Inmates at Christchurch Men's Prison have been giving away fresh produce to a community organisation and gaining qualifications through the jail's newly improved vegetable garden.
The prisoners converted more than 800 square metres of prison land into a vegetable garden earlier this year and have been provided with a hothouse, garden shed and shade house.
Since March, they have made weekly deliveries of vegetables to the local woman's refuge centre.
Prison manager John Roper says inmates who work in the garden can achieve unit standards in horticulture which will help them get jobs when they are released.
Mr Roper says gaining sustainable skills will make them less likely to reoffend.
