The San Quentin Insight Garden Program was launched 12 years ago by a woman who had lost trust in mankind.
“Like millions of people across the country, the tragedy of 9/11 impacted me deeply. Essentially, I lost faith in humanity,” said Beth Waitkus, founder and director of the garden project.
During the following months, Waitkus set out on a new journey in life. Her purpose was to rediscover her faith in the human spirit and to find good in the world.
This new journey led her to a volunteer training program at San Quentin. “It became evident that there was a vast need for prisoner support inside the prison walls – so when people leave, they don’t come back,” said Waitkus.
Exactly one year after 9/11, Waitkus and other members of the volunteer training program proposed creating a garden in San Quentin. An additional year later, an actual garden was started on the yard of H-Unit.
With the garden came the Insight Garden class, along with a steady and enthusiastic class of inmate participants.
The class consists of a combination of curriculums designed to edify the inner-self, to inspire reformative thinking, to encourage social interaction and to develop a conscious-awareness of nature and its natural connection to everyday human life.
As custom, before class session begins, members take a reflective walk through the H-Unit garden. Inside the class, a circular seating arrangement is formed, followed by a group meditation. In the center of the circle sits the class mascot, a fern plant aptly named “Fern.”
“Over the years, the evolution of our powerful curriculum, combined with gardening, has impacted more than 1,000 prisoners’ lives. And we have witnessed the transformation of the human heart time and time again,” said Waitkus.
“Other inmates gave me positive feedback about the class,” said inmate Will Brown, a newly enrolled participant of the Insight Garden class. “A former graduate of this program informed me how the class helped him weed out a lot of bad things in his life, which piqued my curiosity.”
There are two gardens in H-Unit. One consists of flowers and decorative plants. The other contains edibles, which are donated to a food bank in San Francisco.
Outside volunteers include representatives from Planting Justice, a Bay Area nonprofit organization that employs former inmates, a biology teacher and long-time friends of Waitkus from many walks of life.
“People like her change the world for the better. When she interacts with us, she treats us like human beings,” Brown said of Waitkus.
In an interview, Waitkus said her faith in humanity was restored, thanks in part to the gardening project. “Absolutely … the world heals!”
