HAGERSTOWN, Md. — It’s prime harvest season for locally grown produce and food banks need as much as they can get.
In some parts rural parts of Maryland, an important source of donations is farm gardens run by people serving time in the state’s prison system.
Inmates harvesting hundreds of pounds of produce at the Maryland Correctional Training Center outside Hagerstown Tuesday said the harvest is also a time of redemption.
“For me, personally, I was a selfish person for a long time," said inmate John Connor of Allegany County Maryland. "So to do something selfless is nice. It's nice this goes to needy families and communities that need the help."
Wayne Nicol said he is serving a sentence for transporting and selling fentanyl, fueling addiction in Western Maryland's hard hit communities.
Nicol said feeding people from the farm garden isn't helping hungry Marylanders nearly as much as it's helping him.
"I got caught with a lot of drugs in the car, but in retrospect it saved my life because I got clean," Nicol said. "Fentanyl it's a whole different ballgame and than heroin and pills. Fentanyl is just extreme. Now it feels good to wake up knowing that you have a purpose."
The half-acre farm garden in the shadow of prison towers is operated by inmates allowed to do work outside the fences as they prepare to re-enter society, according to administrator James Wilson, who called growing food for the hungry a positive experience for inmates.
Since planting in March at Hagerstown, inmate workers aim to produce at least two tons of vegetables for donations to Western Maryland charities and food banks before the end of the season.
The Eastern Correctional Institution in Somerset County Maryland on the Eastern Shore puts out as much as 10 tons of produces annually, according to prison authorities.
A separate inmate run meat processing center behind the barbed wire at Hagerstown prepares turkeys for donation at Thanksgiving.
Inmate Gary Reed, who is incarcerated after a domestic violence conviction, says working to produce food for the needy puts the "serving" in serving time.
“It's very comforting to know that we are giving back to the community," Reed said.