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Inmates stock pond, await catfish a la jail
By JAMIE JONES, Times Staff Writer
The baby catfish arrived shortly before 10 a.m., thousands of them, squirming and swimming in white buckets before they were lowered into a shallow pond behind the Land O' Lakes jail. Hannan, a 30-year-old inmate, rubbed his red goatee and watched. "That's a big one," he said, pointing down, smiling. Under the supervision of a fisheries biologist, and many sheriff's deputies, Hannan and four other inmates helped start an aquatic farming project at the jail Friday. The inmates placed about 2,400 catfish in wire cages that fell 4 feet into the water beside two docks. Ultimately, the jail hopes to have 3,600 catfish in the pond. Every day, inmates will help feed the fish. Then the fish will feed them. "I can't wait," said Capt. Brian Head, a jail supervisor who plans to sample the first batch. Catfish farming is the latest addition to the inmate work program, which includes a 2-acre garden that helps feed the roughly 1,000 inmates. Last year, inmates harvested and ate more than 4,600 pounds of produce from the garden. Sheriff's officials think the pond will provide about 3,600 pounds of fish each year, saving taxpayers up to $10,000. Starting the pond cost about $9,200, which was paid for with a federal grant. The jail menu, which includes ham, potatoes and casseroles, already calls for catfish once a week, which costs about $5.50 a pound, according to the Sheriff's Office. The baby catfish, about 4-5 inches long, were brought from a fishery near Gainesville. The fish will not swim freely in the pond but will remain in cages until they are eaten. Twice a day, inmates will feed the fish pellets, largely made of protein. They also will collect data on the fish and learn to look for diseases.
The fish will be thoroughly tested for diseases before inmates eat them, said the fisheries biologist, Michael Matthews. Along with saving money, the fish pond will teach inmates skills, said Col. Al Nienhuis. "A lot of people here have tried to circumvent hard work and patience," Nienhuis said. At the pond, he said, inmates will work every day and see the results of their labor. Hannan said working at the pond would provide a nice escape from the slate gray buildings with bare walls. Hannan, serving time for credit card fraud, also hopes to reduce his 300-day sentence by working. For every 40 hours inmates put in, a day and a half is subtracted from their sentences. Only low-level offenders are allowed to work. On Friday, biologist Matthews wore shorts and a ball cap as he knelt on the dock beside a gray-haired inmate. The inmate lowered a bucket of catfish into the pond and held it for several minutes, trying to acclimate the fish to the new water temperature. Then, the inmate began to tilt the bucket, letting the fish swim into the cage. "Let them in little by little?" he asked. "Yes, a little at a time. Easy. We don't want any escapees," Matthews said, chuckling to himself. Before the fish arrived, Matthews tested the natural pond to see if the water was suitable for growing fish. The pond already contained blue gill and bass, and an occasional alligator. Matthews had the pond cleared and also set limits on how many fish could comfortably live in the pond. He will monitor the program over the next year. Inmate Hannan originally thought the fish would swim freely. That way, inmates could spend their days fishing. "You'd have everyone in the world wanting to come to jail," he said.
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