WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – Senator Patty Ritchie, who’s been advocating for the prison to stay open, is taking a different approach.
She’s asking that Governor Hochul expand Ogdensburg Correctional Facility’s inmate-run garden to provide free, fresh produce for underserved areas downstate.
Currently, the garden yields 40,000 pounds of food which goes to local food pantries.
Ritchie proposes tripling the garden size so the prison could stay open and the inmates there could help reduce food insecurity in the state.
“So this looks like a really promising solution. This would help those locally, it would help those in NYC, and some individuals incarcerated come from those areas so they’d work to help their own communities. It really is a win-win for everyone,” said Ritchie.
In some of the inmates’ pleas to keep OCF open, they mention the value of the garden as teaching them life skills they can use when they’re released.
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