A celebration in north Minneapolis as community members unveil the "Just-Us" garden.
There are 11 raised beds in a garden, and each bed is filled with plants and flowers that incarcerated people have suggested. It's called ‘Just Us Gardens’ and it features garden beds designed by justice-impacted individuals who are currently in prison - but who wanted to do something to support the community.
"Each one of these beds represents someone who is currently incarcerated, who may not be coming home, who wanted to start a garden," says Maurice L. Ward. "What did we do? We started a garden for them."
Ward is the founder of the program and was once an inmate. He says there is power in gardening.
"All we're trying to do is show them we can do more with our prison system than warehouse people," Ward explains. "We can grow food. We can produce."
Ward talked about the dimensions of the garden beds representing what inmates have seen behind bars.
"This is a solitary confinement cell," as Ward points out another garden bed. "What we have right here is the dimensions of a solitary confinement cell. Some people spend decades in this box. So you have the toilet and the sink of a solitary confinement, and that's directly from prison. That's how it looks. You have the mattress and you have this area. Could you imagine spending 10 years, could you imagine for six months, could you imagine spending one day in this?"
Each of the inmates suggested various flowers and vegetables they would like to see grown. One person wanted a garden of roses that she has dedicated to her victim.
"Yes, so as we walk through what you're seeing are the raised beds, but the difference with these raised beds, they're the dimensions of prison mattresses," Ward explains.
The garden is located at the corner of 27th Avenue and Queen Avenue North.
"The biggest issue I had is, because people believe that we don't want to be part of community," Ward explains. "But we really want to be part of it. A lot of these guys and ladies know more about gardening than most master gardeners because they studied in prison."
Ward says it is already making a difference in the community.
"They've come here and they've been tremendous," says Ward. "They made this garden. I'm talking youth as young as 5-years old have come and learned about the different food and vegetation we've grown. Came and learned how to dig a hole and how to move a wheelbarrow and what a wheelbarrow was."
Organizers say the garden is a silent protest against the Minnesota Department of Corrections. They say the state has not upheld a law which mandates gardening opportunities for people in prison.
"The State of Minnesota has a statue on the books that allows for each prison to have gardening, a garden in it, but they refuse to allow that to happen because they know that if they did stuff like this would happen," Ward tells WCCO.
That statute took effect in Minnesota in 2012. It directs prison authorities to establish gardens "where space and security allows." It's a program that has been used in other states, including Wisconsin, for many years. The goal is to reduce idle time for prisoners, and possibly even make them safer.
"It's bringing hope, resilience, redemption, to everyone, so that's what this means and this is what it's gonna do," Ward concludes.