You might be someone who can't wait for spring so you can plant your garden. Or maybe you can't stand the thought of working in one.  But that's exactly what Codington County Sheriff Toby Wishard wants inmates to do starting next year. There are multiple reasons for the sheriff’s plan.

The Codington County Detention Center has seen an increasing food bill. The bill is growing along with the 16 percent increase in its inmate population this year.

"We had to make an addition of $15,000 in the budget," Wishard said.

Wishard is hoping inmates can dent that cost by growing some of their own food in a garden. He isn't sure how much of a savings it would bring. But with enough inmates to work and staff to supervise them, he's optimistic.

"We have an idea of a location; we just need to finalize it and I'm hoping to get some ground tilled up here this fall," Wishard said.

Some of the benefits Wishard wants to come from the garden would be economic but there are others too.

"I'm looking at this from a learning perspective, esteem and pretty much rehabilitation for the inmates that are here also," Wishard said.

In order for inmates to work in the garden, they'd have to be at a status that allows them to be in the community working. At this point, Wishard says there are more inmates at that status than there are jobs for them to do.

"I believe the people, the people that I serve appreciate knowing that the folks that are here, that are doing their time and paying their debt to society, that they're actually putting in some sweat," Wishard said.

If Wishard's plan moves forward, inmates will be doing just that in the spring.

The location Wishard is considering for the garden is Memorial Park. He says inmates already work on other tasks there.