Painting and gardening program for incarcerated women

NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - For half a dozen women, a day in the garden means time outside of their jail cell.

"We look forward to this," said one inmate. "It's like our therapy.

Twice a week, the six inmates plant and paint as part of a horticulture program through Eastern Suffolk BOCES. The incarcerated women are serving time for various charges including armed robbery and DUI.

Aside from their uniforms and the barbed wire around them, it is easy to forget where you are.

"They can get out of their housing areas, they can work on projects, they can see it come to fruition and feel like they've accomplish something," Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon Jr. said.

"It creates a lot of positive energy for them and it motivates them," instructor Denise Dipippa said. "I know when they're leaving they feel as if they can reinvent themselves."

It's about working on themselves while doing work in the garden—an opportunity many of these women have never had. They eat the produce. Plants and flowers are sold. The money is recycled back into the program.

The Suffolk County Jail has about 1,300 inmates; 15 percent are women.

Dorothy Kelley, a mother of four, will be released before Mother's Day.

"It's my second but my last time to be here," she said.

Keirsten Escobar has two more months. Her 3-year-old daughter is waiting for her at home.

"I don't allow her to come visit me here—it's not a place I'd want her to see me. She doesn't know I'm here—she thinks I'm away at school," Escobar said. "But me getting out for her birthday… I'm very happy, I'm thankful."

Every time someone goes through the program they leave their mark on a rock. It's an inspirational saying or message that others can learn from.