The impact of a garden program on the physical environment and social climate of a prison yard at San Quentin State Prison

Urban Farm DB summary

Prison physical environments and social climates have been found to be physically and mentally stressful for inmates, and more than 70% of those in the California prison system return to prison within three years of parole. As part of an effort to reduce this recidivism, a rehabilitative gardening program was started at San Quentin State Prison, and this primarily qualitative study set out to determine the garden project's impact on the physical environment and social climate of a prison yard from both inmate and staff perspectives, through interviews with inmate program participants, an inmate control group, and prison staff conducted before and after the garden was planted. The evidence suggested that (a) gardens invited attention, use, and refuge; (b) being in or near a garden could reduce stress; (c) gardens might provide "neutral" territory in a segregated prison yard; (d) inmate participants gained benefits from directly working with nature; (e) gardens created the possibility for hope and further change; and (f) prison staff were generally more concerned about the impact of the change than the inmates themselves. Inmate and staff expectations about the garden's impact were met or exceeded, leading to recommendations to use the Garden Program to build collaboration, trust, and respect between inmates and staff through active staff participation in classes, to expand the program to other California prisons, and to have paroled inmates collaborate with local communities on community gardens. Limitations included a reduction in program scale during the planning stages and the short time elapsed between pre- and post-garden research; the authors suggest a longitudinal study to track impact on inmates after parole.