The garden as resistance: Horticultural skill and human potential behind bars

This perspectives paper critically examines the concept of reskilling within the context of a prison garden program, challenging deficit-based narratives that assume incarcerated individuals lack agricultural knowledge. Drawing on six years of experience in a college-in-prison program and insights from a sustainable food systems practicum, the paper explores how asset-based approaches better recognize and amplify the skills, creativity, and resilience of incarcerated students. By reimagining agricultural education as a reciprocal exchange rather than a one-directional intervention, and incarcerated people as contributors to food system change, this paper argues for a more inclusive, equitable approach to food systems transformation that values the lived experiences of all participants.