Frequently, people get out of prison or jail only to find that the world treats them like they’re less than human. Fortunately, there are people who can see past this type of discrimination and want to build community no matter what.
One of these projects is particularly inspiring.
Planting Justice makes it plain. They want to grow jobs, community, and food! They’ve worked with countless formerly-incarcerated people using urban farming, environmental education, and opportunities to help. This nonprofit is trying to show the big-picture potential in it all.
They’ve amassed over 450 edible permaculture gardens in the San Francisco Bay Area, in addition to working with schools to develop food justice curricula.
And that’s not all. They also help with food sovereignty and expanding access to fresh food – while creating green jobs.
They do this work to show how “access to healthy and environmentally-conscious practices can help address some of the wounds of systemic racism and mass incarceration.” These are the sorts of initiatives we need – to show that we can do the work to repair these wounds within the community.
In order to visualize a world without prisons, we have to show how we can work and grow together. Planting Justice takes on an abolitionist perspective: by working together to expand resources, we can build something better than what we have now. It’s truly possible.