At Macquarie Correctional Centre in western New South Wales, a story of collaboration and persistence is unfolding. Inmates and prison officers are farming commercial quantities of fresh food in a purpose-built indoor facility.
One of the 400 male offenders in maximum security at Macquarie contacted me with the idea about five years ago, proposing it would form the basis of a PhD. I agreed to supervise the project. Inmates at Macquarie Correctional Centre are encouraged to further their education and follow their interests. The approach is modelled on the Scandinavian prison system, which has the world's lowest re-offending rates.
The project shows food gardening provides a meaningful activity for inmates, some of whom never had the opportunity to learn how to plant and grow produce. The project involved farming indoors because the environment can be more carefully controlled. Being isolated from the weather means there's no need to worry about extremes such as frosts or heatwaves.
This type of "controlled environment agriculture" is also more efficient. It requires less resources than traditional agriculture, mainly because there are fewer losses due to pests and diseases.
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