A unique graduation ceremony was held on Wednesday at the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women Annex when 12 inmates graduated from Troy University’s Gardening in the Alabama Prison System program (GAPS).
Donned in a cap and gown, the Class of 2024 celebrated the end of completing either the 12-week fundamentals course or the advanced course.
The GAPS partnership was formed in 2019 after Dr. Sharon Everhardt, Associate Dean of Administration and Associate Professor of Sociology, and Dr. Stephen Carmody, Chair of the Anthropology, Sociology and Criminology Department, researched food allocation and prisons. The courses teach inmates about the fundamentals of gardening, horticulture and nutrition while giving them hands-on experience with growing a garden in their Garden of Perseverance.
“We talk a lot about the amount of vegetables we grow, but I think what we’re really doing is growing something bigger than that,” Carmody said. “We’re growing hope, self-reliance, respect and resilience along with our tomatoes and pumpkins and broccoli. When you look at the garden, I want people to see the dedication and commitment these women have made to a better life.”
The program is wrapping up its sixth year and heading into its seventh. Since inception, nearly 60 have participated in the courses with 24 inmates currently enrolled.
“There’s an old saying that gardening is about believing in tomorrow, and the only reason it looks the way it does is because of these women and the commitment they’ve made to try to change their situation here,” he said. “This is an important day for us, the program and the women who are graduating.”
Lisa Brown, a graduate of the beginner course, thanked Carmody and TROY for giving them the opportunity to be part of the GAPS program. With this program, she said, they now have the tools to care for themselves and their families after release.
“You have placed a living entity into the hands of the inmates to nurture and have changed the perspective an inmate has on caring for a living being,” she said. “You have taken a group of women—some of whom may have never grown a tomato before—and have shown them how to grow an abundance of food and given them the ability to feed their families with fresh, healthy foods and to stave off poverty.”
Brown said the program will have lasting effects for generations to come.
“With this newfound independence, women feel good about themselves. They can teach their children and family how to grow food for the table in hopes of breaking generational curses of poverty. This program not only affects us here at the Annex, it affects the lives of those we touch once we leave. This program teaches women how to be functional and how to survive.”
Jeanetta Bedgood, a previous program graduate in attendance, said GAPS is not just a gardening program, it represents a means of becoming more.
“This year has been the year of discoveries. We have discovered that we can grow plants and vegetables, and we can grow together as people,” she said. “We nurtured the plants and we nurtured friendships. We harvested vegetables along with understanding. This isn’t just a gardening program—it’s a means of becoming more, of salvation from each individual situation, peace, acceptance and all that we continue to make it.”
While only the partnership with Tutwiler exists at the moment, the goal is to have gardens in women’s prisons across the state and nation.
Special guests included Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm; DOC Deputy Commissioner of Women’s Services Operations Dr. Elizabeth Mautz; Former Alabama State Senator, current TROY Board of Trustees member and Director of the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles Cam Ward; DOC Captain Brandon Thornton; GAPS Liaison Loraine Sexton; DOC Correctional Warden III Kenneth Drake; and TROY lecturer Dr. Kelly Berwager.
To view a gallery of the graduation ceremony, click here.
About GAPS
After two successful years of the gardening program, TROY began offering art classes. Lead by Art and Design lecturer Dr. Kelly Berwager, the first painting course was held in the fall of 2021 and was the inspiration for an art exhibit, named “Garden of Perseverance,” which was featured in the International Arts Center in 2022. Another art exhibit, titled “Roots of Hope,” was featured at The Kelly Fitzpatrick Center for the Arts earlier this year.
GAPS received a $10,000 grant from Tennessee non-profit The Strickland Foundation in early 2024 and relies solely on fundraising and donations to remain operational. To make a donation to the garden project, click here.
