Sam Watson sums up his experience using inmates to harvest his squash and zucchini crops with one word: inconsistent.
The veteran farmer had requested 15 probationers every day to work his fields in Colquitt County. He never knew, though, if 10 or 20 were going to show. And with all due respect to the probationers, their work ethics varied way more than the summer heat during their four-week employment run.
“It was 98 to 100 every day,” said Watson, who requested the probationers help gather his 15 acres of vegetables.
He partook in a state plan this summer that tackled farm labor shortages by encouraging ex-offenders to work the farms. Gov. Nathan Deal announced the plan as a “partial solution” after a state survey showed 11,080 farm jobs went unfilled in South Georgia.
Results from that effort were mixed. Still, state officials are developing a new plan that could put inmates in the fields again. It’s a joint effort between the state Corrections Department, Deal and state agriculture and labor officials, according to an article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The plan is still under development, but here’s what we know so far: The work would be voluntary for the prisoners; the pay would be set by farmers and be at least minimum wage; prisoners would have to pay for their own transportation to and from the vegetable and fruit farms.
For Watson, this summer’s experience exposed issues big and small that must be addressed before inmates housed in transitional centers take to the fields. For starters, everyone must understand the task. Speed and meticulousness, he explained, are musts.
“People think [harvesting crops] is real easy and it is not,” he told me. “It is hard work. There needs to be some kind of training, and you have to be conditioned. You just don’t start playing football; you have to lift weights and practice. Picking vegetables — there is a method to it. You just can’t send somebody out there and let them go.”
Then there’re the personal habits that don’t bode well in fieldwork. For example, you don’t smoke cigarettes and throw the butts on the ground. Pants should be on the waist, not below. And you should drink plenty of water.
“[The probationers] didn’t know any of that,” Watson said.
In Georgia, squash, cucumbers, blueberries, blackberries, cantaloupe and peaches all come to harvest about the same time.
That makes laborers hard to find even without a state immigration law such as the one Georgia passed in May.
“A lot of it is according to how big you are and how much land you are farming,” Watson said. “It’s especially hard for small farmers with 50 to 100 acres because you can’t consistently keep a crew busy. You don’t pick vegetables every day.”
Still, if it comes to pass, Watson said inmate labor could prove beneficial and he stands ready to give it another try.
“I enjoy being on the farm,” he said. “And somebody has got to feed America.”
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