McLOUD, Okla.-- Tina Hall has always had a healthy appetite for the outdoors.
“It’s like therapy for me,” Hall said. “I enjoy doing it. Ever since I was a little girl I enjoyed working in the gardens.”
Before her incarceration, Tina took real pride in maintaining her property.
“I did this at home too,” Hall said. “I had the prettiest yard in the neighborhood.”
She asked Mabel Bassett administrators if she could bring that same beauty and dedication to the prison yard.
“I said the front of this building will be the prettiest on the whole complex,” Hall told us.
All her free time is spent manicuring this 140-foot long flower bed and vegetable garden.
“Lots of weeds,” Hall said. “Job security.”
She germinates donated seeds inside her cell and then transplants them for everyone to enjoy.
“Every once in a while the girls will come out and help me,” the inmate said.
The hard work is paying off. The garden is plentiful – providing a healthy summertime treat for more than a dozen women on this unit.
“The purpose of the garden is to give them something good to eat with their meals,” Hall said. “I’m glad everyone is enjoying it.”
No telling what might grow when seeds of hope are planted.
“Prison does not have to be an ugly place,” Hall said. “You make it what you want to make it.”
