Farming skills gift of life for inmates

WORKING the land gives rapist Patty Burt a "sense of purpose again".

Burt, who is serving a 10-year sentence at the Kirkwood Correctional Centre, is among the dozens of prisoners at the facility, and more than 3000 nationally, who become farmers by day, providing produce for their own kitchens and others.

Yesterday, the prison held its first Department of Correctional Services Agricultural and Production Workshop Exhibition, attended by more than 100 people.

Acting national commissioner Nontsikelelo Jolingana also attended the exhibition, and handed over food parcels – from the Kirkwood prison – to 20 destitute families in the area. - Tremaine van Aardt