(gentle acoustic music) (birds squawking) - [Mark] Both of my grandfathers were farmers.

(gentle acoustic music) I spent most of my time at my mother's, father's farm up in Carroll Plantation, Maine.

(gentle acoustic music) He knew after a while when I got to be about 10 or 12 that someday I wanted to farm, and so he spent time.

He told me back then, if you want to be a farmer, you're gonna have to learn how to do everything.

I've gotta say, probably, I learned more life lessons there than I have anywhere else.

(gentle acoustic music) (birds chirping) I had no idea someday that I'd be working in a prison.

(dramatic music) (wind blowing) (traffic rumbling) (keys jangling) - I started when I was 25 years old, so I've been here for quite a while and seen quite a bit.

(calm music) (keys jangling) I go down to the chow hall every day because that's where you can get the feel of the day.

You can get the feel of the day every day by going to the chow hall and just feeling the atmosphere.

- The last place you want to have big problems is in the chow hall.

It can go sideways pretty quick.

(people chattering) - I mean, sometimes it's rowdy in there.

Depends what's on the meal tray.

(chuckling) - You know pretty much any facility that you're in that you're gonna have the same meals throughout the month on the same days.

- Depending on where you are, it is kind of like a movie.

Where you get a steel tray and food is just literally plopped on the platter and depending on how long they keep food of certain places, there will be maggots.

- Some of the boxes inside the freezer were marked grade J for prison consumption only, and that didn't really make you feel great about eating or serving that.

- The trays that they were giving us wouldn't, even if you ate everything on it, which you wouldn't want to, but even if you ate everything on the tray, you still wouldn't be full.

To know that you're gonna get these exact same meals every single day and to know the quality of the meal is gonna be that same quality, it really just puts you in a kind of a lull.

You're hungry, but you're not looking forward to going to the chow hall.

(calm music) (inmates chattering) (calm music) (calm music) (birds chirping) - [Mark] My philosophy is that food can either be poison or it can be medicine.

(calm music) (bird chirping) - [Interviewer] When you first came to Mountain View, what was the state of the garden in the agricultural program?

- Well, when I came here, there was none.

(calm music) (tractor chugging) We were able to lease a piece of land from Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, take that field and end up starting what we're doing now.

- It's huge.

(chuckles) I've worked in gardens before, but I've never worked in one that big.

- [Mark] On this five acres, I'd like to see us be able to produce 100,000 pounds.

It may be a stretch, but I know it's possible.

- I remember my first day driving down there, we got in the pickup truck.

We no longer had to be handcuffed, the doors weren't locked.

I rolled the window down and I put my hand down on the edge of the window, like I was free and it just boosted the morale.

The whole crew, everybody that went was like, "Wow, this is awesome."

You know what I mean?

We were actually driving in a regular pickup truck.

(truck rumbling) (calm music) And then after our first week of work, we all felt very ambitious and like we were ready to go back to work on Monday.

The weekend seemed like it took forever to go by, so we could get back down to the field.

(calm music) (truck rumbling) (doors clanking) - Hey guys, you want to come on over and we'll get a plan together for the day here?

(doors slamming) So I want to get a couple guys to start harvesting the cabbage.

We have people that wanna be busy, we have people that wanna learn and to see people that take an interest and learn these things, it's rewarding to be able to see that kind of a team come together.

Okay?

Good now?

Let's go.

- All right.

(calm music) (cabbage crunching) - Honestly, that job was not an easy job.

For the most part, we're lugging five gallon buckets of rocks and we're shoveling compost.

- [Garden Crew Member] You know, when we showed up, it was just a field.

(bucket clanking) (calm music) - I'm not gonna tell you it's not work to do organic farming.

Farming's always been difficult, probably always will be.

- One, two, three.

(truck clanking) (truck clanking) - [Garden Crew Member 1] That should do it.

- [Garden Crew Member 2] Yeah, you're all set.

- Okay.

- Moved it back.

I knew we could move it forward.

(crew member 2 laughing) - It's work.

You know, straight up, it is a process.

You're not just gonna go out there, jump the tractor and the rows are just gonna make themselves.

You're putting in the effort to get that return back.

(water trickling) (calm music) - [Jeremiah] It's not like it's a easy, fancy job, but when you have a good crew and you have a good boss and everybody's working together in unison, it makes easy work out of it.

(calm music) (birds chirping) - [Ryan] And then after seeing it all come together, beds are built, irrigation lines are in, you know, it was nice to know, you know, I had a part in that.

(calm music) (leaves shaking) - [Garden Crew Member 3] Look at that.

That's beautiful.

The pinks and reds and the golden yellows.

You got a horse fly right on your forehead.

- There you go.

Smack it.

(hand smacking) - There you go, got it.

- You loved doing that, didn't you?

(laughing) - Got him.

(truck rumbling) (box scrapping) (papers crinkling) - [Mark] Food's kind of always been part of what I've done no matter what part of my life I was in.

My wife when I met her, had her own cake decorating business.

We eventually were able to get our own farm.

We grew market vegetables, we had grass fed beef.

We ended up having pastured pigs, chickens, turkeys.

It was our full-time living as a family.

(kids laughing) And then, we found out that my dad had brain cancer.

We as a family, my wife, my children, myself, we ended up taking shifts to help my mother around the clock to take care of him.

(somber music) As we cut back markets and different venues, it got harder and harder to be able to sustain the farm.

(somber music) And that's when I decided that I needed to get something that was constant, that I knew the hours.

(somber music) It's a fairly unusual step to make from working as a farmer to being employed at a prison.

(somber music) (birds chirping) From the beginning I had the intention of trying to get into the kitchen.

(somber music) (tractor rumbling) I really had a desire to be able to do something that was meaningful.

(somber music) (tractor rumbling) So with that in mind, I came and applied and eventually became the food service manager.

- When Mark come on board, that's when it all changed.

It all changed.

(light music) - He would buy all his potatoes from local farmers and they would bring bags of potatoes right to the facility.

He would buy fresh eggs from local farmers.

You could tell by the quality of the product that it was something you'd buy in a grocery store.

- If there was one most important thing we do, I really believe it's the scratch cooking.

We started a bakery program, where we bake all of our own bread products.

- When I first went up to visit Mark at the correctional facility, I was blown away by the ecosystem that I saw there.

There was a team leader structure where senior bakers were overseeing new bakers.

- Amber Lambke came up, saw what we were doing, and said, I have something you might be interested in.

- The run of the mill flour, it is the initial stream of flour that comes off our stone mill in the morning, every morning that we could make available to Mountain View Correctional Facility at a really reasonable price.

(baking pan scratching) - Better food doesn't have to cost you more money.

By using these raw ingredients and doing homestyle, scratch-type cooking.

It's a lot more like a home cooked meal.

It's better quality and the cost is less.

- [Kevin] You'd look around out in the chow hall and you'd see people all just smiling and talking and associating with each other.

It was almost like looking around a loaded restaurant, seeing people just going about their daily business.

- [Jeremiah] Once I got here, the food got better, but it wasn't until I got onto the agriculture crew that we actually really started enjoying the meals because the kitchen was using all of the fresh produce.

(vegetables shaking) For each meal, we were eating fresh stuff straight from the garden.

(light music) (vegetables crinkling) - [Mark] Often what we pick today is what is going to go on the plate tonight or tomorrow.

(bed clanking) (light music) Okay, let's head over to the kitchen.

(door sliding) (truck beeping) - There was so many types of vegetables in the garden.

I couldn't even possibly begin to name them all.

There's at least 50 types of veggies that I know of that they grew in there.

They asked how much of it I can handle doing, and I said "Bring it."

And we would get crates and crates of it.

(light music) - Last summer, we didn't use anything from a can.

(vegetables crunching) (grinder humming) We were using everything we could from the garden, fresh vegetables.

The canned stock just stayed there.

- Instantly.

When we brought the food back, they were cutting it up and cooking it up.

Fresh lettuce and fresh tomatoes and cucumbers.

Just knowing that I had helped bring that food in and was able to eat that fresh broccoli and stuff, it gave me a sense of pride.

(tray clanking) (light music) (wind blowing) (water trickling) - [Mark] We're not perfect here.

(crates thumping) We've gotten some attention.

New York Times had mentioned that we're a bright spot in the country.

To me, that just shows the situation that there is in a lot of the places for the food, because we're by no means doing everything that we should.

It's a work in progress.

(light music) (feet thumping) - Mountain View, they help us out big time.

- [Mark] If there's more than what we could use at the time in the kitchen, then we donate it to local food pantries.

- [Bud] Everybody can use fresh vegetables.

(calm music) - Coming from most of our situation, we want to be able to find something that we can do that doesn't just feel that it's just something to do.

You know, that we are actually doing something that has a meaning behind it.

(calm music) And that's one of the biggest things for me, when I wake up in the morning, I sit there in my bed and I wait for a few minutes and then I get up and I'm just ready to go.

'Cause I'm like today, like every day, is a day that I can actually do something that I want to do, something that's good for all the rest of the residents that are here.

So it's more or less the feeling of doing something that I feel is very necessary to be done.

It's pretty amazing for me.

(calm music) (calm music) (birds chirping) (rain dropping) (TV throwing static) (feet shuffling) (TV chattering) (calm music) (feet clunking) (TV throwing static) (calm music) - [Jesse] I don't come out of my room unless I gotta make a phone call.

I keep to myself.

(calm music) (shoe thumping) It's been two years since I've seen my son, so.

I mean, I get to talk to him, but still.

Being in here, he doesn't know where I am.

- [Jeremiah] If you get arrested and you're in there for a month or six months, you lose your job, you lose everything.

Especially if you don't have a family or a support system for you, if you don't have them means, that could be putting you right into the criminal lifestyle.

- [Bud] We call it life on the installment plan.

You know, you come in for two or three years, go out for a year, two, come in for two or three years.

It's just a way of life.

(calm music) - All in all, I had 17 felonies that I ended up getting charged for.

I didn't call home for about six months, cause I just felt ashamed.

I don't think any of 'em realized how much crime I had committed.

(calm music) (radio clicking) (somber music) I grew up in Easton, Maine, up in the county.

(birds singing) The first time I ever tried meth, I was at work and I had a friend call me up.

I was pretty much like, yeah, sure, I'll try it.

I went from spending 20 bucks to $100 or $200 a day.

(somber music) (line whipping) It took right over my work.

I ended up losing my relationship, so I started using even more.

I thought, "Hey, I gotta get money somehow."

So I went around and I broke into some auto garages.

I took thousands and thousands of dollars worth of tools off the shelves, outta drawers, anything I could get my hands on pretty much, and I traded those all for a cheap high.

I racked up a $75,000 bill.

That's what I owe now in restitution, and I probably got $1000 worth of drugs out of it all.

(flags waving) (calm music) - [Officer] Do you have a sweatshirt or anything or?

(radio chattering) - I mean it's- - [Officer 1] I don't know if you wanna- ain't gonna take a blue- - Nothing's technically mine.

So I don't know what I'm, I don't know what I'm wearing outta here.

No one, I don't know.

No one discussed it with me.

- [Officer 1] I'll let you go with the blue, just if you wanna wear a sweatshirt or something.

- Alright.

- [Officer 2] Wanna sweatshirt?

- What can I wear outta here?

- [Officer 2] What supplies?

We'll get you jeans, sweatshirt.

- Oh, okay.

- [Officer 1] What size jeans?

- I dunno honestly.

- [Radio] One to two is that your CR?

- It's been like years since I've worn 'em.

- Inside that, make sure all your money's there and your Goodwill voucher.

(papers crinkling) (envelope tearing) That's your goodwill voucher.

Just open it up and make sure it's still there.

(paper crinkling) $50, okay.

(paper crinkling) (gears buzzing) (calm music) - [Bud] These guys are on the way out.

(calm music) They're gonna be your neighbors again.

(shirt flapping) - [Tim] Freedom's a powerful thing.

(calm music) I'm not gonna be institutionalized.

(calm music) (door clanking) - [Jeremiah] I got out in two years on good time.

(calm music) I missed both of my sons turning 21 years old.

(calm music) (wrench cranking) I am striving to make sure that my sons are gonna be better men and not have to make the mistakes that I had to.

(calm music) Nothing on this planet is worth breaking a family apart for.

(calm music) - People are incarcerated in America and in Maine because of mental health issues, because of substance use disorder, because of poverty, neglect, trauma.

Those are really the reasons why people are incarcerated.

Very small numbers of people are incarcerated nationally and in the state of Maine because they're bad, evil people.

(calm music) - [Tim] Some people are more comfortable being in prison and keep going back to prison.

That's their choice.

(cars humming) I don't want to be back there ever again and if I stick to the course, I never will be.

(dishes clanking) - I set up an interview with Tim and I got to know him a little bit.

A lot of people go into prison and you just have reservations about someone that's been there, but I feel very confident that he doesn't want to go back there and I just feel that, he's not going back there.

(calm music) We could actually use a lot more Tims, if we could find them.

(calm music) - [Tim] I didn't know that I'd be working in a restaurant today, to be honest.

(calm music) It's hard to get used to being so free.

(calm music) At Mountain View, Mark came out one day and asked if I would like to be involved in a culinary apprenticeship program.

(calm music) I feel like it greatly prepared me for my job now.

[Tim] Mary your salad's up.

(calm music) (water sloshing) (crickets chirping) - [Tim] What do they usually say before they arrest you?

- [Child] Put your hands up.

(laughing) (kids laughing) - [Tim] I wanna be a dad that my children look forward to seeing on a daily basis.

(burger sizzling) (calm music) I plan on just making a better future for me and my kids.

(calm music) (door opening and shutting) (calm music) (crickets chirping) - [Jeremiah] Oh, did you see the little pumpkin that just started down there?

- [Gray Shirt] Oh yeah.

- [Jeremiah] See that.

I'll have been free for one year on the 21st of this month.

I am starting to grow all my own produce and raise my own meat birds.

It's just amazing to know how impactful food is in a correctional facility.

Down at the bottom is one.

Every prison in America should have its own garden program.

Just that alone will give so many prisoners a bigger sense of confidence for when they get released.

They won't necessarily feel like they're worthless because when you get out and you feel worthless like that, you're gonna fall back into a life of crime every time.

- Here we go.

(calm music) (peeler scrapping) (knife thudding) - At root, I think food is the social issue of our time.

Food is health, food is happiness, and it's beautiful.

It should be beautiful.

Food is a beautiful thing.

(calm music) - I didn't know everything that was gonna happen in my life.

None of us really do.

(calm music) I knew that I wanted to farm.

(calm music) There's definitely a lot of trials and I think you need to be patient.

You need to be willing to work hard, and it's gotta be something that's a passion.

I think most farmers, somewhere along the line got that passion.

(calm music) I kind of blame my grandfather.

(calm music) A lot of people talk about sustainable agriculture.

I'm definitely more of a regenerative agricultural person because if we just sustain something that isn't good, then we haven't really gained a whole lot, and though it's important to be sustainable, I'd rather be trying to renew and rebuild.

(calm music) (birds chirping) We have a lot that we can do to grow from here.

(upbeat country music) (upbeat country music) (upbeat country music) (upbeat country music) (upbeat country music) (upbeat country music) (birds chirping) (heavy thudding)