Sing Sing Prison Museum Garden Project

Teatown PlantFest partners with the Sing Sing Prison Museum to provide plants to the Bedford Hills and Taconic Women’s Correctional Facilities in Bedford Hills, New York.

For the second year in a row, Teatown PlantFest and the soon-to-be open Sing Sing Prison Museum are partnering to provide plants to incarcerated individuals. Last year plants went to the men at Sing Sing and this year the women at the nearby correctional facilities in Bedford will receive donated plants.

This includes women at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility which is a maximum security facility. The  women who have infants can live with their babies in a Residential Nursery thanks to the nonprofit group “Hour Children,” which, in addition to providing maternal support, oversees a gardening program.  The moms plant seeds and watch them grow while nurturing their babies. Vegetables get made into baby food—a full cycle.

The benefits of gardening are also emphasized at Taconic Correctional Facility, a medium-security facility for women in Bedford. The recreation leader for the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, Richard Karlson, believes in providing an important creative outlet and connection to nature. The women will plant flowers provided by Teatown PlantFest in raised beds in front of their residences and in the entry area for visitors.

And since gardens need soil, topsoil for both these facilities will be donated by Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison. Hudson Link runs a college program in Taconic Correctional Facility and partners with Sing Sing Prison Museum in justice-related causes.

$10 Donation = 1 Plant

Want to make a donation without shopping the pre-sale?

To learn more about the Sing Sing Prison Museum, visit singsingprisonmuseum.org