Through a farm operation inmates help run. This operation has saved taxpayers over 1 million dollars since it began. The farm-to-table structure is sustainability at its finest and produces various commodities, from broccoli, cabbage, eggs, beef and more. This opportunity gives inmates practical working skills while providing food for both the Bob Wiley detention and jail facilities. Mike Boudreaux, Deputy Sheriff-Coroner, discussed all the aspects of the farm with My Job Depends On Ag Magazine.
“It started out a smaller program, Sheriff Bill Wittman started some cattle and a few hogs, but what I decided to do was expand that project and started farming 1,100 acres of land. We also increased our hog and cattle operation from 100 head of cattle to over 400. We are running 350 hogs through lifecycle- from piglet to slaughter. When I came in, I increased those loads and increased our yields with our alfalfa, broccoli, cabbage, etc. I decided to get some chickens up and going because I wanted to offset the cost of the number of eggs we go through a day.”
The farm goes through about 2,000 eggs per day, according to Boudreaux, so having their own egg operation helps to save between 150,000 to 175,000 dollars per year just on egg expense. They have 5 free-roaming chicken pens that house hens all in different life stages. Once the hens are older, they are sent to the slaughterhouse that is on the farm. The chickens are free-range and organic.
Not only are there chickens, but hogs and cattle are produced and harvested on the facilities as well. Inmates are all-around ranch hands that work in during breeding, birthing and harvesting.
“We have our mating area where the sows come in and mate with the boars, and they’ll have 3 to 4 litters of piglets a year. Then those piglets go to the nursing stations, then move into a youth pen, then teenage pen, and then when they reach a certain poundage or age, they are sent to slaughter.”
The cattle operation is similar, Boudreaux stated. “We have our bull, and then we have cows and heifers to drop the calves. Then we raise the calves. It is full cycle like the hogs.” The cattle are raised on grass and consume alfalfa that is grown by the farm. There are a couple different of parcels where the cattle graze.
The farm has FDA certified butchers who double as meat inspectors. Boudreaux stated that 3,000 pounds of meat is slaughtered per week.
“When it comes to butchering, you have to have a certified inspector and butcher. Inmates are taught butchering skills, but those inmates you must be selective with because of sharp objects. We have mid-level inmates that aren’t violent, and they will be selected for this kind of work.” With roughly 1,500 to 1,800 inmates, only certain ones are selected to work for the farm. The inmates can farm both crops and livestock, giving them a chance to find work once released, and a possibility of early release.
Selected inmates learn many different aspects of a diverse operation. They learn to identify when an animal is sick and needs veterinary care, and how to bring animals back to health. When it comes to crops, they learn how to identify when a plant isn’t healthy, how to identify water needs, and how to grow crops from seedlings to harvest.
“We get seeds from surrounding nurseries. We have a greenhouse where they care for the seedlings, until it’s time to put them in the ground, and then we teach them how to prepare the ground.”
Boudreaux is hoping to eventually add a dairy operation. “I got this big vision now that I want to create a miniature dairy operation. The stalls are that there are so many rules and regulations. I would love to be able to have it to rehabilitate the inmates to where they can leave the jail with some type of skill so they can get hired at a dairy, and the other reason is so that it offsets our costs. But the reality of it is getting a miniature dairy up and running is going to be far more expensive to manage.”
The idea now is to find a small dairy that has gone out of business and lease, or work, in partnership with a larger scale dairy. Currently, this is a work-in-progress with many moving parts and is a future goal of Boudreaux’s.
What might be the most impressive of the entire farm, is that nothing goes to waste. The food that inmates don’t consume, is given back to the animals to lower feed costs. There is a bakery that uses the eggs, and if there is any overage of meat, it is sold. And what’s better is that they help reduce food waste. local packing houses and growers give boxes of imperfect produce for the inmates to go through. They are taught how to judge the fruit and keep whatever is consumable. The rest is given to the livestock.
Agriculture is not only a necessary industry; it is also one that is rehabilitative in nature for these inmates. The Tulare County jail is giving inmates an opportunity to gain work experience, while helping to provide thousands of people with fresh, high-quality food. This alone is something to celebrate, but the fact that it is a sustainable operation which saves taxpayer dollars, brings even more value. Further proving that our lives depend on ag.
