Rising with the garden

In a quiet area of the Socorro County Detention Center, life is sprouting from the dirt—both literally and figuratively.

Through the RISE program—short for Reach, Intervene, Support, Engage— eight male and three female detainees are transforming their time inside into meaningful learning experiences outside, thanks to a flourishing vegetable garden just past the facility walls.

Started three years ago, the RISE Garden is part of a broader rehabilitation initiative spearheaded by Detention Administrator Eddie Garcia. What began as a simple horticulture project has blossomed into a multifaceted effort to equip detainees with essential life skills and emotional healing.

“We just decided to give these guys the opportunity to plant and learn the process of growing food,” Garcia said. “It’s super cool to show these individuals life skills that hopefully, after incarceration, they’ll be able to use with their families.”

The garden contains 18 to 20 plants, including tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, watermelon, and a variety of chiles—jalapeños, serranos, and habaneros—all selected with input from the detainees. The produce often becomes the star ingredient in the facility’s entries to the Socorro County Fair salsa competition.

And they don’t just participate, they win. “The last three years, we’ve placed first or second,” Garcia said proudly. One standout recipe from last year included jalapeños, serranos, habaneros, fresh mango, onion, garlic, lime and lemon. It earned first place in the fruit salsa category.

Detainees do the chopping, blending, and jarring themselves, under supervision in the jail kitchen. And while the entries must remain anonymous for judging, the sense of pride and accomplishment is very real. “A lot of them have never cooked before,” Garcia said. “Some have never even used a knife or chopped vegetables.”

During the fair, the RISE program enters into each salsa category: green, red, fruit, and pico de gallo.

“We give them access to the internet for recipes, and then some of them just jot down, hey, I remember my grandmother used to do this. My mother used to do that. And they ask for certain ingredients, and go find them,” said Garcia.

The program, which is funded through a grant, goes well beyond gardening and salsa-making. RISE also offers cooking classes, welding training in partnership with New Mexico Tech, parenting classes, acupuncture sessions, and art projects.

After 30 days of clear conduct, detainees are able to take advantage of the acupuncture service offered by Ruby Henderson through the DWI Compliance Office. Henderson said she has been doing acupuncture detox, or AcuDetox, for 8 years and focuses on points in the detainee’s ears to detoxify lungs, liver and kidneys.

Along with salsa, vegetables, baked goods and art pieces are also submitted to the county fair for competition, and have earned blue ribbons in the past.

The welding program is especially unique—RISE detainees attend classes with NM Tech students at the local high school. “It’s cool because you see them bonding,” Garcia said. “They don’t look at them as detainees—they look at them as fellow students.”

The same spirit of connection extends to the community. RISE participants have cleaned up cemeteries, painted murals on California Street electric boxes, and assisted in local beautification projects.

The detainees want to give back to the community, Garcia said. “I can’t, you know, sit here and be judgmental of what they’ve done, but I can tell you one thing, when I get them into custody after 45 days, when their minds are thinking right and they’re eating right, they’re different people.”

Garcia joined the New Mexico Corrections Department when he was 19, and joined the SCDC in 2016. Wardens throughout the state, he said, are amazed that Garcia is able to take detainees to do community work, like cleaning up cemeteries or helping with sandbags during flooding.

“I’m taking a chance every day, of course,” he said. “But if I don’t take a chance, where are we going to be, where are we going to end up?”

This year Middle Rio Grande Conservancy donated soil to the garden, and every year excess vegetables are given to the senior center.

Carlos Valenzuela and Dave Standefer, both longtime detention officers, have played crucial roles in the garden’s success. Valenzuela brings in his own tools and helps prep the soil, while Standefer works alongside detainees, teaching gardening basics and encouraging growth—of plants and people.

“They look forward to it every day,” Valenzuela said. “ But it’s really good to see them working with the garden, because a lot of them have never done it.”

The late Vanessa Garcia, who helped launch RISE as a pilot program in 2018, remains the heart of the initiative. “She changed lives,” Garcia said. “She became the face of RISE in New Mexico.”

As for the garden’s future? Watermelon seeds have just gone into the soil, the tomatoes are blooming, and the chiles are getting ripe on the vine. Meanwhile, ground is being prepared for a greenhouse.

“We’re just trying to break the cycle,” Garcia said. “And this garden—this dirt—it’s where that change starts.”