Central California Women’s Facility held a yard beautification event as part of Victim Awareness Week and community building in late Spring.
The event was sponsored by Unit 512 In-Between Committee in collaboration with Planting Justice and Insight Garden Program.
“Plants give life and provide a way to honor your victims,” according to Insight Garden Program’s CCWF program manager, Lauren Beatty.
Planting Justice donated more than 200 assorted plants.
Representatives from CCWF’s four housing units and the Administration Program Office arrived at Unit 512 to meet Mercado and Beatty.
Beatty noted that it can be very isolating in prison and in this event, she witnessed shame and guilt being replaced with hope, connection and community.
There was excitement and gratitude as residents surveyed the variety of plants on flatbed carts, which included lavender, rosemary, sage, calendulas, succulents, and roses.
The Facility Yard Lieutenant Johnathan Cuske and Captain Steven Rodriguez also joined.
Resident AndersonSchwegell shared, with a woman who is the relative of one of her victims, a very powerful healing moment during the event.
“We were both able to grow and heal while offering each other support, forgiveness, and love,” she said.
The yard beautification event began with Mercado and Beatty introduced themselves and explained the purpose of the event.
Melissa Martin also had a deeply healing experience as she planted her calendula in the garden.
“Having taken a life and given the earth new life, I felt like I was doing something for my victim Eldry. She liked to garden,” Martin shared.
Participants received a blank sign, wrote their victim’s name on it and worn them around their neck during the day of healing through nature while honoring victims of crime.
Each person then selected a plant to transplant into their yard in honor of their victim.
Mercado encouraged everyone to speak to their plant and say a prayer to their victim as they placed it in the ground.
“I took special care to place these two plants in a spot that I can visit daily and pay homage to the two women that they represent,” Kendra Anderson Schwegell said. “To be a reminder that I’ve made the conscious decision to change for the better and to honor my victims in everything I do.”
Beatty brought her trademark wheelbarrow filled with hand shovels and pruning shears. She explained how plants create healing spaces and emphasized the connection of nature to people. Participants carefully selected a plant and placed it into the flowerbed.
Cuske stated that “seeing the population give back to their community and bring life to the facility with new plants,” left a great impression on him.
For the last five years, the In-Between Committee has commemorated Victim Awareness Week by hosting a walk-a-thon. This year, resident and committee chair, Yolanda Harden honored victims of violence by putting on the event. Harden reached out to Planting Justice’s reentry coordinator, Sol Mercado.
Rodriguez reflected that he was impacted by the concluding activity — a brief moment of silence, followed by a lap around the track.
The day was filled with a balance between honoring the life of the victim and the life of the person planting. This is how we can all move forward and grow, nurturing ourselves and our plants with healing kindness, she concluded.
