In the most recent issue of Edible Manhattan, writer Carrington Morris and photographer Lindsay Morris take readers on a trip to an island in New York's East River, not far from LaGuardia Airport.
Home to the nation's largest penal colony, Rikers Island is the city's main jail, with approximately 11,000 inmates. From the highway, the hulking prison complex looks grim. But it is also home to a green and vibrant garden. Under the care of Rikers inmates, the garden and greenhouse are lush with summer vegetables and herbs.
Photos by Lindsay Morris.
Above: Proof that gardens can crop up in the unlikeliest of places. Since 1996, the New York Horticultural Society ("the Hort") has run the GreenHouse program in conjunction with The New York Department of Correction.
Above: Hilda Krus, director of the program, explains that Rikers is unique among prison horticultural programs because of its three-tiered combination of hands-on vocational training, indoor and outdoor classroom education, and horticultural therapy.
Above: The GreenHouse curriculum is taught in short segments to accommodate incoming and outgoing students and includes non-chemical pest control, soil science, plant propagation, green roof gardening, and rainwater collection.
Above: Horticultural training doesn't necessarily end when inmates leave the prison. GreenTeam, the Hort's aftercare program, offers post-release paid internships and horticulture training for GreenHouse participants.
For the full story, see Growing New Lives by Carrington Morris.