Prisoners' garden heads to Chelsea Flower Show

Kali Hamerton-Stove said the project also had a shop and provided resettlement support

A garden designed and built by women who are in prison or have recently been released will be exhibited at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

The indoor garden will be a recreation of the greenhouse at HMP East Sutton Park, in Kent, where inmates trained.

Kali Hamerton-Stove, director of The Glasshouse project, said it helped women prepare for their release and tackled reoffending rates.

She said the exhibit was an "incredible opportunity" to showcase their work.

The exhibit will feature house plants nurtured by women in prison and items representing their "dreams and hopes".

Ms Hamerton Stove said it is "amazing" that women get to "design and build an exhibit based on their experience".

She said it is also amazing they will be around horticultural specialists and "incredibly inspirational people" at the show.

She said the project focused on ensuring women had "skills ready to enter the workforce and society" after they were released from prison.

'It gave me a purpose'

Former prisoner Rhi said she thought "having something to nurture" was important for female prisoners

Rhi, a former prisoner who works with the project, said it gave her "a purpose" and that she cried when she found out it was headed to the flower show.

She said: "Often we are invisible or even hidden so for us to be embraced and have the opportunity... I just couldn't believe it."

The latest government data shows about a fifth of female prisoners re-offend, but this has generally fallen in the past decade.

Figuresshow that in 2022-23, 30% of all people released from prison were employed six months after their release.

The Chelsea Flower Show will open on 21 May at the Royal Hospital Grounds in south London.