Instead of spending time locked up in jail, certain criminals in Central Florida communities are being put to work on farms.

In Brevard County, some low-level criminals are allowed to participate in the Work Farm Program.

They grow vegetables, pick them and ship it to the jail.

They live at home, go to work, but also come there to serve out their sentence.

"They are able to come out here during their normal days off from their regular jobs, do their farm time, which we hope serves as a deterrent from committing future crimes,” said Cpl. Jay Moffitt with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.

There are over 20,000 onion plants in a section of the work farm.

Moffitt said the onions save about $8,000 in tax dollars per year.

They also grow lettuce, sweet potatoes, green beans, carrots, corn and zucchini.

Leaders in the Sheriff’s Office said the vegetables would cost $25,000 a year at the grocery store.

"It keeps a burden off the taxpayers," Moffitt said. "We have these individuals out here, who instead of staying in jail, using up the resources from our taxpayer funds, instead they are not losing their job, and they are not becoming a further burden as they would if they were incarcerated, plus they are making the community better by growing vegetables and sending those up to the jail.”

The inmates involved in the program are non-violent felons. For example, they are people who were arrested for DUI’s, forging checks or petty theft.

According to the Lake County Sheriff's Office website, the Corrections Bureau also operates a full 11-acre garden. An inmate work crew works on the garden five days a week. The garden provides vegetables for the jail's inmate population and for non-profit groups. In 2010, they produced 130,000 pounds of vegetables.

Seminole County Sheriff's Office officials said they have a hydroponic garden at the jail that supplies some food to the food service contractor. They said the program also provides an opportunity for the participating inmates to acquire additional skills that may assist them in the job market when they are released from the facility. 

Most jails do not have work farm programs in Central Florida.