PITTSFIELD, Mass. - A large greenhouse at the Berkshire County Sheriff’s Office is filled with thousands of heads of lettuce and other leafy greens, all being grown using aquaponics.

“It’s the first of its kind at any correctional facility on the east coast,” deputy sheriff Robin McGraw said. “Actually, we don’t really think anyone else has built anything like this in corrections anywhere else in the country. But that’s what we’re hoping to be a model for.” 

What You Need To Know

  • The Berkshire County Sheriff’s Office has an aquaponics lab
  • Aquaponics is an efficient, environmentally-friendly way of growing produce
  • The lab produces more 1,000 heads of lettuce weekly, most of which gets donated
  • It’s one of many educational work programs for inmates at the house of correction

The greenhouse includes tanks with about 1,500 fish. The water from those tanks is run through a filter and then into the floating growing beds, where nutrients from the fish waste serves as food for the lettuce. The water is then filtered again and pumped back into the fish tanks.

The result is an environmentally-friendly and efficient growing process.

“We’re growing lettuce anywhere from 35 to 50 days from seed to harvest, depending on the strain or the variety,” officer Jason Turner said.

The lab is one of many educational programs for the inmates at the house of correction. It’s especially beneficial for inmates who have to stay on-campus and aren’t eligible for off-site community service.

“We get them out to teach them about their own work ethic, about what it means to work as a member of a team,” McGraw said. “They learn all the different things you have to learn in this, whether it’s around the science piece, the technology piece, the engineering piece, or around the math piece. So they’re learning a lot of different skills.”

The lab produces more than 1,000 heads of lettuce each week, and most of it gets donated to local food banks.

Sheriff Thomas Bowler said inmates have told him having a connection to the community gives the work an added purpose.

“To know that it’s going back out into the community to help somebody else that is in need gives them a great deal of self-worth,” Bowler said. “It builds their confidence, and they just feel good about themselves, which is a huge component in getting better and being reintegrated back into the community.”