Pubdate: Mon, 14 May 2007 Source: Metrowest Daily News (MA) Copyright: 2007 MetroWest Daily News Contact: http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/619 DON'T TAKE AWAY THE MCI GARDENS You're a parent with four children, one misbehaves and you punish all four for that one child's behavior. Is that the way to raise a family? Of course not. Yet that's exactly how state prison officials are reacting to 29 marijuana plants found growing in pots on prison land last fall. For more than 20 years, a plot of state land behind MCI-Framingham benefited from a labor of love - 26 gardeners with shovels and hoes have nurtured from that dirt hundreds, perhaps even thousands of pounds of vegetables and flowers of every conceivable kind. One of those gardeners said he froze about 80 pounds of peppers from his 30-by-30 foot plot last summer. This year, however, the community garden is off-limits because of a pot plant garden police described as "well-groomed" and "cultivated." The gardeners, some as old as 82, are frustrated and angry. They point out there was easier access to the marijuana "garden" from the road and soccer field than from their shared garden space. Yet long-time gardeners are being blamed, and feel like they are suspect, though police say they have no suspects. All the gardeners are being punished, which makes about as much sense as closing down the soccer fields because their players, too, share some proximity with a few pot plants tended in a marshy area on the other side of a brook. Prison officials say they'll reopen the land to gardeners if local law enforcement officials agree to patrol the area. That's a start. But why not get the entire community into the act? Where there are soccer fields there are hundreds of soccer parents. Ask them to report suspicious activity. Those community gardeners will certainly be on alert now that they know someone is endangering their long-time summer and fall pleasure. The Department of Correction's decision is pointless as well as destructive. If anything, removing the legal gardeners will make it easier for an illegal gardener to do his work unseen. Both the legal and illegal plantings are well outside the prison walls and pose no threat whatsoever to DOC operations. "I just think it makes no sense at all," said former Gov. Michael Dukakis, who encouraged these and other community gardens on state-owned land when he was in office. He's right. It's spring. Let Framingham's gardeners back into their fields. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek