INTEGRATING back into society can be difficult for prisoners, but agriculture is giving inmates at Cadell Training Centre the skills and hope to build a better future.
Agriculture working programs have been part of the Riverland correctional facility’s fabric since its opening in 1960, with the goal to train inmates to be better citizens when released.
The centre’s program has gone from strength-to-strength, with a fully-functioning dairy, olive grove, citrus orchard and apple packing and grading plant offering offenders a sense of routine, accountability and self worth.
Cadell Training Centre is home to low-security male prisoners who are often nearing release from the corrections system.
There are no bars or razor wire, with prisoners challenged to make the right decisions from the moment they arrive.
Industries manager Shane Fairlie said the agriculture programs served two purposes.
“One is about being part of a prisoner rehabilitation program – developing a work ethic as well as the ability to work in a team and in groups of people, giving them some of those social skills they may be lacking,” he said.
“The second part of it is to be as commercial as we can.
“From an income and expenditure point of view, we can be contributing to the Department of Corrections budget.”
Mr Fairlie said they tried to replicate society to help with reintegration upon release, with inmates made accountable for where they were and what they were doing, but also given the ability to earn a small wage.
“The routine aspect is very important,” he said.
“We’ve dealt with guys who have not only been unemployed their whole lives, but are second, third, fourth generation unemployed, so they’ve never had structure or routine in their life.
“We often only have a short window of opportunity to develop some normalisation in their life, which means getting up early in the morning, having your bed made, having breakfast, going to work, and working with people that you may not get on with particularly well.”
Inmates feed, care for and milk a 162-head self-replacing Holstein-Friesian herd, with milk quality tested, processed and packaged on-site before being distributed throughout the SA prison system and to the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
They produce about 12,000 litres of milk a week and sell about 500 kilograms of unprocessed cream a week to Udder Delights and Woodside Cheese Wrights, which use the product in their cheesemaking.
Mr Fairlie said inmates got a sense of pride from delivering this service and took their jobs seriously.
“We had a set of twin calves born about six weeks ago and one had deformed front legs from the way it had been in the womb,” he said.
“One of our inmates spent hours and hours each day massaging its limbs, made splints for it out of PVC pipe to get the legs to straighten and today, you wouldn’t know the difference.”
The inmates also grow 40 hectares of oats and barley for the herd, and use a disc mill to make their own supplementary feed mix from bought hay and grain.
“We run a tractor training course and chemical handling course for prisoners as part of their training,” Mr Fairlie said.
“Inmates will be in charge of a tractor and will be involved in the sowing of pastures, cutting, baling and spraying.”
The training centre is also home to 10,000 citrus trees, with varieties including Valencias, Lane Lates, Washinghton Navels, Navelinas and Minneola tangelos.
“A lot of that is for internal supply, but we also supply AgriExchange at Renmark,” Mr Fairlie said.
As part of the citrus program, inmates learn the intricacies of drip irrigation systems and the process of leaf analysis, which helps them make fertiliser decisions.
Inmates are also involved in pruning, fertilising, irrigating and harvesting 9000 Frantoio, Leccino and Correggiola olive trees.
The centre supplies Diana Olive Oil at Willunga and does a small bottling of its own oil with any excess olives at the end of the season.
Mr Fairlie said the centre also had ambitions to establish a crushing plant, which would not only service their orchard, but also offer a service to local growers.
A recent addition to the centre is 1000 apple trees, which will supply prison kitchens.
Presently, the centre buys in apples, which are graded and packed using a machine reconditioned in the prison workshop, giving five inmates employment.
There are a range of other courses available at Cadell, including chemical handling, driving and civil construction.
There have been many success stories, according to Mr Fairlie, including one inmate who is managing a dairy in the South East after coming to Cadell with no experience whatsoever.
“But it’s not so much about us wanting to turn out orchardists and dairyfarmers,” he said.
“Our main focus is on good citizens, who have developed a work ethic and an ability to work in groups.”