style="text-align: left;">Whilst prison is renowned for punishment, it’s also know for it’s rehabilitation programmes.

style="text-align: left;">However one French prison’s programme went a little too far with the idea of allowing cell mates to have some recreational activity through tending to their own make shift garden.

style="text-align: left;">It backfired when it was discovered that in fact cell mates were growing cannabis in the new prison garden.

style="text-align: left;">Green-fingered prisoners at the Saint-Martin-de-Re prison in the west of France took full advantage of the ‘grow your own produce’ scheme to grow their own personal supply of cannabis.

However the plan went to pot when red-faced French wardens discovered the illegal drugs among flower and vegetable patches dotted around the prison grounds.

The plants had grown nearly 3ft before officials eventually spotted them while walking through the jail’s exercise courtyard.

However Christophe Beaulieu, a regional official of the prison officers’ union, defended himself saying it was not easy for officers to detect the drugs:

‘When you don’t know what you are looking for it is easy to confuse them with other plants.’