Inmate-built flowerbeds to be delivered downtown Friday

Downtown’s new community garden is getting some help from an unlikely source — the county jail.

At 11 a.m. Friday, Suffolk County Sheriff Vincent DeMarco will be overseeing the delivery of several raised flower beds, built by inmates in the jail’s apprentice program, to the River & Roots community garden on West Main Street.

“The jail’s Vocational Training Program was established as a tool to reduce inmate recidivism in our communities,” according to a press release from the sheriff’s office announcing the event. “These frames will allow families to plant, grow and maintain gardens and flowers along the Peconic River Waterfront in Riverhead.”

The garden is currently under construction on a town-owned plot just south of West Main Street and Griffing Avenue.