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When a judge slapped Adolf Jerger with a 6-month sentence for contempt of court he never imagined his time in jail would include growing produce for upscale Chicago restaurants.

For more than 27-years Jerger worked as a mechanic.  Now behind bars in Chicago’s Cook County Jail, he is four months into earning his Master Gardener certificate along with 21 others this year.

For nearly two decades the jail has been offering non-violent inmates training in horticulture, gardening and landscaping and has since graduated more than 200 inmates.

“I think it’s great.  Because me being in a field working with my hands – it gives me a chance to do that out here in a different form than I’m usually accustomed to,” says Jerger.  “But it’s just nice to get out of these buildings and do something constructive.”

The program was started in 1993 in partnership with the University of Illinois Extension Service which provides both on-site classroom instruction and hands on training in the jail’s 15,000 square foot garden surrounded by fences and razor-wire.

David Devane, Executive Director of the Department of Community Supervision and Intervention at the Cook County Sheriff’s Office says one goal is to provide inmates the opportunity to learn job skills they can take with them once they’re released.  But he points out that the program is also therapeutic: participants are less likely to re-offend.   Last year of the 36 inmates who went through the program – only one was re-arrested and convicted.

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“It’s no magic bullet,” says Devane.  “It’s no cure-all. But quite a few of them express a great deal of satisfaction… especially as we go on in the growing season and they can see their plants getting considerably higher.  And see the produce… and they get a great deal of satisfaction out of it.”

Currently, 9,000 pounds of produce is generated each year at a cost of about $1,500.  In the last 17 years it is estimated that the program has provided more than 50 tons of fresh produce to homeless shelters and other non-profit organizations.

Despite the program’s success, the challenge for jail officials has always been how to make the program self sustaining.  They think they may have found the answer in a 1500 square foot greenhouse addition, completed last month.

The $149,000 expansion, financed by money generated from inmate commissary purchases, allows for gardening year-round. And it’s allowing inmates try their hand at growing smaller, high-quality plants that are in high demand in the food industry.

“We get a little arty once in a while,” says Devane.  “We’ve got fennel, basil, rosemary, thyme.”

Restaurants interested in a local source for micro-greens such as arugula, mustard greens and basil are finding just what they need inside the walls of the jail.

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At least three restaurants have agreed in principle to do business with the county jail.

Matthias Merges, executive chef at Charlie Trotter’s Restaurant says the greenhouse is meticulously maintained and the proof is in the produce.

“We don’t see it as it’s the Cook County Jail,” says Merges.  “They’re a purveyor of something of quality and we like to use it because what we do with our cuisine is quality-driven produce and product.”

Merges says he plans to go down to the jail every other week to see what’s available and guide the program by advising the growth of produce that will be in demand from season to season.

“Frankly, it’s much nicer than 50 percent of every other farm out there.  And I think the program’s great, it helps people out.  It keeps them focused and the product they turn out is excellent.”