Blue So(u)l Healing Garden- Ongoing

TPIB is teamed up with Sol Mercado and a nonprofit organization called Planting Justice to create a victims garden inside San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. The idea is to create a space for incarcerated people to pay their respects to victims of crime and make amends. The garden will be decorated with art and include areas for incarcerated individuals to write the names of their victims to be part of the garden. Former and currently incarcerated people will help fund the garden.

The People In Blue team up with Sol Mercadoto start the Blue So(u)l Healing Gardeninside San Quentin Rehabilitation Center

By Henok Rufael

After meeting formerly incarcerated person, Sol mercado of planting Justice, at a resource fair inside San Quentin last year, fellow PTIB member Wil Harris, and myself, came up with the idea to create a healing garden inside the prison. We joined forces with Mercado, who first started a healing garden in the central California women’s prison. The garden was created with the aid of a nonprofit organization called planting Justice, and is meant for anyone who wants to honor victims and survivors of crime and violence.

The space is small and tucked away in the education department of the prison. But it provides a perfect place for a quiet moment of reflection of the harms that one has committed on society. Visitors get to place different color ribbons that coincide with crimes on a healing wall created out of wood. They can sit on a bench if they need to and they can take in the aroma of the many herbs and flowers planted there. This idea has burst a deeper movement for us as TPIB and we are committed to demonstrating what accountability looks like while inviting others to join us.

Mercado came up with her idea for a healing garden while serving a sentence at CCWF. Understanding the healing properties of nature, she wanted to create a space to cultivate healing and remembrance of those harmed. Mercado helped TPIB break ground by digging up the initial soil and planting plants in the garden. Members of TPIB invited community members to assist. We hope that after this space is dedicated that other locations in the prison can be made available. We will unveil and dedicate as many spaces as our necessary to help honor, crime, victims, and survivors, and to demonstrate accountability for the harm we caused. We encourage all members of the incarcerated community to do the same.