This week, Impact Justice announced the launch of Growing Justice, a new program that utilizes precision indoor agriculture to expand access to fresh food in prison communities and provide skills training to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated populations.
The program’s first containerized vertical farm and job training program will be at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, the first of what Impact Justice says will be multiple Growing Justice installations at corrections facilities across California. The second location will be Impact Justice’s Oakland headquarters. Both installations will be hydroponic farms built inside shipping containers outfitted with grow lights and irrigation systems.
The Growing Justice work training program is available to populations within 24 months of their scheduled release date. Those already released can apply to participate in the program. Growing Justice is also working with controlled environment agriculture advisory firm Agritecture to create a six-month training program tailored to give prison populations hands-on experience operating a vertical farm.
The organization is also working with a number of vertical farming startups to create pathways for employment post-training, including Square Roots, Bowery Farming, and Fork Farms.
“People in prison face substantial challenges, including poor and limited food choices. For those released, employment options are limited and healthy food remains difficult to obtain,” says Impact Justice President Alex Busansky. “Growing Justice demonstrates how government, the nonprofit sector, and businesses can work together to improve the quality of food, create pathways to jobs, and give people a real second chance.”
In addition to job training, Growing Justice also provides fresh food to prison populations. According to Impact Justice, a fully operational containerized farm will provide up to 60 pounds of leafy greens and herbs per week. Only 11% of prison populations have regular access to fresh vegetables, and this low access often leads to lingering health problems for prison populations that can often extend well-beyond incarceration.
Growing Justice is the latest program in the vertical farming space launched to help train a new generation of farmers. Kentucky-based Appharvest has been building training centers at schools in low-income areas of Appalachia to give high-school students skills training in vertical farming, while Freight Farms works with schools around the Northeast to launch containerized farms at high schools.
The program by Impact Justice is unique, however, in its focus on bringing rehabilitative programming to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated populations. Initially funded by the California State Legislature, the California Department of Corrections, and an anonymous donor, the program provides a potential pathway for people of color to start businesses and find employment post-incarceration.
The program is a tangible example of how newer approaches to food production can be made as on-ramps for marginalized populations to enter the job market. What makes Growing Justice pretty neat is it’s also a very tech-forward and sustainability-centered approach to farming, a part of the economy where people of color own a tiny percentage of businesses.
Construction of the containerized farm at the Central California Women’s Facility will begin in early 2023, and the organization expects to recruit its first cohort in June next year.
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