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.
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MAP posted-by: Derek