“I feel like I’ve been let out of jail, Mr. Dorp.” 

“We will test that perception in a bit, Sam.” 

They rode the Q100 bus to Riker’s Island, New York City’s main jail. Their host was a man named Mel. He was a male nurse 

at the North Infirmary Command, a medical center for detainees on Riker’s Island. 

Riker’s Island began as an 87-acre island in the East River between Queens and the Bronx. It was purchased by the city from a Dutch family in 1884 for eventual use as a prison location. In the early 1900s, the island was enlarged to 413 acres through by repurposing city refuse and street sweepings. 

Today, Riker’s is considered the world’s largest penal colony, with a daily inmate population of 12,000 – 17,000people. 

The population varies day-to-day because Riker’s is a jail, not a prison. There is a difference between a prison and a jail. 

The biggest difference is the legal status of the inmates. People in prison have been convicted of a crime and sentenced to one or more years of incarceration. People in jail have one of the following statuses: 

1. They are being detained, up to 24 hours, to answer questions about a crime. 

2. They have been arrested for breaking the law, but not yet formally charged with a crime. 

3. They are being held for a crime in another place and will be transported away to answer to those charges. 

4. They have been charged with a crime but have not finished their trial. 

6. If sentence more than one year, they will go to a prison. 

Dorp and Sam left the bus when Mel got off. Mel went one way, and they went another. They drifted around and went through an exercise yard. Sam was disturbed by what he saw. 

“This is really scary. A lot of people are really mad at each other, and others just hide in a corner. 

Is this how jails are? It seems like a really mean place.” 

“Sam, if you picked one-tenth of all the flowers New York City and put them all in one place, what would you have?” 

“You would have a beautiful place, Mr. Dorp.” 

“Correct. Likewise, if you went into New York City, or any other city, and gathered up one-tenth of the lawbreakers, drug-addicts, revenge-oriented and mentally ill people, what would you have?” 

“You would have a place full of misbehaving, angry, eccentric people.” 

“Exactly, Sam; and that’s what the typical jail or prison population is. Now, Riker's Island is scheduled to close down in 2026, but there is still a good reason for us to be here.” 

“I understand that law breakers are here. But why the mentally ill?” 

Dorp explained: “Some mentally ill humans should be aggressively supervised. Yet, in the 1970s, political leaders decided the mentally ill should not be institutionalized unless they were a danger to themselves or to others. 

Multitudes were released from mental institutions; called ‘mainstreaming’ Many mentally ill people don't want to take the medicine that helps them stay calm, so then they have trouble obeying rules and laws. 

If they break the law, they are arrested. Many of these same people spend a lot of time in the psychiatric wards of hospitals. I wonder which form of lock-down is better for them, given their situations? I recently spent a couple of weeks in a dementia unit. The patients there regularly do things that would land them in jail if it weren’t for their special social status and special places they live. I’ve also been the ice in a hockey arena and have seen hockey players do things that gang members would be arrested for, if cops saw that happening on a street corner. … 

"Our chauffer-friend Mel is a psychiatric nurse at Riker’s Island. He spends a lot of time caring for people who can’t or won’t care for themselves.” 

“What about their families? Can’t they look after them?” 

“Sam, sometimes their relatives helped make them mentally ill. Even having good families, dysfunctional people often have personal legal rights that exceed their ability to care for themselves. Many of them resist any directions from their families.” 

They drifted over to the garden area, a place with greenhouses and outdoor plantings. 

This area offers inmates horticultural therapy; a way to learn work and life skills through gardening. This program has both soil-based gardening and hydroponic gardening. The Department of Corrections, the New York City Horticultural Society, and New York City Public Schools currently oversee this project. Riker’s Island has a long history of inmates growing food. The inmate graduates from this program are more adept at raising their own food than most of the people on wall street who think they make America run.

Sam and Dorp slip into one of the greenhouses. 

“Gardens. Cool. I like gardens, except for weeding.” 

“We are here, Sam, specifically to look at hydroponics; the growing of vegetables without the use of soil.” 

“It looks like there is plenty of dirt outside.” 

“I suppose it looks that way, and Riker’s Island generates tons of compost from its food services every year. However, hydroponics is worth our attention. Hydroponics is the science of growing vegetables in water rather than soil.

Hydroponics has its advantages.

First, not everyone has good soil to grow food in. 

Second, hydroponics allows gardening where substantial tracts of soil cannot be established, such as rooftops, indoors, etc. 

Third, hydroponics allows food to be grown in a multilevel environment. One hydroponic unit can grow five or six levels of lettuce where only one level can be grown outside in the soil.” 

Sam was puzzled. “Why are they doing this in a prison, besides helping to feed the inmates?” 

“This is called horticultural therapy; the use of gardening to rehabilitate inmates. 

The inmates in the gardening program have a lower recidivism rate than the general population of the prison.” 

“Recidi-whoism?” 

“Recidivism rate is how many people return back to jail after they have been released. While the recidivism rate for the general population here is about 65%, the rate is about 25% for inmates in the gardening programs, which seems to have three reasons. 

Dorp continued his talking tour. “We are in the hydroponic green house. Let me help you understand the growing process. Plants need sunlight, water, air, and nutrients. Plants in regular soil obtain these in cycles. The rain floats nutrients to the roots, so the plant can absorb them. Then the rain stops, and the soil dries out. The plant roots are then able to absorb oxygen. If plants’ roots were wet all the time, the plants would drown for lack of oxygen.” 

“Now wait a minute! I thought plants took CO2 from the air and made oxygen, right?” 

“All living things need oxygen to turn food into energy. The leaves of green plants can produce their own oxygen from carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. 

The roots must get oxygen from the ground. So, the need for drainage, calls for a balance between rain and sunshine.” 

“Furthermore, soil serves purposes that can be replaced by hydroponics. Plants need a fixative; something to help them stay in place, so the wind can’t pull them up and dry out the roots. A hydroponic medium brings the nutrients to the roots, and lets the excess water drain away regularly to prevent the plant from drowning.” 

“With hydroponics, plants are placed in an inert matter, such as husks, bark, perlite or sand and rock. 

Hydroponics provides timed irrigation cycles to bathe the roots with nutrients and to properly wet the roots of the plant. 

Lastly, the cycle of hydroponics allows the fixative medium to dry regularly to allow roots to breathe. Some systems even have an aquarium-like bubblers to put oxygen into the water so the roots can breathe while they are eating.” 

“Oh, we have a neighbor down the block like that. He can tear into a rack of ribs and never come up for air until he has shined all the bones.” 

“Speaking of BBQ, Sam, Sir Francis Bacon of England studied and wrote about hydroponics in the early 1600s. 

See here, Sam. Look and all the tanks, tray, pipes, tubes and lights. Everything needed to grow vegetables are right here. 

One of the most important things about hydroponics is the water savings. The majority of water put on soil-based plants never touches the roots. The water seeps away."

"With hydroponics, the unused water and nutrients are recaptured and reused many times. And many hydroponic operations use water from fish tanks to wet the plant so the fish emulsion can feed the plants.” 

“What is fish emulsion, Mr. Dorp?” 

“Guess, Galileo.” 

“Oh. So what kind of vegetables can you grow with fish poop?” 

“Several kinds. Anything in a salad can be grown by hydroponics.” 

“You mean anything but bacon bits?” 

“Yes Sam, anything but bacon bits, cheese, and croutons. 

Lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, bush cucumbers, onions can be grown here. The science of growing food in water is about 400 years old, and can be used in many ways, depending on a human’s knowledge and access to technology. Hydroponic gardens can be started at home with things people commonly throw away.” 

“Like fish emulsion (gag)?” 

“Yes. (Stop that, Sam!) And in many growing operations, fish are raised, not only for the emulsion, but also for the fish market. Very efficient, no? And Sam, topsoil is simply decomposed plant and animal matter of all kinds. Remember you helped feed the wheat in Kansas.” 

“Could I raise vegetables in water at home?” 

“Absolutely. You could use plastic drink containers and aquarium equipment.” 

Sam and Dorp left the green house via a ventilation fan. 

They were blown over to Manhattan and danced in the streets for a couple of days until getting caught in the lapel of a man coming in to work at three in the morning. The man was a baker going to work in a bakery/deli. 

Sam was excited. “Finally; I am in in a New York deli. Oh no! I can’t eat anything. (Deep sigh).” 

Sam and Dorp made their way around the kitchen and were absorbed into a pile of flour waiting to be made into bagels. They were measured, mixed with more water, sugar salt, and yeast. They were proofed (set aside in a warm place to rise) and then boiled briefly in water with alkali added. Dorp explained the process to Sam as they were baking in the oven. 

“So what is with acids and alkalis, and pH? What gives?” 

“Ah, an opportunity to talk about chemistry. Next to the atomic weights and chemical bonds, pH is one of the most important things to know about chemistry. As you know, elements are made from various combinations of protons, neutrons and electrons. Amazing, amazing.” 

The proton and the electron put their purchases on their credit cards. But the neutron had to pay cash. 

“Why is that; I’m afraid to ask?” 

“The neutron wasn’t able to charge.” 

“Sam, chemical bonding is an amazing thing. In chemical bonding, two or more different elements combine to become a distinct compound molecule.