Inmates at Missouri Department of Corrections facilities are gardening and tattooing

Las Vegas was built for stars. And on August 22nd, two of boxing's biggest take center stage. Raleigh Romero never follows the script. This is my game. Tio Fimo Lopez has never needed one. This guy's got a big mouth. For years, they've had plenty to say. All your do is tall. But with world championship gold on the line, can they back it? Tio, I'm here. I'm going all in. It's time to put up or shut up. Raleigh Romero versus Tiofimo Lopez. August 22nd. I'll shut you up. Watch on Dazone, and Dazone on Prime. Video. Nerds! Today's episode is sponsored by NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast. Ever Google a money question and end up 12 tabs deep with 12 different answers? This podcast is your shortcut back to clarity. NerdWallet's Smart Money podcast breaks down financial decisions with a team of trusted journalists. They explain the why behind decisions like investing, home buying, and choosing credit cards with clear research-backed insights. No jargon, no misinformation. Make your next financial move with confidence. Follow NerdWallet's Smart Money podcast on your favorite podcast app. Amazon Music, music, podcasts, and now audiobooks, all in one app. Amazon Music Unlimited. Audio books included. Garden program is available throughout the state. We have gardens at nearly every facility of our 19 facilities in Missouri. And through that program, people volunteer to grow fresh produce, fresh vegetables, and fresh fruits. throughout the growing season here in Missouri. And then those items are donated to local food banks and food pantries and other nonprofit organizations. The gardens in particular are a great way for people to give back. Last year, we donated about 10 tons of fresh produce to local food banks and food pantries. And I think we're on track to have an even better and bigger harvest this year. That was going to be one of my next questions was if these gardens produced a lot. I saw recently that in a Facebook post, the Restortive Justice Garden at Fulton harvested 80 pounds, and I was wondering if that's like a normal harvest or how much they usually put out during the summers. Well, that was an early harvest for the summer. They're getting bigger. I think we had one facility that just donated 300 pounds of fresh food to the food bank. So they're producing a lot, a lot this year. A lot of squashes, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers. So it's going pretty well. We probably won't really know the full scope of the harvest until October, November, when the growing season is over. Got it. And what do inmates get out of working with the gardens and giving back to the community? So a lot of the times residents of our facilities are people who have faced views and security themselves.

While they're incarcerated, they're being fed three well-balanced meals a day, and they have the option to buy more food at the canteen if they want to. And some facilities, we even have gardens where the food can be purchased by the offenders in the canteen as well. But a lot of them grew up with food insecurity, so they want to be able to give back to their communities, the communities they came from. And then transitioning to tattooing, tell me about the new tattoo apprentice program at Algoa Correctional Center. Well, Missouri was actually the first state to start a tattoo and partnership program. We started one at Western Reception Diagnostic and Correctional Center in St. Joseph, Missouri. It's the brainchild of a staff member who is currently our deputy director for the department. He's been talking about it for years. He heard about a similar program in Canada that was really effective at helping to stop the spread of blood-borne diseases in their facilities. So the first tattoo partnership studio opened in St. Joseph in 2004, and it was pretty successful. And now we've gone on to open the second one at Algoa Correctional Center, and that's up and running now. There are a lot of benefits to the program. One, it gives people a path to career success after incarceration in a field where there's less stigma attached to having a criminal record. So people can come out of prison and have a license and have a job ready for them when they come out. We have one person who graduated from the program at St. Joseph. He was now, like, a licensed at two artists working in Springfield. He was winning, like, tons and tons of awards. And he started working immediately, you know, after release from incarceration. That's, you know, one example. And we're expecting many more to come. In addition to that, it reduces the spread of blood-borne pathogens caused by unsanctioned or unsanitary tattoo practices. So this helps to stop the spread of things like hepatitis without a throttle facility. It also reduces the risk of injury from non-sanctioned contraband tattoo tools. So it increases safety for residents as well as for staff who are doing searches and things like that. And it gives residents the option to cover up tattoos that no longer serve them. Some people come into prison. They have tattoos that might tie them to a certain gang or a certain ideology that no longer represents who they are. So this gives them a safe option for getting those tattoos covered up. Another benefit is that incentivizes pro-social behaviors, both for the tattoo artists and for the people getting tattoos. You have to meet certain criteria to be accepted into the program. You also have to meet certain criteria to be able to get a tattoo from a licensed tattoo artist who is in the program. Las Vegas was built for stars.

And on August 22nd, two of boxing's biggest take center stage. Raleigh Romero never follows the script. This is my game. Tio Fimo Lopez has never needed one. This guy's got a big mouth. For years, they've had plenty to say. All your do is tall. But with world championship gold on the line, can they back it? Tio, I'm here. I'm going all in. It's time to put up or shut up. Raleighamero versus Tiofimo Lopez. August 22nd. I'll shut you up. Watch on DeZone and DeZone on Prime Video. Nerds! Today's episode is sponsored by NerdWallet's Smart Money podcast. Ever Google a money question and end up 12 tabs deep with 12 different answers? This podcast is your shortcut back to clarity. NerdWallet's Smart Money podcast breaks down financial decisions with a team of trusted journalists. They explain the why behind decisions like investing, home buying, and choosing credit cards with clear research-backed insights. No jargon, no misinformation. Make your next financial move with confidence. Follow NerdWallet's Smart Money podcast on your favorite podcast. app. Amazon music has everything you want to listen to. Music, podcasts, and now audiobooks. All in one app. Amazon Music Unlimited. Audio books included.