Pinellas horticulture center at jail marks 10 years

CLEARWATER After being booked into the Pinellas County Jail in January, James Brown was told he could either clean up after the homeless at Pinellas Safe Harbor, the nearby county shelter, or help at the jails horticultural center.

I preferred the plants, Brown, 53, said.

What he discovered was that potting red geraniums and pulling weeds out of Egyptian papaya plants suited him. He liked it. His blood pressure, which was high, has come down. And hes mellowed somewhat.

I used to be a rough guy, Brown, who is serving a six-month sentence for marijuana possession and for having a counterfeit license plate 10 years ago, said at the center on Friday. Fooling around with these plants sort of backed me up from that.

In August, the center will have been operating for 10 years.

It started with a Pinellas Technical Education Center instructor who was given office space, access to a vacant lot, and about $6,000 of tax money a year to buy potting soil, pots, seeds and the like.

Since then, the center has evolved into a bright stretch of variegated green in the jails shadow where so many plants are sold the enterprise has become economically self-sufficient.

At the helm is the PTEC instructor who was there from the beginning Chuck Pool, a 67-year-old who sports a pith helmet as he walks around giving instructions to jail trustees in striped uniforms whose crimes are minor enough for them to be allowed outside.

I wasnt real thrilled about coming to the jail, said Pool, who worked at the PTEC on 34th Street South in St. Petersburg before his transfer. But now that Im here, I like it and I dont plan on leaving.

The inmates are my students, he said.

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Pinellas horticulture center at jail marks 10 years