Rows Of Redemption Juvenile Offenders Fulfill Community Service Sentences By Raising Vegetables For The Salvation Army, Spokane Food Bank

The seeds of inspiration germinated in a green GMC pickup truck.

“I was driving down the road with my wife and thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to raise a garden with the kids?”’ said Bill DeMers, a Spokane County juvenile probation coordinator.

DeMers wasn’t talking about his own kids.

He was talking about the young offenders he supervises. These young people, who have been sentenced to community service for crimes from truancy to assault, range in age from 13 to 18.

The garden they have planted is now blooming at 12th and Houk in the Spokane Valley. There, the kids get grubby, growing a crop of vegetables that will go to the Salvation Army and the Spokane Food Bank for distribution to needy families. Their young gardeners’ goal is to feed 12 families for four months, said DeMers.

Planting started three weeks ago.

“These ones are cabbage and these ones are weeds,” said 16-year-old Jaime Smith, pointing with a red trowel at the green sprouts poking up through the soil. Smith, sentenced for truancy, is doing part of her community service work in the Valley garden.

“I’ve been raised in the dirt, and I think we’re gonna grow from it,” said Smith, who grew up on a farm. “It makes you think twice before you go out again.”

The garden is a first for Spokane County Juvenile Court.

DeMers’ inspiration became reality after a Valley resident offered to donate use of the one-third acre parcel at 12th and Houk for the project. DeMers approached county commissioners and got approval in just 10 days. “Normally it takes months to get in front of the commissioners,” DeMers said.

“It went through so fast because we want youth out contributing to society,” said County Commissioner John Roskelley. “It doesn’t do those kids any good to just be stuck in a cell, especially if it’s a minor offense.”

Several Valley businesses jumped aboard with support for the project. Savemore Building Supply donated garden stakes, Modern Electric is providing water and irrigation devices, and Cross Greenhouse gave plants. Valley resident Les Dill contributed a rototiller and a tractor. Kids in the community service program raised $83 from recycled pop cans and newspapers to buy seeds.

Deborah Cross, owner of Cross Greenhouse, also volunteered to help in the garden throughout the summer.

“I have to wake up each day finding a positive, because you hear so many negatives,” said Cross. “To support something that’s positive is something that you need to do.”

The Valley landowner who donated the use of his property for the garden said he wants to remain anonymous, but did express his hopes for the project.

“I hope it’s going to help these kids get straightened out,” he said. “Maybe next year they’ll come back and do this again. They can have the whole field if they want.”

Two afternoons a week, juvenile work crews come out to the garden in groups of eight or less. They spend about four hours each workday weeding, cultivating and watering the radishes, cabbage, corn and other vegetables growing in the garden.

As the seeds have blossomed, so have many of the kids.

Take 17-year-old Mike Moore. “People have kind of gravitated toward him. He has a certain kind of maturity, and he’s a very respectful, hard worker,” said Gordon Smith, who runs the county’s Structured Alternative Confinement program for juvenile offenders.

“Mike seems earnest about putting the past behind him and getting on with a fresh future.”

The garden environment teaches lessons kids don’t learn in a jail cell, Moore said.

“You can lock people up, but it doesn’t help,” said Moore, who is finishing up a 90-day sentence for burglary. “Jail doesn’t really rehabilitate you, it teaches you new tricks.”

Squinting in the 75-degree sunshine, Moore beamed about another recent accomplishment.

“I got my GED, and it’s a step forward,” he said.

After completing his sentence, Moore said he is moving to Yakima. He wants to become a welder.

Getting down and dirty with the land provides kids a chance to see direct results.

“It’s especially beneficial because not only are they doing the work, but they are able to cultivate something and watch it grow from seed to harvest,” Smith said. “There’s a real progression that they’re able to see.”

As they do time, the kids learn the value of doing good to others.

“I like knowing that I’m helping people,” said 14-year-old Machaela Robins, doing community service for truancy. “It makes me feel good.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos (1 color)