UGA Extension offers training to help the incarcerated reclaim their hope

Cook taught the "Mind Matters" self-care curriculum to the first cohort at King's invitation and recruited Conni Fennell-Burley from the Archway Partnership to lead a personality assessment program. She also identified a volunteer to lead sewing classes.

Leveraging both the UGA Extension and Archway Partnership networks as well as the Family Connection of Washington County (FCWC) program, law enforcement officials built a powerful team of community stakeholders to address generational issues tied to poverty, illiteracy and substance abuse.

Programming focuses on topics such as decision-making, character development and anger management. Graduates also receive career counseling and other aftercare services.

Many of them are employed by local businesses, and FCWC works to reconnect graduates with their families.

"The first thing that comes to mind is a oneness," King said of the community collaboration that also includes local churches. "The people who are for bettering the community are in 100%, and they're going to come to the table every time."

After some nudging from Cook, UGA Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent Rocky Tanner joined the collaboration to teach the inmates gardening.

On a small patch of land just inside the razor-wire fence, inmates in the RSAT program have grown watermelons, squash, peppers and cantaloupes. The topsoil, lime and fertilizer come from donations Tanner secured from local farmers.

As he stood in front of the participants at the end of a recent "Mind Matters" session, tears sprung to Tanner's eyes as he confessed to rebuffing Cook's offer to join the program several times because he was intimidated. He's grown to love his trips inside the fence, he said.

"I help some of the best farmers in the Southeast, but those three little beds in that little bit of dirt out there mean as much to me as the cornfield that produces 355 bushels an acre," he said. "Don't ever be afraid to be proud of yourselves."

"It's changed the way I look at things," RSAT participant Gabriel Green said. "They don't treat us like inmates - they treat us like human beings, and they really want to see us succeed. When you're treated with love and compassion, it makes you want to do better."

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