear when, you know, when someone’s getting ready to to get out of prison, it’s like Some, a lot of folks are thinking about how to not end up in the same situation, right?

19:19

So they, so a lot of that’s about changing your environment and maybe it’s about changing the people you’re hanging around with, and that may influence you in one way or the other.

19:27

And, and so what we’ve really seen is like that being flipped to where we have that.

19:35

Community where folks can feel understood, supported, and seeing like people getting out and from doing however many years and seeing Mario and Victor and Kyle and and and all these folks in our office that they’ve, that they’ve known for years that they’re friends with.

19:53

So they, so it feels safe but it’s also.

19:59

A completely new lens to be re-entering the community with in terms of like that mindset change of like, like you mentioned, making a positive impact not only on yourself and your, your, your mental health, but, but your community when we talk about planting trees, you know, we’re really There’s a real Like a very real impact for somebody who, who knows that they’ve had it in the past a negative impact on their community in various ways, and they’ve served their time for that and to be able to come back out and plant trees that’s, that are going to clean the air and provide shade for like your grandchildren and their children, because it’s, you know, it’s, it takes a while, right?

20:44

There’s so many metaphors in the work that we do, but You know, it, it’s, it’s expanding our time, time scale of, of the impact that we can have and, and like Mario said, just to Briefly mention about the, the training program.

20:58

We do run it twice a year in the spring and in the fall, and it’s 8 weeks.

21:03

We have about a dozen trainees each class and so we’ve, we’ve graduated, I believe about 8 classes at this point, so almost 100 graduates and, and, and so that our community is, is getting stronger, stronger all the time.

21:18

, and, and like Mario mentioned, it is, a unique combination of those technical skills, in, in the field training, and, and those what they might call soft skills are like self-actualization, and, and the technology and stuff, and like even like talking about recycling and composting, but, and like Mario also said, a lot of folks have, you know, not been in school for a very long time, if ever, apart from the classes, you know, programming that they’ve taken, inside.

21:51

And, and maybe haven’t really been part of a workplace, a traditional sort of workplace team in, in a long time or maybe in their life, depending on what they did for work before.

22:03

So, we, you know, really.

22:09

Understand that and can meet people where they’re at in terms of You know, what their life experience has been and then for we’ve realized pretty quickly that for a lot of people it was their first time graduating from anything when they graduated from our eight-week program.

22:23

And so we’ve, we have a really fun and special graduation ceremony and we started getting caps and, you know, we go all out and it’s a really important day for obviously not only the trainees, but everybody who’s involved with the program and all of our partners and, and Just the last thing I’ll say is that all of the employer partners that we work with, obviously understand what we do and so we can feel comfortable and our trainees and graduates can feel comfortable knowing that We’ve got their back and we would never send them somewhere where they wouldn’t be supported and appreciated, you know, for who they are and, and hopefully not judged for their past, which is obviously one of the main reasons that we exist because if you have a felony conviction or a criminal record, That can obviously severely impact your ability to get a job and housing and all these things that are hard enough to get in this economy.

23:19

So, yeah, So, could you see Garden Time’s project being expanded into juvenile justice in Rhode Island or even like any other, you know, adult prisons across the country?

23:36

This could be for either of you.

23:38

I think it’s common sense.

23:39

I think for the longest time, my experience, the only job training that was available in a prison was Godden time.

23:48

Like yeah, they came in maximum security.

23:52

As a garden for people who are doing, who weren’t going home originally, but you’re, you’re learning skills there.

23:58

We were learning how to communicate, we were learning them soft skills.

24:01

We were learning about gardening and composting, what this tool was, what this tool was useless for.

24:07

So that’s job training and for them to, you know, some years later, you know, expanded to, to actually having a job training on the outside was perfect and I think, and I think it could and should be implemented in prisons all across the country because, you know, the green industry is growing, it’s very important to care about your environment and your community.

24:29

so yeah, definitely, I could see that happening.

24:32

Yeah, and I, you know, it’s one of those classic balance, balance of.

24:36

, expand, like, you know, that sort of sustainable growth, you know, or, growing slowly, we think about because we’ve expanded so much in the past like year or two, into, you know, in terms of what the canopy crew does out in the community and the services that we provide and all that.

24:57

but we of course are still a pretty small organization and funding for the type of work that we do is Even more limited now than it was before, in terms of like what the federal government is willing to support, and, and thereby what the state has to offer in terms of funding as well.

25:16

but, I will say that there’s definitely, of course, like Mario said a need and and.

25:22

We see, from work, we don’t work a ton with the youth ourselves, but we are a partner organization we share an office with Groundwork Rhode Island.

25:31

They have a green team of youth and so there are organizations who focus on the youth and obviously that’s super important, early intervention.

25:39

And I, I’ll say that like for, I mean, we serve all sorts of folks, but we have a lot of experience and, a specialty, I would guess I would say in serving, folks that have done a long sentences and, so, of course, better to catch people before they have to go through that experience to, you know, to benefit from a program like ours.

26:05

So hopefully there will be opportunities for programs like, like ours to do more like early intervention.

26:12

There are already, but we also have a ton of amazing graduates with a lot of skills and a lot of passion for serving their community, so I do expect that we’ll see even more You know, organizations and nonprofits and projects pop up from our amazing graduates, but, I will say also that we used to have a garden in the women’s facility and we are gonna be back at the women’s facility hopefully starting in the next year or so and that’s again just been like a capacity issue for us to be able to do what we do well while growing at the at the rate that that we are and as far as around the country, I will just say that.

26:54

There are certainly other programs as in Massachusetts, Oregon, California, Maine, but, there are certainly not enough.

27:06

We had a, a young woman come and intern with us last season conducting research about this type of program, and she was actually from Texas, and she has spent the previous summer in Oregon doing a similar internship and I thought it was really, disappointing, I guess that she’s coming from a state as big as Texas when I can only imagine how many people are incarcerated there, that she had to go to both coasts of the country to find a program like ours.

27:35

There should be 10 programs like ours in Texas alone, in my opinion.

27:38

So, so there’s certainly not enough, and I certainly see us growing, and I think that will be probably.

27:45

, by the hand of a lot of our graduates.

27:48

Amazing.

27:50

so you mentioned everything that you guys do for the community and of course it’s, it’s amazing work and we thank you for it.

27:56

how can the community help you and get involved in garden time?

28:01

Wow.

28:02

This one, Mario.

28:03

well, You can certainly we have a website www.garden time.us.

28:10

And so you can always go there.

28:13

We have, you can like sign up for our newsletter, I guess it’s very rarely sent out.

28:20

But if you want to be up to date on what we’re working on, always something new, always expanding, and always looking for volunteers and and There’s plenty of opportunities to donate either time or funds or supplies.

28:36

you know, we went on a camping trip this year and so we now we’re, now we’re building up our camping supplies for our next camping trip, but, like I mentioned before, funding is a serious issue now, you know, I say all time like everything we do is kind of like DEI so we have, we actually I don’t know if I’m supposed to say this, but we were actually awarded a large grant that was then canceled by the federal government.

29:05

So, you know, it’s really a struggle.

29:06

It’s really a struggle, you know.

29:09

Because of course we picture ourselves being here forever, but it’s, you know, we have to make that happen ourselves basically.

29:15

So, certainly, staying in touch and understanding what we’re up to, you can follow us on Instagram and Facebook, but Certainly always accepting donations or if you know of any funding opportunities that would be a good fit for us, you know, point us in that direction and we have a community re-entry garden at Open doors on Plainfield Street.

29:39

Of course, we’re a little bit wrapping up the season at this point of the year, but normally you can find us there on Friday mornings, at open doors on Plainfield Street.

29:49

In the summertime and we do provide, you know, we have free fresh organic produce that we offer to the community on those days.

29:59

So, but it’s just a great vibe and you can come pick berries and just enjoy the space and the folks there.

30:06

So, many ways to get evolve.

30:08

I don’t know, did I miss anything, Mario?

30:11

If you want a tree planted in front of your house or if you know of a.

30:15

, you know, an organization that needs landscaping.

30:19

We started doing landscaping for other nonprofits in, in our area, this year and everything, so we’re getting creative so that we can sustain ourselves for many, many years to come and yeah.

30:33

Go to our website, garden Time.us if you want to find out more.

30:36

Amazing.

30:37

All right, we are wrapping up.

30:39

you are listening to 88.3 FM WQRI, Roger Williams University Student Radio in Bristol, Rhode Island, and this is Hope Pod Live.

30:47

we are wrapping up here with Emily Carter and Mario Montero of Garden Time.

30:53

we want to thank you both for your time and talking to us, and everything you do.

30:57

, thank you again for being here.

31:01

We really appreciate it.

31:03

Thank you.

31:03

All right, this is fun.

31:05

We will be back next week with more news.

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We want to thank all of our partners and all of our amazing, amazing team who made this possible, and we will see you next week.