Horticulture Therapy - Mary Kang Photography

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Horticulture Therapy

mary kang

May 18, 2020

Worked on “The Secret Jailhouse Garden of Rikers Island” with writer Richard Schiffman , you can read about it at @nytimes . Many thanks to Mike, Jin, Dalvin, Keith, and Hilda for sharing their presence at the @thehort garden and for bunch of cherry tomatoes! Thank you @andrewhinderaker for teaming up with my photography on sharing this story. I'm just going to quote Angela Davis here : “Prisons do not disappear social problems, they disappear human beings. Homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness, and illiteracy are only a few of the problems that disappear from public view when the human beings contending with them are relegated to cages.” “Positing decarceration as our overarching strategy, we should try to envision a continuum of alternatives to imprisonment - demilitarization of schools, revitalization of education at all levels, a health system that provides free physical and mental care to all, and a justice system based on reparation and reconciliation rather than retribution and vengeance.”

The Secret Jailhouse Garden of Rikers Island
When the notorious New York penal colony closes, few will miss it. But an innovative sanctuary for prisoners will also be lost.